I have been listening to podcasts since about September 2004. It used to be clunky to get content and when Leo Laporte started the TWiT Network, I was excited. I listened to the first episode of TWiT and almost every episode in between.
We are now in a golden age of podcasts. There are multiple independent networks and many main stream providers are furnishing their content via the podcast delivery model. There are great iOS apps, like Instacast, and Apple’s AirPlay makes pushing this content around the house really starts to verge on the Arthur C. Clarke definition of magic.
Unfortunately, it is time to put old horses out to pasture. I want to listen to podcasts that are informational and who have hosts and guests that do not make me want to stab myself in the ears. That is why after Tom Merritt left Buzz Out Loud (now defunct), I stopped listening. The juvenile hosts that tried to fill in turned me off, the deep thought that was put into the show evaporated, so unsubscribing was easy. In growing his podcast network, Leo Laporte had to had more more hosts, which is understandable, but between his belligerent attitude and the grating nature of some of his hosts, I am done with TWiT. The show that started my listening to podcasts is no longer in my subscription list.
What am I listening to instead? I am loving Dan Benjamin’s 5by5 network and Mike Hurley’s 70decibels network. They both have niche podcasts that keep me informed enough, but also entertained. I am also a fan of Slate’s podcasts, which in recent months have come on strong with offerings in the non-fiction, but not news category.
Regularly listened to:
5by5
70Decibels
Slate
- Slate’s Manners for the Digital Age
- Slate’s The Afterword
- Slate Presents Lexicon Valley
- Slate’s Culture Gabfest
- Slate’s Political Gabfest
