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I like listening to stuff while I drive to work. Over the years, I've found myself gravitating to National Public Radio (NPR). Not sure if they are particularly objective - they are sometimes branded a "tool" of (insert affiliation here) by (insert other organization here), but they have interesting topics and shows. The most important thing for me is that NPR does not have an endless stream of commercials. Instead, they tend to have endless, whining fund raisers.
Podcasts to the rescue! By listening to a Podcast, I can skip most (but not all) of the regular drivel I would otherwise have to endure. Furthermore, when someone mumbles or otherwise makes their utterance incomprehensible, I can backup and listen to said spot again. Furthermore, I can skip blather that I don't care about. Finally, podcasts are free.
Apple, the company I love to hate less than Microsoft, deserves a lot of credit for helping the world of podcasts. In particular the combination of the I-Pod and the I-Tunes service created a place where podcasts of all types could come together for people to search. Apple also made subscribing to a podcast quick and easy.
There are many other ways that Apple really made online music a reality, as well as hindering it, but I don't care so much about the world of for sale content. I'm also hard up for ideas to blog about, so I'm going to save that topic for another post.
A few of the podcasts that I recommend:
- NPR: Fresh Air (depends on topic)
- NPR: 7PM News Summary (depressing)
- Science Talk: The Podcast of Scientific American
- NPR: Sound Medicine (annoying musical interludes)
- News Hour with Jim Lehre (depressing)
- NPR: Driveway Moments (depends on topic)
- InfoWorld Daily
- Java Posse (on their good days)
- NPR: Technology Podcast
- General Psychology Lectures
Another nice aspect is the lack of obvious gnomish influence. Yes, I understand that you can't see them. No, the fact that I can see the little buggers does not make me insane...but it's not a good sign.
Anyhow, enjoy :-)
