The Scary World of Podcasts

For a very, very long time I was completely averse to the idea of hiking. It evoked images of stumbling upon creepy men with hatchets,  climbing mountains, dehydrated beef and special shoes. When I realized rather late in the game, hiking is often just a fancier term for a “slightly challenging walk in really fucking pretty scenery,” my whole outlook on it changed.

I think maybe I feel that way about podcasts too. They sound complicated and boring to me, made by some nasal-voiced, heavy breather and are hurriedly wrapped up as his mom calls him upstairs for turkey pot pie. I’d much prefer if they were called “Recording That is Often Entertaining That You Can Get From Your Computer Whenever You Want.” Yeah, I know: A tad wordy, but more appealing to me. Because of this I haven’t delved to far into this world. And our very own Stuart’s been on one, “The Sound of Young America,” so they can’t be that bad, plus they are (usually) FREE.

These are the ones I do enjoy and I think you might too:

This American Life (Ira Glass. Swoon.). I find listening to this on my iPod while trying to sleep in a room full of screaming drunks who might be having a pants off, dance off party is extraordinarily helpful. (Yup. Actually happens a lot, but I’ll get into that another time.)

RadioLab. A friend just introduced me to this one, and I’m slowly exploring it, but what I’ve heard so far I like. Very similar format to This American Life, but definitely has less of the downer feel that TAL often has.

Pop Candy.  These are created by Whitney Matheson who runs the Pop Candy website  at USA Today. I found her website, oh, forever ago, and now I check it everyday. I’m not sure if she’s still making the podcasts, but there’s a lot in the archives. They are mainly music, but sometimes she has celebrity interviews as well.

Here’s a couple of “best of lists” that I haven’t explored. Any other ones I should try? I’m still working on getting over my podcast prejudice, but I would try some more of them if you hold my internet hand.