I'll be chatting about a few podcasts I've tuned in to in a bit, but thought a little background on podcasts in general could be helpful for some of us . . .
In this smartphone world of on demand streaming of movies, Youtube searches for how to do anything, google searches for information that yield results in seconds, Podcasts have become a Thing Unto Themselves as well (since around 2004). Linda and I actually took a podcasting workshop at TNNA a couple years ago, thinking that it would help us with our little videos - which is why I'll clarify that a podcast is technically an audio production. So for word geeks a podcast is not something you watch on youtube, etcetera. Many podcasts are episodic - with multiple episodes in a series, making them an easy thing to binge-listen. When alone, I will tune into a podcast and knit, and I actually do this more often than knitting and watching something (but keep in mind, I am alone a lot right now with Mike being on the UK job assignment!).
I found a lot of interesting facts about podcasts in general here, and saw that comedy is the most popular genre among podcast listeners, followed by education and news. Also, about 16 million people in the US are "avid podcast fans". I guess I'm one of those avid podcast fans.....and am actually part of a little podcast group. We try to get together once a month to discuss a podcast we've all agreed to listen to - kind of like a book group. There are literally over a million different podcasts out there, YIKES! Here's a snapshot of my current heavy rotation, and a few past listens that were enjoyable which you may or may not want to check out.
Land of the Giants - the first season of this covered Amazon and it was really good! Second season is all about Netflix, and the third season will be about Google...... (Thanks Ashley, for the recommendation!)
The Daily - this is one that's usually about 25 minutes and covers a current news topic in an in-depth way, from the New York Times.
Bear Brook - I binged this one a couple weekends ago to get ready for my podcast group and it was a terrific true crime story about a cold case murder in New Hampshire.
Dolly Parton's America - I wasn't much of a Dolly fan until I listened to this and learned a lot. If someone would offer the class like they do at the University of Tennessee I'd probably audit it to get involved in some interesting discussions and become more familiar with her extensive body of work!
The Hidden Brain - Social Scientist Shankar Vadantam is a great storyteller and explores human behavior in these weekly podcasts. I love his accent and discussions!
The Popcast - "a weekly podcast that seeks to educate on things that entertain, but do not matter". Another recommendation from Ashley. Some of their episodes go way over my head if there's too much chatting about famous people that I don't know but some are downright hilarious both with stories they share and zippy rapport between hosts Knox and Jamie (the NOs episodes are a great place to start!)
How I Built This - Host Guy Raz discusses how some of the best known brands got their start with awesome interviews with their creators.
Fresh Air - it's been around for a long time so a good place to poke around and find an author or film related interview.
