Some Podcasts you Might Like

Since I received my iPod “shuffle” in March, I’ve had a device that lets me listen, easily, to a lot of podcasts, so I’ve upped the number of ‘casts that I subscribed to. So far my tastes, outside of the obvious Adam Curry and Dave Winer “required listening” podcasts, tend to lie towards repurposed radio content, although I’m finding some independent diamonds in the rough emerging from the podosphere.

Here’s what I recommend so far (all links are to podcast RSS feeds):

• Mark Kermode’s film reviews, from the BBC: like a more caustic Anthony Lane, with a lot of listener email/text message interaction.
• John and Elizabeth Edwards’ podcast is a very low-tech, low-key affair, and has much more appeal than I thought it would. The Edwards grok podcasting, and seem to understand that they can’t be scripted and still earn respect. It’s not quite total “cutting loose,” but it’s still unusually candid.
• From Our Own Correspondent, from the BBC, is akin to those “our journalists do stories about doing journalism” programmes that CBC Newsworld airs on occasion. The show’s subtitle is “personal reflections by BBC correspondents around the world.” The first show I listened to had a fascinating report from Uzbekistan that filled in much of the context missing from the 30 second “chaos in the ‘stans” clips we hear otherwise.

• Catholic Insider, “podcasting from the heart of the Catholic Church” is an unlikely early podcasting breakout show, mostly because of the well-spoken host, “Father Roderick.” I especially enjoyed his segments covering his love of Star Wars.
• IT Conversations, a melange of IT-related interviews, webcasts and panel discussions, continues to be a good source for interesting material. I don’t like everything — the purpose-built interview shows are the weakest aspect of the feed — but there are some excellent episodes to be found.

More as I listen.