I am a podcast junky. I have a 20 minute walk to and from my office at the university. When you combine that with time spent walking to and from grocery stores, time spent on trains, and time spent washing dishes, there’s a lot of time to fill with delightful, free entertainment. Mostly I go for news. Behind the News with Doug Henwood is by far my favorite, but I also listen to Slate’s Political Gabfest and NPR’s It’s All Politics. There are the public radio classics This American Life and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. And Slate’s Cultural Gabfest makes me feel like a little less of a philistine (Slate also has a movie podcast called Slate’s Spoilers that is really good, but it takes me forever to see the movies that they review).
My favorite podcast discovery of last year, though, was American Public Radio’s Dinner Party Download. They have everything you could want: fantastically terrible opening jokes; historical trivia paired with excellent cocktail recipes; interviews that this year included Das Racist, Molly Ringwald, Kid Cudi, Judd Apatow, and Spike Jonze; and really good taste in music. I know that I should enjoy insightful leftist commentary on the news more, but it’s just a solid 20 minutes of pleasure.
You should check it out.
Comments
Thanks for these Tommy. I knew I’d enjoy the first one when they announced that they’d be helping me “win” my next dinner party.