Podcasts

When I'm not broadcasting video, I like listening to podcasts.

Years ago, I listened to a lot of talk radio, mostly either AM or NPR.  The problem with that was that the shows I like where not always on when I was able to listen.  Sometimes all there was to hear was something boring.  Even if there was something good, I would have to turn it off whenever I picked up a fare.  It seemed like whenever there was not a fare, the AM station I was listening to had commercials, which would end as soon as I found another fare.  I could only hear part of the conversation.

Then I got my first iPod.  I found the podcasts on iTunes and started to listen to them instead of the radio.  Many of them were some of the same radio shows I had been listening to, only delayed, and some were not available over the air.  I was able to pause them whenever I needed to talk to passengers and continue right where I left off.  Since I had to use an earphone, I could play them even when I had passengers, if they were not interested in talking to me.  Although most did not include the commercials or station breaks, I could easily fast-forward those which did, and rewind if I missed something.

A couple of years ago I got an iPhone 3GS, and used it for listening to podcasts.  Now I have an iPhone 4, and soon will likely get an iPhone 5.  I now have a fancy Bluetooth earpiece which allows me to listen to my podcasts wirelessly.  I've been syncing with iTunes for years, but more recently I've been using the Podcaster app, which updates my subscriptions through wifi or 3G, without needing to plug into the computer every day and manage my podcasts manually.  When the new version of iOS comes out in a few weeks, I might use the new iCloud service, instead.

I listen to a lot of science podcasts, like This Week in Science, the Naked Scientists, Nature, Dr. Kiki's Science Hour, NPR's Science Friday, Astronomy Cast, etc.  I've always been a big science fan, and probably should have been a scientist.  I also listen to some podcasts on skepticism, like Skeptoid, SGU and Skepticality, and various iPhone and other technology podcasts.  I also listen to NPR shows, as I said before, and try out podcats on various topics like comedy, sci-fi, politics, history, learning Spanish, etc.

Are you into podcasts?  If so, which ones do you listen to?