My Favorite Podcasts, Part 1

My audio-starved commuter brain has been greedily drinking down podcasts for a few days now, and I’ve found – and continue to find – the entire phenomenon to be invigorating.

I’ve also found quite a few podcasts worth listening to. I am, of course, continuing my search for good content, and I’ll be posting them to Nuketown as I find them. I’m also researching various podcasting techniques — it looks as though I have all the tools I need on my Mac (GarageBand, iChat AV) and just need to round it out with some shareware tools. I don’t know if this’ll lead to a Nuketown podcast — I have concerns about file storage and bandwidth — but I sure do what to experiment with it.

But enough rambling. Here are my favorite podcasts.

The Daily Source Code

Hosted by Adam Curry, the former MTV VJ who’s credited with pretty much creating podcasting. As you’d expect from someone with a media background, The Daily Source Code is exceptionally well produced, with probably the best audio quality of any podcast out there.

Much of it is given over to the ways and memes of podcasting, but it also delves into the independent music scene (as in, independent from the RIAA) and Curry’s personal life. The bits about podcasting could have come across as blatantly self promotional, but they don’t — he’s talking about his own experiences and experiments, as well as those his fellow ‘casters. He sounds more like a kid thrilled with his new sandbox than anything else. Each show runs about 40 minutes, and as the name implies, its broadcast daily. Get the feed.

The Evil Genius Chronicles

One of the earliest podcasts (though keep in mind that this phenomenon has only been happening since around August) the Evil Genius Chronicles appears to be more a geek life type show. A fair amount of time is spent discussing the specifics of podcasting, but delves into other geek-related (usually technology) as well. Shows run 30-40 minutes. Get the feed.

Geek News Central

I’ve been reading the Geek News Central blog for about a year now, so when I saw they had a podcast, I jumped on it. The podcast echoes the Web site’s style, featuring technology news and happenings of interest to geeks. A fun, uncomplicated, unrepentantly geeky show. Get the feed.

The Dragon Page

The Dragon Page is a long, running industrial-strength science fiction and fantasy radio show that I’ve known about for years, but never listened to before because they didn’t offer it as an MP3 download. These guys are the real deal – they’ve had numerous science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers on their show (including, most recently, Peter Straub, which was a nice surprise given I’m presently reading Black House). In addition to interviews, they’ve got speculative fiction news and commentary.

Since the shows been on air for a long time, the hosts have an easy comraderie, and the broadcast itself is well produced. Shows run 40-50 minutes. Get the feed.

GeekSpeak

BoardGameGeek.com’s podcast focuses on all manner of games, primarily board games, but war, card and other games as well. Recent podcasts have included interviews with game designer Alan R. Moon and Spiele des Jahres and IGA winners Mark Kaufmann and Eric Hautemont from Days of Wonder (what those awards are, I have no idea, but I’m guessing their important to board game geeks. I’ve listened to the two most recent feeds, and while the shows don’t have a high degree of polish and tend to ramble a bit, it’s still an excellent way to get your gaming fix on the road or at work. Get the feed.

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