Podcast Recommendations, Please

Bitchin' Blog Posts

by SB Sarah | by SB Sarah | November 26, 2011 | Saturday at 7:10 pm | 43 Comments

Since Jane and I began working on the Dear Bitches Smart Authors Podcast (new episode coming this week, I promise!) I've started subscribing to a few podcasts, but I want to expand my subscription list. So I figured I'd ask you, since our tastes align in a few key areas.

So far, I subscribe to the "Stuff You Should Know" podcast, and the "Notes in Spanish" podcast - which gives me some hope that I haven't entirely lost my ability to understand Spanish (though my ability to understand the accent from Spain is much greater than my ability to understand Spanish speakers from, say, Argentina, alas).

I haven't found any other podcasts that talk specifically about romance, but I am curious what podcasts you love, and which ones you subscribe to.

Care to share links? I'd much appreciate it - and I bet other folks would, too! And of course, if you've got your own podcast, please do give yourself a bit o' the pimpage up in here, up in here.

Filed: General Bitching, Random Musings

Tagged: spanish, romance, podcast, dearauthor

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Amy England said on 11.26.11 at 07:33 PM • [link]

Stuff you Missed in History Class, by the stuff you should know people is excellent.

http://entertainment.howstuffw…
hannah said on 11.26.11 at 07:48 PM • [link]

Here are some of my favorites, book-related and non-book related:
The Bookrageous Podcast
Cooking with the Moms
Girls in the Stacks
The Guardian Books Podcast
The Kindle Chronicles
Kindle Women
Nancy Pearl Book Reviews
Read it and Weep
tranquility du jour
What’s Old is New

I don’t have links because I download directly onto my ipod touch. I know that all of the above can be found on Itunes and other podcast aggregators.
Marissa said on 11.26.11 at 08:02 PM • [link]

I’m new to podcasts, but it’s great discovering new ones!
I quite like:
WTF with Marc Maron
Girl On Guy with Aisha Tyler
The Nerdist

I don’t have links, but all are on iTunes and all have websites.
Beez said on 11.26.11 at 08:20 PM • [link]

Dan Savage
Wiretap (!!!)
The Moth
Jamarleo said on 11.26.11 at 08:33 PM • [link]

Pop Culture Happy Hour. It’s like hanging out with your snarkiest of pals. Plus-the host, Linda Holmes, is a big fan of the romance genre (s).
Tabs said on 11.26.11 at 08:36 PM • [link]

NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour

It’s the only podcast I regularly listen to and I love it to death. Linda Holmes and crew are awesome.

http://www.npr.org/templates/a…
Kelly S. Bishop said on 11.26.11 at 09:37 PM • [link]

www.StoryWonk.com
Writing related podcast with romance author Lani Diane Rich and her husband Alastair Stephens
DoubleL said on 11.26.11 at 11:18 PM • [link]

so many podcasts, too little time
WTF with marc maron—comedian interviews funny and poignant—-also most comics are messed up or in recovery
Pop culture happy hour—funny, fun and good natured
Extra hot great-hilarious culture podcast—-their big simpsons fans—-that a plus
Slate culture gabfest—-all the slate podcast are great but this is my favourite really smart conversations about culture high and low—Stephan Thompson’s rants about the end of times are both erudite and if you listen selectively kind of convincing—-or infuriating (either way I love them)
Firewal and Iceberg and Talking TV with Ryan and Ryan—two of the most excellent TV podcasts out there
bookstorecat said on 11.27.11 at 12:16 AM • [link]

I second the rec for Pop Culture Happy Hour. Romance as a genre only comes up occasionally, but it is always a fun listen. It’s the only podcast I’ve ever actually looked forward to listening to on a weekly basis.
Sandy Lunsford said on 11.27.11 at 08:54 AM • [link]

Adventures in SciFi discusses the publishing industry and interviews authors. Onbeing is an NPR podcast that discusses the spiritual in our lives.
ms bookjunkie said on 11.27.11 at 09:21 AM • [link]

Thank you. I needed a way to block out Christmas music at work (before I kill someone!) and now I have the perfect way. :)
Ferrell said on 11.27.11 at 10:19 AM • [link]

I really like Julie Klausner’s How Was Your Week. Very funny
KRGrille said on 11.27.11 at 12:03 PM • [link]

The Onion News Network video podcast is an absolute must for any discerning podcaster.
Chisai said on 11.27.11 at 12:32 PM • [link]

This American Life
WNYC’s RadioLab which is kinda like TAL, but for science. If you like Stuff You Should Know, you’ll love it. I’m a big Stuff fan also.
Savage Love
Bookrageous (which I believe you were on, young lady)
Pop Culture Happy Hour
WTF with Mark Maron
Mohr Stories

These are the ones I listen to regularly.

I also occasionally listen to some of the MaximimFun podcasts.
DBChen said on 11.27.11 at 12:39 PM • [link]

Pop Culture Happy Hour
Extra Hot Great
This American Life
Q with Jian Ghomeshi on CBC.ca (love his voice)
Reasonable Discussions by the Onion AV Club
Stash and Burn, if you like knitting
Freakonomics
ms bookjunkie said on 11.27.11 at 01:18 PM • [link]

I’ve just spent the last two hours listening to Stuff You Missed in History Class podcasts. The ARE excellent! So interesting, intelligent and informative! I’m currently downloading all their podcasts ever made. Because they’re just that good! (The history nerd in me is rejoicing.)
Beth T. said on 11.27.11 at 01:20 PM • [link]

I am all about the Pop Culture Happy Hour, as well. And if you like that, you might want to try the AV Club’s “Reasonable Discussions.” It’s not quite as much fun as PCHH, but it covers some interesting territory. And even though it has absolutely nothing to do with romance, I’ve recently become obsessed with “Mike and Tom Eat Snacks,” in which actors Michael Ian Black and Tom Cavanaugh discuss snacks and crack jokes. I tend to like podcasts that sound like a bunch of friends just hanging out.
Lily said on 11.27.11 at 01:27 PM • [link]

This may sound weird, but honestly I love Car Talk. I don’t even car about cars, but it’s fun, hilarious, and it’s like listening to your cool uncles gab for an hour.
Lorene Tolleson said on 11.27.11 at 01:51 PM • [link]

I love Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. I also enjoy the Marketplace podcasts.
Ellie Ashe said on 11.27.11 at 01:58 PM • [link]

I love podcasts and am so happy to see so many recommendations. I just downloaded hours of Stuff You Missed in History Class. In addition to many of those already mentioned, my list includes:
The Moth,
BBC Documentaries,
BBC Africa,
NPR’s Planet Money,
In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg,
World Affairs Council of Northern California,
International Spy Museum SpyCast,
NPR’s Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me.
I’m also hooked on several writing podcasts, including StoryWonk, Writing Excuses, and I Should Be Writing. I just discovered Books on the Nightstand, which I’m enjoying, but I can tell is going to cause me to go over my book-buying budget.
mia said on 11.27.11 at 02:30 PM • [link]

The Moth
Stuff Mom Never Told You
This Week with Larry Miller
This American Life
:)
Celine said on 11.27.11 at 03:16 PM • [link]

Filmspotting
This American Life
Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me
Popcorn Dialogues (currently on break but is supposed to be back soon)
JoAnn said on 11.27.11 at 04:16 PM • [link]

The Splendid Table
Book Lust with Nancy Pearl
BTR: Book Club Girl Blog
Faith Middleton Show
NPR: Books Podcast
Slate’s Audio Book Club
TED Talks (audio)
WABE-FM Between the Lines
WNCY’s Radiolab
BBC World Book Club

Looking forward to checking out some of the recommended pod cast!
sweeks1980 said on 11.27.11 at 07:50 PM • [link]

Wow - I’ve found a lot of new podcasts I need to subscribe to just by reading through the comments!

My favorites are:
Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me
This American Life (I love their iPhone app!)
Fresh Air
The Sporkful
Broadway Radio (perfect if you’re a theatre geek)
The Splendid Table
Grammar Girl
How to Do Everything
Slate’s Spoiler Specials (the specials they did on Australia and The Love Guru are hysterical)
Slate’s Audio Book Club (I don’t always agree with the analysis, but I enjoy hearing intelligent people talk about books)
The History Chicks
Cuddle Fish said on 11.27.11 at 11:28 PM • [link]

The history chicks, all the way! They add a lot of rich tertiary information to my historical romance reading.
Megan S. said on 11.28.11 at 12:52 AM • [link]

Stuff Mom Never Told You did an episode on romance novels a couple weeks ago that I found awfully meh, but they did mention Beyond Heaving Bosoms, if I remember correctly.

Answer Me This! is delightful. With good humor, they tackle questions that range from inane to funny to “Oh, hey, I’ve always wondered about that” to “I would never in a million years have wondered that.”

And I get my fun-with-news fix with The Bugle, The News Quiz, and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me!
EMC said on 11.28.11 at 01:10 AM • [link]

I second the recommendations for Answer Me This and Mike and Tom Eat Snacks, and I also want to recommend the Tobolowsky Files. It’s just Stephen Tobolowsky, a long time character actor, telling stories from his life. Some of his stories are about Hollywood and acting, but a lot of his stories are just about his life. He is an absolutely wonderful storyteller. I suggest starting from the beginning because a lot of his stories build on each other.
lorelai said on 11.28.11 at 11:03 AM • [link]

I would also highly recommend This American Life and Radiolab. Both are amazing and worth a listen.
Sonia said on 11.28.11 at 01:42 PM • [link]

Absolutely hooked on BBC’s Thinking Allowed.

Sarah I’ve got the same problem with english, can understand british english with not much problem but american english is another thing entirely! Working on it though, LOL
gemma said on 11.28.11 at 03:05 PM • [link]

I’ll have to save this thread to come back to. Thanks for asking this. (I find new podcasts hard to discover.) The ones I listen to are:

A Way with Words (words and language and how we use them, with Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett)

Judge John Hodgman (comedy, self-appointed judge settles disputes between friends)

BBC Comedy:
Adam and Joe from BBC 6 Music (possibly defunct, but my favourite)
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
Scotland’s Funny Bits from BBC Radio Scotland (you can test your comprehension of Scottish accents too!)
n.b. BBC tends to delete each podcast episode after 7 days :(
Lynne Connolly said on 11.28.11 at 03:20 PM • [link]

I would never, every miss the “In Our Time” podcasts. Every week, Melvyn Bragg and three professors discuss a specific topic. It’s absolutely fascinating, and you never know what is going to come up.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/fe…

And you can also catch up on the site, because they’re there, too. Go an explore, and I promise you’ll get lost there. Last week it was the Jewish hero Judas Maccabeus.

And the BBC Now Show - Just bloody funny:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programme…

Marcus Brigstocke and Mitch Benn are unmissable. Mitch Benn’s version of Prince Philip doing “Killing In the Name Of” was wonderful.
Alice C. Gibb said on 11.28.11 at 06:41 PM • [link]

Slate’s Culture Gabfest (much, much better than Pop Culture Happy Hour)
Wendy Barron said on 11.28.11 at 08:46 PM • [link]

If you’re a fan of Ricky Gervais (which I am), his podcasts may have you nearly peeing your pants, and screaming with laughter. http://www.guardian.co.uk/podc… was the first series, and there were two more: http://podcast.rickygervais.co… and http://podcast.rickygervais.co…. At least, those are the only new ones I know about.
HLH said on 11.28.11 at 10:30 PM • [link]

I have to second (third?) the recommendation for In Our Time. It goes from a Scottish battle, to the moon, to Taoism, to ... who knows? This week is Judas Maccabeus. (I have no idea who that is, but I’ll know more after listening.)

AstronomyCast. An astronomy professor and the guy who runs Universe Today talk about a specific topic in astronomy. They are all 30 minutes or so long and Pamela Gay does a great job explaining (in real language) what’s going on. This all was helpful during Thanksgiving dinner when someone started talking about how we’re going to die in 2012 and I was able to fight back with science! I’d recommend starting with the episodes on all the planets. Those are fabulous.

The other favorite I have is Birdchick, who I found from a mention on Neil Gaiman’s blog (birdchick and Neil are beekeeping buddies.) She’s a birder (obviously) so it’s ostensibly about birding, but she records with her geeky, sarcastic, non-birding husband Bill, and they sometimes go off on these tangents that are absolutely hilarious. It’s not a “comedy” podcast, and you do learn a lot of fascinating stuff about birds and the environment, but their interactions are the best part.
jason said on 11.29.11 at 01:32 AM • [link]

Have spend a nice time……
Here are some of my favorites
Cooking with the Moms
Grammar Girl
Read it and Weep
How to Do Everything
tranquility du jour
http://www.jnhxtv.com
Stephanie said on 11.29.11 at 10:14 AM • [link]

Hypothetical Help
This American Life
Muggle Cast
Definitely Not The Opera
Girl On Guy with Aisha Tyler
Shary said on 11.29.11 at 11:12 AM • [link]

I LOVE The Satellite Sisters. Five real sisters chat about life and current events.
B. Sullivan said on 11.29.11 at 07:17 PM • [link]

Also in agreement with everyone on many of these!

Pop Culture Happy Hour (Excellent range of things they discuss, and I’d rather listen to their coverage of award shows than watch them. Check out the Monkey See blog for an idea - http://www.npr.org/blogs/monke… I still re-listen to their review of the MTV Awards. Subscribe to it via NPR’s Culturetopia.)

Slate’s Culture Gabfest (Not better than the Pop Culture Happy Hour - completely different thing, and host Metcalf tends to get a bit purposefully polysyllabic, and I say that as one who was once in academia - totally depends on your tolerance/preference. I listen to both - PCHH makes me laugh, Culture Gabfast usually doesn’t - but I honestly have used recommendations from both.)

Extra Hot Great (If you’re a pop culture junky, like the odd television trivia quiz, and have ever enjoyed reading Television Without Pity, you should give this a try. Lots of snark. Involves multiple folk - counting the occasional guests - who write about television/pop culture for a living.)

WNYC’s RadioLab (Covers wide array of subjects, excellent sound mixing, which I can’t explain, you’ll have to listen. If you want to listen to one episode try The Ring and I. It’s about Wagner’s Ring Cycle - but even if you have zero interest in opera or Wagner, you’ll find this interesting. Star Wars and Bugs Bunny and Tolkien are mentioned. Link: http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/... )

Stuff You Missed in History Class (All the interesting stories you remember and some you never heard - fun choices of subjects. Some will force you to google for books to read.)

NPR Books Podcast (Compilation of all book reviews and stories on books/authors from NPR.)

NYTimes Book Review (Reviews of books, interviews with authors, discussion of book rankings.)

In Our Time (History but covered with a panel of experts. I really enjoy listening to a discussion of people who so obviously love their topic of study.)

On the Media (Reviews the week’s media stories, with an interview or two. Website is excellent for posting transcripts of each episode. http://www.onthemedia.org/ )

KCRW The Business (Hollywood business that is - behind the scenes information/interviews not on celebrities but on writers, directors, crew, lawyers, etc. Probably more interesting to me because I live in Southern California, and the industry effects us a bit differently.)
Marja Rautala said on 11.30.11 at 01:40 PM • [link]

Filmspotting
Pop Culture Happy Hour
WNYC’s Radiolab
Stuff Mom Never Told You
BBC Scott Mills Daily
The Hollywood Saloon
Dawn Chilson said on 11.30.11 at 01:52 PM • [link]

WTF with Marc Maron
The Nerdist
The Smartest Man in the World Proopcast
Doug Loves Movies
Guest said on 12.01.11 at 01:56 AM • [link]

Listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour is how I learned about this site.
The Smartest Man in the World with Greg Proops is funny. He makes a ton of references to history.
Stuff You Missed in History is an awesome podcast.
This Week in Tech and This Week in Google and All About Android are all podcasts that feed my inner gadget geek. Leo Leoporte and crew have two upcoming podcasts about gadgets and gaming that I am eagerly awaiting.
Dailed-In keeps me in the loop on the cellphone industry.
Car Talk has awesome hosts.
I like listening to the Grammar Girl podcast.
Snap Judgment has some pretty crazy true stories that follow a different theme each show.
Wait..Wait Don’t Tell Me is okay.
ChinesePod is also okay.
bookstorecat said on 12.01.11 at 03:11 AM • [link]

I never knew Greg Proops had a podcast. Will def have to check it out.
Amy said on 01.04.12 at 08:02 PM • [link]

I love listening to literature lectures, or other fun classes. A lot of universities’ podcasts are available to non-students now.

There are a few lit classes listed from UC Berkeley, Brandeis, and some Ivy Leagues here: http://www.openculture.com/lit…

I also really love Professor Potts from UCSD. He has some pretty humorous and light-hearted classes on popular literature; including Children’s Lit, YA lit, Lord of the Rings and Science Fiction. UCSD podcasts aren’t permanently listed, so you have to check to see which one is being listed each quarter. “Code Making and Breaking” is also a cool class you can listen to occasionally. :) (And since you know how often Egyptian hieroglyphics and English spy activities come up in historical romance, you’ll note this is some handy stuff know)

http://podcast.ucsd.edu/