My Favorite Podcasts

I use Overcast as my podcast player.  One of the neatest features is that it automatically removes long pauses from the stream, which allows me to listen at regular speed while reducing the listening time.  In fact, I was listening to a podcast on my Apple Watch, which does not have that feature, and I kept thinking the podcast had stopped at the long pauses.  I recommend Overcast.

I have been listening to podcasts for years.  There was a time when I was the only person I knew who listened to podcasts.  That has changed, but I still know people who do not know what a podcast is, much less listen to them.

 My favorite podcast is, by far, The Skeptics Guide to the Universe.  I listen to it weekly, and it goes to the top of the playlist automatically.  It's a science and critical thinking podcast, and the main host, Steven Novella, is a brilliant doctor, scientist, communicator, and writer.  There are four others on the show:  his two brothers Jay and Bob (smart, but Steve is clearly the alpha brother), Evan Bernstein (a CPA who knows science), and Cara Santa Maria (science communicator with impressive education credentials).  Although the podcast has too many inside jokes and sometimes sophomoric references, I love hearing about science and the fight against pseudo-science. 

 It is difficult after this to identify my next favorite podcasts.  I do listen to Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me, but that is not technically a podcast.  It's a weekly NPR show, featuring Peter Sagal (who I have met), and it is a witty look at the week's news.  While my political views are not the same as Sagal's and most of the panelists, the comedy is clever, so I listen.  Bill Kurtis is the announcer, and it's said that he was the model for Ron Burgundy, the main character in the Anchorman movie.

 Probably my favorite podcaster is Merlin Mann, who is for all intents and purposes a professional podcaster.  I listen to his Back to Work podcast with Dan Benjamin, Reconcilable Differences with John Siracusa, California King, and sometimes Roderick on the Line and Do By Friday.  Again, his wit and intelligence make up for his political views, which are more radical than mine.  

 Getting back to podcasts, I like The Pen Addict, with Brad Dowdy and Myke Hurley.  Yes, there is a podcast devoted to pens, usually fountain pens.  There have been more than 400 Pen Addict podcasts of at least one hour, and they show no sign of slowing down.  I frequently buy things after listening to this podcast, including pens, pencils, stationery, and other writing paraphernalia.  I met both hosts at the DC pen show, and Myke is British and one of the co-founders of my favorite podcast network, Relay.fm.

 The shows on Relay.fm that I listen to are:  Mac Power Users (David Sparks and Stephen Hackett), Connected, Clockwise, Automators, Cortex, Focused, Upgrade, and the two shows already mentioned - Pen Addict and Reconcilable Differences.  While I do not always listen to ever episode, I would say that my favorites are Cortex (Myke Hurley and CGP Grey), Upgrade (Hurley and Jason Snell), and Mac Power Users.

 Other podcasts in my feed include Accidental Tech Podcast with John Siracusa, Marco Arment, and Casey Liss.  It's called that because it started out as a car podcast, but because all three are developers and computer guys, it morphed into a tech podcast.  Freakonomics Radio, Revisionist History, The Art of Manliness, Behavioral Grooves Podcast, You're Wrong About, Twenty Thousand Hertz, The Talk Show with John Gruber, and Analog(ue) are frequent shows in my feed, and depending on the topic, I delete or listen to them.

 I also listen to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, which puts out a show each quarter, if lucky.  He's an excellent story teller, and the podcasts are fantastic.  He used to have a podcast called Commonsense, but he stopped producing it because he had run out of things to say about our political climate and future.  You have to respect that.

 Finally, Strong Songs with Kirk Hamilton is a favorite podcast.  He analyzes songs from all genres, and I've learned more about music from this podcast in the last few years than I had learned up to that point.  It's worth a look to see if he has analyzed one of your favorite songs.