iPods & Podcasts
When apple first released the iPod I was both unimpressed and uninterested. They seemed far too expensive for the feature set and to be honest I had largely lost interest in music as high school wrapped up and college got started.
This past holiday season the price and my interest had finally changed enough to justify a purchase. I picked up one of the Black 30gb 5th generation iPods and after a couple months of use absolutely love it. The interface and aesthetic of the device combined with the intuitive and effective presentation of iTunes motivated me to clean up, organize, and find album art for the 20gb of so of mp3s I have collected over the years and listened to with various iterations of winamp. I’ve even purchased DRM-filled albums, games, and audio books on iTunes and despite my usual hatred of DRM and monopolistic corporations i’ve completely embraced the interaction of the iPod with iTunes and don’t at all mind that I am allowing a single vendor to control the way I organize and listen to music. That speaks volumes for the quality of these products.
That said, ownership of such a spacious and effective device has led me to become an avid listener of podcasts. The point of this post is largely to share the list of podcasts I currently enjoy an exceptional amount. Here it is in no particular order:
- Chicago GSB Postcast Series
- Comic Strip Live: Standup Comedy
- QDNow (this is a network of 3 - 5 minute podcast series covering various topics)
- ESPN: PTI (I never catch this when it runs on TV and the format is perfect for a podcast)
- HBR IdeaCast
- Manager Tools
Since I have never listened to podcasts on a regular basis, I can pull down years of content such that I won’t ever be able to work through all of it. These sure beat listening to the garbage radio stations covering Atlanta. I loved the 99x morning show when Fred Toucher was a part of the cast but it disbanded and went down the crapper when he left.