Spoken word podcasts.

[vin_petrol]

I love spoken word podcasts. For a very long time, I've found it very relaxing to listen to voices whilst lying down. I quite like to fall asleep at night listening to people talking. It has to be "the right type" of talking though. Phone-in programs on the radio don't work for me. It has to be people talking about something vaguely interesting to me, but generally not overwhelmingly interesting. I do generally fall asleep at some point.
Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time on Radio 4 is probably the perfect podcast for sending me to sleep. I kept one episode that was soooo boring that I don't think I ever got more than about 30 seconds in before I was zedding away. It was very handy for nights when I couldn't get to sleep. Radio 4 do offer a small selection of podcasts.

Most of the podcasts I listen to seem to be science or scepticism related. Favourites are:

Skepticality - quiet at the moment after one of the presenters had a brain injury.

Point of Inquiry - "focusing on CFI’s issues: religion, human values and the borderlands of science." People like Richard Dawkins and James Randi show up on this podcast.

Slacker Astronomy - Because if you aren't going to care about something, you may as well no care about astronomy :-)

Quirks and Quarks - A weekly science show from Canada. Possibly my favourite science podcast.

Groks - A pair of speccy geeks talk about science. I've never been able to get the RSS feed to work though :-(

Science Friday - Not sure about this one yet. I've only heard a few. It's OK, but not as good as Quirks and Quarks.

I don't have an iPod. I download the MP3s, convert them to OGGs at the very lowest quality setting (completely acceptable for voice), and listen to them using my mobile phone, a Sony Ericsson P900. It has a 128MB expansion card in it, which will hold something like 8-10 hours of spoken word OGGs.

So what spoken word podcasts do other people listen to? Am I missing any you think I might like?

Comments

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

I love Hooting Yard on ResonanceFM. If you're a fan of Viv Stanshall and/or Ivor Cutler it can't fail to appeal.

[vin_petrol]

If you're a fan of Viv Stanshall and/or Ivor Cutler it can't fail to appeal.

That's a "who" followed by another "who", so I've got no cultural reference to hang onto there!

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

I also recommend you take a look at Open Media Network - there's a lot of speech podcasts (and some videocasts) on there.

[vin_petrol]

I also recommend you take a look at Open Media Network - there's a lot of speech podcasts (and some videocasts) on there.

Ooh, ta, looks interesting.

[rich-r.livejournal.com]

I used to listen to Quirks and Quarks on Radio Canada on shortwave back in the 1980s. Might dust off my old shortwave receiver and see what I can find one of these days - though foreign radio is less novel now we have the interweb...

[vin_petrol]

I was quite surprised when they did a 30th anniversary show earlier this year!

I have a short wave radio which preceded podcasts as my sleep-inducer, but sadly I feel since communism fell the airwaves just haven't been the same. I do miss Radio Moscow and their programs about tractor factories in the Ukraine.

[rich-r.livejournal.com]

I think it was the nice signature tunes you used to get broadcast for 10 minutes before programming started on that frequency that added to the charm. Plus the excitement of pulling in something really long distance like New Zealand due to sunspot oddities. And during the first Gulf War, it certainly opened your eyes as to how much the BBC were omitting to tell us. I particularly liked when Voice of America said that Baghdad's radio and TV had been knocked out. A quick retune proved that they were in fact, fibbing.

My electric guitar used to pick up Radio Moscow when I lived on Bishopthorpe Road. Probably due to my homemade practice amplifier having rather a large gain, and rather poor filtering...

[steer.livejournal.com]

Bah... heathen, I like "In our Time" -- it's one of the few radio programs which isn't afraid to meet science based things head on with in depth discussion. Plus some people from our dept are on it occasionally.

Richard Dawkins on the other hand makes me itch.

[vin_petrol]

I do like In Our Time... It's just that it sends me to sleep. In some ways, this is *good* thing (i.e. when I need to get to sleep), but I can see Melvyn Bragg might not see it that way.

Was someone from your department in the prime numbers one of a few months ago? I fell asleep during that one, and had very weird dream that involved swooping with black angels over a landscape based on the Riemann zeta function... I have this nagging feeling that if I could remember what I saw in the dream, and convert it into maths on a piece of paper, I would solve the Reimann hypothesis! :-)

[steer.livejournal.com]

Heh... well I like Melvyn Bragg -- his adenoidal groanings are a byword for intelligent conversation. I like the kind of flirty/alpha male thing he does with John Humphries at the end of the today program.

[vin_petrol]

I like the kind of flirty/alpha male thing he does with John Humphries at the end of the today program.

I don't think I've ever heard that. I've only ever listened to the podcast, which always just starts with Mr Bragg. TBH, I had no real idea when IOT was broadcast at all till you said this, apart from "not at weekends when I'm driving to and from football." No, that pleasure belongs to Trash's favourite: Moneybox *shudder*

[steer.livejournal.com]

Ooh... now moneybox... *shudder* You know it scares me.

[ellenscult]

You need to get The Radio Adventures of Doctor Floyd - you'll love it. ;-) This is their blurb: This family friendly new twist on "old time radio" features the adventures and exploits of the World's Most Brilliant Scientist, Dr. Floyd! Joind Dr. Floyd as he tries to thwart the plans of his evil arch nemesis, Dr. Steve, all the while learning about the people and events that shaped the history of the Earth. If Jay Ward, creator of Rocky & Bullwinkle, had created Mystery Science Theater 3000 mixed in a little Time Bandits and gave it an educational spin, the result would have been...The Radio Adventures Of Dr. Floyd! Listener Feedback Line: (818) 332-3053 http://www.doctorfloyd.com/blog/rss.xml

[ellenscult]

Post was too long... here's more. ;-)

Apart from that, I listen to the following:

This Week in Science - The kickass weekly science and technology radio show presenting a humorous and irreverent look at the week in science and tech. Each week TWIS discusses the latest in cutting edge science news on topics such as genetic engineering, cybernetics, space exploration, neuro science, and a show favorite Countdown to World Robot Domination. The show is hosted by Kirsten, a PhD candidate in neuro science, and Justin, a wisecracking professional washing machine salesman and armchair physicist. Consistently voted one of the top science radio shows on the web - check it out and hear a science news program like no other. http://feeds.feedburner.com/twis/science

All in the Mind (ABC) - All In The Mind is Radio National's weekly foray into the mental universe, the mind, brain and behaviour - everything from addiction to artificial intelligence. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/mind.xml

Dragon Page Wingin' It, Slice of Sci-Fi and Cover to Cover - http://dragonpage.com/podcastWing.xml http://sliceofscifi.com/podcast.xml http://dragonpage.com/podcastC2C.xml

Craphound.com (Cory Doctorow) - Short-stories in progress by an award-winning science fiction writer, read aloud in small regular chunks http://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

From Our Own Correspondent - Insight, colour, wit and analysis as the BBC's foreign correspondents take a closer look at the stories in their regions. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/radio4/fromourowncorrespondent/rss.xml

Hometown Tales - Every Town Has One- Local Legends, Folklore, Ghost Stories, Odd Culture. Hear the latest bizarre news and tales from around the world. This is a podcast and video feed taken from the popular underground public access show. Gene and Bryan come to you every week with stories from around the globe. Tune in to get a scare, laugh and learn a little. http://www.hometowntales.com/htpodcast.xml

NASA Astrobiology Magazine - On life beyond Earth and the origin of life. Includes feature articles on a wide range of topics, including the discovery of new planets and terrestrial origins. http://www.astrobio.net/podcast.xml

Science @ Nasa - The Science and Technology Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center sponsors the Science@NASA web sites. The mission of Science@NASA is to help the public understand how exciting NASA research is and to help NASA scientists fulfill their outreach responsibilities.
For more information on using this podcast feed, go to the Science Podcast Descripting and Preview Page. http://science.nasa.gov/itunespodcast.xml

SherlockHolmesAudio - A web podcast of the original Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This podcast presents the books in 15 to 20 minute episodes, 3 to 5 episodes a week. The RSS/XML feed only shows the most recent episodes, but you can visit the regular web site at http://www.pinkgeekaudio.net/weblog3/ to see all the back issues. http://www.pinkgeek.net/weblog3/rss.xml

Spaceship Radio - In this weekly podcast we present public domain SciFi radio plays from the ?40s and 50s, written by the legends of the genre. Also from time to time we will be producing scripts submitted by our listeners. http://feeds.feedburner.com/SpaceshipRadio

The Science Show - RN's science flagship: your essential source of what's making news in the complex world of scientific research, scandal and discovery. The Science Show with Robyn Williams is one of the longest running programs on Australian radio. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/science.xml

I get a few others, too, but that's plenty to be going on with. ;-)

[vin_petrol]

Ooh, ta very much. There look like being a few shows in there that will work for me!

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I haven't worked out how to access this podcast malarkey stuff, but BBC7 and its Listen Again section has an excellent choice of all sorts of comedy, science fiction and drama. I love the Listen Again section on the BBC.

[vin_petrol]

Listen again is OK, but you actually have to be connected to the Internet with a suitable device to use that service. Plus it's a streaming service, and they don't want you to actually have your own digital data file at the end of the program. Although it's trivially easy to overcome this, you still have to 'record' the program in real time, which feels like a bizarrely silly thing to be doing in 2006!

Podcasts suit me because I can download the data file whenever I want to as fast as I want to, convert it to the format I want it in, and listen to it whenever I want to.

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

'Although it's trivially easy to overcome this'
I'm a bear of little brain when it comes to computer malarkey but if you could explain in terms I'd understand or in a technical way and I'll get Andy to translate it for me then I'd be dead grateful, cheers.

[vin_petrol]

I think there are several ways to do this, but the 'easiest' one I use is to get a piece of software called "Audiograbber". This does all sorts of things involving getting sound off CDs, but it also has a "line in" mode. Which 'records' whatever your sound card is sending OUT to a WAV file on disk.

So, it's a bit like taping off the Top 40 in the 1980s:
* Start the "Listen Again" program in your sound player.
* Switch to Audiograbber and press "Record".
* Listen
* Press "Stop"

Then you'll have a WAV file on disk, which you can convert to OGG or MP3 with whatever encoder you use.

The only fiddly bit I found was setting up the levels. Did you ever have a cassette deck with "record level" adjustment and VU meters or LEDs that flashed green and red? You need to do the classic "set the recording level so that the loudest parts of the music peak in the red".

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Thank you sweetie - even I can manage that, though of course I might wait for Pandy Pops assistance for my first attempt. After all he's very attached to his status as geek superior in this house and I wouldn't want him to feel usurped *grin*
BTW I still have a cassette deck that flashes and I still play vinyl - I love the warmth of vinyl. Edith Piaf sounds best on vinyl.

[meltie.livejournal.com]

I'm very taken with Come Fly With Me (http://flywithme.podshow.com/), by an airline captain called Joe. He interviews flight crews and passengers, and goes off on asides about the industry and flying in general. His voice is very relaxing, and the music selection he uses is very 50s NPR.

He's on a small hiatus at the moment as he's just taken his Captainship and his flying schedule is choppy as he's gone from being most senior navigator to most junior again, in the manner of someone leaving school and starting sixth form. I should email him and offer thanks and reassurance we're still listening.

[meltie.livejournal.com]

oh, and start from the first episode, don't backtrack through it. It's only like 9 shows in total anyway at the moment :)

[vin_petrol]

Thanks. I'll add it to the (now getting rather long) list!