Sean D. Francis

Podcast Recommendations

I enjoy listening to podcasts of all types and one of the problems with podcasts is finding them.  Sure, some are obvious, like This American Life but some aren’t.  Here is a listing of podcasts I’ve found to be terrific, insightful, funny, and worthy of a subscription on your preferred podcast catcher.

Comedy

Uhh Yeah Dude
Seth Romatelli and Jonathan Larroquette host a weekly show where they riff on bizarre news and life.  They are fun, frivolous and endearing.  The show is low key, very mellow, and feels like listening in on a late night chat session.  Their humor is nearly impossible to describe to friends because it is very contextual and personality driven.  Without the context and the personalities, any effort to replicate ‘the funny thing you heard’ to your friends will be met with quizzical looks.  Far better to play the podcast for your friends. Trust.

SModcast

Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier host SModcast, an almost weekly podcast, which provides a venue in which Smith seems very comfortable.  At times there seems to be some great personal truths revealed in the podcast that makes the listener respect Smith in new ways.  Mosier needs to be credited for enabling Smith.  Only after listening to episodes with Mosier and those without do you really see how Scott helps keep Kevin on track but also really allows Kevin to explore different storytelling paths, even if they end up in very weird places.  It has a lot of sexual humor and hockey talk.

News and Information

On the Media
Bob Garfield and Brooke Gladstone host (and edit) this show on NPR which is also given to us as a podcast.  The show is a behind the scenes look at the media, how decisions are made, why certain stories get promoted and others die on the vine.  The analysis is always intriguing and insightful.  Each show takes me a layer deeper in the world of media and helps with understanding this enigmatic world.

Savage Lovecast
Dan Savage hosts this podcast, an audio version of his very popular sex advice column. This podcast is not for the faint of heart as Dan rarely pulls punches.  He speaks his mind and if people don’t want to hear it, then why did they ask him in the first place? What really is captivating, besides the salacious sex stories, are those moments when Dan is talking to a caller and demonstrates that tough love isn’t all about being tough and caustic but is also about compassion and a true desire for people to have a healthy sex life.

Planet Money
An offshoot of This American Life, the Planet Money team helps make sense of complicated economic news.  They played a huge role in understand the whole toxic assets issue the banks were/are dealing with and they have gone the extra mile to make sense of the health care reform efforts.  Yet they don’t ignore the basic day to day economic issues and have done a great job in explaining some Econ 101 issues as well.

Science and Technology

This Week in Tech
Leo Laporte and his rotating panel of guests go over all the big news from the week that affect tech.  This really is Meet the Press of the tech world.

This Week in Google
Leo Laport, Jeff Jarvis, and Gina Trapani get together in this podcast to dissect what Google has done over the past week.  Yes, Google does enough in one week to make a one hour podcast each and every week.

RadioLab
If you own an MP3 listening device you need to listen to RadioLab.  It is a show on NPR but it is also offered to us in podcast form.   Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich take a topic and go round and round with that topic looking at it from various points of view in ways that are simply amazing for radio.

Science Friday
Ira Flatow hosts this show which airs on NPR but is also given to us in podcast form.  Each week focus is brought on science topics and a discussion created on the topic.  Every effort to provide a balance look at the topic is made.  Science Friday is one of those shows that help uncover news beneath the news.

Fiction

Escape Pod
For a bit of science in the fiction, Escape Pod offers audio short stories, most coming in at the half hour mark.

Pseudopod
The horror genre often gets overlooked but it gets the spotlight in this podcast with weekly audio horror stories.

Podcastle
Not always about unicorns and princesses, Podcastle is a podcast that presents audio fantasy stories.

Writing

I Should Be Writing
Mur Lafferty hosts this podcast where she discusses issues and presents interviews all dealing with the world of writing.

Grammar Girl
Mignon Fogarty hosts this short fun podcast about what to many think is a boring topic, grammar.  Grammar Girl won’t turn anyone into one of the Grammar Police, but it will help clear up some of the difficult grammar topics.

Culture and Society

Geeks On
Four geeks talking about geeky things.  Geeks On is one of those podcasts that gets better the more you listen to it.

Roleplaying Public Radio
This is just for people who enjoy roleplaying games.  The podcasts are centered on topics that appeal to gamers and to actual gameplay sessions which run three to four hours.

This American Life
Ira Glass hosts This American Life, a weekly NPR show that is also given to us in podcast form.  This American Life tells the story of average people who never turn out to be that average.  Even when the topic seems like it is going to be boring, it isn’t.

Universal Geek
Sean D. Francis, Bleu Caldwell, and Jeff Couturier do a weekly hour-plus long podcast covering topics like technology,  robots, zombies, social media, science fiction, fantasy, cats, memes, and really anything that crosses their minds.