Tag Archives: podcasts

A FEW FAVORITE PODCASTS

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I have always been an Audible fan, listening to books in the car. Recently, I became a podcast fan thanks to my Samsung Tab and Google Listen. As I drive to the office (or to the airport …) I fill the open time with podcasts. Here are a few that I have come to really enjoy:

  • The CBC podcast:  A 4-5 minute podcast that gives you high level Canadian news.
  • BBC world news:  The world in 20 minutes with great special guest commentary.
  • BBC Business news:  20 minutes of business.
  • HBR Ideacast:  Usually around 12 minutes long, they give a good synopsis on up and coming articles.

I have dropped the Wall street journal podcast as I find it too US centric and find the Bloomberg podcast and The Economist podcast hit or miss. I also listen to a few general interest podcasts; The New Yorker, TEDTalks and Slate, with my favourite being Stuff You Should Know, from the How Stuff Works website. The hosts have a dry sense of humour and report on a range of topics. To get you started, a few podcasts that were very enjoyable:

  • What is mountain removal mining?  Bring out your internal eco-warrior on what is happening in the poor areas of the US (and I am sure on other areas of the world), through a different type of strip mining that involves explosives, huge industrial waste, destruction of valleys/wildlife and serious health issues for the locals. A sad story of economics overtaking logic (they could mine the old fashioned way, but this way requires 1/3 of the labour). You can watch a good video synopsis here.
  • Can the sun kill you?  I found it amazing that we will get 80% of all of our sun by the age of 18. Thank goodness that parenting and information have advanced. I know my boys have never had big water blisters on their shoulders from too much sun (Something that I remember as a regular occurrence as a child … sunblock in the 1970s, what is that?)
  • How Knights Work  The boys and I had a drive so we listened to this podcast on the way there and back. I never understood the whole squire thing, now I do and the boys loved the topic.

I love the net.