Chamblee54

@chamblee54 “Dating Kinds Sucks is now on my list of podcasts. I might listen to an episode some day. Between enthusiastically following a dozen podcasts, ten hours a week of joe rogan, listening to music, and the need for recreational silence, there is not a lot of time left.”
Someone asked PG for a list of podcasts. PG quickly found a dozen shows, and moved the file into a folder. The next day, he thought of a dozen more shows to add to the list. PG moved a copy of the list onto his desktop. Shows-that-must-be-went to the top of the list making a handy reference. There are now over a hundred podcasts on the list. Many are not active, and many more are terrible. (All of them ask for donations.) One day, there would have to be a podcast post.
Neo-luddite PG is very happy not to be tethered to a smart phone. PG does his work on a desk top. “Podcast apps” are a mystery to him. If you want to listen to any of these shows, you are smart enough to figure it out. If a podcast app works for you, then you should use one.
You should find a site where you download the mp3. Sometimes, it is the main site for the show. Other times, you have to look. You can type the name of the show into google, and put the letters rss after it. This will usually give you a site where you get the mp3. Right click on the appropriate tab, and click “save file as.” On some shows, you click directly on the download tab, and the file goes into your machine. You sometimes have to play with things to get them to work.
This feature is being written on Tuesday morning. Several of the top shows drop new episodes on Tuesday. We will start with the Tuesday morning shows.
RISK! occupies a special place in the podcast pantheon. A typical episode has three stories, of about twenty minutes each. The stories go from terrific to terrible. One advantage of downloading is the ease of stopping a non-productive story, and skipping ahead to the next segment. RISK! does have an unfortunate tendency towards obnoxious wokeness.
99% Invisible is a show about design, which is supposed to be 99% invisible. Host Roman Mars looks at a wide range of topics, and is seldom boring. A typical story is about twenty minutes long, or about the time of a good ride on the stationary bike.
99% p.i. is a founding member of Radiotopia, a podcast collective. They link to each others shows, and ask for donations. Radiotopia is connected to PRX, which recently had a tacky racism scandal.
The Journal is “… A podcast about money, business and power. … is a co-production from Gimlet Media and The Wall Street Journal.” The Journal is not affected by the notorious WSJ paywall. The Journal appears several times a week, and can be quite enjoyable. Some of the early reporting here on Covid-19 was remarkable. Episodes are usually under twenty minutes.
The Writer’s Voice: New Fiction from The New Yorker is a delight. The author of the print edition story reads it here. Sometimes it is boring, but often is great. The New Yorker: Fiction is the first-of-the-month companion. Here, an author reads a selected story from the archive. There is a discussion of the story with editor Deborah Treisman, that you might want to skip.
Listening to a story uses a different part of the mind than reading text, and can lead to a different perception. The viral sensation of “Cat Person” comes to mind. The #metoo themed tale was the national fascination in December, 2017. PG had listened to author Kristen Roupenian reading the story before the scandal erupted, and did not think the story was a big deal.
Disgraceland appears every other Tuesday. DGL looks at the less pleasant side of famous musicians. Some of these people are real assholes, even if they did make great music. Cocaine and Rhinestones is similar, with a focus on country music. A spin-off of DGL is The 27 Club. Each season looks at the adventures of a famous musician, who died before the twenty eighth birthday.
Levar Burton Reads drops new stories on Tuesday, when it is in season. “Kunta Kinte” reads a story that he loves. Old Gods of Appalachia is another fiction show on podbay. PG discovered OGOA on a boring sunday afternoon recently. It tells horror stories rising from the hollows of East Tennessee. There are many more storyteller podcasts.
This feature is getting into TLDR territory. There is a possibility of more podcast posts in the future. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Part two and part three are now available.