4. Popular culture. Stephen Colbert is funny in character as he reads excerpts from I Am America (And So Can You!) in the iTunes' Meet the Authors podcast. It's a treat to hear him answer questions as his normal self afterward. NPR's Movies and NPR's Pop Culture offer reviews, light stories and more thoughtful looks at their chosen subjects. The Official LOST Podcast works well when executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse talk about the show and answer viewers' questions, and crack each other up.

Looking forward to: Barnes and Noble's Meet the Writers Podcast with Dave Barry and Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy. Also, Books from the Guardian podcasts with Philip Pullman and celeb-atheist Richard Dawkins and Bono's 2005 interview in The Rolling Stone  podcast.

5. Other useful information. Thanks to The Word Nerds, I now know that the British expletive "bloody" doesn't originate from a reference to the blood of Christ. Whew. Coming up someday when I take the time to listen: rhetoric! religious words! synonyms!

Looking forward to: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Special Exhibition Podcast and some photography-related podcasts from National Gallery of Art-Behind the Scenes. Writing Excuses that features a fantasy novelist, a cartoonist and a horror writer discussing writing techniques. NPR's Intelligence Squared, featuring excerpts from a debate about a particular topic such as "Global Warming is Not a Crisis," with three panelists for the motion and three against. I've listened to part of that episode; I look forward to hearing the opinions about the question, "Is America Too Damn Religious?"

6. For fun, for real. I've tried out a few "funny" podcasts — The Soup Video Podcast, and The Onion News Network. Both were OK, but not keepers. (When you have an ever-growing podcast list waiting, you have to thin some out.) One of my first podcast subscriptions is a funny one, and it's a keeper for sure: The Rhett&LinKast. I should confess that I met Rhett on a Campus Crusade for Christ summer project, so you may consider me biased. But watch these episodes for yourself: "the Dead iPod Song", "the Halloween Controversy debate", "the Facebook song" and you'll find that The Rhett&LinKast is clever, well-executed and will often make you laugh out loud, if you know what I mean.

I know these are just the tip of the iceberg, of course. Like everything else that's grown exponentially with the DIY nature of the Internet, the unruly crowd of podcasts available on iTunes and elsewhere waits hungrily to be picked through more thoroughly. I'd like to hear about what tasty things you've discovered out there. Leave your suggestions in the comments below.