Interviews/Conversations
Podcasts give you the ability to hear interviews or conversations with thought-leaders and other individuals on you own schedule. Since I'm a computer and science geek, I get a lot of these types of podcasts from IT Conversations. IT Conversations also has
several themed podcasts with recurring hosts who interview people involved with the work connected to the series' theme. They carry Moira Gunn's excellent Tech Nation series which interviews authors, scientists and others in science and technology fields. Tech Nation has a spin-off, Biotech Nation where she interviews scientists and others working in various fields of Biotechnology. Other recurring series include Globeshakers, Opening Move, and Sound Policy.
The Science and Society podcast broadly focuses on nanotechnology, life sciences, energy and the environment, space exploration, and K-12 science education. Over the last several years they have interviewed more than 400 trendsetting and groundbreaking researchers, industry-leading executives, and senior government officials.
Two of the best technology-oriented conversation podcasts are the Gillmor Gang where Steve Gillmor hosts a regular hour-long roundtable discussion on the various technology news. This Week in Tech (aka TWiT) features Leo Laporte and a round-table of folks who worked with Leo at TechTV. The TWiT discussions are wide-ranging, pretty geeky and always fun.
For conversation about science fiction programming on television and in the movies, check out the Slice of SciFi podcast for weekly interviews and conversation about new science fiction programming.
Lectures/Conferences
IT Conversations is a leader in providing audio of speakers at various lectures and conferences. They post individual sessions from each conference as separate files allowing you to pick which lectures you want to listen to. They have provided recorded sessions from a plethora of events including Pop Tech, Open Source Convention (aka OSCON), and Web 2.0.
Stories
One of the great effects of the rise of podcasting has been the resurgence of story-telling podcasts. Some authors are reading their works as podcasts with each chapter being a single .MP3 file. Cory Doctorow podcasts readings of his shorter works in science fiction and the Escape Pod podcast features reading of short fantasy and science fiction stories by established authors. There is even a web site dedicated to delivering audiobook chapters via podcasting at Podiobooks. The Morning Stories podcast is a ten minute segment produced by WGBH radio in Boston and based on their radio series of the same name. The segments feature interesting personal stories told by the story's author.
Article comments
1 - Lisa McKay
Wow, there's some great stuff to check out here, John, thanks!
I would be remiss if I didn't mention BCRadio which is produced weekly by our own DJRadiohead and features lots of BC insider stuff and much good conversation.
2 - Sam Jack
My favorite podcast for some time has been Diggnation, which is a weekly half hour to hour video of Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht discussing tech news from digg.com. Excellent info, and I'll certainly check out some of this stuff. Thanks!
3 - Eric
Hey, thanks for the mention. There are many other quality MP3 blogs out there for those who prefer styles outside the scope of Knobtweakers. There's a pretty good list arranged by genre at the music blog wiki, and it's getting better every day.
4 - Mark Sahm
John: In what ways do you see independent podcasts being able to generate any revenue in the future? Or do you think that unless you're getting some kind of sponsorship, it will be strictly remain as a free type of service?
5 - George
If you like Echoes, you may also like Ultima Thule, a weekly 90-minute ambient radio show/podcast out of Sydney that's been running since 1989:
6 - Renee
Another great place to find podcasts is Fetching Podcasts. It lists only the best of the best in the categorized directory.
7 - iTunesTracks.co.uk
A New Podcast Directory is the iTunesTracks.co.uk Podcast Directory. If you have a podcast please add it today..
Podcasts are now becomming more in peoples daily life with advances in technology and mobile media players. I see more on them in the future...