Variety
A lot of podcasts have a variety of elements in them, including music, conversation, promotional clips for other podcasts, etc. The granddaddy of all the variety shows is Adam Curry's Daily Source Code. Adam is a former DJ and MTV VJ. He was instrumental in getting the software mechanisms in place to easily distribute podcasts. The Daily Source Code combines new podsafe music, Adam's commentary on his life, work and the world around him, as well has promos for other podcasts. The first 30 minutes of Adam's show is available on Sirius Satellite Radio while the entirety of the show is available as a podcast.
The Internet makes podcasts available no matter what country they originate in. I listen to three podcasts produced outside the U.S. Caribbean Free Radio is produced in Trinidad by Georgia Popplewell. She includes local music, news and of course football news in her podcast. Scott Lockman is the host of the Tokyo Calling podcast. His was one of the first podcasts to originate from Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo Calling is Scott's vehicle for talking about life, parenthood, work, and much more about life in Japan's largest city. From Australia comes the G'day World podcast the very first Australian podcast, an irreverent rant about technology, science, politics, and the arts by Cameron Reilly.
Finding More
There are several good sources of podcasts including the PodcastDirectory, Podcast.net, Podcast Alley, NPR, Indiepodder and iPodder. These sites will let you browse podcasts by genre or category as well as doing key word searches of the podcast's descriptive text. When you find interesting podcasts, these directories will point you to the correct URL for adding them to your podcast client.
If you have other great podcasts you listen to, feel free to leave information about them in the comments so we all can enjoy.
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...