Podcast recommendations

I've got about a half hour commute to work, and at least a five minute walk from my parking lot to the office. So I've been able to go through a lot of podcasted material each week. I hope that these recommendations may be of interest to you.

DAILIES I SUBSCRIBE TO

Luther Seminary Chapel
Daily 10 minute sermons. I often found it to be full of moving stuff from a perspective of a Lutheran Theology of the Cross. Sometimes however some New-Agey material has crept in.
http://resources.luthersem.edu/chapel-audio/mp3.php

NPR Story of the Day
This is cool. Just one NPR story sampled from the day's programming.
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=1090

Our Ocean World
About 3 minutes of a little zoological or environmental story about the ocean.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/oceanworld

tech5 show with John C. Dvorak
This guy has an incredible amount of technical info in 5 minutes, from semiconductor manufacturing to consumer electronics to software politics. He's got an objective, independent perspective that is refreshing. Highly recommend.
http://tech5.podshow.com/feed


WEEKLIES AND IRREGULARLY PRODUCED SHOWS I SUBSCRIBE TO


Animation Podcast
This has some pretty cool interviews with important people in the animation industry, from professionals currently making movies today to recordings of interviews with late Disney visionaries. Some of the details might be a bit dry if you're not going into animation as a career.
http://www.animationpodcast.com/podcast.xml

Astronomy Cast
In-depth lectures on astronomy in a conversational format directed to the lay person.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/astronomycast

Cult Movies Podcast
Two or more guys talking about movies and film and some consumer electronics. It's great listening except when they talk about the electronics.
http://cultmovies.libsyn.com/rss

Five Live film reviews with Mark Kermode
Great stuff. He's brilliant.
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/fivelive/markkermodesfilmreviews/rss.xml

Irrational Public Radio
Satire of Public Radio. Often funny.
http://www.irrationalpublicradio.com/ipr_pilot.rss.txt

Left, Right, and Center
News discussion from multiple political perspectives.
http://media.kcrw.com/podcast/show/lr

Linux Questions Podcast
Linux News.
http://radio.linuxquestions.org/syndicate/lqpodcast.php

Living Water Christian Church podcast
Good sermons.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/LWCC_Podcast

Martini Shots
A diary of a guy in the business of writing for television and TV
http://media.kcrw.com/podcast/show/ma

Ozarks Math podcast
This is a math professor and a radio announcer talking about interesting topics in mathematics, usually in the form of puzzles. Unfortunately, some of these are too short!
http://mathfactor.uark.edu/feed/

Prairie Home Companion
Great fictional stories about life in rural America.
http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/podcasts/xml/prairie_home_companion/news_from_lake_wobegon.xml

Scientific American podcast
Fairly good presentation of some scientific topics in-depth.
http://www.sciam.com/podcast/sciam_podcast_r.xml

This American Life
Often, these stories capture the imagination for a week after hearing them.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/podcast.xml

Truthdig
Political analysis from a reasonable leftist perspective, if you don't find that a contradiction
http://feeds.feedburner.com/TruthdigPodcast

UC Berkeley lectures
I've heard some interesting and worthwhile topics. One was on 15th century Chinese culture and warfare.
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/rss/events.php?category=environment
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/rss/events.php?category=history
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/rss/events.php?category=technology


I QUIT THESE, BUT YOU MIGHT CONSIDER

Daily Audio Bible.
I'd recommend this if you have a half hour to spend every day. I just didn't find it to be fitting into my schedule (yes, I'm already reading the bible). The bible said in a gentle, moving, earnest voice.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/dailyaudiobible

Dave's Lounge
It's good music. A 30 minute music podcast just didn't fit into my schedule.
http://www.daveslounge.com/rss

Just Vocabulary
It's nice that it's brief. I just didn't find it value-add for my time.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/JustVocabulary

Libravox. Book chapters
Someone will read chapters of famous books in the public domain to you. The recordings were far too long for my liking.
#http://librivox.org/podcast.xml

St. Paul's Sermons
If you're looking for theologically conservative sermons from a Lutheran-Church, Missouri Synod perspective, these 12 minute sermons are for you. I may actually continue subscribing to this podcast. One sermon I particularly didn't care for was about the story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10. Now some theologically liberal Christians may reduce too much of the good news of scripture to social ethics. But politically conservative Christians can stray as far when they take pains to edit out the social ethic. "Jesus made his point in a manner I don't care for," is what I believe the pastor said. Maybe we need to send the "Grace Matters" guy to catechism class at St. Paul.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/StPaulsLutheranChurchLCMSDelawareIaSermon

Weekend America
Good program. I just don't quite want a 2 hour program "podcasted" to me.
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510099


I QUIT THESE AND I DON'T RECOMMEND

Bill Moyers
I thought he was dissing biblical Christianity with broad brush criticisms of the Religious Right.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/podcast.xml

Fresh Air
I decided to take a break from Terry Gross' program. It was often interesting, but I found she just wasn't objective on the issue of Palestine.
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=13

Grace Matters
The radio ministry of the Evangelical Church in America. It's pushing new age stuff in opposition to Lutheranism. One man's agenda. Just don't call it "ELCA."
http://www.gracematters.org/gracematters.xml

IT Conversations
This feed brought me some of the most in-depth lectures from giants and leaders in the IT industry. Like key-note lectures from all the tech conferences you wished you could attend. BUT THEN they also were adding a few interviews with folks who had developed some really stupid software products or services. After I'd invested 20 minutes of my life, I concluded only a complete idiot would buy the product being discussed. Then I realized I was probably listening to a paid commercial advertisement masquerading as an informative interview. That's my take.
http://www.itconversations.com/rss/recentWithEnclosures.php

Naked Science
It was too long, too annoying.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/naked_scientists_podcast.xml

NextGenLog
This guy had a great idea. Recite some in-depth, hi-tech news in a funny voice. If he spoke like Homer Simpson or Guy Noir or any other voice where he enunciated, it might have worked. Instead, he uses this sing-songy tone that makes it hard to understand.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/NextGenLog

NPR Op-Ed
An interview with someone who's recently written a provocative op-ed in one of the nation's leading papers. The problem is that it's followed by listener call-in, and this just isn't fun or edifying.
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=5139316