On podcasts

Ah, podcasts. These things have saved my sanity throughout the summer. Some of these are worthy of linkage and sharing.

Not all–luckily, since I listen to entirely too many–but some.

First, the [tag]Performance Poetry[/tag] podcast I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Amazing stuff.

Another favorite of mine is Next Big Hit. The announcer kills me and the music played probably won’t be the next big hit. That doesn’t make it bad, though, really. It tends to be pop [tag]music[/tag] (and there’s plenty of that new rock stuff I can’t stand), but has recently increased the number of R & B and rap artists played. A fun trick is to try to identify why the songs won’t likely hit the Top 40 charts. Sometimes it’s a singing style that’s out of favor right now; sometimes it’s a too-1990s beat.

The Gadgettes. Silly-ass, borderline sexist name, amazing podcast. Not a condescending, “Oh, girls like [tag]gadgets[/tag], too” podcast, but a podcast about gadgets done by women. And they’re funny. Very funny.

[tag]Bollywood[/tag]’s Best. The hosts act like two twelve-year olds with crushes on each other. So f’ing annoying. But it’s very worth it for the music, for I do love me some Bollywood hits.

[tag]NPR[/tag] Technology and Health and Science. Dude, it’s NPR. ‘Nuff said.

For the best in [tag]sci-fi[/tag] shorts, there’s Escape Pod. Through [tag]Escape Pod[/tag], I was introduced to [tag]Jennifer Pelland[/tag], one of the funniest short story authors I’ve read. (I mentioned her here about a year ago.)

Finally, I suppose I should mention that WO now runs a [tag]podcast[/tag] over at Ludus Novus. I think it’s hot, and I think there’s real potential for discussions on gaming that could transcend even what The Escapist is putting out weekly. At least WO isn’t likely to do series after series on female gamers.

Anyone know of podcast aggregators that play podcasts, track read/unread podcasts (at least as well as iTunes does), and is stable?