Do you listen to Podcasts?

I often found that during a stressful day at work, I needed something to make me focus in on my work and drown out the world around me. I started listening to podcasts in 2005 when the Ricky Gervais Podcast was offered for free by Guardian Unlimited and later subscribed to them on Audible.

Since then I have listened to a number of podcasts of different genres.  Some are humourous, while others are informational. Instead of only downloading them from iTunes or Podcast Alley, now I use the Stitcher App for some of the ones that are more frequent than the number of times I sync my devices.

With me not working at this very moment, I find it comforting that I still have part my daily routine. Each week, a certain number of podcasts are updated on my device and I still listen to them as I go about my day.  It’s a good way to stay away from the TV trap that unemployment sometimes brings as well as keep me entertained and motivated to do things other than be stagnant.  I can go for a walk, run errands, take them with me in the car, and even listen while I cook, clean and look for employment.

I do knit a lot, and take my knitting to the library, and so it also is helpful to drown out the noise of the outside world and just relax. In short, I feel that podcasts have made me more productive.

I used to see them as a little reward for having to stare at the same spreadsheet for 6 hours straight. Now I see them as a reason to get up and go.

So, what exactly do I listen to?  I have some standards, as well as some guilty pleasures that aren’t exactly appropriate for all audiences. And that is the beauty of if.  You can listen to whatever you want.  Most are weekly, some are monthly and a few are daily.  You can pretty much set it up so to listen to as much or as little as you want.

Some of my standards include:

• NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me - This is a news quiz show podcast and probably one of the more popular podcasts out there.  It’s both hilarious and witty while still being informational.  As I have said before I get all my news from comedians.
• This American Life - I like a good story and I have never been disappointing by this show. Except when they are in repeats.  But that’s only because I listen to regularly.
• WNYC’s RadioLab - Science is always cool to me. And this show is thought provoking and very smart.
• Savage Love Podcast - I started listening to Dan Savage about a year ago when it came up on my suggestions. I thought, hey a show about love and relationships, I have those. I thought it would be like Dr. Drew Pinsky.  I was WRONG! This is way better. This is a headphones only podcast.
•  Cast On - Hosted from Wales by Brenda Dayne, this is a show about knitting, but also about finding inspiration in your art. I love her voice and I love this show. I can’t wait each week to hear it.  It’s probably my favorite show.

Some of my Guilty Pleasures are:

• Kevin Smith’s Smodcast and Jay and Silent Bob Get Old – I love almost everything on this network. I love Kevin Smith and I know some people don’t but I get it, and I get him and what he is trying to do. I listen to several of these shows weekly and enjoy them very much.
• Dork Trek and The Delta Quadrant - With the release of Star Trek on Netflix there has been resurgence of Trek-Casts as new groups of people are re watching and re-capping episodes.  I am a long time Star Trek fan, and an admitted dork about it. I know more than most girls my age should.  I love these shows.  Dork Trek covers TNG, and if you know Trek you can guess what the other one covers.
• Mysterious Universe - There are two things that will make you an instant guilty pleasure.  Aliens and Australians. This show has both!  Also it scared the crap out of me last week with tales of Black Eyed Kids. And if you need to know anything about me, you need to know that evil kids scare the crap outta me.

Of course there are more, and I am sure you are wondering what else I can fit into a week or two’s worth of podcasts.  But honestly if you really think about how much time the average worker sits in front of their TV’s computers, or on a car, train, plane etc, you can imagine how much time could fill with some interesting content.

So, what podcasts do you listen to?