Friday, May 15, 2009

Two of My Favorite Podcasts



On my way to work this morning I was listening to a Jill Sobule interview on one of my favorite podcasts, Sound Opinions. I loosely describe Sound Opinions as the Siskel & Ebert of music in that the two hosts--Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot--are music critics who write for the two Chicago dailies, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. Here's how they describe the podcast:
Take two nationally respected rock critics, the latest music news, personal commentary, and exclusive interviews and performances, add a huge pile of records old and new, and the result is Sound Opinions, the world's only rock and roll talk show.

The Jill Sobule interview is show #178 and she's joined in-studio by one of my favorite comedians, Julia Sweeney. Jill is the singer-songwriter who originally came out with the song "I Kissed a Girl" over a decade before Kate Perry. To raise money to make her latest album, she bypassed record labels and went directly to her fans to raise the funds to cover production costs. She talks about it in her interview.

Another podcast that makes me smile when I'm stuck in traffic is The Moth Podcast. Taped in New York and Los Angeles, The Moth features some of today's most entertaining authors and performers on stage recounting personal stories from their lives that can be, at times hilarious, at times heartbreaking, or both.

If you aren't familiar with either of these podcasts, check 'em out.

What do you guys listen to? Any recommendations?

3 comments:

"Z" said...

there's a few that I listen to but if I had to pick one for you to check out it would be Japanesepod101 & Japanesepod101.com. thanks to a very great friend of mine, probably my best friend, Donna who lives out your was in Oakland, really got me more into asian movies/actors & directors & that sort of thing. I've taken up studying Japanese on my own for quite some time now. probably more than 7 years now. I'm no where near fluent but I do pick up a lot & can carry on the basic conversation & get wha I need when I need it. Japanesepod101has audio & video lessons and it's so easy to pic up. well it was for me. I've heard it said that it's the hardest language to learn, which only piqued my interest that much further. it may not be your thing but check it out ^_^ I like it. talk to ya soon Swish!

Butternut said...

I used to listen to this podcast called WATS, maybe you've heard of it? It was great until one of the hosts moved away and they had to stop. Maybe it will come back one day.

I suppose the only 'podcast' type thing I watch is TED.com.

Laura Swisher said...

I'll have to check out this WATS thing. I LOVE Ted talks. I think I've gone through all the ones I really like and am now left with talks dealing with noble social goals and I keep putting them off.

I would check out Japanesepod101 but have other languages on my "to learn" list. Might check it out for the heck of it.