What Do I Listen To? 2009

by Michael

I wrote the original ‘What Do I Listen To?’ more than a year ago and felt it was time to give it an update. Who are the up-and-comers? Who’s managed to hang on? Who’s fallen by the wayside? Read on to find out what’s on my iPod in 2009.

The Brainy Gamer Podcast

http://feeds.feedburner.com/brainygamerpodcast

Last year my schedule was chock-full of gaming podcasts but since the demise of 1UP I’ve managed to whittle it down to two. I started listening to the Brainy Gamer podcast over the New Year. New episodes don’t appear to come out on any schedule that I can see but if the three 1.5-hour long holiday episodes were anything to go by this is the podcast to listen to if you want intelligent analysis of the latest games.

Downloadable Content

http://feeds.penny-arcade.com/padlc/

The irregular podcast for the web comic Penny Arcade stays on the iPod. Artist Mike Krahulik and writer Jerry Holkins are sharp and witty observers on video gaming culture and their discussions of the issues that inspire their comic is as good–if not better–than the finished result. One wishes it were updated more often but I guess that’s what makes each new episode so special.

Front Page

http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/frontpage.xml

Another one to return, the Front Page podcast is still the best 5-minute summary of the big stories of the day I’ve found. More than just the headlines you get a feel for what the story is about. It’s published relative to New York’s time zone so it’s about a half a day behind the news but I still find it useful for keeping up with what’s going on.

GWJ Conference Call

http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/taxonomy/term/408/0/feed

New for 2009, the Gamers with Jobs Conference Call is the eponymous podcast for the Gamers with Jobs web site. Usually featuring four regulars, Shawn Andrich, Sean Sands, Julian Murdoch and Rob Borges, the production quality is top-notch and although the show is regular 90 minutes or so in length it never drags. Refreshingly the boys are as conversant about PC gaming as they are about the latest titles to hit the 360 and PS3 so I find it a great all-in-one replacement for 1UP Yours! and GFW Radio.

The Japan Considered Podcast

http://feeds.feedburner.com/JapanConsideredPodcast

Still on the iPod is Dr Robert C Angel’s podcast about Japanese domestic politics and international relations. Dr Angel retired from his teaching gig at the end of last year so my fingers are crossed he can keep to a weekly schedule. Even if he does miss the odd one it’s hard to blame him. He runs the Japan Considered Project for free and uses his considerable network of contacts to interview a number of Japan experts you’d rarely get to hear otherwise.

JapanesePod101.com

http://www.japanesepod101.com/wp-feed-audio.php

One of this year’s rookies, I started listening to JapanesePod101.com about six months ago. A new episode is published each weekday with a slightly confusing schedule. Monday is their newbie series, Tuesday is their beginner series, Wednesday alternates between their lower-intermediate series and an onamatopoeia class, Thursday alternates between their upper-intermediate series and a short audio blog entry about Japan, and Friday is a video lesson. The site operates on a freemium model and if you subscribe you get access to level-specific feeds. To be honest, it was better last year when a new episode of the Lower-Intermediate (my level) and Upper-Intermediate series came out every week but when you don’t pay any money it’s hard to complain.

New Yorker: Comment

http://feeds.newyorker.com/services/rssfeeds/comment_podcast.xml

A reading of the weekly comment article from the latest edition of the New Yorker returns in 2009. If you’re a little worried about how the New Yorker‘s signature blend of upper class wit and overall snootiness translates into audio form rest assured they have a rotating cast of three of the most posh-sounding announcers outside of the BBC and Classical FM.

New Yorker: The Policital Scene

http://feeds.newyorker.com/services/rss/feed/campaign_trail.xml

Presented by Dorothy Wickenden, the Political Scene is the New Yorker‘s version of Slate’s Political Gabfest. As you’d expect it’s a lot more focused and at only about half the length tends not to deal with as many topics of discussion. That said, it’s an excellent overview of the political comings and goings in Washington for that week and the calibre of their writers means it’s always interesting. New to the iPod but definitely staying.

Slate’s Spoiler Specials

http://www.slate.com/podcast/id/2144834/

One of the bevy of Slate podcasts that remain on my listening listen. Slate‘s film critic, Dana Stevens, continues to go where other reviewers fear to tread. This is the podcast that discusses movies without regard to spoilers and as such is better listened to after you’ve seen a film. Unfortunately given the delay between movies coming out in the US and their release in Japan I’ve got quite a backlog building up. Hopefully I can cut it down to a more manageable size when I return to Australia.

Slate Magazine Daily Podcast

http://www.slate.com/podcast/

Since 2008 Slate has expanded its podcasts to include the Culture Gabfest and the Big Money podcast. Both are excellent talkfests about popular culture and economics respectively. The Audio Book Club is still there, as is the Political Gabfest. When it’s not one of the regular longform podcasts, Dale Willman reads a popular story from the site.

The Gabfests, Big Money and the Audio Book Club are also podcast separately if that grabs your fancy.

The Talk Show

http://thetalkshow.net/index.xml

Dan Benjamin and John Gruber, Mac nerds extraordinaire, remain on the list into 2009. They still do some of the best deadpan banter and although they often stray from topic (last week was a 15-minute show entirely about gridiron) I never seem to mind (even when it’s entirely about gridiron).

University of Sydney Podcasts

http://www.usyd.edu.au/podcasts/2006/rss.xml

They don’t come around every week but the University of Sydney has some fantastic guest lecturers (as you’d expect) and some bright spark thought it was a shame that you had to actually be at the university to hear them. Sometimes they’re a little boring (the medical science one I couldn’t make it through) but for the most part they’re brilliant lecturers you’d normally have to pay good money to hear speak.

アクセス

http://www.tbsradio.jp/ac/index.xml

Although I didn’t include it on last year’s list I have been listening to TBS’s アクセス (Access) since 2007. It’s a Japanese language podcast about current affairs and politics in Japan. To be perfectly honest, I think I understand about 10% of what they say but since that’s up from 5% last year it’s something of an improvement. I still don’t understand what ガガンボン means, though.

So that’s who’s on there but who fell off the list?

  • ABC Insiders I stopped listening after becoming frustrated at the lack of detailed analysis (and at Andrew Bolt).
  • Background Briefing I couldn’t justify the time it took to listen to. Thirty minutes is a long time and too often it was about a topic in which I had little to no interest.
  • Backstory I really miss this one but I really felt the time on the train would be more productive studying Japanese.
  • EGM Live* I stopped listening to this before it morphed into 1UP Radio. All the presenters I liked departed and it wasn’t doing anything 1UP Yours! didn’t do better.
  • GFW Radio Another 1UP podcast I stopped listening to before it was renamed. I’m sorry to say once Jeff Green and Shawn Elliot left there wasn’t a lot keeping me there.
  • KCRW’s The Treatment The delay between a film’s release in the US and its release in Japan just made the backlog of these too long to ever get through.
  • Newsmaker I can’t remember if I stopped listening or if they stopped podcasting. Either way, not a good sign.
  • OpCast Too often it was about a topic I had no interest in or it really needed you to read the op-ed first. Since I listen to podcasts away from the Internet this isn’t an option for me.
  • Slate Explainer Podcast Another one I was really sad to drop. Again, I wanted to focus on Japanese and truth be told I didn’t need to know any of this stuff.
  • TalkCrunch I don’t know if they ever did fix that feed.
  • This Week in Law This podcast had real promise but the level of preparation got to me after a while. Frequently guests were unable to answer questions because they didn’t have an opinion on the matter. Why are you there, then?
  • 1UP Yours! It seems to have gone the way of the dodo since the sale of 1UP to UGO. And without Shane will it ever be the same?

Well that’s it for this year. What about you? What’re you listening to? (Yes, I am talking directly to you, Andrew.)