The 11 Best Podcasts of 2008
Posted: December 25th, 2008 | Author: ouvyt | Filed under: Aurality | Tags: 2008, podcasts | No Comments »11: Obama’s MySpace Mistake, The Infamous Australian Porn Cracker and Five Million Missing White House Emails
Search Engine: Hosted by Jesse Brown
Search Engine describes itself as a blog and podcast about the internet. This was, and in some ways still is the most interesting show on this topic. I say was because a couple months ago CBC decided to cancel the radio program. The show continues as an internet only podcast. Still great content. This podcast was early in the life of Search Engine, and early in the 2008 presidential election. This podcast covered an interesting part of politicing, that is controlling the candidates MySpace page.
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10: ReSound: Episode #44: The Fake Docs Show
ReSound is a phenomenal podcast that pulls great sounds from around the world. In this particular episode they explore the idea that we, a humans, tend to believe what we hear on the radio by playing intentionally faux radio pieces.
9: Playing the Building
The concept of cool baffles me, which is why I was drawn to this podcast in the first place. Coll Hunting podcasts are short (less than 10min usually) and always something I would not see otherwise. In this particular podcast they document an installation by David Byrne who transformed a 9,000 square foot abandoned room in Lower Manhattan’s Battery Maritime Building into an instrument for the summer. An antique pump organ controls devices that create sounds using the building’s infrastructure, including heating pipes, metal beams and pillars.
8: Ritchie DiSalvo: Anthony the Hat
Moth podcasts are taken from their live, onstage, no script, readings. This is one of my favorites thus far. Richie DiSalvo tells a story about money, the mob and a pizza parlor.
7: Benjamin Zander
If you enjoy TED Talks, you will enjoy PopTech, pretty much the same thing. This amusing podcasts has Benjamin Zander, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra work with a 15 year old cellist, bringing out the boy’s full potential on stage.
I have been following the work of Lessig. After leaving the realm of copyright (founder of Creative Commons) he has refocused his attention in the area of pollitical corruption. This keynote address at the NetRoots Nation conference, sums up a lot of other amazing lectures he has given. This one is long, but is worth the investment.
5: #355: The Giant Pool of Money
This American Life, WBEZ
TAL has been a favorite of mine for a long time. I could have a whole top-ten list just of their shows. During the initial weeks of the finincial crisis TAL put together their own show to make sense of things. TAL brings their experience of crafting beautiful narratives to the topic of money and the economy, which usually doesn’t receive such a treatment.
The Giant Pool of Money podcast
4: Stephen Fry
I feel SF could talk about elephant dung and would craft it in an articulate, and beautiful way. I don’t remember what prompted me to download his podcast in the first place, but I always look forward to the next one. In this podcast Stephen Fry discusses the state of British broadcasting.
3: Dan Barber: A surprising parable of foie gras
At the Taste3 conference, chef Dan Barber tells the story of a small farm in Spain that has found a humane way to produce foie gras. Raising his geese in a natural environment, farmer Eduardo Sousa embodies the kind of food production Barber believes in. (exceprt from TED)
2: War of the Worlds
Radio Lab, WNYC
I didn’t think it could get better than This American Life. Than a couple years ago, I stumbled on Radio Lab. RL is the reason radio is not dead. If there is one show I urge anyone to listen to, it’s Radio Lab. In this podcast they explore the power of mass media by looking back at one of the most controversial moments in broadcasting history – Orson Welles’ 1938 radio play about Martians invading New Jersey. “And we ask: Why did it fool people then? And why has it continued to fool people since? From Santiago, Chile to Buffalo, New York to a particularly disastrous evening in Quito, Ecuador.” (excerpt from Radio Lab)
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1: Richard Dawkins: The universe is queerer than we can suppose
Biologist Richard Dawkins makes a case for “thinking the improbable” by looking at how the human frame of reference limits our understanding of the universe. (excerpt from TED)
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