Podcasts For Fun

I registered for PodCamp Toronto 2012 today, an unconference that has grown to include more than just podcasting: all varieties of social media are welcome as topics for discussion. I’ve attended in the past, really enjoyed the sessions.

Coincidentally, when I started iTunes, it downloaded an interesting podcast on 3D printers as disruptive technology, and thought it might be good to share the podcasts that I regularly download (although I don’t always get the chance to listen to all of them):

• Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com – Cory Doctorow publishes readings of his books and short stories, read by himself or others. Since he licenses all of this writing under a Creative Commons licence, others are free to record and publish his books on audio, which he republishes here. Great way to listen to his science fiction a bit at a time.
• Search Engine – Jesse Brown of TVO podcasts both audio and (short) video on a variety of technology in society issues. Always enjoyable, and some great interviews with willing and reluctant interviewees on topics of copyright and internet access in Canada.
• Spark from CBC Radio – Nora Young produces longer-form interviews on “your digital life”, that is, how technology impacts your day-to-day life. The interviews are slower-moving than those on Search Engine, but provide more depth and discussion on a subject. She also has a podcast of some (even longer) unedited interviews if you’re very interested in a particular one.
• Surprisingly Free – interviews with well-known authors, academics, researchers and others on a huge variety of topics on technology and society.
• Tech News Today – I used to listen to the Buzz Out Loud podcast because I loved the conversations between Tom Merritt and Molly Wood, but when Merritt left, I thought that the quality of commentary decreased, and I eventually stopped listening. Recently, I tried out this podcast that Tom Merritt is now doing on consumer technology, quite similar in nature to the old BOL, and I listen occasionally.

Each of the links above is to the podcast feed URL; to subscribe, just copy the link and paste into your podcatcher (iTunes, for example, or one of the apps that you can get to do this directly on your iPod/iPhone – I just bought Downcast to try it out and have already removed all podcast subscriptions out of iTunes).

Not surprisingly, all of the podcasts are technology-related, although they tend to focus on technology in society rather than the enterprise technology stuff that I do for a living.