Voices

Podcasts I’m currently subscribing to (in no particular order) as 10.01.10:

Gaming

A Life Well Wasted

Only two episodes in, this creation from Robert Ashley already weighs in near the top in terms of quality. It differs from most podcasts in that it isn’t a group of people chatting about things and wandering off topic, these are focused features edited together from interviews with interesting characters.

Rebel FM

From the ashes of the well documented 1UP.com buyout, these gamers are carrying the torch under their eat-game-sleep site and have regular drop-ins from former 1UP colleagues and associates. Also, their cat is frequently heard meowing in the background of Anthony and Anthony’s flat where they record.

Gamers With Jobs – Conference Call

Mature, insightful, savvy and on-point game discussion with a different featured discussion topic each and far less off-topic, tangential meanderings than many of the other podcasts. Good guests speakers and also strong links with the 1UP crowd.

The RPS Electronic Wireless Show

Just started listening to this, the Rock Paper Shotgun gaming news site’s podcast. Didn’t realise they were all Brits, a refreshing change from the mainly American shows I listen to. The sense of humour on these suits me much more as well. Enjoying these a lot at the moment.

Technology and the Internet

This Week in Tech (Twit)

Leo Laporte hosts some of the best tech discussions on the web with very knowledgeable guests from all over. However, many of the guests are semi-regular and the episodes will not infrequently degrade into chummy backslapping as the panel wander wildly off-topic, much to the chagrin of the most regular speaker John C. Dvorak. The highs of this show are very high, but no consistently so. This podcast also has in-show adverts performed by Leo Laporte, so watch out for those.

The Tech Report Podcast

Incredibly informed hard-core, PC-tech discussion. Very in-depth and covers many technical details of PC components and insider information on the quickly changing industry. Structured and consistently on topic, this is not just a bunch of guys chatting about PC bits. Likely way too geeky for many people, but I like it all the same. The website is a great resource too.

Miscellaneous

Law in Action

Clive Coleman runs a tight ship on this one: informative, concise and focused. No real idea why I listen to this podcast as I don’t really have much interest in law, it’s simply that it was always on the radio when I was driving somewhere each week and I just got into it like you do. This one often has plenty of good voices on it too, so that keeps me happy.

Mark Kermode’s Film Reviews

Self-styled as “wittertainment”, this basically consists of Mark Kermode self-righteously sounding off about cinema, the state of cinema and quite often the state of things in general on a weekly basis. Simon Mayo, the host, has the patience of saint. Kermode’s views have to be taken with a pinch of salt, but it’s very entertaining none-the-less.

Stephen Fry’s Podgrams

Great when on form and still very entertaining when not, but infuriatingly infrequent and irregular is this podcast. I guess Fry is a busy man,though I feel he still hasn’t hit his stride with this one yet.

Private View with Adrian Searle (Guardian Culture Podcast)

Something about this voice and the way it speaks just grabbed me with this one. Searle give little ten minute views of new works of art; he talks about and around the subject in an appropriately abstract and vague way. Interesting when you haven’t actually got the work in front of you and have no idea what it looks like.

The Phileas Club with Patrick Beja

Interesting little current affairs podcast with speakers from all over the world comparing, contrasting and chewing over world-view opinions from their respective territories.

Dumped

Pods and Blogs

Bit too eclectic and random to keep me hooked in the end. It’s not that it was bad, it’s just that the competition is better and there’s only so much time I have to listen.

Geekbox Radio

Too long and too boring ultimately. I like the people on it, but they just end up talking for hours about TV shows I don’t watch and the latest fanboy, comic-adaptation films.

Guardian Weekly Podcast

They just seemed stop making this one, which was a shame, because I quite enjoyed it.

Listen UP

This came to its end when Garnet Lee left and frankly I’d stopped listening to it. The shows regularly weighed in at around 3 hours long and it was just too much, not to mention they seemed to guzzle down the Kool-aid near the end, or maybe I only just noticed it then. A bit disappointing really.