Podcasts that Will Surprise, Inform, Delight

Numerous quality radio programs are available online as podcasts. This may be surprising, considering today's focus on video-based entertainment. Cable stations are multiplying like proverbial rabbits. YouTube videos are uploaded in an unceasing stream of embarrassing, funny, and sometimes enlightening clips. Television shows are also available for free viewing on the internet, shows like The Daily Show and South Park, which are available in full and partial episodes with some advertising thrown in.

Should we expect then that radio would be expanding too in this video age? Well, whether we expect it or not, radio programs are alive and burgeoning on the internet in the form of podcasts.

Hundreds of podcasts are available online (probably thousands of podcasts) and they range from professionally produced radio shows to DIY individuals who record audio and stream it to the masses. Because there are so many podcasts to choose from a podcast guide is in order.

However, I am not going to write that podcast guide - at least not today. Instead, I will present here a short list of worthwhile podcasts to investigate and enjoy.

Depending on how much you know about these shows, my selection of podcasts might demonstrate my social-political leanings. It's ok with me if you want to judge me by the media I enjoy.

This American Life: Is This American Life the greatest radio show of the contemporary era? I think so.

This American Life is a one hour radio show broadcast on NPR on the weekends. The show chooses a theme and then presents a variety of stories based on that theme. Ira Glass opens every show with that line or a variation of it before launching into a program that is always fascinating, sometimes uplifting, and often very, very insightful.

This American Life offers every old episode online as a podcast. You can listen to a podcast of their first show or a podcast of their latest show, for free, streaming online.

As a weekly show that has been airing for just over ten years, their archive of podcasts is, well, tremendous.

Slate's Culturefest: Slate is a very intriguing online magazine that is always on the cutting edge of internet technology. Slate offers a variety of podcasts and video as well as articles on a wide range of subjects, from high culture to politics to pop culture and what is worth watching on YouTube. Slate covers everything.

Slate doesn't hold back when it comes to opinion and this is both a strength and a weakness of the online magazine. Some material that probably should not be editorial can be tainted by the writer's point of view. However, a reader of Slate can trust that they are not being snowed or mis-informed. Their standards are high enough to ensure that.

Being the "cool kid on the block", as Slate tries to be, can mean being up on the latest opinions, the latest point of view, and the magazine is that. The best example of how cool Slate is comes from their Culturefest podcast.

A few Slate writers select newsworthy topics relating loosely to cultural matters and they hold a 30 minute conversation. The Golden Globe Awards were the subject of a recent podcast, along with the topic of a YouTube video about an old man who wants young men to pull up their pants. Perhaps you heard about it.

NPR: In addition to This American Life, NPR publishes several other great shows as podcasts, streamed in their entirety. Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is easy to love as it both informs and entertains on subjects pulled from the week's headlines in a quiz show format.

And the every engaging Terry Gross hosts the interview show Fresh Air and has hosted it for a long time. Recent episodes can be heard at NPR.org as podcasts featuring Terry Gross interviewing famous musicians, politicians, actors, writers, scientists and scholars.

If you have never listened to these shows on the radio and have an interest in intelligent, artistic, and well-informed media, then check out all of these podcasts. I do recommend that you listen to them one at a time though. Too many podcasts in the kitchen can make for a noisy stew.