Podcast Zeitgeist: February 2013

I don't watch a lot of TV, but I do listen to about 10 to 15 hours of podcasts a week, while walking around, doing chores, working out or dozing off.  I use the Downcast app on my iPhone now that Apple has crippled podcast functionality in iTunes and released a buggy app. Here are the latest ones holding my interest, in alphabetical order; it's heavy on Mac stuff and comedy. Downcast has a good search, auto downloads in background and a simple playlist function that can serve you up the latest episodes one after another.

Generally speaking, the best talk podcasts produced these days come from several networks: Leo Laporte's Twit, Dan Benjamin's 5by5, Jesse Thorn's Maximum Fun and Mike Monteiro's Mule Radio.  Public radio outlets also offer most of their shows as podcasts (This American Life, Planet Money), and I listen to some of them but have not listed any here. Many also offer video versions, but I generally stick to audio, both to conserve storage on my phone and to avoid sitting around so much. Schedules, links and other details listed here were current as of February 2013.

Back to Work: Merlin Mann ostensibly discusses productivity and working life with Dan Benjamin, but often they just riff about comics, music and tech. Nearly every Tuesday. About 1.5 hours.

Boars, Gore and Swords: A humorous discussion of the HBO series "Game of Thrones" and the books on which they are based. Weekly, Sun. or Mon.; 1.5 hours+. 

Buddhist Geeks: Discussions of and interviews about modern Buddhism with a technological bent. Weekly; day varies. 20 to 35 minutes.

Bullseye: Jesse Thorn's followup to "Sound of Young America," the public radio pop culture program. Usually Mondays. About an hour.

Generational: Living with technology, with interviews by Gabe Weatherhead. Usually Saturdays. Up to 2 hours.

Ihnatko Almanac: Andy Ihnatko, the tech writer and mutton-chopped ubernerd for The Chicago Sun-Times, talking about films, movies, comics and whatever else catches his attention, with Dan Benjamin. Thursdays. About an hour.

iPad Today: Leo Laporte and Sarah Lane with the latest news about iPads and iOS apps. Thursdays. About an hour.

Jordan, Jesse, GO!: Extremely vulgar comedy discussions from Jesse Thorn and Jordan Morris, with regular guests from the worlds of standup comedy and podcasting. Mondays or Tuesday. About an hour to an hour and 45 minutes.

Let's Make Mistakes: Design and tech discussions from @mike_ftw and company. Mondays. About 45 minutes.

MacBreak Weekly: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko and assorted guests talk about Macs, Apple and iOS. Tuesdays, about 2 hours.

My Brother, My Brother and Me: The three McElroy  brothers are humorous advice experts. Mondays. About an hour. 

Quit!: Dan Benjamin wants you to quit your corporate stooge job. Takes live calls. Fridays. About 1.5 to 2 hours.

Risk!: Dramatic and humorous real-life stories by comedians, celebrities and ordinary people, often told before a live audience, hosted by Kevin Allison. Variable schedule. About 30 minutes to an hour.

Roderick on the Line: John Roderick, of the Long Winters band, and -- yet again -- Merlin Mann talk about arcane history, music and life in general. Erratic schedule. About an hour.

Savage Lovecast: The sex columnist Dan Savage gives advice to people from all types of orientations. Ear-opening. Tuesdays. About 45 minutes to an hour.

The Talk Show with John Gruber: The blogger behind Daring Fireball talks with guests from the world of tech about Apple, movies, books, coffee and gadgets. Erratic schedule. One to two hours.

This Week in Tech: Laporte and assorted guests talk about general technology news. Released late Sunday, early Monday. About 2 hours.

The Thrilling Adventure Hour: Comedy in the style of old time radio broadcasts. Thursdays. Vary from 30 minutes to an hour.

Uhh Yeah Dude: Seth Romatelli and Jonathan Larroquette with a weekly audio news of the weird roundup. Thursdays. About an hour.

You Look Nice Today: Surreal conversations with Merlin Mann, Scott Simpson, and Adam Lisagor. Erratic schedule. About 30 minutes. 

Podcast Zeitgeist, Jan. 10

The list this week is tech-heavy and later than usual, mainly because of the "last" MacWorld Expo. {See all lists].

• MacBreak Weekly 122: Macworld Expo Live from the floor at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Leo Laporte gathered some of his stalwarts, following the last Apple keynote (the company is pulling out of the convention, a fact that seemed to hang over this event with sadness). The discussion focuses on the high points of the keynote presentation from Phil Schiller of Apple: improvements to iMovie editing; new iPhoto features like facial recognition, geo-tagging, and integration with Flickr; the new 17-inch MacBook Pro; and the end of DRM on iTunes. General agreement that Schiller is no Steve Jobs when it comes to giving a speech. Many of the panelists are camera geeks who don't use iPhoto, so they are hoping that some of the features will be ported to Aperture, Apple's high-end photo software. No real picks, though Boxee was plugged; some good show notes are here. I also watched a short 5-minute MacBreak video podcast featuring Merlin Mann pestering people on the convention floor. It was amusing with low information content. Length: 1 hour 9 minutes. Released: Jan. 6.
• Mac OS Ken: 01.07.2009, 01.08.2009, 01.08.2009 Ken Ray puts out brief roundups of Mac news six days a week. I used to listen to him every morning, but then it got to be just too much information. Still, he does a great job, so I checked back in for his MacWorld coverage. The first episode this week started out with listener predictions for keynote announcements and fan voicemails, then covered the basics from Phil Schiller's presentation of iPhoto, iMovie and so forth. He seems a tad disappointed at the shortage of new hardware this year from Apple. Thursday's episode featured a conversation with Glen Roberts, product manager for HP Media Smart Server, and about how the high-end product was getting by in a struggling economy. It uses Windows home server, so you need a network with both Macs and PCs, but it is Mac-friendly. Ken talks fast and transmits a lot of data, and he's promising more interviews from the show. He admits to be wiped out and jetlagged. Interestingly, he provides better insights and sounds more awake on the rival MacCast (see below). The final episode featured interviews with Microsoft's Mac Business Unit and the CEO of MarketCircle and listeners' voicemail reactions to the Schiller keynote. Many are not happy with Apple pulling the plug on its Expo participation. Length: Ranged from 10 to 20 minutes. Released: Jan. 7, 8, 9.
• The Mac Observer's Mac Geek Gab 185: Live From the Macworld Expo Dave Hamilton and John F. Braun thought Schiller did a good job with the keynote. They note the auditorium was not full, as it always was for Steve Jobs. An extensive discussion of the technical challenges of covering past keynotes, followed by extensive discussion of how they live-blogged this one. There are several technical interruptions. They get down to business chewing over the same few morsels as other podcasters. Some gripes about the new battery in the 17-inch MacBook, which is not replaceable. They point out that in introducing Tony Bennett, Schiller made a bit of a gaffe, calling the show the "last Macworld Expo." Of course while Apple won't be there next year, the hall is booked. This is a bit of a meandering show with a lot of geeky digressions, but that seems to be part of its charm, as well as the reason I am not a regular listener. Length: 53:38 minutes. Released: Jan 7.
• The MacCast: Macworld 2009 Keynote Wrapup Adam Christianson discusses his impressions from sitting in the audience at Schiller's keynote. He is joined by his fellow podcasters Victor Cajiao (Typical Mac User) and Ken Ray (Mac OS Ken). Ken points out that Schiller made a point that 3.4 million users per week visit Apple stores, which is 100 times the number of people that the company used to reach at MacWorld Expo. "It was kind of harsh... It wasn't even subtext. It was text: 'We don't need this.'" Victor: "It was hurtful." Adam hopes Macworld continues as a community event in future years. They still give his performance high marks. Face recognition in iPhoto "kind of creepy." Cool aspects of geocoding for sorting. This podcast also has the best explanation of the value of the 99-cent Keynote iphone app. Ken thinks the charge is weird. More complaints about the MacBook battery. Compared to the other Macworld podcasts, this was the clearest and most thorough, and also the calmest, perhaps because it was recorded in a quieter location. Length: 1:32:42 Released: Jan. 7.
• Typical Mac User Podcast: Macworld Expo Post Keynote Wrapup Victor Cajaio's podcast. I was dreading the thought of listening to another hour and a half discussion of Phil Schiller's presentation, so I was happy to discover that it was identical to the Maccast above. Length: 1:28:35. Released: Jan. 6.
• This Week in Tech 176: Fat in the MiddleLate in the week, I finally got around to this one, which was recorded before Macworld and the CES consumer technology show, which started on Thursday in Las Vegas, presenting technology fans with a choice. Leo Laporte is joined by John C. Dvorak, Robert Scoble, and the Houston Chronicle tech reporter Dwight Silverman (who said he was skipping Macworld for CES). Laporte blames Twitter and social media for celebrity nerd feuds. They give their predictions, which were mostly on the mark (17-inch MacBook and its non-replaceable battery had both leaked, but the iTunes DRM decision had not). They were rightly skeptical of iPhone Nano rumors. Some discussion of 3D TVs: still too blurry. The value of location-aware laptops.The new Palm Phone and the "fat middle." (Seems like a tough fight ahead for Palm.) On the PC side, discussion of the Windows 7 beta and dead Zune day. At the conferences: The weirdness of being covered by an audience of live-bloggers, heads down, clicking away. Why bother going? It's better to watch the game on TV. They end with an interesting and alarming discussion of remote law enforcement hacking of home computers in England, without a warrant. This somehow segues into Dvorak comparing treatment of Martha Stewart and Bernie Madoff. All entertaining. Length: A manageable 1 hour, 8 minutes. Released: Jan. 4.
• Net@Night: Fly the Friendly Skies Yes, more from Laporte. He's the undisputed tech-podcast king. This one is a sometimes overlooked gem, featuring Laporte and Amber MacArthur talking about cool sites, viral media and online happenings. A previous episode's interview with Mr. Tweet inspired me to ramp up my twittering (both reading and posting). Robert Scoble was on last week talking about microblogging and the real-time Web. This week, Laporte talks briefly about his Macworld presentation about the crumbling mass media monopoly (not available online). Other topics included layoffs at Livejournal, Facebook Connect, the simple hack and security flaw that upended Twitter on Monday (compromising the accounts of Laporte, Barack Obama, Fox News and others). Tip: Don't use dictionary words for passwords, especially if you're an administrator on a network. The hour also features good discussions and explanations of Blip.FM, a sort of social networking music playlist service, and the indie-music sharing service Amaze.Fm. A brief chat with MrCalzone, developer of the Google slapper gog.is (just type http://gog.is/KEYWORD.KEYWORD where each KEYWORD separated by points represents the search terms the person asking you for information should have Googled). Leo notes that he Friend-ed too many people on Facebook and has no room for his actual friends and family members now joining. (Leo, you can drop me.) The viral video of the week is the Onion's overexposed and only kind of funny spoof video (The MacBook Wheel) and an interview with Micah Mazier, host of the podcast of the week, Lucas County Choppers, featuring four air traffic controllers and their motorcycles. Length: 1 hour, 1 minute. Released: Jan 7.
• This Week in Media 120: Cotton, Salt and a Bubble Machine and 121: The Good, the Ad and the Ugly More enjoyable new media discussions from a panel led by Daisy Whitney. I'm catching up here. The first of these episodes included a discussion of the Kindle and e-books, YouTube battles and Hulu, and the greatest nude scenes in movies, and it felt a bit like holiday filler. This week's episode is more informative, with a discussion of some recent smart moves by Netflix, part of a trend that ought to worry cable companies. Semantic distinctions matter: Netflix uses the term viewers understand -- "movie rental" -- instead of "pay per view." The Time Warner-Viacom battle. A discussion of iPhone applications, including the translator that was co-host Alex Lindsay's pick last week on MacBreak Weekly. The panel also discusses what works best for a podcast: a strict format or a loose conversation. Consensus: It depends on the target audience, and the host. Does it make sense for a small business like a dry cleaner to have a podcast? Some on the panel think it could work, with the right creative concept. Lindsay: "If it is not seen as something that is impartial, or somewhat impartial, no one will listen..." He's right. Lengths: 56 minutes; and 1 hour, 4 minutes. Released: Dec. 30 and Jan. 6.
• Uhh Yeah Dude, Episode 148 After all that tech talk, I needed a break. In their explicit comedy podcast, Jonathan Larroquette and Seth Romatelli riff this week on dumb laws, cocaine-loving bees, the hazards of third-hand smoke. idiots who shoot guns in the air on New Year's Eve, the world's stupidest bank robber, the Jan. 16 opening of the Notorious B.I.G. biopic and the movie "Mall Cop,," a drunk woman who hit on Jonathan on Christmas Eve, truck antlers, and the oldest person in the world, Gertrude Baines, 114, who lives around the corner. Way back in Episode 112 in April 2008, they described a visit to her at a nearby nursing home, when she was merely the third-oldest person in the world. She outlasted the competition. Seth: "We totally like lamped at her place... and we have pictures to prove this." Length: 1 hour, 15 minutes. Released: Jan. 6.

15 Blogs on My Current Reading List

I subscribe to the feeds of hundreds of blogs through Google Reader (see shared links to some of them at left), but the list of blogs I actually enjoy reading is short. I'm always looking for additions to that list, and here are some strong contenders, in alphabetical order:

Cognitive Daily The "daily" part seems to be a misnomer, but the topics are always fun and interesting. How many tabs do you have open on your browser? Caffeine, memory and the brain. Is it sexist to think men are angrier than women? Another blog from the same site is The Frontal Cortex, also in the same vein and infrequently updated; the author was featured in last Sunday's NYT Magazine.

Consumerist This is was one of the best blogs in the Gawker Media empire (sold to Consumer Reports on 12/30). And it's only gotten better since the start of the Great Depression II, despite some staff cuts. Frugal tips from America's cheapest family. Customer call center horror stories. Crowd-sourcing rumors like the Wal-Mart iPhone. Abuses by the credit-card industry. How to write complaint letters to consumer-abusing corporations.

The Daily Beast Tina Brown's ripoff of The Huffington Post is better-written, better-designed, better edited and more provocative than the original. Brown attracts big-name talent, and there's a coherent editing philosophy (unlike the endless stream of often-predictable blah-blah at HuffPo -- 250+ items on Friday alone! More than 60 already today! I need an assistant to read it). The Beast is attractive and well-organized with some cute ideas. Too bad it launched on the eve of the Great Depression II. Just don't try to turn it into a magazine. I've canceled most of mine.

Dlisted and Last Night's Party My friend Louis, who is in the financial industry, recommended these. They seem to be for people who think Gawker and TMZ are too high-brow.

David Byrne Journal The personal observations of the former Talking Heads frontman. Updated at an erratic pace, and hard to pin down. Sometimes he posts about riding his bike around New York (I see him all the time). Sometimes he writes about about music and touring. Sometimes about art. Then there's this post about the newspaper business. David Byrne is the only cool celebrity. His secret? He remains a genuine human being.

Fail Blog The Web cliché comes alive. Bad math. Fail! More bad math. Fail! Video of an exploding VCR. Fail! Trying to look cool with naked guy behind you. Fail! Bad parking job. Fail! Etc.

kung fu grippe The personal Web log of Merlin Mann a k a @hotdogsladies on Twitter, frequent MacBreak Weekly podcast guest, and the mad genius behind the You Look Nice Today podcast. The title is a G.I. Joe reference, I'm pretty sure. Quotes and videos mostly. He is also behind the brilliant 5ives list blog, which has not been updated since August, but is funny as hell. And, of course, 43 Folders, get organized, blah blah blah.

Mashable Incredible amounts of practical information about apps, tech, social media, the Web, Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, the iPhone, and the like. Sometimes too promotional but always enjoyable. Many many lists: 5 Reasons to Install Google Desktop Today, Twitter Lawsuits: 4 Reasons Your Tweets Might Be Trouble, The Year in Tweets: The 10 Most Memorable Twitter Moments of 2008, Career Toolbox: 100 Places to Find Jobs, and the 24 Most Underrated Web Sites of 2008.

The Official Google Blog. Because you have to know what they're thinking about over there.

Pinakothek A blog about pictures by the writer Luc Sante a k a The All Seeing Eye Jr. Updated irregularly, but each post is a polished gem, like "The Poetry of Ellery Queen" and "Debraining." Then there is this wonderful paragraph.

Portfolio's Mixed Media I don't read Portfolio the magazine. Is it still published? But I like its media blog. It's smart. It's sassy. It's a good guide to reports of the media meltdown, real and rumored. And possibly doomed. (Just a rumor!) Enjoy it while you can.

ScienceDaily Science is fun. And sometimes a little weird. Pain hurts more if the person hurting you means it. First U.S. patient gets face transplant. Whispering bats are shrieking 100 times louder than previously thought. Thanks, science!

Scobleizer Oh, Robert Scoble. So egocentric, so insane. Look at Scoble! Look at Scoble! But I do love his blog. And his multiple Twitter accounts. And his Friendfeed. Powerful critiques of blog comments. Deep thoughts about Twitter. And Friendfeed. And Facebook. And so forth. Fall into the Scoble vortex.

This Recording I'm not entirely sure what it is, or what it is trying to do, but I came across this while writing this post about N+1, and I like it. And in the end, that is all I ask from a blog. Recent posts: an appreciation of John Lindsay, working as a medical test subject, an essay on tattoos by somebody who does not care for them much (me neither -- nothing personal!), and something by Emily Gould.

Have a suggestion for a blog to follow? Add it in the comments. Thanks.

Podcast Zeitgeist, Dec. 5

There are 8 million podcasts on the naked Web. Each week, I listen to 10 or more of them and write some reviews. Here's the latest survey of independent audio featuring assorted nerds, geeks, freaks, mystics, fans and experts talking about the things they love. In the order I listened this week:

"TWIT 171: Chocolate Sox" Not a great week for news and information about tech. Leo Laporte makes good on his threat that his This Week in Tech podcast is "unscripted, unplanned and sometimes completely off the hook." He is joined by John C. Dvorak, Andrew Horowitz and Sarah Lane. They discuss Beaujolais Nouveau, insult Adam Curry, taste chocolate, reminisce about Tech TV, brag about how many Twitter followers they have, complain about AT&T customer service, plug a useful Web site (Gethuman.com), discuss the financial crisis, demonstrate an ignorance of journalistic practice and browse a few tech headlines. It's entertaining, if not enlightening. Length: 1 hour, 42 minutes. Release date: Nov. 30.

"Uhh, Yeah Dude, Episode 143." Co-host Jonathan Larroquette mentions a postman who didn't deliver the mail for seven years, with no complaints from customers -- is he a hero? "Junk mail is the only thing that's keeping the Post Office alive," explains co-host Seth Romatelli, who also recounts his brief career as an incompetent letter carrier. Seth also says: "I don't know anymore what is cool, what isn't, what is ironic, what is futuristic, what is robotic, what is stale, all I'm doing is lampin', all the time... I cannot tell the difference anymore, what is funny, fresh, cool, wack -- do the kids even say that?" I do. This show is wack, and that's just the first 10 minutes. Released: Nov. 25. Length: 1 hour, 27 seconds.

The Ricky Gervais Podcast, "Ricky and Karl Test the New Studio Out" Gervais, the star of the original British version of "The Office" (rent it!) and HBO's "Extras," (eh...) has a brief discussion of slugs and evolution, among other topics, with Karl Pilkington. It's hard to summarize. Gervais, Pilkington and Stephen Merchant made a series of for-pay podcasts that are available at iTunes and Audible.com and worth a listen. Pilkington, a radio producer responsible for skits such as "monkey news," is portrayed as either a misunderstood genius or the stupidest man in the world and is typically the butt of the jokes. Here's a video. This brief, free audio podcast seems to be selling another paid spoken-word series, but it's funny enough. Length: 8:42 minutes. Released: Nov. 23.

Twentyhood, Episode 38: "A Tale of Two Countries". On a night out on the Lower East Side, 20somethings discuss beer, their creative underclass jobs, the Canadian economy, the graphic design industry, crazy L.E.S. nicknames, and other topics, over the sound of garbage trucks. This podcast is not updated very often (four episodes this year), and this episode was actually recorded in April. I came across it because it was nominated in the mostly meaningless Podcast Awards. It is one of just four released this year. Length: 1 hour, 4 minutes. Released: Oct. 23.

"MacBreak Weekly 117: The Delicious Podcast Good show this week, despite technical difficulties or perhaps because of them. Leo Laporte is joined on Skype by Alex Lindsay , Scott Bourne and Andy Ihnatko, plus a special guest, WIll Shipley of Delicious Library. They scoff an Apple advisory that Mac users should get antivirus software (an advisory later rescinded). The Simpsons meet Steve Jobs. A mercifully short Audible ad. Discussion of the upgraded Delicious Library software for cataloging media. Shipley discusses challenges of programming for bar-code recognition in cellphone cameras. The merits of online book shopping vs. brick-and-mortar bookstores. Consensus is that bookstores are doomed. A plug for the documentary "Welcome to MacIntosh." Is Mac software business more lucrative than PC software development? Consensus is yes. Snow Leopard OS: zero new features. Speculation about MacWorld surprises in January: Netbooks? The show's Mac links are here and the week's software/hardware picks are here. Length: 1 hour, 22 minutes. Release date: Nov. 26.

"You Look Nice Today: Faire du Camping" O.K., this is getting a little ridiculous. It appears that Merlin Mann's comedy crew has taken the author John Hodgman and his musical sidekick Jonathan Coulton hostage. Either that, or they taped 150 hours of material that they are parceling out over weeks and weeks. This is the third or 10th podcast featuring the author, expert, Mac pitchman. They discuss manual labor jobs. Esoteric natural foods culture in Brooklyn. Janky vegetables. Artisanal wastepaper baskets. The inexiplicable why-are-you-still-open bookstore. Independent stores run by angry psychopaths. Christmas-tree shopping in New York. And more leftover comedy in search of a business model. Released: Dec 3. Length: Back to the usual 26:12 or so minutes.

"Keith and the Girl: For Crying Out Loud" This was one of the first podcasts I ever heard on the Web, quite a while ago, and it now appears to have become something of a multimedia empire, featuring audio, video, discussions, listener call-ins, interviews, and more. The hosts are a charismatic Queens couple, who chat with a changing cast of lowlife pals, guests and neighbors about the usual comedy podcast fare -- tabloid fare (Wal-Mart trampling death), men and women, sex, technology, TV shows, video games, etc. They produce a lot of content. Every time I started to write in recent weeks, another two-hour episode popped up in ITunes. They are un-PC, profane, vulgar, engage in stereotyping, babble endlessly. Expect a lot of inside jokes about fans and friends. A few topics in this episode: iPhone addiction, the Wii, porn, a long story about an encounter with people waiting overnight at Best Buy for Black Friday sales, mocking "The Pickup Artist," playing Call of Duty, and so on. The show's frequent guests include unknown comedians, out of work actors, neighbors, and people whose roles are unclear. Entertaining, occasionally offensive. Length: 1 hour, 55 minutes. Released: Dec. 1.

"The Bob Thurman Podcast #65" Uma's dad, the Columbia professor, riffs on Buddhist scripture at lectures recorded at Tibet House in New York. The cosmology is Tibetan baroque, the metaphors foreign to a middle American ear, with talk of the Bodhisattva, the real and the unreal, the Buddha field, the power of your bliss, time control, and more. "Magic is a different type of causality, but it's driven by compassion and love." Stick to the end for references to Marvel Comics (Ant-Man's microverse) and Wittgenstein. You might just achieve samadhi. Not likely, however. Length: 14:24 minutes. Released: Nov. 28.

"This Week in Media 117: Analysis Paralysis" An excellent discussion, mainly because the host, Daisy Whitney of TV Week, runs a tight ship with a list of specific topics to discuss. She is joined by Bill Tancer of Hitwise, the unemployed Internet humorist Martin Sargent, the science personality Dr. Kiki, and David Rewalt of Viz Media. Tancer analyzes his company's annual search data. The top terms are navigational or brand-related. MySpace is the top brand, followed by Craigslist, beating eBay (that's new). Top personalities: Barack Obama, Howard Stern, Oprah, Rachael Ray, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity. Top entertainment/multimedia brands: Hulu and iMeem. The Web behavior of early adopters is often a predictor of sites that will later dominate the market (example: YouTube.) What's hot now? Tancer: "Early adopters today are looking for some sort of editorial layer on top of existing video content.... There is so much content out there, they need some help and direction." Search and crowd-sourcing no longer work. One emerging brand: Qik, for mobile video uploading. The panel discusses the general problem of content overload (DW calls it "analysis paralysis," which rhymes but doesn't necessarily make sense). Too many blogs, too many podcasts, too many online videos, too many TV shows. DW: "There's just too much stuff." Trend in response: Shorter content, published weekly. A few other topics come up, including the future of all-in-one set-top boxes and the terrible interfaces on cable TV digital recorders (why can't they all be like TiVo?) That University of Maryland TV study again: "Does TV make us unhappy or do unhappy people watch TV?" Length: 1 hour, 4 minutes, worth every second. Release date: Dec. 2. Added in update.

"Coverville 530: When I'm Driving in My Car and a Man Comes on the Radio, Playing My Cover Requests" And now for something completely different: Music, specifically bands covering the songs of other bands. This episode is an all-request edition, with Cat Power covering "Satisfaction," among others. I'm not sure how I ever missed this gem of a podcast by Brian Ibbott, but this one had a great selection of songs, entertaining calls from listeners and a name-that-tune style quiz that I failed miserably. The show just made the 2008 iTunes Best Podcast List (full list here, opens in iTunes). I'm definitely adding this one to my regular rotation. Added in update.

Podcast Zeitgesit, Nov. 13

What I got out of this week's podcasts for nerds and geeks:

"TWIT 168: Dirty Pedro" This week's episode proved useful for getting to sleep on Tuesday evening. Otherwise, I might be asking, how do I get this 1:34 hours of my life back? The signal to noise ratio is quite low, despite heroic efforts by John C. Dvorak to keep the discussion focused on technology. The Audible.com ad was mercifully short. Topics: Google/Yahoo, Obama's technology and FCC policy, cameras, keyboards, an argument for aggressive comment moderation on blogs. Released: Nov. 9. Length: 1 hour, 34 minutes

"Uhh, Yeah Dude, Episode 140." For some reason, podcast ads are often like those old timey 1950s TV ads in which the host held up the box of soap flakes and vouched for the product. This week Seth and Jonathan spend the first few minutes talking about how much they like the Australian comedy "Summer Heights High" on HBO. They segue into the usual oddball topics. Old P.S.A.'s against crack. Murder-free months. An epidemic of falling elderly people. PETA's animatronic elephant. "The Perfect Game," a screenplay based on the true story of a man who dropped dead after bowling a perfect game. Extreme tween makeovers. Root beer float in a can = bad. $400 "Sopranos" box set = too much. Gordon Gekko sues "World of Warcraft." "Uhh Yeah Dude" T-shirts on the way. Supplemental podcast is more about "Summer Heights High." Released: Nov. 8. Length: 1 hour, 2 minutes, with 10-minute supplement..

Maccast 2008.11.09 "Hey Mac Geeks it's time for your Maccast, the show for Mac Geeks and by Mac Geeks..." Despite an annoying habit of often putting the best possible pro-Mac spin on any news, Adam Christianson's weekly podcast from San Diego is a good overview of the latest on Apple products. He spends a lot of time scouring blogs and news sites and invites a lot of tips from listeners. His show notes display on the iPod/iPhone screen as the podcast plays, a great feature that other podcasts should emulate. If you don't have time to read the 10 jillion Applie blogs out there, Adam will usually find the stuff you really want to know about glitches, new releases, new software etc. This week: No new iMacs, Mac browser usage falls, iPhone production down, Macbook trackpad problems, Steve Jobs' email address, Macbook Pro hinge problems, color syncing issues, Mobileme problems, the lack of good iPhone document apps and much more. Chock full of info. Released: Nov. 10. Length: 1 hour, 6 minutes.

"The Totally Rad Show, Episode 86, Bobble Bibble" A bit of a disappointment, since Alex Albrecht had tweeted about seeing the Bond flick "Quantum of Solace." Perhaps that's next week. In any event, this episode is taken up by a discussion of trailers and Pixar movies and the latest World of Warcraft expansion. And they answer questions from readers. As much as I enjoy their take on geek entertainment products, this all felt mailed-in, self-involved and easily skipped. Wish I had, given that video requires me to stare at a computer screen, instead of listening to audio and multitasking on other things. Plus, they haven't updated their site very well, or their blog, in forever. Perhaps this sloppiness is a sign of the troubles at Revision 3. Or an Autumn malaise. Released: Nov. 11. Duration: 58:12 minutes.

Five Tacos and a Taco, Episode 35 "We Built This City on Tac and O" I have tried a few times to listen to these guys. They make an effort to be funny, but the show is a weak imitation of "Uhh Yeah, Dude." It's the morning drive-time zoo without the bad music. The jokes are not delivered with anything resembling wit or skill. One bit that seems like it could have worked: Having listeners call in to decide the next move in one of those create-your-own adventure books for kids. But it was just dull and another excuse for gay jokes. In the end, I unsubscribed and dumped their podcasts in the trash. More hours of my life saved. Released: Nov. 7. Length: 1 hour, 3 minutes.

"MacBreak Weekly 114: Sexy Pancakes" With Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jon Gruber, and Jon Rettinger. A lengthy discussion of Veterans Day. Then Leo says news is sparse: "There's really not much to say." Uh-oh. Yet there are nearly two hours to go. Discussion of Blackberry Storm, Macbook trackpads. Delays for Macbook Air. Rumors about a mini upgrade and a TV with Apple TV built in. Yawn. Fast-forward to 25:08 when Gruber joins and discussion turns to insider gossip, the replacement of the podfather Tony Fadell with Mark Papermaster at Apple. Coming soon: iPhone firmware 2.2, with wireless podcast downloads. An extensive discussion of iPhone apps and features. An 8-minute Audible ad, with a Stud Terkel anecdote; the Mac picks start at 1:10:58. Battery packs for iPhones (I use the APC power pack and second Ihnatko's recommendation). Griffin Clarify close-up macro lens for iPhone camera, for shooting product codes and the like. Boxee for Apple TV. Released: Nov. 11. Length: 1 hour, 42 minutes.

"The Sound of Young America: Found Magazine" Jesse Thorn, "America's radio sweetheart," interviews Peter Rothbart, the editor of the excellent Found Magazine, which features notes and tapes and other pieces of found art. This podcast is pretty much what you might have heard on American Public Radio, with an additional, funny song by Mr. Rothbart that was deemed too racy for public radio. (The previous episode is also better than the public radio version: the unedited/uncensored version of Thorn's interview with Dan Savage, the sex advice columnist and podcaster.) Released: Nov. 12. Length: 29:13 minutes.

"You Look Nice Today: Selfish Express" For the first time, the show has guests: the John Hodgman infestation of all media continues (with a bonus appearance by the Brooklyn singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton). Bicycle messenger culture. Bikies. Rolled-up pants leg guy. Join a group to get a slogan. Prius bumper stickers. "The other silent killer." Green offsets for poetry. Reading aloud a poem by Jewel. Hatred of short stories and short films and other short things that annoy audiences and will never make you any money. Working our way out of the recession by writing literary short stories set in the Midwest about failed marriages. Money-making idea: Celebrity mystery train tour. And finally... a business probletunity at the state fair. Released: Nov 13. Length: An ironically nearly twice-as-long-as-usual 52:17 minutes, worth every other second.

Find previous podcast reviews here.

Podcast Zeitgeist, Oct. 29

Here are some impressions of the latest episodes from my current list of active podcasts. Topics covered included the election, the financial crisis, new Macs, Frank TV, your "Desert Island Sedaris," Santa vs. Odin and a squid with a dog's head that eats penguins at the South Pole. In the order I listened this week:

"Uhh, Yeah Dude, Episode 138" The show is more political than usual. Seth and Jonathan have some advice for McCain about profanity and do not like Obama's sports-team pandering. The badness of Frank TV: All of Frank Calienda's impressions sound the same. Who is your Desert Island Sedaris, David or Amy? In the funniest and longest set-piece, Seth describes a visit with "2,000" school children to the traveling DEA exhibit "Target America: Opening Eyes to the Damage Drugs Cause" at the California Science Center, which explains how to manufacture cocaine, heroin and crystal meth. Unlikely street names for drugs. Aaron Neville sings "Silent Night." Planning an Applebee's fan video. And more riffs on headlines. Released: Oct. 24. Length: 1 hour, 6 minutes.

"TWIT 166: Toxic Tea Party" Leo Laporte, Will Harris, Sarah Lane of Revision 3, Jason Calacanis of Mahalo and others discuss the ongoing financial crisis, including rumors about The New York Times. Calacanis explains Mahalo layoffs: "I think the downmarket is going to last 18 to 36 months and I would like to have a year or two of runway after it..." How retail bankruptcies lead to deflation and more bankruptcies. Riding on private jets is just like on "Entourage." Dentistry in England. The G1 Google phone. Kevin Rose of Digg calls in near the end, extending the podcast by 20 minutes, joshing with his staffer Sarah Lane, with no hint that she would be laid off the next day. Released: Oct. 26. Length: An overly long 1 hour, 40 minutes

"Smodcast 66: Sleipner the Conquerer" One of their best: Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier discuss whether a "War of the Worlds" style hoax is possible in the modern world. Perhaps if the aliens landed in Antartica and started eating the cast of "March of the Penguins." With digressions about the history of arctic exploration, the origins of Santa Claus and the presidential election. How they get from Barack Obama's 30-minute infomercial to a battle between Santa and Odin is well worth the ride for students of the absurd. This was one of the better recent Smodcasts, which had taken on a boring, mailed-in quality while the pair were working on their most recent film, "Zack & Miri Make a Porno," which opens Friday. Released: Oct. 24. Length: 1 hour, 15 minutes.

"You Look Nice Today: Who Voted?" More highly edited, easygoing nonsense conversation: Cold start about how there are no more grownups. How to decide how to vote for local candidates for minor offices you know nothing about, and other election quandaries. Every time Merlin says vis-a-vis, take a drink. A complicated sexual fantasy about a voting booth. If you had 14 Farrah Fawcetts. The science of seduction. "Obviously, he is a sex scientist." The narcissism of fantasy nudity. Pickup lines, Twitter and Dungeons & Dragons. Heat-sensitive Hypercolor clothes. The smug "I Voted" sticker. Not as loose as past episodes; I could actually follow the train of the conversation, which may or may not be good. Released: Oct. 28. Length: 30 minutes.

"MacBreak Weekly 112: 分かりません"After listening to Alex Lindsay's travel and home-buying plans and some bad celebrity impressions, plus a Frank TV reference, actual Mac talk starts at 10-minute mark. Apple finances opposition to California's Proposition 8, which would ban gay marriage in California. G1 Google vs. iPhone. Rumors about features in the new iPhone 2.2. firmware. Extended discussion of Twitter. Experiences with the new MacBook. Trackpad weirdness.The missing Firewire port. Apple quarterly results. Snow Leopard with Cocoa Finder is coming. Future of Apple TV and Mini. Picks were inexpensive, esoteric or uninteresting. Released: Oct. 28. Length: An overly long 1 hour, 51 minutes.

Release dates are when episodes were available on iTunes. Alternative download sites are in the links. I didn't have time for the video podcasts Diggnation and The Totally Rad Show this week.

Podcast Zeitgeist, Oct. 19

Lately my music library has languished as I have loaded up my iPhone with podcasts of a certain type: Men (mostly) talking about gadgets, technology, movies, stuff on the Web, games, women, and news of the weird, among other topics. The list:

• "Diggnation" Perhaps the most well-known podcast on the list. In various video and audio formats. Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht drink beer and sit on a couch, going down the list of the top stories at Digg.com. Frequency: Weekly. Duration: 45 minutes or so, video.
• "Smodcast" The director Kevin Smith and producer Scott Mosier shoot the breeze about making and watching movies, comics, growing up in New Jersey, porn and other topics. Weekly. An hour or more, audio only.
• "The Totally Rad Show" Alex Albrecht is joined by Dan Trachtenberg and Jeff Cannata, for reviews of movies, TV shows, comics and video games. Weekly. About an hour, video.
• "This Week in Tech" and "MacBreak Weekly" Two podcasts from Leo Laporte's Twit.tv empire that bill themselves as reviews of the week's technology and Apple news, with John C. Dvorak, Merlin Mann, Alex Lindsay, Scott Bourne and other regulars. But it's really a bunch of geeks and nerds shooting the breeze. Weekly. Each is about an hour and a half, or 50 minutes if you fast-forward through the improvised ads, which can get tedious. Another way to watch: Live on video, with a rolling peanut gallery chat room under the screen, and the talking goes into overtime.
• "Uhh, Yeah Dude" Description: "A weekly roundup of America by two American Americans," Seth Romatelli and Jonathan Larroquette. Energy drinks. The week in Florida. Readings from Craigslist. Prescription drug side effects. Hip hop vs. country. Men behaving badly. Why Robin Williams is not funny. Encounters with borderline celebrities in Los Angeles. Sobriety. Veganism. The Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, and more. Frequency: Weekly. Run time: About an hour.
• "You Look Nice Today," which is billed as "A Journal of Emotional Hygiene." A dadaist conversation between lonelysandwich (Adam Lisager), hotdogsladies (a k a Merlin Mann of 43 Folders), and scottsimpson (Scott Simpson). With voice chapter headings by the guy who plays the PC in Mac ads. Frequency: Fortnightly or so. Length: 30 minutes.

What they have in common: Guys who genuinely like each other talking about topics they love, with echoes of long ago bull sessions and late nights in bars. The best of them -- "U.Y.D.," "Smodcast" and "You Look Nice Today" -- have been known to provoke chuckles and guffaws. Maybe even some chortling. Update: On Oct. 29, I started posting some impressions of the latest episodes of these and other podcasts that have interested me for a while.