Earlier this month, I talked about five random songs on my iPod. Well, as much as I enjoy listening to my ever-growing collection of music, I find myself looking for more. As such, I’ve started to investigate the podcast phenomenon. Seeing how this is my first iPod, I haven’t been as well-versed in iTunes and podcasts as I probably should be.
Shuffling my way through the iTunes Music Store, I found the dedicated section for both audio and video podcasts. They’re broken down by categories and I can search for certain keywords or names if that’s what I want to do. I’ve been fiddling with the podcasts available through iTunes for a little while and have subscribed to a new podcasts.
… And then I find myself somewhat disappointed. I tried taking a look at the list of “today’s top podcasts” running down the right-hand side, as well as perusing through the various categories on the left-hand side. I tried subscribing to The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos and while his interview with RZA was reasonably interesting, the rest of the content was not. This only makes sense, because I’m not a huge fan of his TV show to begin with.
As it stands, I’m currently subscribed to the following four podcasts:
Ask Palpatine: What do you get when you ask the Dark Sith Lord to answer your most pressing questions, like how does he like his Ewoks cooked and or how does Darth Vader go to the bathroom? Better still, what happens when you portray Emperor Palpatine as a Jim Henson-style puppet? You get this hilarious Star Wars-themed video podcast of course. The best part is that you can submit questions via AskPalpatine.com. He even has a Twitter account.
Onion News Network: Continuing on the theme of comedy, this faux news program offers some rather outrageous episodes. The couple that I’ve watched so far include reports on how the FCC deals with television nudity and how the US Presidential press secretary composes himself after his wife dies in a car accident. This is certainly not for the faint of heart.
ScrewAttack Features: You’ve surely noticed some of the ScrewAttack videos that I have posted here featuring Stuttering Craig. Well, they’ve got an audio podcast too and, imagine that, they talk video games. The Sidescrollers feature is put together like a real radio show, so they “talk” to their listeners.
The 1UP Show: Unlike the ScrewAttack features, the 1UP show is not really presented like a radio show. Instead, this video game podcast is more like you’re listening in on someone else’s conversation. The people in the podcast never really acknowledge the audience, but because it is a video, they are able to include some game footage. One of the most recent episodes talked a little about Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
My favorite out of the five has to be Ask Palpatine, but I’d like to broaden my horizons a little, particularly with audio podcasts that I can have playing the background while I do my freelance writing thing each day. It’ll be one way to keep things fresh and keep me sane. Do you have any favorite podcasts that you think would be suitable to my tastes? I’m open to almost anything, but my main interests would be in video games, movies, worldly affairs, technology… that kind of thing. It can be funny, intellectual, informative, or all of the above.
Photoshop User TV is good, if you want to learn a bit more about Photoshop, and hear some corny jokes. đ