Here continues a series where I discuss the podcasts I like to listen to. Because I’m sure you all care a great deal what it is I’m grinning like a kid about while I’m driving down the freeway. Perhaps you’ll find something interesting to listen to that will help you explore the world around you, or maybe just make you laugh.
The Grapes of Rad is a podcast for smart asses. It’s for people who read weird news and FAIL Blog. It’s for people who wish that morning shows on the radio were funnier and had swears in them. Except it’s only once a week. And way better.
The Grapes of Rad are Ben Parsons and Aaron Mason, two dudes from Seattle who spend a lot of time on the internet but have somehow maintained their ability to speak clearly and intelligently and funnily. (Is that a word? Ben has a segment conveniently titled “Dude, That’s Not a Word” just for such situations.)
The other great thing about the Grapes is that they are very in touch with their audience. Being a listener makes you part of a small, excellent community. They play listeners’ voice mail on the show, they read listeners’ tweets and emails (which has gotten me mentioned on the show twice now) and have barbecues in Shelton, Washington with Grapes listeners.
The show is a bit longer than most, generally clocking in between 90 and 100 minutes each week. But it’s great for car rides, long visits to the gym, or perhaps at a boring job that lets you wear headphones. On a recent drive from Montgomery, Alabama, to Nashville, we went through two episodes and the whole car was laughing a good portion of the ride.
If you like a little sarcasm and laughter in your podcast queue, I highly suggest you subscribe to this one. I say this with complete honesty: it is my favorite podcast, and one I skip others to listen to whenever a new episode releases.
Here continues a series where I discuss the podcasts I like to listen to. Because I’m sure you all care a great deal what it is I’m grinning like a kid about while I’m driving down the freeway. Perhaps you’ll find something interesting to listen to that will help you explore the world around you, or maybe just make you laugh.
If you are a discoverer of music, like myself, All Songs Considered is an invaluable resource. If you can spare 30 minutes a week to hear five or six full songs that host Bob Boilen (who I recently interviewed for Ghettoblaster Magazine) picks out of all the CDs that are mailed to him every week. He considers himself a curator of music, and the show is the product of his time and focus.
Aside from that, Bob and his crew travel the country and go to shows by the bands they like, then streams them on NPR’s site soon after for free. Boilen himself was at the Radiohead show in Santa Barbara that I went to last year.
Can I have your job, Bob? Cause… yeah, that’d be awesome.
I’ll keep this short: if you like music, and you want a quick, free and enjoyable way to get a few new samples every week, All Songs Considered is for you.
Here continues a series where I discuss the podcasts I like to listen to. Because I’m sure you all care a great deal what it is I’m grinning like a kid about while I’m driving down the freeway. Perhaps you’ll find something interesting to listen to that will help you explore the world around you, or maybe just make you laugh.
People tease me sometimes for listening to NPR on my clock radio in the morning. In my own defense, beyond the often-teased demeanor of their on-air personalities, they have some of the best content on the radio waves these days.
Also, I don’t pay much attention to the news on weekday mornings; I’m too tired when I wake up to notice much beyond the general idea of each headline. It’s the weekend content that I enjoy waking up to. And NPR’s crowning moment is Sunday morning at 11, when This American Life comes on.
Granted, I’m generally not paying close attention, but the stories are always intriguing. Ira Glass and company poke and prod the questions we never think to ask (like “what are people doing in the middle of the night while most of us sleep?”), then go find people who have experience and stories to tell about that question.
I recently started downloading podcast episodes more regularly on my Droid, (hence this series) so I’m hearing This American Life in full every week now. I have to say, it’s a highlight that makes my car rides and gym visits something I actually get excited about. Go figure, right?
This American Life is modern storytelling. In our complicated western world, we often lose track of some of the details and personalities behind the scenes of everyday life, and we don’t hear about the vast majority of the strange things that go on around us because nobody is telling the story. Ira Glass and company are here to help us change that.
And so begins a series of sorts where I discuss the podcasts I like to listen to. Because I’m sure you all care a great deal what it is I’m giggling like a little kid about while I’m on the treadmill at the gym.
Merlin Mann is my hero. I stumbled across him a few years ago while he was in the blogger spotlight as the writer behind 43 Folders, a site for people who want to be more productive at their desk (in other words: nerds).
More recently he resurfaced as Twitter champ hotdogsladies, which is how I discovered his banter-filled podcast You Look Nice Today: a journal of emotional hygiene.
When I say banter, I mean banter. The show has no purpose but to entertain, and topics are nearly indeterminable. Mann talks (via Skype, I assume) with his friends Scott Simpson and Adam Lisagor, both of whom I know very little about.
These men are professional shit-shooters. They seem to pick up each others’ cues like professional improv comedians, always accepting their peers’ realities and adding to them.
I am willing to admit that this last episode had me giggling like a mad man in my car driving around town the other day. They talk about such random things (such as their awkward, nerdy attempts at fitting in/being cool growing up), and yet still make it easy to identify with. And they talk a mile a minute, so you barely have a moment to figure out what’s going on before they’re on to the next thing. You just have to accept the absurd and enjoy it for what it is. And it is enjoyable.
If you’re looking for some (PG-13 to R-rated) comedy to fill a half hour of your week (or month, as the case has been lately), You Look Nice Today will hit the spot. I always look forward to the next episode and get excited when I have a spare 30 minutes to savor every moment.
And that is why You Look Nice Today is a Podcast I Like.
