rebecca soble

Thanks to everyone for the birthday well-wishes I received — in three languages. And especial thanks to those who shared their advice for my temporary angst. It was all pondered and appreciated and will be saved and re-read should such an event occur again. If I were to try to summarize everyone’s advice into one concise aphorism, it might come out something like: fuhgedahbahdit! And so I have. Except that I have gotten the idea to look into some online courses related to Informatics or Information Architecture, some sort of CE something-or-other to dovetail with both my MLS and programming backgrounds. We’ll see what I find, if anything.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m turning into a podcastaholic, so I thought I would offer some proof by way of showing you some of my favorite podcasts these days, and perhaps you’ll find them fun too.

Cast On : A monthly knitting-themed podcast from Brenda D, an American living in Wales. Usually about an hour long, with interstitial music.

Business English Study : Specifically designed for ESL students of business english, includes profiles of companies with particular focuses (franchising, business travel, innovation, etc) in three different levels. The website includes lesson materials to accompany the audio files but I generally use just the audio files and the transcripts. Each audio file is about 3-5 minutes, plenty for ESL listening activities.

National Geographic Video Shorts : periodic 2-5 minute video clips on all kinds of topics that are apropos of National Geographic — Shark vs. Octopus, King Tut’s Mummy, Insect Candy, Lightning Strikes, to name a few. I subscribed to these for some fun video clips to show ESL students, but they’re generally interesting as well.

The Economist : Various different podcasts during the course of a week, with titles like “The World Next Week”, “Democracy in America”, “Certain Ideas of Europe”, “From The Paper” and some “Special Report On…” topics. Some of them include interviews with people from the Council on Foreign Relations and I find these especially interesting. Typically 15-20 minutes long.

New York Times Backstory : A very interesting podcast where journalists discuss articles they are working on for the NYTimes. 5-10 minutes.

Bill Moyers Journal : A full hour audio podcast of the PBS television program. Bill Moyers interviews people across a wide spectrum of issues of current importance.

Cooks Illustrated Podcast : A weekly video podcast highlighting a specific simple recipe and general cooking tips.

New Yorker Campaign Trail : A discussion-style podcast between the New Yorker editors and writers about the latest events on the campaign trail. Updated more or less often depending on current campaign goings-on. 10-20 minutes.

NPR Fresh Air : Terry Gross from WHYY in Philadelphia interviews a variety of people on topics from the news, film, music, sociology, etc. Actually I usually skip over the ones on film and music which seems to be a lot lately. But Terry’s interview style is very engaging. 45 minutes.

NPR Intelligence Squared : The complete set of podcasts for this season totals nine, all in debate format with 2-3 debaters for each topic. Audio recorded at live sessions in NYC. Topics have included “Is spreading Democracy in the Middle East a bad idea?”, “Is it time to end Affirmative Action?” and other juiciness. 1-2 hours. There should be new ones in the upcoming year.

NPR Talk of the Nation : Talk show format (host plus guests plus call-in), two 1-hour sessions each day on a wide variety of current events. Fridays include a science-themed hour and Tuesdays include a politics hour.

On Point with Tom Ashbrook

WNYC On The Media

Real Time with Bill Maher

Slate Explainer

Slate Magazine Daily Podcast : I mostly listen to the weekly Political Gabfest, the other ones can be interesting too.

60 Minutes (audio only)

New York Times Video: The World :

Best of YouTube : (Meagan, I loved the “Engineer’s Guide to Cats” too!)

The Moth : ha ha ha ha funny stuff (note: can include some off-color language)

The Ethicist

NPR Car Talk : great background when I’m housecleaning

This American Life

NPR Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me : I listen to this one THE ABSOLUTE INSTANT it’s available. Jess, did you go see the show live last week when it was in Hartford?

PRI Selected Shorts : bedtime stories for adults

20 Minute Yoga Sessions : TERRIFIC

Sorry folks for the slacking off but I gotta head to work. I want to get this posted so you all get my THANK YOU for the wonderful pile of birthday greetings so I’ll just leave the list as it is for now and fill in the details later. Tomorrow Emrah and I are heading for a short 2-day holiday in Cumalıkızık, pictures will be posted afterwards. XOXO