Okay, I know I am probably a little bit late in admitting this, but recently, I have discovered how cool podcasts actually are. For a long time, I thought they were nothing but a fad, something that a fat kid with a microphone would produce in his college dorm. Not true. It may have something to do with me on one hand using my iPhone daily now and on the other walking to work more and more, but I have discovered that there are actually quite a few really cool podcasts around. Some entertaining, some more substantial.

If I had to pick favorites, I would have to choose the Nature podcast. It comes out every Thursday and provides about 12 minutes off audio commentary, well-edited, well-produced, and often with interviews of the first author of articles from that week’s issue of Nature magazine.

I know, Nature has had an e-mail alert since years, and I’ve had it in my inbox almost as long as that, but honestly: I rarely found time to read it. Now, I can listen to the highlights of this week’s Nature issue while I walk to work. Scientific American, as I discovered soon after, offers the same to their readers: a regular, professionally produced podcast. Another podcast with occasionally very interesting continent is the Geek Brief. And that’s just for serious and semi-serious matters, it didn’t take long for me to discover that many other interesting and funny stories are available on a free subscription basis, as well.

Yes, I admit it, I have done an injustice to the podcasting community. I apologize, also to my friend Barbara Strebel from the old days with Eddie’s mobile studio, who now runs her own cast over at www.artcast.ch.

So, help me out here! Do you know of any podcasts I should absolutely check out? Please let me know in the comments section.

Posted by Michael on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 11:49 pm.