Listening to Podcasts

What’s on your player? 

I will admit to thinking my ipod nano (I bought a refurbished one for Christmas) was probably going to be in the same catagory as my juicer: expensive toy that sees little use.  But, unlike the juicer, which is packed in it’s original box and hasn’t been thought of anytime in the last 6 months, my nano is used almost daily.  I love popping it in when I’m doing something mindless that I don’t want to be doing.  Makes for a great kitchen cleaning companion among other things.  

My favorite listens include Democracy Now for news (Love it.  Plus, anyone who plays readings from Howard Zinn’s excellent “People’s History of the United States,” book, here for free, for the 4th of July gets major bonus points).  Bill Moyer’s podcast is another favorite.  This would probably also be a good time to admit that I’m not a right-wing conservative.

I really enjoy This American Life for the obvious reasons: it’s truly fascinating, all in a very “normal” way.  I enjoy having the Newsweek and 60 Minutes podcasts as well.  I don’t have television, so they provide good fodder for nights when I can’t fall asleep or need “news lite.”  Godward musings include Steve Brown Etc, and The God Journey, two completely different views on the spiritual life in many ways, and yet in other ways not.  For whatever reason, they both resonate with me somewhere and pull me in.  The God Journey just because they think out of the box, and Steve Brown because he’s the right wing conservative that I’m not, and yet exemplifies graciousness, thoughtfulness, and adds in a great sense of humor. 

  I’m subscribed to many more podcasts, but those are some of the ones I enjoy the most.  I know that most people use their players mainly for listening to music, but I will admit that I almost never do.  I think it’s because I have hardly any good music.  When I trashed all my “secular” music collection at 19 (which I now completely regret), I never did find much in “Christian” music that I liked.  I mean, how do you find a replacement for the Violent Femmes, the Pixies, and their ilk?  You listen to a lot of classical guitar music, that’s how.  So other than U2’s latest album, a few Lost Dog’s songs and a pile of Classical Surrounding cd’s, I don’t have much that I truly enjoy. 

I’d like to rebuild a good music collection, but it’s expensive for one thing, and for another thing almost too painful to consider.  I like music so much that I’d rather not really listen to it than only be able to enjoy it half-way (half-way meaning that I deeply love music but I’m not at a place in life where I can fully engage with it).  So music is a part of me that’s usually put away, and I’m sure a psycho-analyst would like to explore the reasons for that, but I’m too busy with the chaos of my life to think about it just yet.  Plus, I have a puppy—a puppy who woke me up way too early this morning.