What are the best podcasts?

We've moved beyond the eclectic here. What are simply the best podcasts?

There are SO many of them. I have a few that I really like, and have assembled a top ten list:

1. In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg
This has to be the best podcast of all time. It's been going on for seven years. Every week an eminent, scholarly gentleman has a morning chat with a different triumvirate of brilliant men and women about "never knowingly relevant" subjects such as the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, Eliot's Wasteland, and the Pre-Cambrian Explosion. It is definitely anglo-centric, but Melvyn is sharp and witty, and tackles the more scientific and mathematical subjects pretty amazingly for a layman [which is good for the laypeople (like me) whom are listening.]

2. WFMU's aired podcasts
WFMU podcasts are in a class of their own (and thus occupy two places on this top ten list). Because I'm in Korea, I can't listen to my favorite shows live, such as The Best Show with Tom Scharpling and The Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon. The Best Show has a new podcast called the Best Show Gems which looks really promising. (It takes the funny bits from the shows' huge archive; it's a three hour program, so it's definitely an investment of your time. But worth it if you can spare it.) My other favorites include DJ/Rupture's eclectic mixes, Radio Freetown. Lest we not mention plagiartist People Like Us's numerous contributions to WFMU that are usually available in podcast form.

3. Philosophy and Ethics Bites
This is a British series that focuses on a huge array of philosophical subjects, interviewing various philosophers who are so smart it makes your brain hurt. It's good stuff; and you will probably have to listen to several of them repeatedly, as I have had to. Cause they are dense, cause they are brilliant. Speaking of which:

4. Density of Sound - Netlabelism! I found this podcast absolutely randomly. He plays all music that is legally podcastable, which is nice. And he has very good taste. [Full disclosure: he has played some of my tunes.] He tends towards electronic, electronic dub, dubstep and otherwise dubby types music--but mainly because there is just so much good stuff being made in those genres. He plays noise and melodies without discrimination, just with good taste. His shows are always an eclectic brew in the John Peel vein. I have found lots of great stuff through him. (All legal; all free!)

5. Vital Weekly
This is a quote "so-called pod cast" unquote that I haven't listened to very often, but it is definitely Vital. I don't listen often because it doesn't download automatically and it doesn't offer the pure listening pleasure that Density of Sound offers. It does, however, do humanity the service of sifting through piles of CDRs and independent releases to find things that are interesting. Vitally, it offers extensive reviews of the music--so this is a quote "so-called pod cast" unquote that you don't even have to listen to! Vital!

6. Broken Beat Radio
This great podcast has an (YES GLARGH!) eclectic (GREERSH!) brew of succulent, jerky yet smooth beats with an rnb tang. It works, and is perfect instant gratification. Sometimes it is jazzy, sometimes it is hip-hoppy, but it is almost always really good stuff. This is stuff I wouldn't normally listen to, but Argo and his crew's taste is impeccable. If I were ever to have a party where ladies whom wished for sophisticated beats to fashionably gyrate their sinuous forms about my property, with Dewar's and roaches in hand, this would be the first thing I'd head to get things bumping. Food for dreams...

7. Radio Lab
Leslie turned me on to this one. It really annoys me like with its preciousness, a la This American Life, but I have really learned a lot from it. It is still annoying, and I think the producers are smug. It's supposed to be science that is made palatable with interesting music and quirky personality. The science is already palatable, and they have incredible access to an amazing array of researchers and personalities like Oliver Sacks. I don't think the music is that interesting; mainly because it is all IDM-sounding cliche sounds. But it is very well produced. And there's so many smart people involved in it that it can't be ignored.

8. WFMU Podcasts, unaired.
Some podcasts on the WFMU website are purely podcasts, never aired. Some favorites include Cake and Polka Parade, and stuff that People Like Us and Ergo Phizmiz do.

9. The Journal with Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is one of the heroes of our time. I watch the show on my computer now. But last year when I didn't have a computer at home I'd download the podcast at work and listen to it while eating dinner on Monday nights.

10. Your podcast. It's pretty much my favorite. The most eclectic of the bunch.

Honor mentionables: The History of Rome. The Jesse Thorne empire, namely the Coyle and Sharpe Episodes (the inspiration for my werewolf phase).

Raaaargh!!!!

The Only Rock Critic that matters

Ronald Thomas Clontle won't steer you wrong.

UPDATE!

Here/hear the man himself speak:

	Scharpling & Wurster - Rock, Rot & Rule
	Found at skreemr.com

WFMU

It's awesome. Check out this blog entry featuring classic, painful, vintage interviews with Johnny Lydon and John Cassavettes.

I have spoken of my fanship for The Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon. It's sort of a This American Life for pallid pseudo-troglodytes. The latest one was quite amusing. It is a podcast I recommend. Someday I hope to be listening live when he does a call-in show so I can call from Korea!

And make sure to check out the 365 project. Erogodyte introduced me to this great resource of novelty records and outsider curios for free download. Here's one of my favorites as of the moment.

WFMU: The Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon

I've almost given up on my MP3s. I've got so many of them that its really really gross. It would probably do me good to get a hold of an Mp3 player with tons of capacity and portable speakers so I could just listen to them wherever I go. As it stands, they all fit on a portable hardrive that I bought for that specific purpose. A 500gb hard drive that is 2/3rds of the way full. And my friend Linda has turned me onto WFMU, a self-described "freeform" New Jersey Radio Station. I found two shows that I really like and are definitely "freeform" but also coherent. The first one is The Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon. He has a very friendly voice that overlays a David Lynchesque soundscape (I mean that in a good way) and muses on topical subjects such as Thanksgiving, the Holidays, eating, drinking, and music. Music concrete meets Prairie Home Companion, again, in a good way. Because he plays good music. For example, his last show showcased artists from Blipfest 2007 in Manhattan. This Blip music is a scene that's been percolating for a lot of years (since the 90's) but has recently exploded, as evident by use of blip sounds in the mainstream. (This dovetails easily with everything Electro.) Blip sounds are essentially, as I understand it, sounds derived from 8bit computers, such as old Ataris, the NES, and the Commodore 64. I've been using these sounds a lot because of Plug-ins such as Peach from Tweakbench, and newer ones like TriForce. But according to what I heard on the Dusty show the hardcore Blip artists don't use emulators, but use the real things. I'm not sure about that--how could you tell? Anyhow, it's exciting stuff. I've always loved 8bit sound, and I love finding out how hip I didn't know I was. Even if I could never be considered a purist. Anyhow, purity is for schmucks.

The other show is the Ed Shepp show. Ed actually commented on my blog a few years ago, lamenting that he couldn't download my tunes. Well, Ed, if you're listening, I got tons of tunes, all downloadable. Here are some of my personas available on myspace:

myspace.com/meltmaster
myspace.com/abettertomorrowii
myspace.com/thefellowtravelers
myspace.com/spielimsand
myspace.com/runorimac
myspace.com/pyramidoflions

But thanks to WFMU, I've got a whole bunch more music I want to buy and I haven't listened to what I have. It's ridiculous. Before I catch up with Blip and dub-step, they'll have converged into a new scene.

But I love the grassroots nature of WFMU; there is little right in this world, but WFMU represents something that is right. (At least on the surface.) And that's what I feel the Dusty show is doing quite well, celebrating what needs to be celebrating, but still acknowledges the inescapable trivialities that trip us up. Let us acknowledge our hang-ups, but move on.

And I suppose we need Mike Gravel, the same way we need Ron Paul, Kucinich, as well as The Space Needle, and Garrison Keillor's horrible, horrible, horrible singing. Hillary gets worse and worse (unless I'm mistaken, she's still freaking hawkish on Iran), Obama is abominable, and well...Edwards is winning by default in the general election in my head.