the world is collapsing around our ears

Unlike with a lot of internet things, I can pretty much pinpoint exactly when I began using podcasts - almost to the day. October 2006, which is when the fine people at WBEZ finally began offering weekly podcasts of This American Life. Now then, I don't want this entry to entirely consist of squeeing, fangirl fawning over TAL, so let me just say that it's pretty much one of my favorite things ever and I love it beyond measure.

But. It's been really difficult for me to listen to since I moved to New York. Radio reception in my apartment is spotty at best and non-existent at worst and I never seem to be in the right place at the right time to listen. We do have satellite radio, which I'm keen on (and listening to at the moment actually), but the TAL episodes they play on there tend to be from the archives. Listening online was always a possibility, but very inconvenient. Therefor, to say that I was excited to hear about the podcasts is a major understatement.

And, as often occurs, one thing led to another. I poked around and found other shows that I enjoyed, some of them, like This American Life, professionally produced and distributed by NPR, the CBC or the BBC, others very much homemade projects. In the latter case, I've been somewhat frustrated, because it seems that as soon as I'd find a podcast I enjoyed, the people making it would go on hiatus. Right now, other than Ira Glass and company, the only podcast that I get regularly is the Pop Candy one.

I do think that searching for podcasts can be tricky. I wish the descriptions were better and/or more consistent in many of the directories. I tend to just use iTunes, because of a few features, like the user reviews and the "similar podcasts" links. And, I'm always asking people I know who listen to podcasts for recommendations, because as with so many things, that's so much more reliable that stumbling along randomly.

In any case, I hadn't perused new podcasts in awhile and I'm really happy to see that so many old radio shows are now offered for download. I have a weakness for old time radio shows. But the last time I searched for them, they weren't many available - I assume because of copyright issues. As such, I usually rely on the XM station that plays them or listen at the computer. Now it looks like there's a few of them and I'm excited to be able to take them along on the bus and the subway.