Tuesday, December 27, 2016

The Indispensable Podcast Listing

I got into listening to podcasts a while back.  Most of those early podcasts were focused on the Fantasy & Science Fiction genre(s).  My early interest was motivated by a couple of different factors.

The first factor is that I love the genre and have hopes (more probably ethereal ravings) of writing in the field some day.  Even if I never get a chance to pursue that interest, it is always interesting to hear about authors, their writing process, and their challenges within the industry.

The other factor at the time was in learning more about the industry due to my interest in the Sad Puppies imbroglio.  I didn't learn as much about that, but it was an early motivating factor.

My podcast list grew from there due to my continuing interest in a few public radio programs.

While I know that the trend is to make everything seem to be larger than life these days, this list really, really isn't indispensable.  It isn't huge.  Or huuuuuuge! in modern presidential parlance, I suppose.

However, it is a great starting point for people that are curious about podcasting.  Take a look, and then give a listen.

I have scored each podcast in three areas; Production Values, Entertainment, and Information.  Production values represent the recording quality, the voice quality of the participants, and the general organization of the podcast.  Entertainment is pretty self-explanatory; how much does the podcast engage me from an entertainment perspective.  Essentially, the giggle factor.  Information is equally self-explanatory; how much new information does the podcast present.

There may be some bleed-through from one category to another.  For example, a regular participant with a less than entertaining voice may drag down both the production values and the entertainment scores.

I don't listen to all of these podcasts every week.  Some are on hiatus.  Some come out on an irregular basis.  A few of the podcasts will provide re-runs to fill in on weeks when they don't have something new.

I have filtered through some podcasts and dropped many that just were not worth the effort.  While there are some overtly political podcasts on the list, I think that most of these programs are worthy of consideration.  For someone new to podcasts, this list is a decent place to start.