Podcasts

When I was very young, I had a yellow radio that just got AM and perhaps 3 channels, one of which was public radio.  I listened to a number of serial radio shows – ongoing stories, mostly mild horror and Twilight Zone-esque alien adventures – under the covers when my parents thought I was asleep.  I’m sure this lead to my love of Stephen King’s novels, but it’s also the precursor to my great love of podcasts. In this blog post, I’d like to share a few podcasts from the US that I listen to regularly in the hope of inspiring my readers to go out and discover a few of their own.  Recommendations are greatly appreciated in the comments section!

Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me: This is the granddaddy of all podcasts.  I started listening to this as a radio show years ago and subsequently through iTunes as a podcast on my very first iPod.  Part quiz show, part comedy hour, host Peter Sagal and official judge and scorekeeper Carl Kassell (veteran NPR newsman) query contestants and panel members alike on the week’s news.  The prize for contestants? Carl Kassell’s voice on their home answering machine or more likely voice mail.  Celebrity contestants like Moe Rocca, Paula Poundstone and Roy Blount, Jr. (my favorites) win nothing but the chance to beat Roxanne Roberts at the Lightening Fill in the Blank quiz.  (If she’s on the show, she wins.)

While the vegan police may be fictitious, the liberal police exist and are vigilant.  If we northeastern liberals don’t listen to our required dose of NPR daily, our badge of liberal honor is up for grabs.  Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me is a fun and sometimes educational way to meet that liberal requirement, and if you really want to make your liberal heart beat a bit faster, wait until the very end to hear Peter Sagal say “THIS is NPR.” (I do that every week.)

The Splendid Table: I also discovered this as a radio show and continued to listen even after I became vegan.  I purchased Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s first cookbook soon after my daughter was born, and between early Martha Stewart TV shows on Sunday mornings and A Splendid Table on Sunday afternoons, my cooking repetiore quickly grew far beyond basic pasta and roasted chicken.

I admit, my favorite segment is still Jane and Michael Stern’s adventures in road food.  I bought their first book in preparation for my initial cross country road trip (circa 1984), and I packed it back up for the drive back from San Diego to the Jersey Shore 5 years later.  I still love hearing about new eateries the couple discovers on their travels especially when they hit the great state of Texas!  You can’t go wrong with The Splendid Table podcast; it’s a great listen while prepping your dinner or driving around looking for a new place to dine!

The Knitmore Girls: I’ve worn glasses since the fifth grade, never tried contacts, and usually wear them from the time I get up to the time I return to bed.  I now sport fancy progressive lenses that are great for grading and working on the computer, but for any long-term close work like reading and knitting, I have to take them off.  This makes it impossible for me to knit while watching TV which, to be frank, is fine by me.  I’m more a movie person although I do follow a few TV shows, but sitting for an extended period of time in front of the box isn’t what I want to do with my free time.

So when I started knitting last winter, I had to find something to do while I knit.  Since I already listened to the two podcasts mentioned above, I thought I’d add one more to my listening schedule.  After a few fits and starts – no matter how good the podcast content, I leave immediately when the sound quality is bad – I found the Knitmore Girls.  Gigi & Jasmine, mother and daughter, produce a weekly podcast on Tuesdays all about knitting, spinning, life in northern California, and various adventures as a mother and daughter team.

Gigi also sews; I learned to sew when I was in middle school and my first purchase with my own money was a sewing machine.  Listening to Gigi’s projects saved my newest machine from obscurity in the back of the computer room closet! I haven’t made anything too complicated, but it did help with the lining for that iPad cover!

Jasmine announced her first pregnancy earlier this month which explained the hiatus the women took over the summer. When I heard I’d be losing their weekly podcast for 2 months, I flashed back to those awful podcasts I’d tried before finding theirs.  Thank goodness they kindly supplied a list of recommended podcasts to keep their fans happy during the heat of summer.

That’s when I discovered podcasters from across the pond… which I’ll review in Part 2 of this blog post later in the week!