My Top Ten Favorite Podcasts

Now I know there are some less tech-savvy folks out there who may not even be sure just what a podcast is. First, let's address the term "podcast," the name comes from fusing "iPod" and "broadcast" - essentially, it is a pre-recorded show that is "broadcast" through the internet that you can listen to on your iPod. The name is somewhat deceptive, however, as an iPod is not required to listen... in fact, you don't even need a portable media player of any sort, most podcasts can be streamed through the internet right in your internet browser.

In order to address this, some podcasters have chosen to use the term "netcast" instead, though the term podcast is far more widely used. I personally prefer the term podcast, especially since I use the native iTunes downloader for my podcasts and do, in fact, listen to them on my iPod the majority of the time. I highly recommend that, if you use iTunes, that you explore the podcasts section of iTunes and see if anything piques your interest. If you don't use iTunes, you can always check out websites like Podcast Alley to find things that might catch your attention.

We'll begin this list with the first podcast I ever encounter: A History of the World in 100 Objects, presented by BBC Radio 4. This podcast has not been producing new episodes in quite sometimes, as they reached their 100th object in October of 2010, but starting from the very beginning is a fascinating journey.

The podcast is presented by Neil MacGregor, director at the British Museum, and each item (ranging from a stone chopping tool 2 million years old to a credit card) has its own fascinating story. Being a history nut, I latched on to this podcast immediately - especially as they theme of the podcast revolved around every day life in ancient history, as opposed to highlighting the big events that we always hear about. Of course, big personalities and events throughout history work their way in, as they always do, but they tend to take a backseat to the every day folk.

I cannot recommend this podcast strongly enough to people who love history, and just listening to the podcast has made me determined to one day travel to England to view all of the items at the British Museum.

From the first podcast I ever listened to, on to the most recent podcast I've added to my repertoire. Everyone loves a list - obviously I do, I keep making top tens! This podcast was born out of the Major Spoilers website's fifth anniversary, where as a special event for their main podcasts, the three main presenters (Stephen Schleicher, Rodrigo Lopez, and Matthew Peterson) listed their top five favorites of a variety of things. They decided to continue on and make it a full-fledged podcast.

With topics ranging from favorite cartoon theme songs to favorite fictional villains, the hosts are always hilarious and insightful as they go through their lists, and often share personal reasons as to why they picked their items. Being a big fan of lists, pop culture, and the Major Spoilers crew, I had to check this podcast out and have been hooked ever since! It's also a great conversation starter with friends - come up with your own lists from the topics, and ask a friend who listens to the podcast (or doesn't, I suppose!) to do the same, and discuss the results!

Flying in the face of more serious call-in advice shows, Hypothetical Help features Scott Johnson and Mark "the Turpster" Turpin - two very prolific podcasters who you may see later on in this list, more than once or twice. Hypothetical Help asks listeners to send their problems, no matter how big or small, to Scott and Turpster in order to get their advice on any given situation.

You'll hear everything from people asking how to deal with their neighbor's dog who won't stop barking to relationship problems getting some air. As the show points out in the intro, neither Scott nor Turpster are professional therapists or counselors, so their replies to these people are usually quite amusing, and they often share anecdotes about personal experiences similar to the caller. What's actually most impressive to me is just how insightful the pair of hosts are sometimes, even when they are just making jokes. The only problem with this show is that with both hosts being such active podcasters, the show only gets new episodes infrequently, though they're guaranteed to be highly entertaining when they do show up!

Scam School is a video podcast - so obviously I do not listen to it on my way to work, especially since it's an extremely visual show. So what, exactly, is it? It bills itself as an exercise in "social engineering" - and typically hinges on magic tricks and nearly impossibly puzzles done at the bar in order to score free drinks, after all, once you've seen the impossible, you'd be willing to pay a beer to know how to do it for yourself, wouldn't you?

There are quite a few really, really good tricks to pull on this show, although sometimes they do repeat similar tricks, it's good to know different ways to pull off illusions in order to potentially fool your friends multiple times. Now, of course, you don't always have to use these tricks to scam people, it's just a catchy name for the show. However, the show does demonstrate some classic scams such as Fast and Loose and shell games, which they of course inform you are strictly illegal to use to scam people out of money, but it's actually a pretty good resource to help you avoid getting scammed.

Every now and then, of course, Brian pulls out a trick that he doesn't reveal the solution to, leaving you wondering just exactly he did it - he is a professional magician and fire eater, after all - he can't show you how everything is done!

Anyone who has spent much time browsing my webpage will know that I am an enormous fan of not just Walt Disney World, but Disney in general, and am rather proud of my near encyclopedic knowledge of the parks. That being said, Lou Mongello puts me to shame. Perhaps one of the biggest Disney geeks I've ever had the pleasure of listening to, Lou features a different bit of the parks each week - whether it be discussing a long gone attraction, picking apart the details of a current one, going through a top ten list (one of my favorite segments), reviewing a restaurant, or answering listener questions, Lou has an amazing repertoire of Disney knowledge that I respect.

The thing that I really love is that he not just loves the parks, he really gets them. Walt Disney World is a part of his being, much like it is for me - the magic is just a part of him. He's the type of guy that gets choked up at the fireworks at the end of the night (guilty here) and sings along with the tunes on the attractions (also guilty here). If you enjoy my MyWDW website, do not miss this wonderful, magical podcast.

Another love of mine, in a certain way, of course, is bad movies. There's nothing quite like sitting down and watching a cheesy movie - in fact, I can't quite decide which is better: a cheesy movie that knows it's cheesy, or one that thinks it's being quite serious. Either way, a lot of cheesy movies end up on Netflix streaming, and when they do, the crew over at Film Sack (Scott Johnson, Brian Ibbott, Randy Johnson, and Brian Dunaway) is there to watch them, and then discuss them. Not all the movies they watch are terrible (in fact some of them are quite good, such as The Breakfast Club and Die Hard), but that doesn't stop them from going over each with a fine-toothed comb.

If you were a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, or the current project of the creators of that show, RiffTrax, you'll likely very much enjoy this show. Each week, the crew watch a movie on Netflix streaming, and then discuss them in detail, and hilarity ensues. After the main discussion, Scott plays clips from the movie which are absolutely hilarious when taken out of context, and oftentimes still hilarious in context. Another great thing the crew does is, every now and then, they'll do a Bonus Sack, which is the Film Sack version of Mystery Science Theater - synch up the audio from your podcast with Netflix streaming and you'll have an overlaying commentary to go along with it.

If you have a Netflix account, you, of course, get the most out of the show by watching the film before they do their "reviews," but the show very funny even if you haven't seen the film they're discussing.

Next, a podcast based around another major love of mine: comic books. Twice a week, the Major Spoilers crew (Stephen, Matthew, and Rodrigo) discuss the goings on in the comic book industry, as well as other points of popular geeky culture. The merging of the three personalities behind the show is what really makes it, an indescribable chemistry that just fuels nerd jokes throughout the podcast.

Each week, they discuss the news, each review a comic (on a scale of slices of meatloaf - a joke going back to the early days of the show), discuss the results of the latest poll on the Major Spoilers website, and discuss a graphic novel. Very few things make me laugh out loud when I am alone, but Major Spoilers gives me a good chuckle or three pretty much every episode - though a considerable number of the jokes are extremely nerdy, and it is occasionally sprinkled with in-jokes for long-time listeners of the show.

The Major Spoilers Podcast is definitely worth a listen, and if you enjoy it, you may want to revisit past episodes just to get the inside jokes. If you love comic books or just pop culture in general - check it out!

Now we come into the home stretch... the area that it became extremely hard for me to rank, but I forced myself to! The Morning Stream is a podcast that runs every day from Monday to Thursday, and is hosted by Scott Johnson and Brian Ibbott. It's really a major mish-mash of a lot of the other podcasts on my list, with each day having different segments covering a variety of pop culture items, as well as the regular news segments, as well as other daily bits.

Each day I look forward to hearing Scott and Brian's unique views on the news of the world, whether it be big, important news, or crazy, news of the weird. The pair have a great chemistry and bounce off of each other extremely well, and interact with guests for their segments wonderfully - such as Stump a Trek Nerd, a daily Star Trek trivia question; Recommental, where the host of a movie-based podcasts gives recommendations on what to rent or watch from Netflix streaming; Fitness Geek, a healthy living based segment; and Therapy Thursdays, featuring Scott's sister Wendi, who is, in fact a real therapist, so the segment is entirely unlike Hypothetical Help, as the advice given is from a professional. In addition to all this, each show features a music break in the middle and another piece of music at the end, always cover songs provided by Brian Ibbott, who has been known for his Coverville show since the very early days of podcasting.

After a while, the hosts have started to feel like family, and one of my goals is to attend Nerdtacular, an annual event hosted by Scott Johnson's Frogpants Studios where many of the podcasters from the shows on my list get together and host a convention for their fans.

The second of only two video podcasts on this list, the Totally Rad Show is a study in variety. The show features three friends, Alex, Dan, and Jeff, who mainly review movies, TV shows, video games, and comic books, but also play a variety of games and do fun wildcard segments on other days.

Each day, I look forward to checking out what the trio from TRS have in store for me - whether it be their review of the latest comic book movie, or a round of Media Mashup, a game in which they take two or three titles of movies, TV shows, and video games, then give a hint to the answer by combining the plots of the movies contained therein. For example, if the hint was "A woman keeps repeating the same moment of her life where she was on that killer game show," the answer would be Run Lola Running Man.

And that's just one of the fun games that they play on the show. Again, this is a show that hinges on the really fun, fantastic chemistry of the hosts, and the guys from TRS have it in bucket-fulls. No matter what you like, you're guaranteed to find this show fun, though some episodes may not apply to your interests, others most certainly will.

And now... what you've all been waiting for... my number one podcast. Critical Hit is another podcast from the guys at Major Spoilers, Stephen, Matthew, and Rodrigo are joined by their friends Rob and D&D Brian in this Fourth Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign. This is another podcast that spawned from a Major Spoilers anniversary special.

Now, perhaps Dungeons and Dragons isn't exactly your cup of tea, or maybe you don't know very much about it. The mechanics of the game are not what makes this podcast wonderful to me, though listening reminds me of D&D campaigns of my past. The real draw in this podcast is the amazing story that Rodrigo has put forward as Dungeon Master. The amazing twists and turns, not to mention the masterfully role-played characters by the rest of the crew, including the cocky Eladrin wizard Orem; the none-too-bright, but bearing a heart of gold Three-Quarter-Orc fighter Torq; the absent-minded artficer Randace; and the smooth-talking Half-Elf warlock Ket, among others that come and go through a revolving cast of characters.

This isn't just a podcast about Dungeons and Dragons, though mechanics discussions come into play, and sometimes the battles do drag on a tad bit long, with a lot of rolling dice, but Rodrigo and his players still try to add a bit of spice to the very mechanics-oriented combat. This is a story, an epic, sweeping fantasy tale rivaling some of the modern fantasy books I've read of late.

If you have any love for fantasy stories and don't mind a small bit of D&D mechanics getting tangled up in them, start this podcast at episode 3 and hear the very beginnings of the story - do not skip to the most recent episodes, as it is told in episodic format like a serial adventure. If you want to know a little more about what goes into playing the game, you can start at episode 1, however, and I promise that you'll enjoy every step on the epic journey.

So that is my top ten list of favorite podcasts. I do realize that there is a lot of geekiness in my picks, and that may not necessarily be everyone's cup of tea - but that's the beauty of podcasts! My dad listens to a number of photography podcasts, while my brother listens to podcasts dedicated to video game reviews.

If your passion is knitting, there's more than one podcast out there for you. If you are a sports nut, fantasy or the real thing, you can find up-to-date info about your favorite teams. The sky is the limit - and if you can't find a podcast for what you love, there's always that magical option: start your own! All you need is a decent microphone and some audio editing software!

I hope you enjoyed this little stroll through the Podcasts section of my iPod - these aren't the only podcasts I listen to, but they are the ones that I get most excited to see loading into my iTunes. I hope you find one or two you enjoy listening to, or at least, get turned on to the idea of podcasts in general thanks to this list!