A few years ago, during my waning days in the Middle East, I was working right around New Year's Day. The Michael Medved Show and the Nightside Project were on vacation, so I decided to try a few new podcasts. A few months prior, I'd discovered the Faroe Islands Podcast (RSS) while trying to find podcasts about Orkney. As the Faroe Islands Podcast was nominated for the 2010 Podcast Awards, and the host was encouraging people to go vote in some of the back episodes I'd been listening to, I decided to go to the Podcast Awards website to see if any of the other nominees for 2011 were anything I'd be interested in. I decided to try four.
The Sporkful (RSS) isn't for foodies, it's for eaters. When I started listening, it was still both Dan Pashman and Mark Garrison doing it; now it's just Dan Pashman, and he's great, but I really liked the sort of mature stability that Garrison brought to the show. My favorite episode is probably SF148 War Zone Eating. That one's now behind the "premium" firewall, but you can also listen to NPR's segment discussing that particular episode. (This podcast is also ironically reminiscent of one of the best gifts I ever received, a Titanium Spork. Awesome.)
The History Chicks (RSS) are two dames, Susan and Beckett, who do a great podcast about women from history. I wasn't optimistic at first, but I decided to take a chance on their Mary Shelley minicast, and I followed it with another about Queen Victoria (both parts 1 and 2). I don't get spun up about all of their podcasts, but the ones that got my interest have all been fantastic. I've also had some great correspondence with the Chicks over the last few years, and they're such fun ladies. You should check them out.
I listened to a few episodes of the Manager Tools Podcast. Pretty much done with that now.
Finally, I listened to, and have occasionally continued listening to, The Sci-Fi Christian Podcast (RSS). I think their actual intent is to look at "genre fiction" (a phrase that one of the hosts uses as a catch-all so that they can discuss whatever they want, even if it's not science fiction) and discuss the theological ramifications of one item or another. Generally speaking, they either discuss "genre fiction", or else theology, but they're sort of inconsistent on discussing the juxtaposition of the two.
The Podcast Awards website is great for finding new content. The one big drawback is that they don't appear to keep a list of the nominees from previous years, only the winners. That's all well and good if you really like the winners, but it has the disadvantage of not listing such great podcasts as the History Chicks and the Faroe Islands Podcast, which are some of the best podcasts I've ever listened to.
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