Fancy a language podcast that's not afraid to swear? Listen to Lexicon Valley!

I subscribe to a large number of podcasts and try to keep up by listening to some during my journey to and from work. Reviews of other podcasts I listen to can be found here.

Slate Magazine is one of my regular reads and so when they started podcasting I was keen to listen. Slate now produces a large number of podcasts covering a wide-range of subjects. I don't intend to review them all but want to highlight some of my favourites. I have reviewed the Culture Gabfest but now want to look at Lexicon Valley...

Want informed yet engaging conversations about culture? Listen to the Slate Culture Gabfest

I subscribe to a large number of podcasts and try to keep up by listening to some during my journey to and from work. Reviews of other podcasts I listen to can be found here.

Slate Magazine is one of my regular reads and so when they started podcasting I was keen to listen. Slate now produces a large number of podcasts covering a wide-range of subjects. I don't intend to review them all but want to highlight some of my favourites and so will start with the Culture Gabfest.

Listen to Left, Right and Center - Balanced American political discussion is possible!

I subscribe to a large number of podcasts and try to keep up by listening to some during my journey to and from work. Reviews of other podcasts i listen to can be found here.

Most of the podcasts i listen to are politics-related (like most posts on this blog) and Left, Right and Center is no exception!

As someone that likes to listen to both sides of an argument and then making up my own mind, a show that describes itself as a "civilized yet provocative antidote to the screaming talking heads that dominate political debate" was always going to appeal to me - and it does.

The podcast is a 30 minute (never enough!) public radio show, produced weekly by KCRW in California. It normally covers about three topics and ends with each host having a mini rant on the topic of their choice.

It is moderated by Matt Miller, representing the centre. He is a Democrat and and worked in the Clinton White House but is willing to criticise the Democrats and the Republicans. I like his evidence-based what-works approach to policies (as that is generally my approach to things!). 

Bob Scheer is the voice of the left. His passion is clear and he is able to draw on his personal history of political reporting from all over the world. He has his hobby horses (normally banking regulations or lack thereof) but they are normally relevant to the discussion.

When i started listening , the voice of the right was Tony Blankley. He was an articulate advocate for conservative politics. Unfortunately he died from cancer in 2012. Since then, the show has had various guest hosts representing the right. One of the more frequent ones is Rich Lowry. Given i am a centre-left englishman, his politics were never going to be my cup of tea but i appreciate his ability to criticise President Obama for every action he does or does not do.

The show regularly has special guests, providing a fourth voice. Originally this role was mainly filled by Arianna Huffington whose politics had moved from right to left and then somewhere in between over the last 20 years. The show has a good record of finding interesting people to fill this fourth role, although they do tend to slant more on the left than on the right.

I have previously compared the House of Comments podcast to this show. This is clearly a professional produced radio show compared to the amateur British version. However both shows generally succeed in getting a range of political views expressed and challenged without voices being raised (too much).

In summary, if you are interested in american politics but dislike politicians just ranting at each other, this this is a good place to start.

iTunes
Website
Hosts: 
Matt Miller: Website Twitter
Bob Scheer: Website Twitter,
Rich Lowry: Twitter, 

Interested in UK politics - then listen to the House of Comments

I subscribe to a large number of podcasts and try to keep up by listening to some during my journey to and from work. Review of other podcasts i listen to can be found here.

Most of the podcasts i listen to are politics-related (like most posts on this blog) and House of Comments is one of the more engaging ones.

iTunes
Website: http://markreckons.blogspot.co.uk/p/house-of-comments.html
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HoCPodcast
Host: Mark Thompson - blog twitter
Host: Emma Burnell - blog twitter

House of Comments is a weekly hour(ish) podcast. It has two regular co-hosts - Mark Thompson and Emma Burnell. Mark is a Liberal Democrat member and Emma is a Labour member. They regularly have guests on the show to diversify the political views expressed. Episodes normally cover political topics from the previous week.

Both hosts are confident articulate advocates for their parties (most of the time!). Mark's passions include electoral reform and drug reform whilst Emma's include housing. 

Their on-going discussions illustrate where the two parties are in sync (e.g. social priorities) and where they diverge (e.g. economic priorities). If anything, the lack of a regular Conservative voice means that the two hosts sometimes find it hard to have an actual debate as they quickly agree with each other. 

This podcasts reminds of an american podcast i listen to called "Left, Right and Center". Given that that is a professionally produced US radio show and this basically two british amateurs, I think that reflects very positively on this podcast.

In summary, if you are interested in UK politics but dislike politicians just ranting at each other, this this is a good podcast to listen to.

Interested in genealogy? Listen to the Genealogy Guys!

I subscribe to a large number of podcasts and try to keep up by listening to some during my journey to and from work. Review of other podcasts i listen to can be found here.

Most of the podcasts i listen to are politics-related (like most posts on this blog) but i do listen to some others and one of my favourites is the Genealogy Guys podcast.

Website: http://www.genealogyguys.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Genealogy-Guys-Podcast/38852105568

I have been interest in genealogy for as long as i can remember. I have gone through periods of active research (getting lots of certificates etc.) and periods of inactivity. I do have my own genealogy blog (Jon's Family Tree) which i should really update again! Even when i've not been particularly active, i have wanted to stay relatively up to date and the Genealogy Guys podcast helps me do that.

Presented by George G Morgan and Drew Smith, this monthly-ish hour-long podcast should be required listening to anyone interested in genealogy. Each show generally starts with news (normally press-releases from a wide range of sources). The rest of the show is normally responding to listeners' email and that is when the hosts expertise shows. Both authors have published numerous genealogy books (some are available in the UK here) and their passion is clear when you listen to them. There is an understandable focus on America (I first heard about the War of 1812 on their show despite it being a war between Britain and America!) and genealogy resources available to americans, the actual genealogy information referred to is global (reflecting the global roots of american citizens). They regularly mention genealogy news from the UK (including from the National Archives) and events like Who Do You Think You Are Live (which i really want to go to again).

There have been a number of special episodes, consisting of interviews between Drew and a range of other genealogy experts, normally recorded at various conferences. Those episodes exposed me to a range of people and resources that i didn't know about but ultimately expanded the people i follow on twitter and who's blogs i read.

Despite each episode containing news, old episodes can be just as informative and useful to any genealogy researcher.

In summary, I like the subject, the hosts and the contents of this show. I only wish that they would produce more episodes!

Recommendation: Essential for anyone interested in genealogy

Podcasts i like: Democracy Now - News with a blatant American left-wing slant

I subscribe to a large number of podcasts and try to keep up by listening to some during my journey to and from work. "Democracy Now" is one of those that i regularly listen to.

Website: http://www.democracynow.org/Twitter: https://twitter.com/democracynow

Democracy Now is a daily american news programme, broadcast on radio and various TV channels. It is normally one hour long. It starts with a news round-up and then normally has 3-4 longer items, normally interviews. It is proudly independent of the big US media companies and covers stories of people affected by the US - mainly the rest of the american continent but also globally. The show clearly has a pro-worker, pro-women, pro-democrats, pro-gay rights, pro-choice, pro-immigration agenda that is rarely challenged.


Quite frankly, i do not have time to listen to five one-hour shows a week, but i do make an effort to listen to the news section, find out what the other items are, and then choose to listen to them or not - the benefits of listening to a podcast.

The show is hosed by Amy Goodman, supported by Juan Gonzalez - both respected reporters. Amy's interviewing style is not to start with a question but instead to say "Talk about..." - an approach which differs from most UK journalists but seems quite effective.

The show proudly talks about giving a voice to those excluded by the big media companies such as workers, activists and foreigners. They produced numerous stories about the Occupy movement, from the indignados in Spain (who arguably launched the movement) to the heights of Occupy Wall Street and now reflections on what will happen next. Each time they try to get the views of those that are actually involved, not just government spokespeople. 

The people on the roundtable debates on the show do not tend to have huge ideological differences but they are given time to make arguments, not just present soundbites.

The show is obviously made by Americans, for Americans, so it is always amusing when the cover a British story. They find a stream of Guardian journalists (or Johann Hari before his fall from grace) or a random Labour MP, who then makes lots of points about how the British people will rise up to overthrow the evil Coalition government/Rupert Murdoch/multinational companies. Not the view of a majority of the country, but i guess representative of the views of some vocal left-wing minority group.

Recommendation: A good sources of American/global news stories that don't normally make it to the UK.

Previous podcasts i like:
Broadcasting House - What podcasting was made for!

Read this... on Todd Akin, rape and US politics

An TV interview by a relatively obscure US Senate candidate launched days to discussion, argument and debate about rape.

A report on the interview with Rep. Todd Akin can be found at: 

Rep. Todd Akin: No pregnancy from 'legitimate rape'

Talking about conception following a rape, Rep Akin said "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something, I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child."

The Atlantic reported on How Often Does Rape Lead to Pregnancy? 

The Slate Double X gabfest (The P90X Edition) discussed the situation. As did the Slate Political Gabfest (The Legitimate/Forcible Gabfest). Their general consensus was that Akin was quoting bad science and was being punished by the Republican establishment for articulating the actual beliefs of the Republican party.


The Republican platform can be read here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/28/read-the-full-republican-platform/

The text includes the following:
Faithful to the “self-evident” truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.

This basically means that the party is completely anti-abortion (with no exception for rape or incest).


The 2012 Democratic platform has yet to be finalised.
The 2008 platform can be found here:http://www.democrats.org/about/party_platform
The text includes the following:

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.



I do not want citizens from other countries telling me how to vote, so i try not to tell citizens of other countries how to vote. However it is clear that if US citizens vote on economic grounds, there will be social implications.

Broadcasting House - What podcasting was made for!

I subscribe to a large number of podcasts and try to keep up by listening to some during my journey to and from work. The first one i regularly listen to on a Monday morning is "Broadcasting House" from the BBC.

Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnj3
Twitter: https://twitter.com/paddy_o_c (Paddy O'Connell - host)

Broadcasting House (BH) is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday mornings at 9am. My Sunday mornings are normally spent sleeping (or playing "Plants vs. Zombies" if i'm awake) so i rarely hear it live. However i love to listen to it.

The show is full of items that tend to be more "news-related" than straight news. It's tone varies between the very serious (e.g. long items from Syria) to very funny (listeners setting their own personal bests in 9.58 seconds). There is also a review of the sunday papers by a panel that changes every week - and refreshingly normally geographically diverse and covering a range of papers (not just the standard broadsheets).

The host, Paddy O'Connell is funny, informed (generally!) and engaging and a good ambassador for the show.

It is a topical show so it needs to be listened to relatively quickly, however the items normally contain a new spin on an existing story so even if you listen to it a few days later, you can still gain a fresh perspective.

Recommendation: Worth a listen to see if it is your cup of tea!