Best of Podcasts

I am a very recent convert to the whole podcasting thing. I tried it some years ago, when I first got any sort of MP3 player, and didn't like it much. Because I read very fast, I get a bit frustrated with pure audio for information; it's too damn slow, and there are no secondary cues to follow, like body language in conversations, or the whole visual thing if you've video as well. And at the time, many podcasts had poor production quality, and all the ones I could find on topics I was interested in were done by... there's no nice way to say this. They were done by people with no skill at ALL for the spoken word.

However, late last year, I was pointed by a co-worker at the podcast done by Wiggly Wigglers, an online shop selling composting, wormery, and small gardening goods. It had interviews, discussion, was well-presented, and had fantastic British accents to listen to. I was an immediate convert.

Since then, I've come across a few more podcasts that I think are worth listening to. From "absolute favourite" down to "this is great!", with all the crud removed, they are:

The Game Master Show: (link)This is produced by a bunch of gamers in... Chicago, I think? Anyway, there are six of them, and five of them run games on a regular basis. The sixth guy seems to be a combat monster. Some of their episodes are three-hour-plus recordings of games they're trying out, others are reviews and discussions of general topics in GMing. It's a fantastic show, made good by the passion they invest in their discussions, as occasionally made evident by heart-felt uncensored swearing.

Van Hemlock & Jon: (link)I found these guys via EVE Online blogs. The podcast is about MMOs and video games in general, but it's made excellent by the complete cakes-and-ale Britishness of its presenters. They alternate themed shows with news ones, and have lately started to combine the two. Listening to these two is like a good pub conversation.

Wiggly Wigglers: (link) This is the one that changed my mind about podcasts. It's done by the owner of the company, Heather, and features various employees (the primary one being Richard - I suspect he was the original prime mover for the podcast), her husband Phil, who runs a small-medium farm in Herefordshire, with some appearances by their son, Monty. It covers a huge range of subjects, but all focussed on countryside and environmental issues. There's plenty of personality, and plenty of good discussion, particularly between Phil and Richard, who seem to have something of a clash of personalities.

The Alternative Kitchen Garden: (link) Emma Cooper is a softspoken freelance writer who lives in Oxfordshire. She has chickens called Hen Solo and Princess Layer, so is clearly the right kind of people. The podcast is about growing vegetables, and various other aspects of organic gardening, permaculture, and natural history. My only quibble with her podcasts is that they're too short, averaging out around 17 minutes.

Warp Drive Active: (link) An EVE Online podcast, probably of no interest to anyone who doesn't play. Winterblink is Canadian, Urban Mongral is English. I think they do the podcast on Skype. It's not up there with Van Hemlock and Jon in terms of enjoyment, but they cover more material, and of course, are more focussed on a game I play.

I've no doubt I'll add more over time - evilrobotshane is looking to get one off the ground, for a start, and I'll do another recommendations post when I accumulate some more.