Podcasts, Audible, and Radio Shows

Do you have a favorite daily listen? Weekly? Once-in-a-Blue-Moon?

Then please share here.

#A Sonnet A Day as read by Patrick Stewart on Twitter.

The History of English podcast of Kevin Stroud.

I know, I know. But give this one a couple of tries. I bet you'll get hooked.

Those both look cool, Pat—I'll check them out.

I have many favorites—on my morning walks I generally go through my Spotify mix for the week and then move over to podcasts, rotating among a few favorites and then whatever links I come across in my internet travels:

The Longform Podcast—nonfiction writers and journalists talking about what they do, and they're always interesting. It's high up on my must-listen list.
On Being—interviews with creative and political folks, with a slightly more moral spiritual (not religious, necessarily) bent. I've been finding a lot of them really good listening in these weird times.
Design Matters—Debbie Millman has been branching out from the art and design world to talk with all sorts of other people: writers, musicians, activists, performers, activists, etc. For whatever reason, I find that hearing about other folks' creative processes help my writing, but they're also just really interesting.

Also:
NYPL's Library Talks Podcast
Backlisted
Fiction/Non/Fiction
The Ezra Klein Show
The Kitchen Sisters Present
The New Yorker Radio Hour

I’ve been listening to the Times book review podcast for years-even when Sam Tannenhaus was editor chief of the show. I think Pamela Paul is wonderful. I sent her a fan letter two years ago and she wrote me back and said she was touched by my letter. I wish they covered more fiction though.
I’m afraid the Book review is going to soon appear as one page. If I t wasn’t for James Patterson I don’t know how they would survive.

I say with shame that I’ve never read The Bell Jar although I’ve owned a copy since the late seventies when all of my female friends worshipped Plath. I got an audio version from audible and it was read by Maggie Gyllenhall. I found her reading unbearable. She turns the narrator of the book into this sassy Dorothy Parker wise cracker. I don’t know as I haven’t read the book but this was definitely the case in my opinion where the speaking narrator stepped in front of the book.
I do believe that until I read The Bell Jar and The Golden Notebook I cant claim to call myself a human being .

Thank you and keep 'em coming. Some really good rec's here.

I really love Folk on Foot https://www.folkonfoot.com/ and Great Women Artists https://www.thegreatwomenartists.com/katy-hessel-podcast. Also, Cocaine and Rhinestones is amazing https://cocaineandrhinestones.com/ but you have to really care about country music.

I listened to about 40 podcasts on Stitcher called Wolf359. They were about an errant first officer and they were quite funny! It was about a space station orbiting a star and the hijinx aboard the space station. It seemed to me the first episodes were funnier than the last.

I accidentally posted this in the video streaming thread, but I think I meant to post it here:

On the What We Are Reading thread I mentioned I had been reading a book called Blacktop Wasteland by Shawn Cosby, and that I kind of fell in love with the author after talking to him for an hour or so at an online event. Here's the link to the recording. Tell me he doesn't come across as just one of the greatest guys ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8QwRzj9gA8

Oh good, I have a week off and I'm going to catch up on a bunch of listening.

I'm also really sad about RBG. I think I hadn't quite allowed myself to believe she was mortal. One saving grace of yesterday was that on my morning walk I listened to most of an On Being podcast talking to Mary Oliver, and then finished it up in the evening before bed, after I'd heard the news. I always felt Oliver was a force of nature for the good and the thoughtful, so it was a comfort to hear her voice, especially musing on mortality and the stuff of life. Recommended for her intelligent, kind voice in these strange days.

>5 alans: Love the podcast. Didn't know the Book Review was in trouble

My favorite bookish podcast is Strong Sense of Place https://strongsenseofplace.com/podcasts/ It is light and cheery at the same time providing great recs for reading around the world.
From their website
In each episode of our show, we discuss one destination and what makes it different than every other place on Earth. Then we share recommendations for great books — novels, nonfiction, graphic novels, short stories, and more — that took us there on the page.

That looks interesting. Thanks for the rec, beebee.

That does look like a cool one, thanks!

Will check this Beebee,thanks.

Does anyone follow the booktuber The Lonesome Reader? He is so sweet and so enormously well read. Very nice man.

I've been enjoying the podcast So Many Damn Books, which at very first listen sounds like a couple of lit-bros making each other laugh... and there's a bit of that, but they're smart and I really like their choices of guests. Plus there are two separate segments for what they (and their guests) have bought lately, and what they've read lately, and the stuff they highlight almost always goes on my wishlist.

A few weeks ago they talked to George Saunders about his newest book, A Swim in the Pond in the Rain, about reading and teaching Russian authors—a major gap in my own reading, and listening to him talk made me really want to read this. I've probably heard Saunders talk (podcasts, readings, awards speeches, etc.) more than I've read his writing, but I love how he talks about literature and the work.

I'm in the middle of an episode on First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing with Eley Williams, who wrote Attrib. (which Lauren B. raved about here a year or two back) and the upcoming The Liar's Dictionary, which sounds like a lot of fun. I'm really enjoying podcasts these days, I guess because there's a real lack of multiplicity in the voices I hear otherwise—my husband, my coworkers, a few phone conversations with friends. Not that my pre-pandemic day-to-day life was full of authors talking about literary craft, but it's just good to hear other people say (intelligent, engaging) stuff.

There are a lot of short story magazines that create podcasts of their monthly stories.

My particular favorite is Clarkesworld Magazine http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/

Searching for them on Apple's Podcasts App or Spotify is super easy. Or, searching for your favorite speculative short story author in the search bar will often return stories that have been produced as podcasts.

In February I absolutely binged on The Slightly Foxed podcast:

https://foxedquarterly.com/category/podcast/

They cover a ton of oddball books in a British have-some-tea-at-the-kitchen-table sort of way. I always end up scribbling down titles to find and read. The episode on Dr. Wiener's Library was especially fascinating.

>18 Corinne2020: I hadn't seen that one—do they read the stories, or is it a discussion about them, or both?

>19 southernbooklady: Oh I forgot about Slightly Foxed! Which I shouldn't have, since Lauren recently sent me a bunch of back print issues.

A small intro by the host/narrator with usually a bit of back story about the author. Sometimes a closing comment by the host/narrator but mostly a "I hope you enjoyed this podcast... leave comments on our website and join us next week for..." So for Clarkesworld it is mostly just the story no discussion.

I need to set aside one night a week for these podcasts. I don't know why, but I just don't enjoy listening to audiobooks. But short stories? That might be the ticket. I used to love visiting The Moth, so, yeah, a short story podcast might take.

Pat_D yay!

Here is their website if you want to see some of what they are producing these days. And get some eye candy from their great cover art: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prior/

Maybe scroll for some names that look familiar. I think they are doing great stuff and the more interest they get, the more they can do. Including paying their author's and staff more.

I do struggle when there are "breaks" in the visual story but they aren't included in the narration. Nobody seems to do that so I find it hard to know when the story changes gears sometimes.

You can also listen right from your computer or phone from the website. Just click on a podcast title from the page I linked.

ETA: Here is a fun one lots of people seem to like (including me)
Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer, read by Kate Baker: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/audio_01_15b/
2015 Nebula Award Nominee for Best Short Story,
2016 Locus Awards Winner For Best Short Story,
2016 Hugo Award Winner For Best Short Story

>23 Corinne2020: Thank you. I'll definitely check it out.

"MASTERPIECE traveled to Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts to the Edward Gorey House to investigate his home and learn more about his life. Come along and see some behind-the-scenes images of our favorite nooks and corners of this one-of-a-kind museum.

Listen to the MASTERPIECE Studio podcast and hear producer Nick Andersen in conversation with house curator Gregory Hischak."

Edward Gorey House Slideshow

>25 Pat_D: Oh, that sounds fun. Columbia University had a great exhibit of a bunch of holdings from his house a few years back, but I bet it would be even better on site with all his incidental stuff as well. I'll check out the podcast.