Podcasts - They Make Life Worth Living (only slightly exaggerated)

One of the most beautiful marriages of technology and practicality I have had the luck to witness in the last year has been the marriage of RSS and MP3s to form...podcasts. With podcasts I can (1) listen to content on topics I'm interested in, without having to listen to unwanted programs (2) and listen to these shows or podcasts on demand. The analogy of podcasts as "Tivo for radio" is indeed accurate. Just as Tivo or other DVR solutions let a person watch only what he or she wants, and at a chosen time, podcasts allow a person to listen to audio programming at his or her leisure.

For the busy person who wants to keep up on certain subjects, podcasts allow the pinpoint accumulation of knowledge to occur at times otherwise wasted, such as while driving or cleaning house. While not required, a portable mp3 player makes podcasting even more valuable. After using a few low-end flash players, I settled on the IPod Shuffle. It is competively priced with other lower-end flash memory devices, but seem to be more stable and durable. The integration with ITunes makes the whole experience very easy to use. In ITunes, simply select the music store, select podcasts, and search for podcasts on whatever subject you desire. Subscribe to those that appear intersting with the click of a mouse, and the resulting mp3 files are downloaded to your computer. Drag these files to your IPod and your ready to go.

My favorites (right now):
This Week in Tech
Security Now
IT Conversations
NerdTV
Diggnation

From the BBC:
GoDigital
Documentary
From Our Own Correspondent

For whatever reason, the BBC is really putting out some innovative programming. NPR is jumping on the podcast bandwagon, but the BBC was there earlier, plus they just seem to foster a more progressive attitude that is reflected in their content.

I would love to hear from others on their favorite podcasts.