Discovering Podcasts - help?

[dreamshark]

A discovered that a friend of mine has started making podcasts, which is one of those terms I've been hearing but not paying much attention to it. OK, it's a Phenomenon. I've decided to sample it. Where do I start? Well, ok, I'm starting by downloading my friend's 3 Podcasts onto my ipod shuffle (I had to call her to help me figure out the intuitive Apple interface in I-Tunes, but I finally managed it.) I gather that there are hundreds, thousands, gazillions of podcasts out there. Should I just sample the handful that Apple has decided to feature in their I-Tunes site? Or should I make a point of ignoring all of those, not wanting to be a pawn of the establishment. Anybody got any favorites to recommend?

Comments

[jbru.livejournal.com]

The only Podcast I pick up regularly is the CBC podcast that's available at the iTunes music store. It features a lot of independent Canadian bands and has a good variety of styles of music. I've most not gotten into podcasts because most I've seen have been too "radio-y" for my tastes.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Googling on "podcast directory" brought up a number; these two were the first, and both look possibly-useful.

Podcast.net - The Podcast Directory
Welcome to the Podcast.net directory, your source for thousands of podcasts
covering a wide variety of topics and interests. The podcast.net directory is ...
www.podcast.net/ - 22k - Jul 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Podcast Directory -- Podcasts from Around the World
Podcast collection which can be narrowed by genre or language.
www.podcastdirectory.com/ - 30k - Jul 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

[jolest.livejournal.com]

I can recommend PodcastAlley.com and PodcastAwards.com. The former is a general index of podcasts with a good public rating/reviewing system. The latter, is a small collection of links to some of the better ones that are up for awards.

And by all means check out the back-issues of "The Radio Adventures Of Dr. Floyd" over at www.DoctorFloyd.com. They're a SciFi-comedy series that I've grown quite fond of. They're "on hiatus", but the next season starts sometime next month...

[ckd]

I really like Coverville, which is also available via the iTunes directory.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Thanks! This was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. A personal recommendation with a little description. Looks great, downloading a podcast now.