My love for NPR and Rediscovering Podcasts.

Thank you NPR for being my main new source for the last roughly 6-7 years of my life.  I've found your journalism to be fair, varied, well researched, and at times controversial which I personally enjoy.  Many a conservative will claim the coverage on NPR is liberal leaning and that might be true, I've not given the subject much thought to be honest.  What I can say is that listening to the news from NPR (Morning Edition, All Things Considered, RadioLab, etc) is not nearly as emotionally draining for me than watching even 10 minutes of Fox news.  So, if that is indicative of liberal leaning news coverage, then color me biased because at least I can digest the media and feel semi-informed when NPR is involved.

I realized how much I enjoyed NPR when I was commuting from Chicago to the plant I worked at in Northwestern Indiana.  The commute was about 20-30 minutes in the morning and about 45 on the ride home.  The morning I dedicated to Steve Inskeep and David Green and Rene Montaigne and in general the Morning Edition Crew.  I gave them my first 30 minutes, and they gave me an update on the world's affairs, some interesting, some dry, some sad, and some delightful.   The ride home was usually dedicated to America's Top 40 as I switched over to the local music radio station.

I moved to NYC and lost the commute.  Rather I still had the commute but instead of driving myself the 30 minutes to work I was taking a shuttle bus.  Thus I had given up the rights to the radio to the shuttle driver and the respect of the fellow passengers on the 7AM shuttle, the morning ride passed in silence.  I started reading on those rides, for reasons I'll never understand I cannot read in a car but I can read in buses.  Anyway... I missed my NPR but was happy with my books.

Then I moved to Brazil.  I had an hour commute (also done by bus) that I now did which provided significant time for self entertainment.  Podcasts and my Kindle to the rescue!  I was attempting to learn Portuguese during my stay in Brazil, so I downloaded some Portuguese podcasts to my Ipod along with a few daily news shows (BBC in an attempt to be high brow...) and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me from NPR.  WWDTM quickly became my favorite and I hated that it only had a new episode every week as I would devour those 30 minutes in the first 30 minutes of my weekly commute.  I'd then listen to whatever Portuguese lesson was downloaded and then the BBC.  The afternoons I would read.  I tried to get into Portuguese books but I didn't give it an honest enough try and decided that reading in any language was still good for me.  I found the English section in the bookstore and scoffed at the really high prices that Brazil was selling books for!  However, I was desperate and desperate times call for expensive solutions and I bought about 10 different English books during my first few months there.  I quickly decided that I needed a Kindle for ease and cost savings.  It was a great decision.  So podcasts in the morning and Kindle at night- pretty good for two hours spent on a bus.

I returned to the US and moved to small town USA where I had, once again, a 30 minute commute by myself.  Hello Morning Edition!  It's like you never left, we never stopped being friends, and you simply stayed exactly how you were and it was delightful.  First 30 minutes of my day once again belonged to NPR.  The return ride home belonged to the various XM channels I had on my presets.  I felt informed, I felt up to speed on worldly events.  It's amazing how just 30 minutes of paying attention to what's going on around you can really add up to a pretty good foundation for being conversationally fluent on a variety of topics.  I've heard it said that if you read the front page of the Wall Street Journal you'd be more informed than most financial advisors.  Well, if that adage is true, then I'd have to say listening to 30 minutes of NPR (or your favorite news outlet) will make you more informed than... more than... certainty more than those who don't spend that time, and I'd image that percentage is pretty high - around 40% at least, maybe more.  I don't know.  Point is, if you pay attention it's shocking what you learn.

I'll skip over FL - it passed much like NYC with almost no commute time and I lost touch with the world a bit, this blog, some great friends, etc.

Now I'm in California.  My commute is beyond short (15 minutes!!) and I'm feeling disconnected again.  I don't like it.  What do I hear about as I'm pondering life?  Podcasts!  Of course my favorite news outlets have podcasts!  Didn't I hear something about Serial being the greatest thing to hit the radio waves since music?  (I've not listened to Serial, but anything that is getting 20 somethings to tune into a public radio show must be doing something right.)  Reignited was my enjoyment for podcasts!  I grabbed my Iphone and quickly subscribed to the following:

• BBC World Service - Global News
• This American Life
• Star Talk (Neil deGrasse Tyson - need I say more?)
• Radio Lab
• Planet Money
• Invisibilia

Now - Morning Edition needs to get their stuff together and get a podcast up ASAP.  There is no reason why I cannot download it the minute they go off the air (is there?)  If anyone knows how to get it, I'm unhappily ignorant and would like to be enlightened.

I also have about a 20-30 minute drive to visit this gentleman that I've been seeing and as such, I've had a great excuse to put on my podcasts and reconnect with the world.   For those who are unfamiliar with those above, may I recommend Invisibilia for really interesting topic journalism, the BBC of course for current affairs, and This American Life for short, true stories about life in America (or not in America as the case was this last week - but still delightful.)

As with any good NPR call out - don't forget to contribute, public radio is nothing without the support of it's listeners.

Happy listening - Happy being informed - Happy Discovering New Things