I got my iPod about two years ago and it has since become my faithful morning drive time companion. (I love Red Sox talk on the radio as much as any red-blooded New Englander, but those 10-minute commercial breaks are killing me!)
The music’s great, but the Ipod + iTunes have also become one of my major learning tools. Let me share six of the podcasts I subscribe to that are almost always worth my time.
(The links are to the podcast’s website, but all are available on iTunes too.)
Business Week – Behind the Cover Story: Editor John Byrne interviews the lead reporters behind the mag’s weekly cover story. Smart, witty, engaging, and human. John has a fine Twitter feed, too.
The Welch Way: Jack Welch and his wife Suzy talk and sometimes argue about their latest column. This is not a re-read of what they wrote, but an engaging conversation. Jack’s been vilified in some circles, but not here. He is, as they say here in Boston, wicked smaht.
New York Times – Weekend Business: A sober but smart discussion of the top stories in the Times’ Sunday business section. It also reviews the week’s top business news. During the worst of the financial crisis this past fall, this podcast was almost too much to bear, but it remains smart and respectful of its audience. It also helped me sort out things for my own life.
Marketing Voices: Still charmingly homespun, Jennifer Jones has good, short interviews with people forging the way in social media technologies. She could invest in some better microphones, but that’s part of the charm.
New York Times Book Review: For the English major in me. It used to start with a post-punk theme song, and that hooked me. It got a little slicker when it struck a simulcasting deal with a local radio station, so that charm is gone. But it remains great and sometimes irreverent. It’s especially accessible for people like me who love to read, and want to keep up with what people are writing. I still wish they’d review more than one or two business books a year.
ESPN – Pardon the Interruption: From high brow to low brow. I love what Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon do – smart guys who could work anywhere in journalism, but lucky for us, they chose sports. I know some people don’t like Tony on “Monday Night Football,” but he thrives here. They would be fun to have over for a beer. They make me laugh out loud at least once a show.
What’s on your weekly listening list?
Guilt by Association Blog 
I don’t know if it will make you smarter, but for laughs I listen to NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me podcast regularly. The guests are hilarious, and the host, Peter Sagal, makes the news of the week incredibly funny!