Pod...Cast? What IS this new thing?

Like many folks, I spend upwards of eighteen hours a month on the freeway heading to and from work.

I foolishly canceled XM a few months ago, but have been pleasantly surprised to notice I'm spending a lot less on music from iTunes lately. (I have a number of friends who are resolute converts to the religion of 'Only Dummies Pay for Files', and they may well have let out an excited gasp a moment ago.)

But no, I haven't started stealing songs - instead, a good six years behind everyone else with a PC and an MP3 player I've really been getting into podcasts lately.

I'd listened to snippets of a few podcasts here and there over the years, and I never enjoyed them. A full tortuous minute of listening would prove that the voices, personalities, and writing style all grated.

One exception was a really fun podcast - Earth Concepts For Aliens, which for some reason stopped after only seven podcastisodes. I'd recommend downloading all seven, and then peppering the writer/producer/performer Paulius with demands for a plethora of new podcastisodes.

But I can't credit ECFA for the surge in my podcast listening, since for some reason there are only seven podcastisodes of this Emmy Award Nominated podcast.

I finally came across the trifecta that had been lacking in the 'How Stuff Works' podcasts. I started out on 'Stuff You Should Know' with Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant, and have worked my way into 'Stuff Mom Never Told You' with Molly Edmunds and Cristen Conger.

(In the fantasy world that is my brain, Cristen records the audiobook version of 'Timeclock Adjustment', my novel-in-progress.)

I have only listened to SYSK and SMNTY so far, but if they're any indication of the quality, all the different podcasts on the site are worth checking out. Go! Do so!