September 8, 2008, 8:55 am by Brett

Allow me to tip my hat to The Economist. The periodical has always been an informative and excellent read. Now there is audio from the publication to enjoy. The Economist podcast, available in i-Tunes’ News & Politics section, is released every two days or so, and runs about 10 minutes long. It repeats a weekly schedule of rotating shows such as:  From the Paper, Democracy in America, Certain Ideas of Europe, and The World Next Week. The following breaks down how the podcast is presented.

The first 20 seconds introduces the type of show being presented and a brief description of the shows purpose. The next 15 seconds introduces the topics to be covered. Then the body of the program is broken into three or four sections covering individual topics running about 2 to 3 minutes a piece. The last 20 seconds is used to promote other topics covered in the print edition of The Economist. There is a bit of background music to bookend the podcast during the intro and outro.

With the specifics out of the way, I would like to comment on the value of the information The Economist provides. First, this podcast is provided by an international company based in the United Kingdom. For some reason, this provokes me to believe that their view of American politics is a little less biased or slanted than media groups headquartered in the United States. Second, The Economist employs intelligent, educated people to research, report, and inform. When listening to the podcast, it is unlikely you might think to yourself that the blokes responsible for putting this thing together are a bunch of dunces. Lastly, The Economist is international. The podcast provides not only news and politics from the United States, but from all around the world. It is a podcast designed to keep its listeners up to speed on all fronts, from science and technology, market forces, politics, and current events. So go to i-Tunes and subscribe to get filled in.

August 20, 2008, 9:51 pm by Jennifer

In class today, I mentioned one possible podcast to listen to for Monday’s class (8/25) is the Escape Pod episode where our guest speaker (Stephen Eley) and I read the story. The story is EP169: How I Mounted Goldie, Saved My Partner Lori, and Sniffed Out The People’s Justice.  It is rated R, so if that bothers you feel free to go with another podcast or another Escape Pod episodes (most are G or PG).  I’ll post the list of other possible podcasts soon.