Open the Pod Bay Doors, HAL (An Ongoing Series)

So, as 2010 winds up, what rotates through the iPod listening mix these days? Music and audiobooks, sure, but podcasts have increasingly dominated the mix.

I'll post this now, but I'll be updating it several more times. If you look at my 2010 Year in Shorts posting, you'll see that a lot of my "drive time" and "errand time" and the like was supplemented by listening to a wide variety of podcasts. The variety kept expanding as one podcast might suggest another, until you see this varied list below.

Authors and Books: I've listed here the podcasts that don't specialize (in genre fiction, for example). The problem with these podcasts? The wallet cringes! You may end up discovering way too many authors you want to try out.

Rick Kleffel's The Agony Column: It seems like Rick may have slowed down the postings during the year, but if you start with the backlog (as I have) you'll never notice as you'll constantly be discovering new and interesting authors. This year saw a number of excellent interviews including extensive interviews with some who rarely make interview contributions such as David Drake and Tim Powers.

Cuisine: Food and drink!

Basic Brewing Radio: Added late to the listening mix. I'm interested in learning how to brew beer, my father attempted this once in the early 1970's (along with making wine, root beer and the like).

Gaming: A long-running interest of mine (not as long as SF/F) but mostly dormant for the past several years. These podcasts are starting to awaken those interests again.

All About Miniatures: Most of the gaming podcasts that I've come across seem to deal with one particular game (fantasy or science fiction genre games especially). This one not was a rarity in that it dealt with mostly miniature games set in historical periods. Unfortunately it appears that health issues have scuttled the podcast.

Drop Pod Cast: One of many game-related podcasts dealing with Warhammer 40,000. Inactive.

The Eternal Warriors (formerly known as Dice Like Thunder): Late in the year, this podcast underwent a name and theme change. Still mostly genre miniatures focused (e.g., Warhammer 40,000 and Warmachine). Unfortunately, it appears that they have pulled the archives of Dice Like Thunder.

Fell Calls: A podcast about the various games from Privateer Press set in the FRP game universe known as the Iron Kingdoms. Ran for 200 episodes, now moved into the THACO podcast (which see). Even without (initially) knowing anything about the game setting, the podcast got me interested enough to pick up some of the rules books and miniatures.

The Two Half-Squads: Dedicated to the classic wargame Squad Leader/Advanced Squad Leader.

General: Podcasts that are hard to quantify. See also the "geek" category!

A Life Well Wasted: The first five episodes of this podcast made me think it was as good as anything produced by NPR. The sixth episode jumped the shark. Nothing since then, so has "podfade" struck again?

Geekiness: It is amazing the number of podcasts with the word "geek" in their title. Some are genre-related, some are technology-related, most cover multiple subjects under one overall name. So I'll list them in this separate category.

Geek Cred: Discovered this one due to an episode revolving around a podcast called We're Alive. Unfortunately seems to be caught up in "podfade".

Radio Free Burrito with Wil Wheaton: Wheaton has made a varied career out of being a geek, ranging from programming to acting to writing to presentations. This all-too-infrequent podcasts is about a free-ranging. Music, commentary, fiction, biography and more.

History and Politics: Most of these deal with history, with World Wars I and II and the Ancient World being the most popular topics. Production quality can vary, with Dan Carlin's shows, Ancient Rome Refocused, the two podcasts from Lars Brownworth and Mike Duncan's series on Rome.

Ancient Rome Refocused: Taking a fresh look at Rome. Start with the episode called The 24th Shitkickers We're Never the Same After the Peloponnese. Amazing episode.

Binge History Thinking: Mainly military in focus, and with relatively short episodes. Relatively slow production cycle (every other month or so).

Historyzine: Appears to be inactive. Good stuff while it lasted.

Military History Podcast with George Hageman: A series of relatively short episodes that ranged from the ancient world to current events. Unfortunately appears to be inactive.

Science: Mostly astronomy-related (my main hobby interest when it comes to science).

365 Days of Astronomy: Initially launched in 2009, 2010 saw an additional nearly 365 10-15 shows about many aspects of astronomy. I found myself skipping through certain episodes by certain repeating contributors either due to production problems, beating certain themes to death and the like, but overall this show continues to be very good.

Astronomy Cast: Another contributer to 365 Days (above). Episodes are usually linked (an episode about Lyman Spitzer will be followed by an episode about the Spitzer Space Telescope, for example).

Cheap Astronomy: One of the regular contributors to 365 Days (above). Podcasts and observing/equipment advice.

Jodcast: Massive episodes twice a month.

Science Fiction: I call it "science fiction" but many of these also cover fantasy, horror and the like.

Angry Robot Podcast: Hosted by the multi-talented and over-energetic Mur Lafferty, this podcast deals with the offerings of the relatively new publisher Angry Robot Books. Alas, this will limit the subject matter and a series of bad recordings have kept me from enjoying this podcast as much as I might.

Clarkesworld: Regular audio productions of stories that appear in the magazine.

Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas: Episodes alternate between a book/author and a television show/movie. Unfortunately seems to be caught in "podfade".

Transmissions from Beyond: Stories from magazines such as Interzone, Black Static, etc.

Variant Frequencies: Appears to be a victim of podfade. Lots of stories available, grab them now before the site is taken down.