Podcasts

Do you use iTunes? My wife bought me an iPod some time ago and I was a bit afraid to use it for a while. I didn't want to jump in with all the thousands of people who were using the latest gadget. I also didn't want to spend money for something (like subscriptions) that I might not use. Before I came back to Iowa this Christmas, I downloaded my first free podcast. When I got back in January, I wanted to increase my knowledge about foreign affairs, US politics, because I was set to take the Foreign Service exam in February. There is HEAPS of stuff out there—free for the taking. For a while, I downloaded right-wing stuff because I wanted to get a more rounded view of society. I came up with the impression that the right-wingers are cynically opposed to everybody who doesn't think like they do, and that they end nearly every sentence with a smug laugh. They give the feeling that if you don't think like they do, then not only are you wrong, but you are stupid and senseless. I still download and listen to Radio Derb—a National Review broadcast from John Derbyshire—he brings up some interesting stuff. I haven't been able to find Rush Limbaugh for free. I have been able to find something called "Rush Limbaugh's daily lie," though. I've found that guy to be exactly similar to the obnoxious right-wingers except that he is on the other side of the aisle. My favorite newsy podcast is Marketplace. Other ones I like are The Story, Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, and The Economist. I also get Global News from the BBC and Free Speech Radio News (FSRN) from Los Angeles. It's interesting how when I listen to BBC and FSRN, I hear about a whole other world that the mainstream—including NPR—doesn't follow. For instance, there has been a complete political takeover in Madagascar and the civil war in Sri Lanka has mostly ended. Another podcast you might find interesting is Between the Covers on the National Review Online, hosted by John J. Miller. The between the covers podcasts are interviews with authors. The host asks pointed questions that boil everything down to exactly what listeners are thinking, and he doesn't give any opinions. It's almost like he runs that interview as if he is working for a high school newspaper and he has a list of questions that he doesn't deviate from. At first, you might think that is a stupid way to do an interview, but the podcasts are only about 10 minutes long, and he gets a heap of information out of the author in that short time. KCRW has an interesting podcast called "Left, Right, and Center" that tries to be balanced. Another podcast that I like it Mosaic. It is from several pastors, mostly Erwin McManus in Los Angeles. The podcasts are sermons from a Christian background. Yesterday, I heard one man say that he had moved to Seattle after finishing Christian college, and that Seattle was a vastly different environment—duh. His wife was studying Occupational Therapy and one of her classmates invited them over for a party. He didn't want to go because he didn't know what he would be able to say to lesbians and that he had never imagined that he would want to speak to a lesbian. He was surprised to find that he began great friendships at the party. The point is that this church, or group of pastors, or whatever, is not focused on moralizing—telling people what they should not do. In a podcast I listened to today titled, "What about sex?" McManus said that rather than emphasize a list of prescriptions for behaviour, he knows that when people enter into a relationship based on love of all people and of God, they will begin to change from inside—in that they are going to want to be the kind of person that God designed. Another podcast, titled "Religion, Sex, and Politics," has as its core message that we should not surround ourselves with people who think like we do; if we did do that, there wouldn't be very many people in our lives. It might seem that I have an adolescent hunger for libidinous activity. When I spent more than a year in New Zealand and Australia, I spent some time visiting different churches. In the presence of one Presbyterian pastor I made the dicision to become a Christian. I even called Mom and Dad and told them I was a Christian. Dad said he thought he was talking to a future priest. That experience lasted for a week, until the dogs of doubt started barking again. For the first few years of our marriage, Maura and I were as anti-Christianity as they come. Times change.