My favorite media sources / blogs / podcasts

I love the internet. It allows us so many amazing opportunities to learn. Every day, people are creating content which we all enjoy. People who are experts in their fields.

I think I never really realized the value of expertise until the past two or three years. I thought that someone could really "master" anything in a short period of time if they had a general set of skills. This may still be the case, but passion and experience can really shine through.

So here are my top-twenty favorite media sources (podcasts, blogs, papers, magazines), in no specific order:

Podcasts (All can be found using an iTunes search)
1. NPR's collection. They've got This American Life, Cartalk, Talk of the Nation, To the Best of Our Knowledge, Intelligence Squared, All Things Considered, All Songs Considered, and Fresh Air, among others. All are superb examples of great journalism and storytelling. Oh- and don't forget Prairie Home Companion and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!

2. Podrunner. It's just a great way to get exercise music. I don't have to throw together a playlist, I just run my podrunner track and I've got an hour of beats to run or cycle to.

3. Short Stories: Selected Shorts and the New Yorker Fiction podcasts are like little "Buddhist catnaps". Really a great way to spend an hour, these podcasts entertain and challenge.

Blogs
4. Best Week Ever consistently provides some great content. I'm not a fan of celebrity news, but I do like how they mock the hyper-attentive celebrity industry itself.

5. Comics: Penny Arcade is funny in a very deep way; and Tycho's posts are always amusing. PVP is great, too. Both are about video games, but the humor reaches far beyond that.

6. Food blogs are better than porn. I just love Bitten. He makes some pretty great recipes. I love his videos the most. Jia's blog is great, as well as Eating Madison A to Z. Without them, I would never know where to eat on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday!

7. Politics, my favorite subject. DailyKos is the progressive blog, but it is definitely one-sided. Political Arithmetik is a great blog, but now it is mostly superceded by Pollster.com (where the author posts consistently). Media Matters is also a progressive blog with essays regarding media coverage of candidates and issues.

Traditional Media
8. NYT. That's easy. Crosswords, news, international coverage, the Magazine (What a great way to spend a Sunday!), food, art, wine, culture... Definitely worth the whatever-a-month it costs.


That's it for now. What's your favorite media source?