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 Political Arithmetik is a great blog, but now it is mostly superceded by Pollster.com (where the author posts consistently).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?

what's his problem?!

Mr. McCain is going to have one hell of a problem this November.

Why? Other than the perceived honesty of Barack Obama, you have the connection with the failed current president, George Bush (43). The easiest way to win an open seat is to tie the challenger to the incumbent.

It's all too easy in this case!
1. Both are less articulate than their challengers. While McCain is more articulate than Bush, Obama ramps up the rhetoric even more, making the gap obvious.

2. Lack of ideas and lack of hope. Already the party of negativity is trying to shoot down everything the left suggests. It's interesting to note that McCain's speeches are about playing down hope and playing up negativity. Hope is resonating with voters and is growing. When people want change - poll numbers clearly suggest this - will that be a good strategy? McCain's age also ties into this. Can an old guy really get the change we want?

3. Even the processes themselves are calling out for change. If a Democratic president is elected on top of the flawed Democratic primaries, they will still have incentive to make changes by eliminating or decreasing the role of superdelegates. An underdog has a more ideological constituency and are less reliant on the process for future elections. Someone like Obama could empower Dean to make the requisite changes to the party charter. Hillary could - or would - likely not.

4. Specifics. Specifics will end McCain in November. Here's why: All the minor constituencies that don't have a home in modern politics will glom on to someone who they can imprint than on to someone who is an unopen policy wonk. And why shouldn't they? Why vote for McCain when he is already set (Iraq war, economic policy), while someone like Obama isn't - and thus owes his victory to these constituencies?

5. The obvious one - and has less to do with McCain than with George Bush - the enthusiasm gap. Republicans have such an internal contradiction building within their party right now. They are the party built upon the right, but the cleavages are so gigantic that they will not be overcome except by a truly visionary right leader.

McCain isn't that leader - he's a fill-in. Think of it this way: Republicans, for the past 8 years, preferred to have George Bush 43 as their presidential candidate. Nothing has changed with McCain.

And they can't even agree on George Bush any longer.


--Hat tip to Kos for the McCain picture.



Thorns and Roses:
+ Morning mix tapes. Okay, so it's more like a playlist. It's perfect this morning. We're trapped inside because of the weather. Freezing rain and now snow. So we're reading, Mallory's in bed, and I'm pounding this out enjoying my french-press coffee and Bright Eyes, Built to Spill, and Yoko Kanno. There's nothing better than bad weather to engender happiness in indoor-people.


+ Side note - if you don't know who Yoko Kanno is, check out "Ghost in the Shell- Stand Alone Complex" OST and any Cowboy Bebop OST.


+ Getting my orders. I have yet to post this but - I know what the next year of my life holds! I graduate in May, get commissioned on the 18th, and start work on the 19th. I'll be working for the Army as a "Goldbar" until January '09. Basically, I'll be on campus getting paid. Sweet deal, huh? I'll then be going to BOLC II (Basic Officer Leadership Course II), a 6 week course, at Ft. Benning, GA (Home of the Infantry). From there, I'll go to BOLC III, a job-specific course formerly known as AOBC (Armor Officer Basic Course). I'll learn there the basics of scout, light, and heavy armor leadership. Following that, I'll attend any follow-on training and then move to my first duty station (Still not sure where that will be).


+ Michelle Obama. She's not a political wife; she's authentic. Check out this article. She dislikes politics but loves a fight. Reminds me of someone I know... *cough*...!


+ 50 Book Challenge. Yes, I'm going to try for it. I may fall behind during the semester, but I'll make it up over the summer. Actually, I'm already behind. So far this year I've read:
1. Bill Bryson's Shakespeare
2. Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life in the Emerald City
3. J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye
4. Jason's I Killed Adolf Hitler (Does this even count?!)
5. Norman Mailer's A Castle in the Forest

And so far I'm reading:
1. A.J. Jacob's Year of Living Biblically
2. Dalai Lama's The Good Life
3. Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

So, if I finish some of those up quickly, I'll be back on track.

I may post some reviews or comments on the books I read, too.
Also, I'm not counting school-related books. Recreational reading only.


the first chapters of life almost made us give up altogether...