I am completely hooked on podcasts. Completely. Obsessed. Hooked. Infatuated.

If you're unfamiliar, here's the skinny: Invented by former MTV VJ Adam Curry, podcasts are basically radio shows recorded at home by amateurs and posted on the Internet, blog-style. You can go to each site and individually download each podcast and listen to it on your computer, but the best way to listen to them is to get an aggregator such as iPodder, which automatically downloads all of your favorite podcasts for you whenever it's convenient. I set mine to do it while I'm sleeping. I wake up, update my iPod, and now I have hours of shows to take with me.

See, I am the ultimate podcast audience, since I listen to headphones for 5-7 hours a day, 6 days a week. I'm always needing new content, and podcasting provides it for me, with no financial or time investment on my part.

Anyway. Here are some of the podcasts I've been listening to. I'll probably end up posting more in the future.

The Dawn & Drew Show (website | feed)
The A-1, most popular podcast in the world, with good reason. It's funny as all hell, and I could listen to it all night. Drew Domkus of Wisconsin was one of the first geeks to do a podcast, but the problem was, it was really boring. Then his wife, Dawn Miceli, stepped in and turned everything around. The show consists of the two of them sitting on their living room floor and talking about whatever, and it's always hilarious and usually raunchy and juvenile. As they describe it, the show is just how they talk all the time. Sometimes they have guests, like the time they called up a friend of theirs to describe the time she did crack. But mainly it's jokes about leprachauns, Coca-cola, and blowjobs.

Daily Source Code (website | feed)
This is Adam Curry's podcast, which deals mainly with the subject of podcasting. There's lots of techy, geeky talk about gear and software, but there's also a lot of suggestions about other podcasts to listen to, which is the best part. It has a professional feel, mainly because of Adam's VJ voice, but you get the real podcast feel too when he starts yelling at his dogs or has to stop recording to answer his phone.

Tracks Up The Tree (website | feed)
Funtime Ben and his buddy Josiah play indie music and jabber on endlessly. It's sort of funny, but what this show is lacking is any kind of serious discussion of the bands that are played. Since this is all "podsafe" music, the bands are all people you've never heard of. I'd like to know some more background stuff about the bands, and why they are chosen, since if all I wanted was to find anonymous indie music, I could just surf around on the web and find it myself.

Coverville (website | feed)
At first I was a bit put off by the amateurishness of this show. Brian the host is sort of a nerd, but he really knows his stuff. Each show features about 5-6 cover songs, many of which are played by request. I like this show and now it doesn't seem amateurish at all.

What They Sang To Me (website | feed)
This podcast is a good idea, but very poorly executed. The host David Johnson chooses one song, describes what he likes about it, then plays the song. The best part is when the description is really personal, like when he tells an anecdote about the first time he heard the song, or something like that. Trouble is, these descriptions are rare. Usually, he just tells the "story" of the lyrics, and talks about how cool the guitar part is. But the worst part is that when he plays the song, he talks over it. "OK. OK. Here's where the drums come in...YEAH! OK. Now this is that one part I told you about, where his girlfriend dies... OK. OK. Check out these background singers..." I've stopped listening to this show, but I'd like to see a podcast similar to the "My Life In Music" blog posts that I and a bunch of other bloggers did a few months back.

The Daily Download (website | feed)
Host Chris Rockwell is a great multi-tasker who makes efficient use of his time. The gimmick here is that every day, he records a show while going #2. (His goal is to get a sponsor to give him a year's supply of TP--the really soft kind.) There's the inevitable poop and ass jokes, but there's also telephone interviews, sometimes interrupted by Chris saying something along the lines of, "Hang on a second, I gotta push." God bless the Internet.
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