New podcasts of October at Anne is a Man!

A novelty this month was the attention to podcasts in foreign languages. Not just the Dutch, that are always there. In addition this month there was one German and three Hebrew podcasts reviewed. They each go in their own category, but I will make a category of Hebrew Podcasts and possibly a German, or other languages category as well.

In the category of History Podcasts:
MMW 4 (UCSD) (review , site, http://podcasts.ucsd.edu/podcasts/rss.aspx?PodcastId=249)
The Making of the Modern World part 4, about the period 1200 - 1750 AD.

Teaching Company (review , site, feed)
A promotional podcast from the Teaching Company, a company that sells high quality lectures on audio.

Making History - עושים היסטוריה (review, site, feed)
Hebrew podcast about history, with an emphasis on the history of science and of technology.

Biography Podcast (Learn Out Loud) (review, site, feed)
Various biographies attended to by readings from original sources.

קטעים בהיסטוריה (review, site, feed)
Pieces of History, a Hebrew podcast. Selected topics in history.

In the category of Philosophy and Thought Podcasts:
Philosopher's Zone (ABC) (review, site, feed)
ABC's philosophy show with Alan Saunders

Beyond Good and Evil (Librivox) (review, site, feed)
Nietzsche's masterpiece read aloud on podcast.

In the category of Arts and Culture Podcasts:
Frankenstein, or modern Prometheus (Librivox) (review, site, feed)
Mary Shelley's novel read aloud on podcast.

Volkis Stimme (review, site, feed)
German podcast. Last week's news recounted with a comical touch.

מה שהיה היה (review, site, feed)
A Hebrew podcast from the Hebrew University's radio station 'Har Hatzofim' in Jerusalem. What is supposed to be a history podcast, turns out to have an special artistic quality.

In the category of Economics Podcasts :
EconTalk (review, site, feed)
A conversational podcast on economics.

In the category of Science Podcasts:
Science & the City (review, site, feed)
Lecture podcast from the New York Academy of Sciences

Subscribe in a reader
Paste the link
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Anne_Is_A_Man
into the RSS reader of your preference. (What is RSS?  - Help on getting subscription)

I love to get new podcast recommendations. You can let your preferences  know by commenting on the blog or sending mail to The Man Called Anne at: Anne Frid de Vries (in one word) AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk

Anne is a Man this weekend

For this weekend I have about seven blog posts in draft. I am doubtful whether I am going to post them all, but I'll list them anyway. If any of those you haven't seen until Sunday, you will see them soon afterwards.

- According to regular schedule, later today, on October 31, I will be posting an overview of the New Podcasts that were reviewed in the past month.

- Tomorrow, on November 1, as usual on every first of the month, I will be posting my full list of reviewed podcasts. This list has passed the 200 mark this month!

Other posts that are likely to be published between now and Sunday evening are:
- A review of Shrink Rap Radio; an issue about relational therapy.
- Podcasting is dead say some people and podcast entrepreneur Cameron Reilly explores this idea in talk held over a year ago.
- Four new shows have been released since the last time I reviewed In Our Time. It is about time to address the podcast again.
- The Word Nerds had a new show out about Debating.
- Berkeley's History 5 is about half way through the semester and I want to pay attention to what is said about the Industrial Revolution.

Suggestion for the advanced podcast listener

Under the label Instructions, I try to compile a set of help posts, giving some guidance to listening to podcasts and more. The first four are a quick guide for the beginner:

1- listen on line
2- download audio files
3- get iTunes
4- put feeds in iTunes

The next post I made, explains about RSS. This mainly showed how you can sign-up with an RSS reader (Google reader) and start following this blog.
5- RSS readers

However, Google Reader, for me, is also a great tool to follow podcasts. I think the advance podcast listener runs into a couple of problems when working with iTunes only. I know of other people. who stopped using iTunes and aggregate their podcasts in another reader, such a Juice. For me, since I use an iPod, iTunes still has great merit and what it lacks, I compensate with Google Reader.

The greatest problem with iTunes lies in the fact it is not designed to handle a huge amount of podcast feeds. Podcasts are listed alphabetically and when the list gets long, your overview is gone. Other RSS readers, though, allow one to create folders and organize the feeds therein. This is how I use Google Reader.

In Google reader I enter all podcasts I intend to follow (and there hundreds of those), ordered in folders, according to my preferences. This is how I know there is a new podcast out. I can even listen through Google Reader, with the help of a plugin. If I decide this podcast is worth listening, I copy the feed into iTunes and download the specific episode.

In iTunes I try to maintain as few feeds as possible. Also, I change the settings thus that iTunes never downloads an episode unless I say so (the default setting is to download the newest episode). And so, through my RSS reader I get a first impression of the feeds and in iTunes I enter only those I want to listen to.

Occasionally, I enter a feed in iTunes first. In order to make sure Google Reader is always synchronized, I will frequently export my feeds in an OPML from iTunes to the RSS reader. If you right click the podcast folder 'export song list...' is the option that allows you to save an OPML on your PC. Afterwards you can import this OPML to any RSS reader.

RVU stopt Simek, waarom zou Simek stoppen?

Wat lees ik nu? Ronald van den Boogaard, radiomaker in ruste, blogger en vaste lezer van mijn blog (verklaar ik met niet in te houden trots), wees mij op deze ontwikkeling: De RVU gaat met Simek 's nachts stoppen. Wat krijgen we nou?

Aldus de RVU:
De RVU heeft geen ruimte voor Napels én Simek 's nachts. - Een vereiste voor het vernieuwde Radio 1 is dat dat alle programma's live zijn, ook op dit tijdstip. - In waarderingsonderzoek van de Radio 1-programma's wordt het programma van Martin Simek de afgelopen twee jaar niet positief beoordeeld.

Kennen wij het programma Napels? Nee natuurlijk niet, want het is geen podcast. Als je afgaat op wat erover te vinden is, is het een tamelijk slap, doorsnee radio programma. Niet iets waarvoor we Simek in zouden willen ruilen.

Ik wil wel toegeven dat ik mij een beetje schuldig voel. Ik heb in mijn recensies onze Simek niet altijd even positief beoordeeld. Ik vond hem de laatste maanden beduidend zwakker, maar komt dat misschien ook door de beslissing van de RVU? Had Simeks intuitie hem al van dit voornemen op de hoogte gesteld, voordat de omroepbonzen het zelf wisten?

Hoe dan ook, Simek is een van de beste Nederlandse podcasts. Een met een recht van bestaan en een reeds aanwezig publiek, dat recht heeft op voortzetting. Laat Simek daarom zich niets aantrekken van de omroep en zelfstandig gaan podcasten.

Simek op dit blog:
Marc de Hond,
Geen podcast?,
Marjan Berk en Johnny Kraaykamp jr.,
Brigitte Kaandorp,
Heleen Mees, Maarten van Roozendaal,
Barbara van Beukering, Gert Dumbar,
Jaap van der Zwan,
Lucie Stepanova,
Olaf Tempelman,
Paul Gelderloos,
Bas Heijne,
Herman Finkers,
Tijs Goldschmidt,
Truus Menger,
Eva Maria Staal,
A. C. Baantjer,
Ida de Ridder,
Ton Boot,
Robert Kranenborg,
Douwe Draaisma,
Maria Sickesz,
Jeroen Pauw,
Anne Hermans,
Hans Dorrestijn,
Niko Koffeman,
Renate Dorrestein,
Carola van Alphen,
Maurice de Hond,
Jef Vermassen,
Guus te Riele,
Jan Rot.

Anne is a man and profile sites

I am frequently asked whether I am also available on one profile site or another. It seems my readers want to be able connect to me not just through the blog comments and email. I am indeed available on a range of profile sites, many of which I mainly use to promote the blog. I have decided to let you know where you can link up with me, below.

If you consider to do so, I would be pleased. I would be even more pleased if this linking up could result in something more than just a link between the readers an me. I would love to see the readers linking up with each other. My profiles on Facebook and Hyves, would allow that to a certain extent, but we could expand and join up on a Anne is a Man dedicated Facebook Page, or a Hyve on Hyves. In LinkedIn there is also the possibility to set up a group. Would you be interested in a Anne is Man-group, or better even yet, a podcast reviewer group?

In case there is some interest for one of these options, I will move along and set them up. While at it, this raises another question I have in my mind: would you be interested in getting an email newsletter from me, or be part of a Anne is a Man mailing list?

Questions, questions, questions - here are a few places you can give me answers:

Facebook
Hyves
Twitter
LinkedIn
Plaxo
StumbleUpon

Edgy Reviews from That Podcast Show 52 - from Edgy's blog

****For more detail not included in the written reviews please listen to the show to find out much more.***


Gateworld Podcast
Category: TV and Film
GateWorld discusses the sci-fi world of Stargate: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Universe, and the Stargate movies. Darren and David discuss news in the world of Stargate, give episode analysis of the tv shows, and air exclusive interviews with actors and others involved in the Stargate world. They come across as professional and well-spoken hosts with a well-defined show format that makes great use of bumpers and transition music. Even with their in-depth Stargate analysis, they don’t take themselves too seriously, and therefore, make great podcast personalities. The podcast is well produced and offers preferred audio lengths and refreshing consistency. This is a great podcast for anyone interested in the world of Stargate.

Inside Home Recording
Category: Technology
Inside Home Recording is a veteran in the podcasting world having started in August of 2005. It is a great resource for beginner to intermediate musicians and producers who want to know more about the hardware, software, and editing techniques of home recording. Paul and Derek have been the hosts until it was recently announced that Paul Garay will not be in future recordings until an unspecified time in 2009. These two are credible authorities when it comes to reviewing new equipment and software and when responding to listeners’ questions on technical issues. They are professional and keep the show entertaining as well as informative. We are pleased with the various formats this podcast offers including enhanced AAC, MP3, and video podcasts. Inside Home Recording has excellent sound quality: easily in the top 90%. The only negative we found in this otherwise excellent show is the heavy inconsistency in episode releases. Overall, this show is a great resource for anyone who podcasts or is involved with audio or music production.

The Movie Bandits
Category: TV and Film
This is a film discussion podcast in which hosts Austin Brown, Ryan Asava, Ryan Stibich, Dan Wallace, and Rich Geyer preview movie trailers, review movies, and discuss a featured movie they all watched over the weekend in more depth and with spoilers. With so many hosts on every episode, listeners may find it difficult to “get to know” the hosts and sometimes even follow the discussion. We did enjoy the inclusion of the “minisodes” released on Wednesdays however. This show features the use of music, bumpers, and audio clips of trailers to keep the show interesting. The drawback to including the audio of trailers, though, is that without the corresponding visual element, listeners may find the clips more annoying than interesting or helpful. Overall, this is a lively and informative film discussion show, which could be made better with some changes in number of hosts and format.

(quote from Edgy's blog)