Podcasts are quite the rage these days! All the people, walking and driving and around listening to things and learning. It’s rather quite something.
What are some of your favorites?
I’ve long been a Planet Money fan, but I’m looking for some new ones, especially some good ones related to writing.
What say you?
I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and consultations! And kindly check out my guide to writing a novel.
Art: His Master’s Voice by Francis Barraud
I am a huge podcast nerd, and keep a list of my favorites on my blog. Here's the Writing/Editing ones I subscribe to:
You Should be Writing — The impossibly likable Mur Lafferty created this podcast to chronicle her struggles as a writer and it documents her rise to become a published author. Along the way she interviewed luminaries from the writing and publishing worlds. A very up-beat 'you can do it' vibe permeates this podcast. Website
The Creative Penn — Joanna Penn's podcast on writing & self-publishing. Lots of topics covered. Website
Writing Excuses — Short & to the point, a panel of accomplished authors discuss issues of craft & career, as well as listener questions. Skews to Scifi & Fantasy.
Ditch Digging — Mur Lafferty & Matt Wallace talk about their experiences as authors. Fiction-focused with a slant to Scifi & Fantasy, but good advice no matter your genre or style. Swearing abounds.
Books on the Nightstand
Geek's Guide to the Galaxy
The Secrets
Hide & Create
Nerdist Writers' Panel
Helping Writers Become Authors
Mad Writers Union — Hosted by three recent graduates from the Viable Paradise writers' workshop (Tim Boerger, Nina Niskanen, and Jay Wolf), MWU explores the craft and business of fiction writing from the point of view of the 'neo-pro' writer.
DIY MFA
The Author Biz
Pub(lishing) Crawl
Odyssey SFF Writing Workshop
Books on the Nightstand
Story Grid — A new podcast which explores Shawn Coyne's highly recommended guide to editing and story structure, 'The Story Grid'.
The Outer Dark
The Horror Writers
Story Wonk Daily / Story Wonk Sundays — No longer in production, but with a healthy archive, Story Wonk was a daily podcast for 300 episodes. They switched to a weekly format in 2012, and lasted for another 100 episodes. I just discovered this one recently, and I'm diving into random spots to explore the back catalog.
Sword & Laser — A science fiction & fantasy audio book club. Good for catching new developments in those genres and hearing how readers react to the finished product.
I like short ones with high information density, for the most part.
Ten-minute writer’s workshop. Interviews with writers, each lasting about ten minutes.
Mike Rowe’s “The Way I Heard It”. Short, nice stories with a twist into reality at the end.
Love my podcasts. In no particular order, here are a few.
Hardcore History with Dan Carlin: Dan is a master storyteller. His "podcasts" usually end up at the length of many audio books. History comes alive in his tales. So many great ones, but his series on the Mongols is fantastic, and one called "Steppe Stories" is the first one that made me fall in love with the podcast.
Freakonomics: Most people know about this one. Two economists discuss the issues of the day, from many perspectives.
Down at the Crossroads: Interviews with Neopagan authors, songwriters and practitioners, combined with cool music. Chris Orapello has mastered the art of discussion. Something missing in many podcasts, and in the news media. I'd love to hear him do a podcast on current events. Though I am an atheist, I find the different perspectives on spirituality fascinating.
The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Podcast: What's a Dunesteef? the world may never know. We do know that the Dunesteef podcast narrates excellent speculative fiction and features Bigg and Rich, two great friends. Worth it for the stories and the interplay between the two podcasters.
Reply All – A very good and eclectic show.
Science Vs – A show that applies science to controversial topics.
I subscribe to several podcasts because I have to commute ten hours a week plus. My favorite writing podcasts are The Sell More Books Show, Helping Writers Become Authors, Grammar Girl. Sometimes I just need fun so there's How Did This Get Made? You Must Remember This, Music First with DJ Dave Swirsky and Seincast. I also have politics, movie history, and health.
I need to hear variety, that's why I haven't listened to the car radio in three years.
That terrier isn't really listening to anything. There's actually a bone inside the gramophone horn and the dog is trying to figure out how to get it out.
I have only started really getting into podcast, something to take up the time while washing dishes…. The top three listed are Itunes hosted
My current favorite podcast is The Librarian is In, which is the New York Public Library's podcast about books, culture, and what to read next. Informative and fun, it's kind of like a news show for books, sort of.
Write Right is fun as well
#AmWriting with Jess and KJ is another writing blog that's fun, though I've only listened to one episode.
When I'm caught up with the show, Once Upon A Time (which I'm currently not) I listen to Once Podcast, which is the unofficial Once Upon A Time podcast off of noodle.mx
And my last non writing podcast is Joy The Baker podcast on homefries.com Joy is a cookbook author that talks about nothing baking related in a podcast she hosts with her friend Traci, though it hasn't been updated in a while
Speaking of podcasts, I want S-Town's Brian Reed to be my best friend. Speaking of S-Town, I feel like there is something important and meaningful to say about how its story was told and how he shared about character, but I'm not sure how to say it. Beautiful stuff, though.
Since Writing Excuses has already been mentioned, I'll give some love to The Protagonist Podcast instead. Each week the podcast takes a work of fiction (can be TV, comic book, film, or book) and examines it and the characters within it. The podcasters get very analytical as they try to figure out what makes a given character/story great (or not great, as the case may be). The listener doesn't necessarily have to have seen or read the work itself since they provide an in-depth recap, but a new listener would probably be most comfortable cherry-picking the episodes they know more about (there's over a hundred hour-long episodes at this point, but they can all stand alone).
I'd add B.J. Harrison's The Classic Tales podcast. One way to learn to write well is to read or listen to those who write well. This podcast let me do that in time that'd otherwise be wasted. And the stories he selects are marvelous.
I subscribe to too many podcasts to name, but the most relevant for writers are here.
Podcasts on craft:
Longform: Interviews with nonfiction writers of books, newspapers, magazines, and more.
Writing Excuses: 15 minute lessons in writing fiction.
Podcasts showing excellent storytelling:
S-Town: The story of a rumored murder in a small Alabama town.
Heavyweight: Jonathan Goldstein's stories from people tracing back to where things went wrong.
Radiolab: Stories both human and scientific. Great production.
Radiolab Presents: More Perfect: The stories behind pivotal Supreme Court decisions.
Revisionist History: Malcolm Gladwell's study of historical events overlooked or misunderstood.
Crimetown: Stories of organized crime and government in Providence, RI.
99% Invisible: The hidden design in everything.