ABC 13: On Podcasts and Podcasting.
This episode was intended to be a 101 on what podcasts and podcasting is all about… a subject intro / overview. In practice it is but one episode in a series to cover this subject. It is also worth noting that what I present to you is not a “status quo” version of what podcasting is about: It’s a somewhat radicle version… where in I try to talk about the structural systemic shifts to culture and society that podcasting represents…. via the magic that is the leftist media critique. But before we get to all that, just what is Podcasting anyway? Perhaps we should ask a Ninja?
Hmm, interesting… Well the first thing you want to do to explore the magic of podcasting is get your self a “pod catcher.” A “pod catcher” is a little devise you use to subscribe to a podcast, here’s some free options:
podcatchers:
iTunes
Juice
Doppler
A page with a more extensive list
Once you got your self a pod catcher, what you want to do is explore “podcast directories” which are places where you can search for podcasts in subjects you might be interested in.. Here are some popular podcast directories:
Podcast directories
Podcast Alley
Podcast Pickle
Podcasts.Yahoo.com
Digg.com/Podcasts
also visit Podcast 411’s Directories, for a huge list of podcast directories.
If that’s not enough.. I thought I’d provide you a list of a few of my favorite podcasts… I full list of my favorites is probably 5 times the length of this list.. but I think this represents a reasonable survey, covers a number of bases and um… well dig it.
Podcast 411 is an “inside the actors work shop” for podcasters.. each episode involves interviewing another podcaster, and talking about there podcast.. what its about, blah blah blah.. It’s a great why to find out about podcasting and discover new podcasts.. Rob’s website is also a great source for information on podcasting..
12 Byzantine Rulers: The History of The Byzantine Empire
Some groovy Roman history for ya…. It’s really fun hearing about how power used to roll in the old days.
Alan Watts is a pretty cool philosopher who deals very well with eastern philosophy
A Ninja answers question about Ninja’s, its a comedy video podcast. It’s a must see! (you should have seen it at the top on “what is podcasting.”)
Web design with a standards / accessibility centric perspective.
Jack Welch is a Business Guru who’s worth listening to if you’re interested in business.. kinda gives you a few from the top of the business world.
CreativeXpert Design Interview Series
Really great interviews with “creative experts” aka creative pros..
On the intersections of Graphic Design, Branding, and Culture, and Business.. and interview series with, mostly, designers.
Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders: Stanford Technology Ventures Program
A seminar program with business thought leaders give little lectures with interviews.. It’s an amazing series… can’t recommend this one enough.
Interviews with folks involved in the Free “Libra” Open Source Software movement… you should know about the open source world.. so check this out.
HBR Idea Cast: Harvard Business School Publishing
The HBR Idea Cast is a brilliant place to turn for “High Mind” business thought. good stuff.
Media Artist Secrets with Franklin McMahon
Media Artists Secrets is the first podcast I started to listen to.. It’s basically on how to make it as an artist / media artist.. It’s good stuff.
A favorite podcast on the subject of music production… You’ll probably want to already know the 101 before you start in on this podcast, but it’s good stuff.
Thew Web 2.0 Show: A podcast about the “new” web
Kinda a web application developer centric view of the net.. interviews with movers and shakers.. and all sorts interesting stuff.
If you’re a Media artist you should probably be listening to this podcast. You got folks from ILM whom are very sophisticated about there craft, the talk is always a hell of a lot of fun, and its a great help in keeping you up on a broad range of stuff.
“dedicated the exploration of Thelema, Aleister Crowley, the New Aeon, ceremonial magick, and the occult,” and has the further tag line “Occultism without apologies.” I’m not an occultist, but these folks are amazingly sophisticated.. or I say this from a Jungian perspective.. and thus I say “thou must check-ith this out-ith.”
Digg.com is a “social news web site.” Basically the users of the site vote on what they digg, or don’t digg, and that guides a stories ranking in a system.. in relationship to the front page. In Geek / tech circles Digg is…. well its very big.. the podcast features a couple of podcasters getting drunk while they read the news.. and its really funny and good for getting in touch with geek culture.
For Immediate Release: The Bobson & Holtz Report
Twice weekly commentaries on public relations and technology by Shel Hotz & Neville Hobson There’s a huge revolution going on in areas of marketing, pr, publicity, corporate communications.. as a
History 5: European Civilization from the Renaissance to the Present
This is a class from the University of California Berkeley… A history class.. its one of my favorite college course lecture podcasts… which is to say a college course where the lectures are recorded and turned into podcasts. It’s very good.
Ok, so now onto the media critique stuff: What’s wrong with the media
One of the things I talk about in the podcast is the relationship of the new social media.. podcasting, blogs, and what not.. to old mass media.. Talking about this on a structural level…. the relationship between the systemic forces of Mass Media and those of Social Media, and there Implications: This is what I think is most exciting about this new media of Podcasts.
I’m not sure if I’m actually a leftist or not, but I do believe that leftist critiques can offer powerful insights to what’s really going on now.. I believe that it makes sense to listen to these figures for your self, to see what you think of what they have to say.. and decide for your self. Further, I’ve had this idea that the symmetric Biz Cult is at least in part about the struggle between the prophetic and imperialist traditions.. and this represents something of a prophetic view of things… So check it out:
Noam Chomsky
Manufacturing consent: This is a documentary that, among other things, explores structural problems with Mass Media.. which is excellent for highlighting the difference between mass media and social media.
Concision: If you want to do marketing, publicity, or public relations, one of the things you must try and master is concision.. how to speak in sound bites.. the problem is.. how does a world where all arguments and thoughts have to compressed into sound bites.. how does that effect our collective consiousness? (Of course social media doesn’t have this limitation.)
Howard Zinn of Civil Disobedience: If you look at political history, “the good stuff” happened when the people got together to make something happen… Social media empowers this sorta thing.
Public Enemy: Fight the Power: Yea, Boy! I figured we needed a good anthem.
Foucault versus Chomsky Part 1: This is some exerts of a famous debate between Foucault and Chomsky where Foucault famously out flanked Chomsky by going to his left (most people think of Chomsky as on leftist extreme) I suppose Foucault is to the left what the Cato Institute is to economic conservatism… In the podcast I talk a good deal about “power relationships” and this conversation gets into this in some interesting ways.. so check it out.
Part 2
Ice T - The Tower: I thought this was good to throw in there because it shows a kind of continuum of these kinds of critiques… (editors note, since this episode was originally published it was taken down for copyright infringement. It made sense in relationship to the this entry’s theme of power in society. In search of a replacement.. the lyrics of this track, one a user generated video, seems to speak to similar issues from another angle)
Tom Friedman’s case for America going green (Tom is no leftist you understand):
I wanted to find some better stuff with Tom Friedman.. on his “world is Flat” stuff, because this is where things would get interesting… Globalization is.. well its a kind of economic reality that tends to not be well liked by folks of a more leftist persuasion.. the out sourcing of American jobs to India, China, and the like.. is not something American’s dig too much.. however globalization does have it’s plusses… one of the interesting things about Friedman’s work is that he refers to Globalization as something Karl Marx more or less prophesied in his Communist Manifesto.. Which is to say that there’s this strange way where leftist critiques seem to have certain prophetic systemic insights, I would argue.. further it shows us that globalization does have a way of leveling the playing field where size, money, economies of scale, market position.. and other things.. don’t give the big established companies the same sort of advantages they once enjoyed.. And of course his book is about nothing other then the kinds of systemic shifts that I’m trying to talk about here… I just wish I could find a clip that went into this sorta thing better!
On the subject of power: This podcast does talk about power and I did want to offer some further reading on the subject. So here’s some good stuff on the subject of power:
Michel Foucault: Philosopher Historian of Power.
Theodor W. Adorno: Composer, philosopher, social theorist of the FrankFurt School
Alfred Adler: Adlar was the first psychologist of Freud’s inner circle to break with Freud.. Adler say power, instead of sex, as the core driving force of human nature.
Carrl Jung: Jung’s ideas on psychology types, which are an important part of modern management theory, balances the Freudian view of the sex drive as the central force of human nature with Adlar’s notion of the power drive..
Something that might also be interesting on the subject of power is the subject of Chakras.. which comes out of Hinduism.. which talks about stages of consiousness inside of which we see both the power drive and the sex drive as being early stages of development, prior to spiritual awakening.
Friedrich Nietzsche: Nietzsche is a rather bad ass philosopher who deals in large part with issues of power (a big influence on Foucualt, it should be added)
Two of Nieztsche’s major works that I would recommend on the subject of power are:
January 5th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Thanks for referencing FLOSS Weekly (twit.tv/floss)!