Sources of Intelligent Audio for Commute? 550
confusus writes "Trapped in the daily routine of commuting for 1-2 hours every day, I started to ponder different ways of recycling commute-time waste. I tried listening to the radio, but 9.9/10, it ends up being just 'duh-whatever.' Then, I tried listening to audio books: it is really hard to find audio books that are tailored toward nerds. Thus I decided to find audio of interesting/geeky/nerdy/sciency interviews, talks, lectures. What would be the websites which provide such content?" I'd really like to find more informative downloadable audio content, too. Perhaps informed commentary and self-guided tours of historical and other sites, like national parks and significant buildings in the U.S. and elsewhere, basically self-guided audio walking (or driving) tours. Can anyone recommend a source?
podcasts (Score:5, Informative)
Here's a good source of podcasts [ipodder.org]
If you look around [google.com], you'll find plenty of what interests you available as a podcast. Should you not find what you're looking for, with any luck we'll see YOUR podcast up there soon too.
Re:podcasts (Score:3, Interesting)
I link several podcasts that I like.
Re:podcasts (Score:2, Interesting)
the total lack of mentioning podcasts in the Q just confirms it... he says that he's a nerd, but haven't heard of podcasts yet? not likely.
Re:podcasts (Score:5, Informative)
Exactly...So here a couple that I like:
Re:podcasts (Score:3, Informative)
Re:podcasts (Score:3, Informative)
The Inside Mac show podcast is pretty good. I like the Leo Laporte podcast. The NASA Scitech podcast is interesting, but new issues come out rarely. Sexgeeks is pretty interesting.
If anyone was considering getting into making podcasts, for the love of $DEITY, get more than one person and have civil discussions. The podcasts where only one person talks are lamer than the ones with discussions. Get a good sound capture dev
Re:What about text to MP3. Re:podcasts (Score:3, Funny)
GREAT! Now I can listen to that debate between Stephen Hawking and a Speak'n'Spell! I've been wanted to sit through that one for YEARS.
Re:podcasts - what they are... (Score:5, Informative)
The client users makes the app subscribe to the RSS feed. The client app then checks the subscribed feeds on a regular basis and then if the RSS changes it will automatically download the new show. The client user can then setup the app to create a playlist and then import it into iTunes or onto your iPod (or any MP3 player).
Because the show is just an MP3 you don't have to get the client, you can just download the MP3 from the podcast site and listen to it or burn it if you want to.
Since this post does seem like a opp to pimp podcasting, I have to pimp mine...
http://www.fakescience.com/labreport.htm [fakescience.com]
The Lab Report covers the new digital music industry and highlights new underground and unsigned music. This week we have Rick Carr, formely of NPR, and he is talking about his new show TechnoPop and also about Sandy Pearlman's $0.05 song economy. Check it out!
-halon-
Re:podcasts (Score:3, Informative)
Move closer to work, objections to:
* Cost of living is higher closer to work.
* Economic conditions preclude selling your house and getting something equivalent (related to number 1.)
* Kids in school, other ties to the area.
Now, working closer to home, objections to:
* These jobs are goin', boys, and they ain't comin' back (apologies to The Boss.) There is simply none of what you do that's close by.
* Nothing that would pay the equivalent amount close b
Record your next D&D game (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Record your next D&D game (Score:3, Funny)
You, sir, need to discover a woman with +5 Ta-tas.
GNU Lectures (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/audio/audio.html [gnu.org]
WebTalk Radio? (Score:3, Informative)
Wall Street Journal (Score:5, Insightful)
Wall Street Journal Audio Link (Score:5, Informative)
Public Radio International's lineup of shows (Score:5, Informative)
Check out the offerings distributed by Public Radio International [pri.org]. The archives of many of their shows are available to listen to for free. Specifically, check out This American Life [thislife.org], To the Best of Our Knowledge [ttbook.org], and Sound & Spirit [wgbh.org]. If you're able to record these shows from the archives (using some sort of scheduled stream-ripper like iRecordMusic or WireTap Pro), or purchase them (through Audible or ITMS), they can make an hour-long commute feel like mere minutes.
And for your Monday morning commute, make sure you've got the latest installment of Wait Wait -- Don't Tell Me! [npr.org], the NPR news quiz.
Re:Public Radio International's lineup of shows (Score:5, Informative)
Add to that the BBC [bbc.co.uk] (along with NPR, a member of PRI). All of the BBC radio stations have content available for 'Net re-broadcast (I believe you have to record them while playing as well). Radio 4 has excellent speech content with some fine comedy alongside in-depth art, science, current affairs and analysis (e.g. political interviews with members of both sides of an issue in the same studio at the same time).
Some of the BBC music stations are pretty good too. Many of them are segmented by market the way that US radio is but none of them have the sort of motivations that make much of the US radio I have heard just crap (IMO). Long live NPR!
Re:Public Radio International's lineup of shows (Score:3, Informative)
Pedant mode on:
Actually, it's not unique, nor is it down to popularity. The main problem with having things available for download, as opposed to replay, is the performing rights.
The BBC have been trialing MP3 download for some programs, picked for easy rights issues. I think the first was In Our Time, which is just some people talking about an issue which is usually complex enough to make re-listening worthwhile, all except Melvyn Bragg
Re:Public Radio International's lineup of shows (Score:5, Informative)
Just get Sirius (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Public Radio International's lineup of shows (Score:3, Informative)
Convert to mp3 (Score:4, Informative)
This and a number of other tips can be found on my blog.
IT Conversations (Score:2, Informative)
Re:IT Conversations (Score:2)
LUG Radio (Score:3, Informative)
Re:LUG Radio (Score:3, Funny)
"LugRadio contains language and topics that some may find offensive."
I guess they are talking about Perl?
NPR and other radio (Score:2)
A Short History of Nearly Everything (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A Short History of Nearly Everything (Score:3, Informative)
I ripped it to MP3. 500 minutes (a tad over 8 hours)
Good for long trips, although there is a lot of information in it. Can't say that your eyes won't gloss over after an hour or two.
How about just paying attention to the traffic? (Score:4, Insightful)
I want my in-car entertainment to be duh-whatever. If it's something that makes you think, then it's reducing the bandwidth you have to be putting towards the road.
Re:How about just paying attention to the traffic? (Score:5, Funny)
Only on slashdot will you see your level of concentration refered to as "bandwidth."
Here's the usual traffic report. (Score:3, Funny)
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Moved 5 meters
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Moved 5 meters
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
Car 2 meters ahead of me, stalled
You just got to have some priorities, know when it is time to stop paying attention and
Here's mine (Score:3, Insightful)
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Careful, gap on the right
Filter
Filter
Oh. Indicators ahead.
Filter
Road on the right.
Filter
Traffic turbulence ahead, joining road on the left
Filter up to the lights beside front vehicles.
Lights green, empty road ahead, check for jumpers and give it some welly, front goes light. Blip to second.
Intersection on the left, car waiting to pull out, seen me? Aye, right... Go wide anyway.
Favourite bend coming up, nothing close, pull it over, peg scrapes, a
Re:How about just paying attention to the traffic? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:How about just paying attention to the traffic? (Score:5, Insightful)
That said, I find the real "bandwidth" eater while driving is anything that requires any sort of response (besides the driving, obviously). That includes talking on the phone, holding anything (requires attention and response to handling the physical object - cup of coffee, magazine/book, radio, whatever), using navigation systems or even talking to the passengers.
If something is simply streaming information to you without interaction (leaving the radio on one station, sticking in a CD and not messing with it, listening to a talk show you downloaded), I do not find it interferes at all. I simply tune it out when I need to think about the traffic, and tune it back in when the situation is resolved. This doesn't work when you're doing something that takes your eyes off the road for any reason, but for audio based entertainment, I really don't see it as a problem.
You can pay attention to both. (Score:3, Interesting)
I really do not see an issue with the poster's request. Having something to listen to does not, in my own experience, reduce the "bandwid
Re:How about just paying attention to the traffic? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How about just paying attention to the traffic? (Score:4, Funny)
So it's you they've been targeting with all the crap morning shows.
Well, in the UK... (Score:5, Informative)
The last edition is always posted online at the above address as a 'Listen Again' stream - worth checking out.
CBC "Ideas" (Score:3, Informative)
CBC also has "Quirks and Quarks" which covers interesting topics and has interesting guests, but the commentary is a bit juvenile.
I really like "As it happens" but I'm not sure how good that would be recorded - they phone people who are in the day's news.
Re:CBC "Ideas" (Score:3, Insightful)
If commuting means "driving car" (Score:2, Troll)
Re:If commuting means "driving car" (Score:2)
Easier to talk to people in car because... (Score:3, Insightful)
I think partly this is because other people in the car are, in part, also paying attanetion to things around you and so you react to subtle signals from them that something is going on you might not be aware of. Also, they will stop talking when something tricky
IT Conversations and Podcasts (Score:5, Informative)
Check out the content available from IT Conversations [itconversations.com]. Lots of geeky stuff from lots of geeky people (People like Cory Doctorow, Steve Wozniak, Bruce Schneier, etc.).
You may also want to try listening to podcasts. Check out ipodder.org [ipodder.org] to see a directory of them. There is more than enough content there to keep you occupied on a daily basis. Oh, I guess I'm also assuming you can listen to MP3 in your car...
Do the math (Score:3, Interesting)
a week, 50 weeks a year (for a total of
two weeks "time off" for good behavior
each year), you pull in 500 hours/year
in a metal cage. If you do a decade of
work like this, that's about 208 days
in a car. Or, about the length of time
for a first-time non-violent felony
prison sentence, like robbery without a
real gun, grand theft auto (the real
thing, not the game), embezzlement,
and similar crimes. The difference
is that if you committed a real crime,
you'd at least have a chance of getting
away with it. But since you took this
crappy job, you're being sentenced to
a metal cage, without the benefit of
having potentially profitted from a crime.
Pray tell, what crime did you commit to
be sentenced to this metal cage that you
call "your commute"? Or do you not value
your freedom enough to demand or expect
something better out of life? (Don't be
ashamed if this is what you want for
yourself; the world does need cogs after all.)
Re:Do the math (Score:3, Interesting)
I am easily able to entertain myself. At home I often sit in a chair and think. I use my commuting time to do more of the same. Yes, I listen to CBC radio and sometimes to classic rock, but mostly I entertain myself with my thoughts.
Would I prefer not to commute? You bet. While I don't find the time torture, I'd sooner
Some sources (Score:2)
What's in your local library?
As far as nerdish fare, 'Hell's Faire' [legaltorrents.com] works. Audiobooksforfree [audiobooksforfree.com] is a good source. Old time radio shows [radiolovers.com] can be pretty good listening as well.
Another (Score:2)
An elegant solution... (Score:5, Funny)
You'll be laughing so hard that you'll drive into a telephone pole, and you won't have to worry about commuting for a while.
SICP Lectures (Score:4, Informative)
Quirks and Quarks (Score:5, Interesting)
As a bonus, you can even get it in Ogg.
yo.
Re:Quirks and Quarks (Score:3, Insightful)
Quirks and Quarks is now also available via the CBC in a Podcasting [www.cbc.ca] form, along with a program called "/Nerd".
The CBC has been doing an excellent job of exploiting the types of technologies /.ers love recently. First providing radio stream in Ogg Vorbis format, and now Podcasting. Cool :).
Yaz.
CBC's Quirks & Quarks archives (Score:2)
http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/quirks/archives.ht
NPR / PBS / Audible (Score:2, Informative)
Pacifica Radio and CBC if you can get them. (Score:3, Interesting)
Quirks and Quarks rocks. (Score:4, Informative)
This Canadian radio show has been running weekly since at least 1988, and covers a broad range of science news. I find they rarely dumb down their news, and often they will cover obscure and very interesting areas of research that you just won't hear about anywhere else in the news.
The website supports podcasting, realaudio, and you can download every weekly episode since 1988 right from their website. Pretty cool when you think about it.
This is definately superior news for the science nerd.
take public transport and read! (Score:2)
The wonders of the BBC (Score:5, Informative)
On a factual note there is "This Sceptred Isle" series, a 2000 year history of the British Isles that is about 44 hours to start off with. They have plenty of other stuff as well.
On a SciFi note they have HitchHickers Guide to the Galaxy, Doctor Who, Earth Search and a whole pile more as radio plays. As Fantasy they have the excellant Lord of the Rings dramatization, and a complete canon of Sherlock Holmes among others.
They also do a good range of comedy, though much of this does have a U.K. slant.
Outside the BBC there is a whole series of lectures by Feynman if that takes your fancy, try Amazon. If you are into Terry Pratchett, then try ISIS audio books for unabridged audio books of his Discworld novels.
Fortunately for me I live in the U.K. and I get much of this stuff piped directly into my house via digital radio straight onto my hard disk in MP2 format via the wonders of BBC7
BBC science programming (Score:2)
H2G2 (Score:3, Informative)
They're available from http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-browse?sh=1&butt
Re:H2G2 (Score:3, Informative)
For legal BBC material see http://www.bbcworldwide.com/ [bbcworldwide.com]
democracynow.org (Score:3, Informative)
Online philosophy lectures (Score:2)
Can't do much better than philosophy for something to engage your mind.
You're kidding, right? (Score:2, Informative)
How hard did you look?
All of Tom Clancy, Tolkien, Douglas Adams are available on tape and CD, as well as more Star Trek and Star Wars shite that you'd ever want to know about in your life.
Maybe start with Spock vs. Q
Feynman Lectures (Score:2)
mass transit? (Score:2)
Have you considered mass transit? You don't have to worry about driving anymore, and can read a good book, stare at the scenery, or have fun by creeping out the person sitting next to you. The ride might be longer than if you drove yourself, but I feel it's a lot better than stressing yourself out with 1-2 hours of traffic battles.
IT Conversations (Score:2)
Tons of public speeches from variety of interesting tech/sci related topics.
quasi-legal audio (Score:2)
Well, since you didn't mention any constraints, give BitTorrent + BitMe.org [slashdot.org] a go. The site's a little bogged down, but the torrents aren't.
I've found more lecture, speeches, and misc audio there than I can listen to in a lifetime (even at my usual "mplayer -speed 1.5" chipmunk speed).
My 2 cents (Score:2, Informative)
Ira Glass (Score:2)
http://www.thislife.org/
Hundreds of episodes available for free on real-audio.
But you'll want a way to stream them to a file that you can listen to later, the shows are $13 apiece, which is a bit steep if you're just looking to buy them blindly.
Rush hour traffic and Scientific Talk Radio? (Score:2)
Are you trying to slow traffic down more than it already has to go? While you're off pondering the deep ramifications of how the latest research on String Theory is moving forward you're gonna slow down and bug the crap out of everyone around you--bring on road rage.
Meanwhile, you could be getting a good belly laugh by listening to Tom Leykus about topics that really matter--the voodoo we call dating. Or as Tom would say, ``How to teach men to get more ass for less cash.''
nerdy audiobooks (Score:2)
Also, I've recently gone through "When Genius Fails" - again, a long one at 9.5 hours. Purchased from audible.com for $9.95 (first purchase discount). Great look at the fall of a big hedge fun
NPR (Score:2, Redundant)
National Public Radio is awesome: Smart, diverse, interesting. They could use your financial help, too.
Fifth HOPE (Score:3, Informative)
Two Bits (Score:5, Informative)
Talking History [talkinghistory.org]
These two have kept my train ride going for a while
NPR! (Score:2, Informative)
From Grand Master Flash to Donald Knuth...
Foreign language? (Score:3, Interesting)
It is a perfect setting - lots of free time, a CD player, and nobody else around. (You feel pretty stupid repeating words over and over again in a foreign language if you are around other people). All of the Pimsleur lessons are 30 minutes each.
SETI Radio Network (Score:5, Interesting)
2600 (Score:4, Informative)
2600 [2600.com]
Or Sun has their Java evangelists create real audio lectures.
Also, I purchased Verbal Advantage
Verbal Advantage [verbaladvantage.com]
When going through DC I listen to C-SPAN Radio, or whenever available.
C-SPAN Radio [c-span.org]
When available, I listen to NPR.
NPR [npr.org]
If it's the wee hours, I listen to Coast to Coast AM
Coast to Coast AM [coasttocoastam.com]
I also like Neil Boortz.
I also purchased "Word Smart" and "Grammar Smart" on Amazon.com, which are published by the Princeton Review.
Doing the same thing ... (Score:3, Informative)
One thing that's interesting -- I find books I've already read to be especially good; there's a whole different feel to the story when read by a good character actor.
Old Time Radio Plays (Score:3, Insightful)
There are many binary newsgroups where oldtime radio is posted and it won't take you many days to download enough material to keep you listening for several years.
A lot of old time radio is amazingly good.
Richard Feynman - Deifnitely worth your time (Score:5, Informative)
Audible.com has them.
"The Pleasure of Finding Things Out"
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"
"What Do You Care What Other People Think?"
Re:Richard Feynman - Deifnitely worth your time (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Richard Feynman - Deifnitely worth your time (Score:3, Informative)
I listened to Six Easy Pieces on audio while driving. They were great.
I listened to Six Not So Easy Pieces on audio while driving. I found that I could not follow the physics and drive at the same time. I wouldn't recommend these for driving. For home they're great, though.
Supreme court audio (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/nitf/273/ [oyez.org]
They provide a basis for our legal system, and reflect some pretty important times in our history. Plus, there are inevitably arguments for and against that I had never considered, (Can I mod justices +1 insightful?)
Podcast of Harry Shearer's "LeShow" (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.kcrw.org
http://www.harryshearer.co
Real nerds (Score:4, Funny)
But I digress. Good listening to you!
There are plenty of great audio books and lectures (Score:3, Interesting)
Then there are two excellent "audio lectures" companies that basically record college freshman-level lecture courses on CD. (One of them is called the Teaching Company [teach12.com], and the other, I forget.) Most of these are decent, and some are quite excellent. There are lots of titles available, and if you're like me and have an interest for almost everything academic, you won't run out of stuff.
Now, I hate to say this, but it has come to my attention that many of these recordings are available illegaly through newsgroups and some p2p sources like eMule. I leave it to your conscience what to do with this information (keeping in mind just how many immoral acts are legal and illegal acts moral). If you asked me whether I prefered motorists who enrich their minds with bootleg lectures about the Aneid, Roman history, or Feynman's excellent lectures on Relativity to motorists who adhere religiously to federal IP laws, I must say that I'd choose the former. But don't ask me. I teach ethics at a major university.
http://freeaudio.org/ (Score:3, Interesting)
-russ
Festival and guttenburg (Score:3, Informative)
The "tape" part of books-on-tape (Score:3, Informative)
I've found that my local public library has a great selection of fiction, and it's virtually free. Recently I listened to a Clive Cussler book. It's just a little geeky with some action, adventure and women thrown in. Dune audio books will get you all the way across the country. I just enjoyed Dune House Atreides (which was 6 tapes)! I had much fun with the very large selection of Star Wars audio books (not the real episodes, but all of the in-between stories). If you ever fdo buy an audio book, don't let it sit in a box somewhere. Donate it to your local library so that others can enjoy it!
A good source for digital content may be Audible.com [audible.com]. For example, I just noticed they have all of the books from my favorite Ender Wiggins series by Orson Scott Card [audible.com]. If they have all of those books on MP3, I can imagine what else they'd have. For a tech geek, try a one-year subscription to "Technology Review"! You'd download them to your PC and then transfer them to your MP3 player or iPod or whatever and broadcast to your stereo as long as the batteries last (buy rechargable batteries!).
Some (like me) haven't made the bold leap into the 21st century and still have a stereo/tape player as their primary audio device in their car. I recently found a PC-to-tape [overclockercafe.com] device being advertised and reviewed. It looks great, but I don't have such a disposable income that'd warrant such luxury. I'll probably jury-rig some software to connect a cheap wireless Linux PC around my house to my stereo and record that way.
-ez
Get a job closer to home! (Score:3, Insightful)
Long commutes are very irrational and do extreme amounts of damage to the enviroment at your own expense.
Wouldn't it be better to consider getting a job closer to home or moving to live closer to the place you visit (and currently waist 1-2 hours getting to) almost everyday of the year?
interested in learning classical music? (Score:4, Insightful)
Audio books rock (Score:3, Informative)
There is plenty of great stuff on audio cd, but my two main sources have been Simply Audio Books [simplyaudiobooks.com] (a sort of netflix for audio books) and Great Courses [teach12.com].
Simplyaudiobooks has a lot of fiction (including the first volume of Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, if you can believe that) as well as semi-pop science books like Hawking's the Universe in a Nutshell. You can also get this stuff on Amazon if you prefer to buy.
The Great Courses are basically a bunch of recorded colledge lectures, but (unlike my actual colledge experience) they are mostly pretty interesting. Topics include science, history, math, economics, biographies, and philosophy.
In Our Time (Score:3, Interesting)
In Our Time is a show presented by Melvyn Bragg, who discusses a different subject each week, with expert guests. In general they apply a historical context to some scientific, technological, religious, philosophical or political movement.
Interesting recent subjects have been:
Quality of guests is high: for example, Simon Sing was on the crypto program, Roger Penrose and John Gribbin are regulars, etc.
As well as being broadcast on Radio 4 on old fashioned analogue radio, In Our Time has the honour of being chosen as the BBC's experiment in podcasting [bbc.co.uk].
In Our Time (Score:3, Informative)
The Teaching Company (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Read a book! (Score:2)
I'm about to move from the 20 minute drive to a hour drive. Perhaps then the train will be a decent alternative.
Re:What about actually reading? (Score:3, Insightful)
They scare me.