Podcasts to Die For

I'm falling in love with podcasts.

This week, I’ve listened to an Anton Chekhov story every day. I have listened to a dozen or so stories from the New Yorker as well as literary podcasts from The New York Times, The New York review of Books, the CBC, the Guardian. Podcasts can be loaded on to a Cd or into an MP3 player. I have been listening on my computer.

http://www.learnoutloud.com/Home offers audio books for sale but there is a nice free section with classics including the incomparable Anton. I also looked in at the poetry section and heard a bit of Shelly to help me go through my e mails.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/podcasts/outloud is a fantastic site of readings from the New Yorker but the prize is http://www.newyorker.com/online/podcasts/fiction . Here well known authors chose a favourite New Yorker story to read and discuss.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/books
for interviews and book excerpts.

http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/pastpodcasts.html?29#ref29
This site features the past Shelagh Rogers broadcasts with various Canadian writers. I think it is one of the best sites I have found so far. It seems to my this Canadian site is more relaxed, funnier, more radical in its choices, (listen to the Suzuki interview) and of better quality than any other I have come across. The American sites are sharp, all business and the British site (the Guardian) clipped and formal. A bit stereotyped, OK, but no other interviewer I have heard can match Shelagh Roger's laugh.

Here are other sites I have found so far.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/books-podcast-archive.html?ref=books
The New York Times interviews writers. Even though the sound sometimes cuts out in middle of a broadcast, the range of topics is so vast and interesting, I still recommend it.

The local library has links to podcasts but you have to enter your library card number and a password for each listening, a bit of a pain.