Saturday, December 6, 2008

In praise of shortness

the shortness #2Image by noneck via FlickrThere's something to be said for a short show. My podcast listening enjoyment has increased 10 fold by:



All short. All concise. All worthy additions to your podcast playlist. What short shows (less than 10 minutes) do you recommend?







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10 comments:

  1. NPR: StoryCorps. Generally less than 5 minutes. Interviews by people with people, usually family members. Sometimes a child interviewing a parent or parents or grandparent(s), sometimes vice versa, or a couple who've been married 50 years talking about how they met. Little bits of living history and small slices of life.

    Telegraph: Corduroy Mansions: A new novel from Alexander McCall Smith, being podcast a chapter per weekday.

    And, if you're willing to cheat a little on the time limit, in a worthy cause:
    History According to Bob: Daily or near-daily, with most episodes 8-15 minutes long, but semi-regular Q&A episodes running around 30 min. Usually has 5-6 topics running in parallel -- Frankish kings on one day, Age of Exploration another, Civil War a third, etc.

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  2. Thanks for the list Evo.
    How do you balance being a content creator and a content consumer? Is this the best bet---> listen to short shows. :)

    Lying to Tell the Truth: It has changed format a little since you helped in the podcast studio. But for my first run with video it is coming along.. 3-4 mins.

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  3. I've only just noticed how few of my feeds have shows consistently below the 10 minute mark. Strange, I thought a lot of them would hit this range.

    The Radio Adventures of Doctor Floyd - @Toasterboy
    Career Opportunities - @dewelch

    Another really good one is Bells in the Batfry", but it typically runs 20-ish minutes.

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  4. Thanks for your list, Nolly. Though I'm betting the podcasted novel goes a bit over the time limit. If not... it probably should. But that's me wearing the Podiobooks.com hat. :)

    Tyson -- glad to hear the show has continued, albeit in a much different direction than you initially intended. This seems more you.

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  5. Here are some of my favorite short shows.

    The One Minute How-To: The host, George, invites folks to come on his podcast and spend 60 seconds explaining something. He's done quite a few shows and I like the bite-size nuggets of wisdom (and sometimes zaniness.) Evo, I believe you were a guest on this show, yes?

    Your Moment of Kim: Hosted by Kim aka ComicBookGoddess, and this is full of awesome anecdotes and observations.

    Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing: Mignon Fogarty is Grammar Girl, champion of tidy turns of phrase.

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  6. Each installment of Corduroy Mansions is around 8 minutes long, give or take a bit. If you've read his 44 Scotland Street novels, the structure and pacing are similar.

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  7. Yes, I was on OMHT. Need to do that again. Thanks for posting yours, Dan.

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  8. Evo, every time I see myself mentioned in a blog I get all giddy... Thanks for the feedback, and the props.

    Second the recommendation for History According to Bob.

    The gang over at For Mac Eyes Only does a long form PodCast in the beginning of the week, and then an additional short tip PodCast at the end of the week.

    And then there's this little show... The News from Lake Wobegon. The provider only makes the story segment available... It can run near 10 minutes, but definitely over... so... sue me... It's a short show that I have on my iPod.

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  9. Have you tried The Daily Giz Wiz by Leo Laporte and Mad's Maddest writer Dick Debartolo? It's roughly a 7-15 minute daily podcast that talks about gadgets in a fun and silly manner. I'm hooked to that show. Plus they have funny jingles for every day of the week.

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