Throughout the best part of 2 years beginning in 2007, I was subcontracted into a big company in central London. This meant joining the millions who commute into and out of the city each day for a 2 hour journey each way. It meant leaving the house at 7 in the morning, and returning home at 7 in the evening not fun.
For the first few weeks I ploughed through all manner of books while rumbling back and forth, squashed into train carriages. The standout book from that time is still “This Book Will Save Your Life”, by A.
M. Holmes. It told the story of a workaholic stock broker who’s life changes direction one day when he is taken to hospital for chest pains, and stops at a doughnut shop on his way home. It sounds bizarre, but is still one of the best books I’ve ever read.
After purposely reading a few of the banned booksLolita, Tropic of Cancer, etcto see what reaction they caused on the train, I eventually grew tired of reading, and began writing. I purchased the first of my Moleskine notebooks, and spent most early mornings furiously writing thoughts down before the train grew too crowded to carry on. I dished out character assassinations of my fellow commuters, and oddball commentary on the happenings of the journey within the pages of my books.
Then one day I discovered podcastsradio shows downloaded into your phone, music player, or PDA (I used to have a Palm Organiser). I discovered Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Molly Wood, Amber MacArthur, Sarah Lane, John C Dvorak, and a host of other entertaining show hosts who spoke about the web, technology, new websites, silicon valley gossip, and all manner of other subjects.
Podcasts were my saviour.
In the spirit of “sharing the secret” so that others might enjoy some of the podcasts I still listen to regularly, below is a list of my favourite shows of the moment. From the irreverent “Diggnation”, through the often hilarious “BBC Friday Night Comedy”, to the geekery of “Linux Outlaws”, they are without exception quite brilliant.
Buzz Out LoudDiggnationEngadgetBBC Friday Night ComedyThe Geek ShowLinux OutlawsMacbreak WeeklyThe Social HourTech News TodayThis Week in TechIt’s probably worth me pointing out that the above links are to the RSS feeds for the various shows; not to their homepages. If you search for the show titles on Google, you will find them. If you drop the RSS feed URLs into iTunes, it will know what to do with them.