Wait…Wait…Don’t Tell Me…

I still remember my first time; that gateway moment.

Driving in my car I flipped on the radio, landing in the middle of Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! NPR’s News Quiz.  Host Peter Sagal and Carl Kassell, official judge and scorekeeper, along with their guests, were serving up news and humor.

Wait. What? News could be funny?

I loved the show, but their broadcast hours clashed with my schedule, making my listening sporadic.

And then, they let me in on a secret.

“You don’t have to pretzel your life around our schedule,” they said. “You can listen to all of our shows on demand, on your schedule. Just download the podcast!”

Like all things tech, changing from a radio user to a deliver-on-demand user came with its own language. And technology tools. And new-user skill set.

Podcast

Podcast. It was a totally new idea to me. But I wanted to listen to Wait Wait, so I learned enough of the language, the tools and the skill set to download the show to my phone.

And for a long time, it was the only podcast I listened to.

But podcasts have been emerging fast and furiously over the years. On one episode of Wait Wait, Peter Sagal suggested another podcast to try. I checked it out. Ding! It got added to my playlist. Each new podcast enthusiastically recommended other podcasts. And then friends recommended podcasts. And then I poked around in iTunes. And my list grew.

• RadioLab
• This American Life
• Serial
• Reveal
• Invisibilia

Now, five years later, my list of podcasts has expanded to over 60, covering topics ranging from crime to comedy, health to history, and news to society, culture, technology, politics, food, and the arts.

Podcastphile

Like a bibliophile who keeps looking for great new books, I keep listening for great new podcasts. I love finding episodes that make me want to listen repeatedly because they shake up my world, make me laugh, or expand my understanding of life.

Pursuing Podcasts is a place to share love of those episodes that lingered…long after the program clicked off.

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