My Top Five Favorite Podcasts

Not being particularly tech savvy, I tend to come into most fun computer-related things fairly late. And so, I’ve only really just started to get into podcasts in the past six months — but I’m pretty thrilled that I have because my incredibly boring desk job would be almost unbearable if I didn’t have these gems to listen to.

By CC Staff

5. Sound of Young America

The title of the podcast is really fitting because the interviews they get are, and excuse me for using this word, cool. Really, really cool. Host Jesse Thorn (who has the hostiest host voice I’ve ever heard) has talked to everyone from Nick Hornby to the Upright Citizens Brigade to Elmore Leonard to my favorite, Dave Attell.

4. Amateur Traveler

There are few things in this world I enjoy more than travel, and out of all the traveling podcasts out there (and there are tons) this one is my favorite. I enjoy host Chris Christensen’s easygoing, unassuming manner and I’ve gotten tons upon tons of interesting, pertinent information from his casts. It has some episodes about travel in general, but mostly Christensen highlights a certain city and interviews experts or discusses his own experiences about that city.

3. This American Life

Whenever there is a new podcast of this show available, I gobble it up like so many M&Ms and proceed to cry throughout the whole thing. It makes for fairly awkward listening at work, but I don’t care. Perhaps you are familiar with Ira Glass’ series from the television show on Showtime, but even if you aren’t, I urge you to listen to these heartfelt, heartbreaking stories. With a box of tissues.

2. Talk of the Nation

In the past, I had considered writing a post expressing my intense love for Neal Conan, the host of NPR’s Talk of the Nation, in the vein of some of our other posts here on College Candy about strange and persistent crushes we have. I listen to Talk of the Nation every damn day and so I feel like Neal, with his stunning breadth of reference and subtle wit, has become a part of my life.

Talk of the Nation covers such a wide range of topics and interviews such an interesting cross section of people, that it’s difficult not to find something that interests you on the show. Everyone is treated with respect, which, in our age of punditry, is a rare and precious thing indeed.

1. Savagecast

If you haven’t read Dan Savage’s Savage Love sex advice column, please, I beg you, read it. It’s honest, hilarious, informative and delightfully graphic. But it’s not just called “Savage Love” because of Dan Savage’s name, but also because the love that Dan tends to dole out is pretty damn tough . He minces no words. I would go so far as to say that his podcast is more entertaining than his column because he gets to interact with these troubled people personally and Savage himself is generally just so fun to listen to, even if he’s talking about the most unsavory things. And believe me, most of the topics discussed are really, really, unsavory.

You can also download all of these podcasts on iTunes. Got any favorites of your own? Let us know!