David Grubbs asks Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer about their favorite podcasts and other New Media endeavors. And he offers a few of his own!
Our theme music this week is Daniel Amos’s “Dig Here, Said the Angel,” from their album of the same name. All the links below take you to the podcasts’ RSS feeds, unless I couldn’t find them–in which case they take you to a website.
CHRISTIANITY AND THE ARTS
The Kindlings Muse
Open Biola
Seattle Pacific on iTunes U
THEOLOGY
Christ the Center
Theology Nerd Throwdown
Homebrewed Christianity
Office Hours from Westminster California
ARTS AND HUMANITIES
Entitled Opinions on Life and Literature
Radio Open Source
99% Invisible
The Philosopher’s Zone
The Partially Examined Life
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History
Khan Academy
NEWS AND POLITICS
On the Media
Left, Right, and Center
Radio LabCommon Sense
Fresh Air with Terry Gross
On Point with Tom Ashbrook
OTHER STUFF
Judge John Hodgman
French, Etc.
WDW Today
Firewall and Iceberg
The Cracked Podcast
Mental Floss on YouTube
Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me
Tested
Good list. I will give some of those a try.
My List:
For psychology, my favorite podcast is psycomedia ( http://psycomedia.wordpress.com/ ). This a UK-based podcast hosted by a pair of college friends, one of whom is working in mental health while the other pursues a doctorate in social psych. Episodes have managed
to combine cutting-edge neuropsychology with Star Wars references, an obsession
with delicious cake and scrub jays (a frightingly-intelligent species of bird),
and a true story about the researcher who rammed a sword up a cadaver’s nostril
in the name of science (Episode 1). I also listen to the occasional episode of Research on Religion ( http://www.researchonreligion.org/ ) when they touch on the psychology of religion (one of my areas of research). Even though it has dropped down to occasional episodes, This Week in the History of Psychology ( http://www.yorku.ca/christo/podcasts/ ) was awesome, and the back episodes are well worth listening to.
For Christianity-type-stuff, I listen to Unbelievable ( http://www.premier.org.uk/unbelievable ), another UK contribution. This is set up as a debate, usually between a Christian and an atheist, but sometimes between Christians of different stripes, and almost always done in a respectful manner (Like you said about the politics podcast, letting each other finish their sentences). I also listen to Reasonable Faith ( http://www.reasonablefaith.org/reasonable-faith-podcast ). This varies in quality, but anyone who is interested in apologetics should find some interesting stuff (mostly when William Lane Craig answers questions that have been sent in).
For pop culture, I listen to two Doctor Who podcasts, one from the UK ( http://thedoctorwhopodcast.com/ ) and one from Canada ( http://www.radiofreeskaro.com/ ). I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Thrilling Adventure Hour ( http://thrillingadventurehour.com/ )! TAH is formatted like an old-time radio show, and has become a big enough thing that they get guest stars like Nathan Fillion, Adam Savage, Amy Acker, Clark Gregg, Neil Patrick Harris, and Weird Al Yankovic.
Thanks for this list!
An absolutely wonderful survey of church history can be found in iTunesU. Covenant Theological Seminary provides two courses by Dr. David Calhoun: “Ancient & Medieval Church History” and “Reformation & Modern Church History.” Dr. Calhoun is a charming, brilliant, and insightful historian, and he really makes church history come alive in these lectures. Though primarily focused on the West, he does integrate some church history from the Near East, Far East, and Africa. I am confident that the CHP hosts and listeners would enjoy these lectures.
Dr. Calhoun also has a course titled, “Calvin’s Institutes” on iTunesU. It is a very interesting course on the history of these books and also a survey of their content. Not as engaging as the church history lectures, but the course does shed a lot of light on how Calvin finally arrived at the 1559 edition. Dr. Calhoun does a great job of filling us in on Calvin’s biography as he works through the institutes, drawing on historical scholarship, Calvin’s commentaries, and also his letters.
You can also download transcriptions, study guides, and lectures for these courses from the seminary’s website (after a free registration). http://www.covenantseminary.edu/resources/