The podcast that is just about my favorite anything these days

I don't get out to movies that much these days, and rarely it seems have two hours to consume movies on DVD. There are TV shows that I watch, and books I read, and intermanet properties that I consume.

But, and I can't believe I haven't mentioned this before, my favorite anything these days is the audio podcast Jordan, Jesse GO! featuring Jesse Thorn and Jordan Morris.



I started sometime around Episode 40 last fall (Ep 62 came out this week), and have since gone back to begin to listen to the complete archive of the show.

Thorn's flagship program is The Sound of Young America, which he distributes as both a podcast and as a public radio show to select stations via PRI. But Jordan, Jesse GO! is why I contribute to his small media empire (MaximumFun.org) every month. (He's having a pledge drive now, and I am considering upping my monthly subscription rate.)

It is difficult to describe the appeal of JJGO! At face value, the concept of two straight white guys in their twenties riffing into microphones for an hour and a half sounds horrific. But their peculiar mix of earnestness, nerdiness, fake irony, and ridiculousness keeps me entertained week after week.

I'll finally note that Ira Glass and his wife both listen to the show (he has interviewed Jesse about it, and she has called into the program).

Try episode 40 on for size. If you're not hooked after that, you're out of the wedding.

Remembering Miriam, on All Things Considered

Melissa Block's remembrance of Miriam from this past week, with a link to the online archive of her earlier interview.

I Am Not Keeping Up With Your Blog

NPR commentator David Weinberger officially releases you from having to keep up with his blog. Because he's not keeping up with yours.

And that's ok.

NPR: O'Connor the Moderate?

Sandra Day O'Connor's speech yesterday at Georgetown University was not available for broadcast, but NPR has a cracking good report on it. I have never been so in love with Nina Totenberg.

Without naming names, O'Connor ripped into the rhetorical bullshit of Tom DeLay and John Cornyn, and the dangers of partisan attacks on the judicial system.

Pointing to the experiences of developing countries and former communist countries where interference with an independent judiciary has allowed dictatorship to flourish, O’Connor said we must be ever-vigilant against those who would strongarm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, she said, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.

Follow the link to hear the story, or click to read a transcript.

OK Go: A Million Ways

Perhaps you've seen this music video online already. Perhaps you heard Robert Siegel's interview yesterday with the lead singer and choreographer and then watched the video on npr's site.

But then, perhaps you haven't. In which case.

NPR's got the report

You know, the one Kenneth Tomlinson commissioned to have Frederick Mann watch NOW and quantify the liberal content. The one he won't show to the CPB board, to the public, or anyone else.

Somebody's been up to mischief in the copy room, though, and fed the report to NPR.

PDF downloads and everything.

Today's podcast: Lessig and Tweedy

Although fully listenable without an iPod.

A conversation on Free Culture with cyber-copyright law professor Lawrence Lessig and faux-humble megalomaniac rock star Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, as moderated by Steven Johnson, author of the new Everything Good is Bad for You.

Best to download during the evening hours, when bandwidth competition is lower. Or, figure out that whole audio torrent thing.

Or, wait. There's also a Quicktime video feed. So you can actually see Lessig's Keynote presentation.