Well, I hope you enjoyed Part 1, showing where I find a good deal of inspiration and recalibration these days. Today I want to focus on another area where I spend considerable time -- within my little iPod world. Yes, it still falls within the area of the podcast, but has to do with news and information.
News -- Just Gotta Have It
I must have gotten this disease from my mother, but I think I only have a mild case of it. While I don't pore through the daily paper every day -- cover to cover -- from national news to local obituaries, I do like to listen to updates. I like to say, "I just want to see if the world is going to end today." As such, I have several podcasts that I subscribe to and listen to almost daily. And here they are: (All are available from the iTunes store for FREE, so I won't put individual links below. If you're interested, just go to iTunes and subscribe.)
CNN News Update
This is usually my first listen of the day. Whether I'm on the treadmill, or on the the train, I tune in to listen to about 5-7 minutes of the latest headline news. CNN makes it real easy -- they update this cast every hour, so you always have the freshest stuff. Not that I am a news junkie, but I figure this is a great way to economize my time. Just give me what I need to know right now... By the time this cast is finished, I'm done with my run warmup. Yahoo.
New York Times Front Page
This is more straight, plain Jane news. However, NYT only updates this once daily. A guy simply reviews the headline stories on the front page of the New York Times. They sometimes cover the front pages of other sections of that day's paper. It's not extremely "exciting", but does give a bit different angle than the CNN podcast. It's short, so I usually give it a quick listen.
NBC5.com News
This is where I get my daily Chicago news update. The podcast is basically a ten-minute version of either the morning news or the afternoon news. The feed is the Channel 5 local NBC news team from Chicago. It's good to hear Chicago sports (especially after that crazy MNF win for the Bears this week), and also Chicago weather (which is funny considering how different it is from Malaysian weather). The local stories obviously don't usually make it into the national news media, so I like to hear that angle. There's something cool to be said about hearing Chicago accents also!
National Public Rado (NPR) Story of the Day
This is a really neat podcast. Each day the NPR staff puts together a single story from one of their other main shows, and calls it the "story of the day". It's basically a variety show. Sometimes sports-related, sometimes human interest, sometimes scientific, sometimes entertainment. In any case, I like to listen -- it's kind of a slice of life snapshot, and that gives me something new to think about each day. Sometimes the stories can be long (over 20 minutes), but most of the time these come in easy-to-digest 5 minute "morsels". Frequency is daily.
ESPN Radio Daily Podcast
I debated whether to put this podcast in today's post or in my Part 3 post (coming soon!). It's a mix between news (today's topic) and sports/entertainment. From the news aspect, the daily ESPN cast keeps me in touch with what's happening in the sports world. As everyone knows, I love sports -- I'm a guy, what can I say? However, the beauty here is that the ESPN program gives me AMERICAN sports. None of this soccer / badminton / Formula-1 junk we get daily here in Malaysia. If I never see another soccer highlight again, I'll be a very happy man. The ESPN feed here in Malaysia features (literally about 20 hours of soccer coverage daily!). Call me a narrow-minded American, but I have zero interest in soccer or badminton or Formula-1 racing (or even golf for that matter -- which is popular here too). The ESPN podcast gives me the NFL, MLB, NBA, and college sports. I love it. Combined with skillful use of our "Astro Max" DVR / Tivo system, I can now even watch the occasional NFL game here, or even baseball from time to time.
So, that's it. I enjoy listening to news updates. I really don't have time to sit and read a conventional paper, so as long as I manage to download the podcasts ahead of time, I can keep my ears fed with the latest news in about 25-30 minutes of otherwise idle time running or on the train. I wonder how many other people use their iPod for news updates? Do you? Anyway, out of all the above, I'd recommend that you give the NPR Story of the Day a try. It's a nice feed, and quite interesting. Now, I'm off for another day......
greg
1 comment:
Greg,
You are so cute. Well, that's not the word I am looking for. You are so smart and you make me think.
I don't have an IPOD (Pete's favorite appliance) , when I walk I actually like to hear the birds, sounds around me etc. However, I do spend a lot of time time in my car and I find that besides CDs, the only thing I really listen to is WMBI and KLOVE, both Christian stations. Well, okay, WGN to hear the traffic reports. My point is the music and the teaching I hear there feed me. I know I could try othr stuff but I gain so much more, my spirit is fed, and sometimes my mood lightened by the reminders of God's grace and love. Great post, I love you. Mom
PS Can we try to SKYPE this weekend? I'll send an email to set a time.
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