My classmate and fellow blogger, Hoya SuperSnail, knows how to pick her Podcasts. I love, love, love Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. I download all of Wait, Wait’s episodes before any big trip and entertain myself for hours on end. I enjoy the show’s mix of humor and real, honest-to-goodness current affairs. Problem is… anytime I’ve tried to share one of the shows with friends… well, they don’t get it. They have no clue why I’m laughing uproariously at Carl Kasell and Peter Sagal, and they actually make bored faces (I may have even seen an eye roll or two). So a hearty thank you to Hoya SuperSnail for letting me know that there is another fan out there.

Beyond Wait, Wait, I also love the other public radio news quiz show, What’dya Know; art and culture show Studio 360; and the acclaimed storytelling show This American Life. To me, public radio and Podcasting are a perfect match. Podcasting gives me the flexibility to listen to the shows whenever I want, since I absolutely never catch them in my car. Through my iPod, I can have the time to enjoy the shows and really listen.

Like Hoya, I have a few other non-public radio shows that I listen to on a regular basis. For the writer in me, I recently stumbled on Grammar Girl. She gives grammar tips quickly (5 minutes!) and with fun. If I had known that grammar could be so interesting, I might have listened in to my teachers back in school. Or, maybe Grammar Girl should’ve been my teacher!

My ex-boyfriend also introduced me to Acappella U, a Podcast showcasing collegiate acappella music groups. If you don’t know acappella, it is so worth a listen… imagine all your favorite, popular songs sung without musical instruments… the singers instead make the instrumentals sounds with their own voices, plus sing all the parts. Not only has this Podcast turned me onto a new style of music… it also renewed my interest in popular music. The USC’s Reverse Osmosis got me hooked on their version of Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar, We’re Going Down” and, in turn, got me to buy the original Fall Out Boy version.

I tried Dawn and Drew’s Podcast… not bad. I also tried Mommycast… so not my cup of tea, since I’m not a mother. The fact that there’s a market for both the mature antics of Dawn and Drew and the mothering advice of Mommycast proves, once and for all, that there really is a long tail… a place for everyone even in the world of Podcasting.