Well, my years-old exercise radio finally broke. It fell off my arm, crashed onto the track and the volume button popped off into some corner. No manner of poking and prodding will make the volume work without the dial. So. I went ahead and bought an mp3 player with an FM receiver.

So now…download fever!

I don’t download music – when I exercise I need talking to distract me. I don’t particularly want to pay for downloads either. And I’m not looking to subscribe to a podcast. That’s way too committed for me.

So far, I’ve gotten some episodes of This American Life. The BBC radio show In Our Time, various Mars Hill Audio freebies, some other BBC radio shows, including one called Start the Week, with an interesting format in which the guests – all experts on one subject or another – talk with each other, rather than just sit and be questioned by the host individually. I’ve not yet listened to the latest show, but the previous ep featured a discussion with writer Nick Cohen, who, a member of the Left himself, has written a book questioning the Left’s blind eye to various forms of contemporary opression and who was consistently dumped on by all of the other guests (including the author of a new bio of Edith Wharton – very interesting) , none of whom ever managed to directly answer any of the charges he laid at their feet.

I’ve listened to a few of the Byzantine Rulers podcasts – basic stuff, but well put-together, and a good refresher. There’s Vatican Radio, of course, but their pieces are pretty short.

And Maria Lectrix!

So…what else? I’m not looking for anything "Catholic," especially.

Informational/lectures/news/interviews with authors – that sort of thing.

And free!

Any suggestions?

(by the way, speaking of creative uses of this sort of think – Maureen, Maria Lectrix herself, points us to the blog of a Lutheran pastor who’s using The Imitation of Christ – and her audio of it – for a weekly online discussion. Interesting!)