How big is your podcast backlog?

[Listener]

Yay!  All caught up and ready for the next EP and PP!

[stePH]

I just got caught up with the PC Gamer podcast which I picked up about a month ago and started with a year's worth of episodes.  For the Maximum PC podcast I only picked up the past three or so.

I currently subscribe to, and am caught up with:

Escape Pod (my first)
Variant Frequencies
Common Sense with Dan Carlin
The Geek Fu Morning Show
Truth Seekers
The Adultspace Childfree Podcast
PC Gamer
Maximum PC

(Also Stranger Things, but those video podcasts won't store to my iPod Nano).

Currently there's nothing new to sync, so I've been listening to Playing for Keeps.

I dumped Kevin Smith's "SModcast" and Nobilis' "Erotica" a month or two ago, as well as the political podcasts "The Lone Conservative" and Jack Clark's "Blast the Right" ... extremism on either end rubs me the wrong way.  Plus Clark's voice is really annoying.

[Nobilis]

Sorry to hear that, but I'll be the first to say that my podcast isn't for everyone.

[stePH]

Sorry to hear that, but I'll be the first to say that my podcast isn't for everyone.

I'm also on the verge of dumping "The Geek Fu Morning Show".  It's gone from the "Action Grip" format that usually featured Lafferty reading some of her writing, to being the same kind of topic-bereft nattering (or "meandering palaver") that made me unsubscribe from the SModcast.  Plus, bringing her daughter in on a recent one really annoyed the piss out of me. 

I haven't dropped it yet because unlike the weekly SModcast, it doesn't update all that often*.  And I like Mur.


*actually the only podcasts I listen to that update on a regular weekly basis are Escape Pod, PC Gamer, and Maximum PC.  Oh, and Podcastle since it started.  The rest don't seem to follow any hard schedule.

[Windup]

Hmmm... I appear to be some sort of record holder: 636 items, 16.4 days, and 15.77 GB

A lot of it -- like the Princeton University Podcast, 12 Byzantine Emporers, History of Christianity and Jim Kelley's Free Reads is stuff I'm warehousing to cull through and pull out stuff that looks promising before a long trip or other listening-intensive occasion.  I know I won't listen to it all, but I don't know what part of "all" I won't listen to, yet.  Others, like several meditation podcasts, are intentionally stored as a permanent library. 

Most of the ones I listen to routinely are short, don't update very often, or both:

America Votes 2008 by CNN
The Writer's Almanac by Garrison Keillor/American Public Media
Backstory from the New York Times
Cato Daily Podcast by the Cato Institute
CNN News Update by CNN
The Economist by The Economist newspaper
Escape Pod by Escape Artists
The History of Rome by Mike Duncan
The Drabblecast by Norm Sherman
The Instant Guide by the BBC World Service
The Joy of Living Creatively by Eric Maisel
The Journal Report by The Wall Street Journal
KCRW's Film Reviews by KCRW radio
The Moth Podcast by The Moth (Storytelling, sort of)
NPR Hourly News Summary by NPR
NPR Koppel on the News by Ted Koppel
NPR Sports with Frank Deford by Frank Deford
NPR Story of the Day by NPR
NPR This I believe by NPR
The Onion Radio News by The Onion
Oxford Biographies by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Podcastle by Escape Artists
President's Weekly Radio Address by The White House
Slate Explainer Podcast by Slate Magazine
Slate Daily Podcast by Slate Magazine
Vanguard: Investment Commentary by The Vanguard Group
Vanguard: Plain Talk on Investing by The Vanguard Group
WSJ:Your Money Matters by The Wall Street Journal
Well-Told Tales by Well-Told Tales
WFIU Movie Reviews by WFIU Radio
Writing Excuses by Brandon Sanderson, Howard Taylor, Dan Wells
The WritingCast by Ivy
60-Second Psych by Scientific American
60-Second Science by Scientific American
90-Second Naturalist by WVXU Radio

[bolddeceiver]

I have 32 unlistened episodes (I can't figure out how to check the time, since I'm a packrat about back episodes, and iTunes "smart playlists" aren't smart enough to have a "only marked-as-new" checkbox).  However, ten of those are a podiobook that I'm putting off for now, and I haven't checked lately for NPR programs that I listened to on the air and therefore aren't new.  I listen at work, but unfortunately I'm having USB troubles on my laptop and can't synch, so lately I've just been listening to old-time radio (I happen to have the complete archives of Dimension X and X Minus 1on my iPod).

[Russell Nash]

My backlog was totally out of control.  I went in with a scythe and created great carnage.  I deleted and unsubscribed from 7 days worth of podcasts.

Including, but not limited to:

Scott Sigler
Cory Doctorow
Silent Universe
Variant Frequencies
Clonepod (didn't unsubscribe, I'll keep it for Union Dues. As soon as that's done, this is gone too)
MYN (number one with a bullet fame)
Well Told Tales

[DKT]

My backlog was totally out of control.  I went in with a scythe and created great carnage. 

I'm gonna have to do something like this soon.  I have so much room on my ipod, I usually don't delete stuff off my computer, especially not stories.  But I think that's probably going to have to change.

Also, between my podcasts/music backlog and my wife's photoshop, I think we're going to have to finally buy an external harddrive.  There's just too damn much stuff!

[Raving_Lunatic]

Envious of those with iPods larger than 8GB. Once you take off the 2.5GB of Radiohead Music, the 500MB of Radiohead Music Videos, and the 2+ GB of other music that I will never delete from my iPod ever ever, I have about 2.5GB left as useable space for podcast/audiobook storage. As such these things get cycled around a lot- they will remain on my harddrive, but over the course of a week about 1.5GB of material will have been cycled onto my iPod, through my ears and back onto the unchecked pile in iTunes. I don't have a backlog, as I live a sad life/spend WAAY too much time consuming music and podcasts that I have heard everything from the 8 or so Podcasts I listen to religiously.

[Raving_Lunatic]

It would be so much easier if I didn't insist on all the music being at least 192kbps, and 320kbps for the best albums on there. But recently I compressed all the non-music podcasts to something ridiculously low like 24kbps, and they still sound OK to me when I'm on the go or listening at my house. I'd advise this for anyone who needs to free up some space.

[stePH]

Sheesh, you people and your music.   

I've still never had music on my iPod (except for a year ago when my wife insisted on having Christmas music to listen to in the rental car on the way to Seattle and back.)  4GB on my Nano is still plenty of space for me -- only one or two audiobooks at a time are kept on board along with the podcasts, and I just rotate stuff out once it's listened to.

[Bdoomed]

proud owner of an 80gb iPod.   newer model, video, skinny as hell, awesome battery, sexy sexy shit

[Raving_Lunatic]

proud owner of an 80gb iPod.   newer model, video, skinny as hell, awesome battery, sexy sexy shit

Next year, he tells himself. Next year...

Sheesh, you people and your music.   

I've still never had music on my iPod (except for a year ago when my wife insisted on having Christmas music to listen to in the rental car on the way to Seattle and back.)  4GB on my Nano is still plenty of space for me -- only one or two audiobooks at a time are kept on board along with the podcasts, and I just rotate stuff out once it's listened to.

... For once I am speechless.

[stePH]

... For once I am speechless.

 

[Raving_Lunatic]

No music on an iPod is a shocking concept to me.

[stePH]

No music on an iPod is a shocking concept to me.

Well, by the time I got an iPod, I had already been listening exclusively to audiobooks in the car for almost a year, having discovered that they helped the time pass on my weekly drive between Portland and Seattle a lot better than music did. 

I still like to listen to good music, but it doesn't do much to curb boredom for me.

[Russell Nash]

My backlog was totally out of control.  I went in with a scythe and created great carnage. 

I'm gonna have to do something like this soon.  I have so much room on my ipod, I usually don't delete stuff off my computer, especially not stories.  But I think that's probably going to have to change.

Also, between my podcasts/music backlog and my wife's photoshop, I think we're going to have to finally buy an external harddrive.  There's just too damn much stuff!

By backlog I mean the ones I haven't listened to yet.  My Kept Fiction is an entirely different thing.  Storage space isn't an issue for me (thanks to my 500 GB time capsule).  I was just clearing out stuff that I wasn't going to listen to at all.   

[Raving_Lunatic]

I can smile. I just freed up 3GB of space on my hard drive, just enough to grab loads of concerts off the internet and the Air Out My Shorts backlog.

[Bdoomed]

AoMS is my one sin...
okay maybe not the only one...

why must they podfade?!!!


anyway... on topic...
i like having all of my music all of the time on my iPod, that way, wherever I may be with said ipod, whatever situation might come up, i have music to satisfy most people

[Listener]

Just upgraded from 4GB nano to 16GB iphone, so I've got more room, but my podcast backlog is pretty bad no matter what. I plan to get through everything, but during football season EVERYTHING takes a backseat to TFFG (thefantasyfootballguys.com), which is twice weekly until the playoffs. I'll be caught up by February, I think.

[wintermute]

I'm still using my ~5-year-old iRiver H320. I took the 20GB hard drive out a while ago and replaced it with a 32GB CF card, and it's awesome. If only it had an optical out, it would be the best DAP ever...

Raving Lunatic: Depending on the precise model you have, swapping in more storage may well be trivial. Might be worth looking in to.

A friend of mine is sending me an old 3rd-gen iPod with a failing hard drive and a cracked screen so I can hack around with it, and see what all the fuss is about. But once the hardware is in order, I'll probably install a real operating system on it...

[Russell Nash]

The scythe was at work again.

I cut:
Digital Photography-tips from the top floor
TED Talks
Podcastle

[stePH]

The scythe was at work again.

I cut:
Digital Photography-tips from the top floor
TED Talks
Podcastle

I'm dropping the axe on:
 The Adultspace Childfree Podcast (Fisher records her regular talk in both channels, but interviews have her in the left channel and the guest in the right, exclusively ... this vexes me to no end),
and The East Coast Conservative Podcast (poor sound quality combined with not-very-well-coordinated dialogue add up to a show not worth my time ... so my search goes on for a right-leaning podcast that I can stand to listen to for more than a few minutes at a time; I'm open to suggestions.)

[Zathras]

and The East Coast Conservative Podcast (poor sound quality combined with not-very-well-coordinated dialogue add up to a show not worth my time ... so my search goes on for a right-leaning podcast that I can stand to listen to for more than a few minutes at a time; I'm open to suggestions.)

I didn't even make it through one episode before cutting it.  Thanks for the Dan Carlin recommendation.  As far as a right-leaning show, you might check out Andrew Wilkow.  I listen to his radio show on Sirius sometimes.  I also enjoyed Jerry Doyle's show when it was on Sirius.  I've been thinking about subscribing, but my plate is pretty full.  He's more libertarian than conservative, though.

[Windup]

so my search goes on for a right-leaning podcast that I can stand to listen to for more than a few minutes at a time; I'm open to suggestions.

The Cato Daily Podcast is a principled Libertarian perspective -- I'm not sure if that's what you mean by Conservative or not.  While they seem to do a certain amount of their research in a parallel universe, for me, that's the idea behind listening to a viewpoint I disagree with.