this_american_life – Newley Purnell

My Favorite Podcasts: Updated

As I’ve noted before, I really love podcasts. And I wanted to update the list of my favorite podcasts that I posted last year. So here goes.

First, here are some recent finds; none of these are new, but they’re new to me ((If you’ve never listened to a podcast and wonder what all the fuss is about, check out this three-minute YouTube video: Podcasting in Plain English.)).

— The Sound of Young America ((Note that the title is misleading; the show has little to do with America’s youth.)). Tagline: “A Public Radio Show About Things That Are Awesome.” Textism has a good overview of this podcast.

— The Moth‘s format is simple: People get up on stage, without notes, and tell stories about their personal experiences. There’s some wonderful, wonderful stuff here.

— RadioLab. A podcast about science and philosophy. Sometimes it’s a little too experimental, sonically speaking, for me. But the topics are always intriguing.

And then there are my (mostly well-known) favorites: podcasts that I’ve been listening to for a while and still really like:

— This American Life,

— the ESPN Soccernet podcast ((Which also happens to have a lively Facebook group)),

— The New Yorker Out Loud,

— On the Media,

— PRI’s The World, and

— World View, from the New York Times.

Got a favorite podcast to share? Let us know in the comments.

Subprime, the Credit Crisis, and Naked Short Selling

For an in-depth explanation of the subprime crisis — which has now, of course, led to the current chaos involving mortgage-backed securities — look no further than “The Giant Pool of Money.” That’s the name of a special, hour-long episode produced by This American Life and NPR News. The show aired back in May and has been widely praised. From the show notes:

We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.

I also suggest checking out the Sept. 12 episode of TAL. In the second part of that show, called “Enforcers,” producer Alex Blumberg looks the SEC’s decision to ban naked short selling. (Related: NPR recently launched Planet Money, a new podcast devoted to financial issues.)