Podcasts!

Who listens to them? Come on, I know I'm not the only freak on iTunes with 600 hours of podcasts loaded.

Yes, my 'other' obsession, knitting is what introduced me to the world of the podcast, but I have grown. Oh, how I have grown. While I do still have a ridiculous amount of fibery podcasts loaded on my iPod, the space has become more and more devoted to other talk shows for my little ears.

Two faves are my buds over at Mail Order Zombie and the HorrorEtc Podcast. If you like horror and are not listening to these, WHY? Derek and Bren over at MOZ give fans of the undead everything they're looking for in 90 minutes a week - the Zombie Beat, where we get the lowdown on zombie sightings all over the Web; movie reviews of movies almost exclusively available on DVD and nowhere else; book talk, and a lot of laughs. There is intelligent conversation about zombie movies; no "Dude, it was SOOOOO GOOOORRRRRY!" here. We've had incredible discussions about the zombie apocalypse and we've debated whether or not Friday the 13th's Jason is a zombie (for the record, I say no).

The HorrorEtc guys are simply amazing. They break down movie genres, auteurs (I myself have been accused of being an M. Night Shyamalan apologist in the past, so I can appreciate and empathize with them) and movie franchises (their Friday the 13th megacast is gold). They sit and deconstruct, drop some humor, and really provide intelligent discussion on their topics.

These two podcasts have introduced me to movies I'd never have known about, and enticed me to revisit movies I'd forgotten about entirely. Check 'em out.

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History is another kickass podcast that I wish would come out more regularly. Usually about an hour, Carlin shoots straight from the lip about various periods in history. When he starts off by asking of Alexander the Great was as bad as Hitler, you know you're in for some good stuff. I just finished listening to the first half of the Punic Wars episode, now he's loaded the second half. Whoo hoo! If Mr. Scanlon had been this compelling in high school, I never would have had to start that chorus of "On Top of Spaghetti" to keep myself interested.

Many of you know that I have an unabashed affection for Kevin Smith, who happens to look like a shorter version of my very own Hubs. So no one should be surprised that SModcast, Kevin Smith's podcast with buddy Scott Mosier ("Snowball" in Clerks) is a standard on my iPod. It's laugh out loud wrong and hilarious and features special guest appearance by Kevin Smith mainstays like Jason Mewes (Jay) and Walt Flanagan (his dog is mentioned in several movies).

My buddy Chuck introduced me to iFanboy, a weekly podcast about comics. I used to be a fanatical comic book collector. Until comic prices shot sky-high and Marvel decided that I had to read 612 titles in order to keep up with the freaking X-Men. Every now and then, I miss the joy of hanging out in my local comic book store, but realize that I have NO idea what is going on in any universe, be it Marvel, DC, or my own. Enter iFanboy, which gives me a rundown of what's going on in comics each week, and if I want to know more, I can buy a book on my own. It's even gotten me to invest in a title or two...

Finally, rounding out my cavalcade of aural geekery, we've got Television Zombies, a weekly podcast covering pop culture and the TV shows that love them. They cover Doctor Who, Torchwood, Lost, Supernatural, Heroes, Fringe - are you starting to see why I dig it?

May your daily commute will be a little less rage-filled, my friends. Enjoy.