Recently starting listening to podcasts and books while walking the dog or driving.

Listened to Serial. Some Of This American Life. Also had a business nonfiction since I heard the author a few weeks ago.

Any recommendations for additional must listens?

I'm interested in some low cost options. audibles are too expensive.

What topics do you like?

I listen to a lot of the howstuffworks.com family of podcasts, Rebel Force Radio, and The Nerdist among others. If you like history, Dan Carlin's Hardcore History is amazing (although too dense for me, they're 3ish hour episodes and series run 3-5 episodes). If you want comedy, Joe Rogan's podcast is supposed to be really good, although I've never given that a try. If you want movie coverage, there are a lot of options out there, you'll just have to find one you like. Try Beer with Geeks, We Hate Movies, and The Nerdist. For tech topics, there are lots of different options, unfortunately they mostly revolve around Apple which isn't super relevant to my interests. I do like one called Clockwise though, it's a weekly 30 minute round table with 4 tech writers where they discuss 4 topics about what happened in the tech sphere the previous week. Lots of options for sports including Bill Simmon's new show. If you like This American Life, radiolab is supposed to be pretty good and as far as I know it is similar.

There is a series called The Message that is essentially War of the Worlds in podcast form. There's a series called Hello from the Magic Tavern that is set in a different dimension where the host is from Chicago and falls through a magic portal and interviews the local populace (this is very crude humor though, but it is all done in improv which can lead to some really funny moments).

Other than that, you can google popular podcasts to see other people's lists. That's the best way I've found to find new podcasts. In the end, there is no "required listening" for podcasts (other than Serial Season 1, IMO), just listen to topics and shows that interest you and it'll make your time in the car go a lot quicker.

Just started listening to the We Hate Movies podcast. Three guys riffing on movies, both bad and good.

If you haven't found it yet, my two favorite TAL shows are linked below.

http://m.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/323/the-super
Act I in which Jack Hitt recounts his time in NYC during the early 80's has to be one of the best stories I have ever heard. A twist about 2/3 of the way through the 20 minute story will make you say "holy s***".


http://m.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/419/petty-tyrant
An entire hour devoted to telling the story of a small-town school maintenance head that schemed his way to the top through favors, friendships, and force (TNT included).

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I'm interested in some low cost options. audibles are too expensive.

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You can check them out from the library, FYI

Library is an option, also half price books always has them.

The GF and I will always get one before a long road trip and Shadow Divers is one of the best audio books we have listened to. It was a very interesting story and the guy who read the book had a voice that added a little more suspense.

I just downloaded the Thrawn Trilogy (Star Wars) which I was told is a very good audio book, but haven't started it yet.

Bill Simmons - my favorite sports podcast.
Tim Ferriss - interviews lots of extremely successful people.
Marc Maron - interviews tons of comics, musicians, and actors.
The Nerdist - interviews with comics, tech people, musicians, actors.
How Did This Get Made? - Group reviews terrible movies, lots of good stuff in there. I recommend listening to either Face Off or Deep Blue Sea if you want to try it out, Face Off is probably the best one ever.
TED Radio Hour - picks a subject matter and samples a few different TED talks to make a program.

The History of Rome podcast - I listened to all 191 episodes, each about a half hour if I remember correctly.

But to me, there is nothing like really good audiobooks (which I did get on Audible):

Middlesex
Ender's Game
Of Mice & Men
Ready Player One
Storm Front
The Martian
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Alas, Babylon
Cat's Cradle
Joyland
Kitchen Confidential
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
This Time Together (Carol Burnett)
Winger
Cannery Row
Flowers for Algernon
Of Human Bondage
The Raven Cycle
The Wright Brothers
1776

Humor:
-How did this get made: Try Battlefield Earth, Staying Alive, Sleepaway Camp, and Con Air
-Judge John Hodgman: John Hodgman (from the daily show) judges ordinary disputes. Try out "Cold Case" 2014 or "Die Fliderhaus" from 2012 - those are 2 of the all time classics.
- Pistol Shrimps Radio: this is pretty off the wall, but it's 2 fantastic improv artists calling LA women's rec league basketball games. The team has Aubrey plaza and a dozen LA writers, actress, comics. It's an actual league and they actually call the game...but the one guy knows nothing about basketball. They are hysterical.
- Dead Authors Podcast: Paul f Tompkins, in character as HG wells, interviews improv actors in character as dead authors. Jason Manzoukas as Plato and Andy Daly (?) as LR Hubbard are 2 amazing ones. Really funny


Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR

Serial

College Football: The Audible (Bruce Feldman and Stew Mandel); The Solid Verbal (this is more of a recap show).

Shutdown Fullcast is sorrrt of a college football show from the guys at SB Nation. RIght now it's just the guys and theyre pretty damn funny.

Ch. 33 is where most of the old Grantland podcasts migrated. "The Watch" has great TV and movie discussions, and hopefully "Watch the Thrones" will move over there once GOT starts up.

The Nerdist has great interviews

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Hardcore History

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Moth podcast.

Blueprint for Armageddon was a phenomenal series. Prophets of Doom was very interesting, also. Particularly when you get to the end.

If you like Hardcore History, Dan Carlin's Common Sense is pretty good, too.

Another great book that I haven't seen mentioned is Masters of Doom. Great biography about the video game creators of Doom, Quake and other 90s games.

This American Life
RadioLab
Planet Money

Ok. So I am still dabbling around.

TED radio hour is really good. Really good.

I had a bunch of audible.com credits so I went on a spending spree and tried to be as diverse as possible. Like Garrison Keillor reading Hunk Finn, Sun Tzu's Art of War, etc.

Haven't listened to those except for one. Still listening. But it is amazing. The Martian. Got it on a total whim. Had good reviews so I went in. The guy reading does a masterful job. Really excellent. I highly recommend it. Especially to the nerd and engineers and scientists among us. It's like that book was made for an audiobook.

Scott Siglers free audiobooks. You won't regret it.

I use Audible, but have a subscription. I pay $14.95 a month for one credit. That's one book a month.
You can cancel and resubscribe - no contract. Once purchased, your books are always in your library, even if you cancel the subscription.

I've got the Game of Thrones books on it, and it takes me about a month and a half per book - I have a little under a half hour commute each way.

Been an audible user for a long time. It really depends on the kind of books you like, but in terms of production value there are a couple of series/books that are really well done.

The Dracula production with Tim Curry comes immediately to mind. There is also The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher narrated by James Marsters. Short books, but just an exceptional listen.

Others that will give you a smattering of genres and topics:

• Scott Brick's reading of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood
The original "Adnan Sayed" murder mystery serial.

• Wil Wheaton's reading of Earnest Clinet's Ready Player One
1980s pop-culture nerd out meets sci-fi meets It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

• John Lee reading Ken Follett's The Pillars of Earth (LONG)
Historical fiction about the building of a cathedral during the middle ages. Sounds boring, but a truly excellent book.

• Craig Wasson reading Stephen King's 11-22-63
One of King's better books. I don't know if historical horror is a genre like historical fiction, but it should be.

• Scott Brick reading Robert Littell's The Company (LONG)
More historical fiction, this time about the CIA and following a group of spies form the Bay of Pigs through the fall of the Soviet Union.

• Bronson Pinchot reading Karl Marlantes' Matterhorn
Depressing but truly excellent historical fiction about Vietnam and specifically the taking and holding of strategic points in Laos. The author, Marlantes, is a decorated marine and recipient of the Navy Cross draws on his experience for the main character. Pinchot (yes, Balky from Perfect Strangers) is great.

• Ray Porter reading Don Winslow's The Cartel
Another fictional non-fiction account, this time of the Mexican drug trade. Especially fascinating every time you read about El Chapo in the news.

I use my monthly credit and then some! I always use the credit on the more expensive books - stuff that's more than the $14.95/month membership fee.

I also learned that it is frequently cheaper to buy the e-book on Amazon Kindle/Kindle app and then add the audio. You can still listen to it on Audible, but at a fraction of the cost. Not all books have the audio available, but when they do, it's a real money saver.

I listen to a LOT of books on Audible.

And production values/artist reading the books make a huge difference. I recently purchased a version of Pride and Prejudice that I ended up not being able to listen to. The readers speech patterns were too distracting to me. I had to buy another one. I also got a book recently that was read by Rosamund Pike - OMG, that was awesome to listen to.

See my post, above. You can also get a ton of FREE books on amazon, if you have Prime. Usually the classics, and they will have audio options available for a couple of bucks.

How to Get FREE Audio Books

The link above is how I figured out how to get audio books free, ar at least much cheaper, using my amazon prime account.

Free great audiobooks.

Scott Sigler.

Another vote for Hardcore History. The Armageddon series is outstanding.

I have become a big audiobook and podcast fan when I work out or do yardwork, but I'm looking for something the whole family can listen to on a couple of upcoming summer roadies. Any ideas?

We've listened to Grisham's teen series Theodore Boone on audio before and that helped pass the time. I have 13 and 10 year old boys.

Harry Potter, my man. JIm Dale kills it.

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I have become a big audiobook and podcast fan when I work out or do yardwork, but I'm looking for something the whole family can listen to on a couple of upcoming summer roadies. Any ideas?

We've listened to Grisham's teen series Theodore Boone on audio before and that helped pass the time. I have 13 and 10 year old boys.

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This free. And your kids will love you for this.

The GFL series by Scott Sigler. You can get them free via podcasts on iTunes or android pod software.
The Rookie is the first novel.

You and your boys will love the series.

http://scottsigler.com/book/the-rookie/

It is quite literally one of the best audiobooks ever.


ROOKIE SYNOPSES:
Aliens and humans alike play positions based on physiology, creating receivers that jump 25 feet into the air, linemen that bench-press 1,200 pounds, and linebackers that literally want to eat you. Organized crime runs every franchise, games are fixed and rival players are assassinated.Set in a lethal pro football league 700 years in the future, THE ROOKIE is a story that combines the intense gridiron action of "Any Given Sunday" with the space opera style of "Star Wars" and the criminal underworld of "The Godfather."
Follow the story of Quentin Barnes, a 19-year-old quarterback prodigy that has been raised all his life to hate, and kill, those aliens. Quentin must deal with his racism and learn to lead, or he'll wind up just another stat in the column marked "killed on the field."

Awesome. Thanks for the recommendations.

The Truth and Justice podcast with Bob Ruff is good. He started following up with the Serial/Undisclosed podcasts... but now is tracking other possible wrongful convictions cases... and the first case he took in Tyler, Tx has pointed to some pretty intense corruption there, which pointed to another case and another case there. Its pretty interesting stuff.

I'm subscribed to a lot of podcasts. But a few months ago I was introduced to My Brother, My Brother and Me. I've quit all other podcasts to work through their 300+ episodes. My commutes have been awesome.

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I'm subscribed to a lot of podcasts. But a few months ago I was introduced to My Brother, My Brother and Me. I've quit all other podcasts to work through their 300+ episodes. My commutes have been awesome.

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can you expand on this a little? never heard of it

It's a comedy podcast. Three brothers use Yahoo! questions as prompts to provide "advice". It's stupid, raunchy humor and I love it.

I stumbled on them when I went through an all things Lin-Manuel Miranda phase last year. He's been a guest on their show a few times. Listened to those and then 50+ more episodes since.

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Scott Siglers free audiobooks. You won't regret it.

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Looking at all the football coverage on this site, y'all should check out my free podcast series "The Galactic Football League." I describe it as STAR WARS meets THE GODFATHER meets THE BLINDSIDE. Five novels and three novellas in the GFL series.

Here's a link to the free podcast of Book I, THE ROOKIE, on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rookie/id955037171?mt=2