not that this podcasting thing is new to a lot of people, but i know for me it took the feature being automatically added to my itunes to make it worth the trouble. now that it’s such a snap, i’m finally realizing what a great system it is. plus, i have some friends who do one that is actually worth listening to every week, and that just got me off and running.

yes, that’s right, i actually know the brilliant minds behind talk news america (TNA for short. [chuckle]). and since they’re even listed on the itunes store and everything, you can easily track them down and subscribe yourself. it’s just so simple!

they’ve got down, i feel, what podcasting should be. not a couple of yahoos babbling and playing some hit-and-miss musical selections. we’re talking a tight, weekly piece that’s under 20 minutes; well written, acted, and edited; and the best part: hilarious. it’s also the first news/humor program in public radio format — at least that i’ve heard of, correct me if i’m wrong — that can play in the satiric realm of the onion or the daily show and pull it off. in the past couple months i’ve been consistently impressed, and not only because they’re my friends, it’s just a really cool idea done well. check them out and get some good laughs on the ipod next time you’re commuting… and if you don’t get the podcasting thing don’t worry, you could just go to their site and either download the mp3 files straight up or stream them from there. so worth it.

but not to be all favortism, i’ve also stumbled upon a few of those yahoos playing music that aren’t so bad either. today i’ve been listening to tracks up the tree and getting a kick out of these two dudes. they play indie music that’s freely available on the net and are actually funny in between instead of just listening to themselves talk. offbeat instead of annoying, at least so far. tracked this one down from a link on odeo.

another hot one is radio clash, a mashup podcast from the UK that’s pretty great too. on the way home today i was listening to an episode from a week or two ago that started out with an eminem “just lose it” over polka mix that blew my mind. the guy doesn’t do the mixing but sure does track down some cool shit. this one was actually listed in spin magazine’s recent list of top podcasts, so i can’t claim too much credit for finding it, but still.

so anyway, if you’re lazy, here are the RSS links for the three shows above to just paste right into your itunes ‘open stream’ window (although it’d be more gentlemanly to visit their sites and check them out, of course):
talk news america rss
tracks up the tree rss
radio clash rss

and let me know if there are any more you like, because now i’m totally geeking out over this stuff this week.