A great environment podcast

Monday, April 14th, 2008

If you’re interested in environmental issues—and I assume regular readers are, given that this blog features environmental opinion pieces quite frequently—I highly recommend The Guardian newspaper’s weekly Environment podcast.

The latest download (you can also listen online if you prefer) includes a report on the decline of the bee population, a round-up of relevant stories from the UK press, interviews and commentaries. All good stuff.

If you, like me, find the vast majority of podcasts to be just… well, awful—take your pick of problems: overproduced, self-indulgent, or just plain boring—then you probably get a real surprise when you find one that is well-produced and interesting. I only subscribe to a handful of podcasts via iTunes, and most of them come from mainstream media outlets such as the BBC.

There are just way too many podcasts—numbering in the many thousands—that are frankly impossible to sit through. Sorting the wheat from the chaff is often an exercise in prolonged frustration.

It’s easier, most of the time, here in the UK, with a glut of excellent stations headed up by BBC Radio 4, to simply tune in via the Web or a good old-fashioned radio set. There’s usually something interesting on at all times of the day. So, are podcasts essential? No way. Are some of them great? Yes, some of them are. Are most of them crap? No doubt about it.

categories: healthy planet