New Podcast Review

Okay, flisties, time once again to review the audio podcast offerings being sucked out of the intertubes. I did this a few years ago and got some good recommendations. In interwebs time, though, a few years ago equals a few decades. I feel I've gotten horribly out of date.

So, if you're one to stuff your ears with free (or really, really cheap) audio content easily downloaded, do share your faves and hates with raves and pans. ( I'll put my own list, along with some commentary, below this cut. )

Ombudsman Success!

Remember the recent drama I pointed out from NPR? Well, yesterday I got an email:

Thank you for contacting NPR.

We are sorry you have experienced an error. We have forwarded your email to the appropriate individuals who will look into this. Thank you for your patience. . . .

I just checked, and the "Tax Me, Please" Planet Money episode has been restored! Listen yourself to awesome Danes dropping knowledge on libertarian tool Adam Davidson.

That his attitude reflected biases even he probably didn't notice was noticed by a blogger at Baseline Scenario:

I feel bad picking on Davidson, because (a) he does great work, (b) he’s just speaking extemporaneously here, and (c) Planet Money did just put together two great episodes on Denmark, land of high taxes, low unemployment, and low income disparity. But my point is not that he’s wrong; it’s that mainstream, centrist, reasonable people have these beliefs internalized like this. This tradeoff between equality and growth is a theory of Davidson’s “more libertarian economists,” but by the end of the passage (from “Now I think”), he’s assuming it’s true, and that to get the increased prosperity of capitalism you have to have a high degree of inequality and instability. This is the kind of thing you ordinarily hear from bankers. . . .; that so many people take it for granted is the problem.

(I added emphasis.)

Exactly my point. Still, with the podcast's restoration my faith in public radio has been partially restored!