Podcasts

iPod Shuffle
Originally uploaded by Matthew Piper

When it comes to technology I've never really been an early adopter let alone an innovator. I prefer to spend
my money on other stuff till the price falls and while really clever gadgets do impress me I've never been one to take an interest in technology for its own sake.

I realise therefore that this post is hardly hot news. But just in case there are other late majority slow coaches out there I want to rave for a sentence of two about iPods and podcasts.

A couple of weeks ago I got myself a silver, 1Gb Shuffle with the dual intention of drowning out Magic FM at the gym and brushing up on my philosophy. I am now a convert, nay an evangelist.

The Shuffle was cheap (just over £30.00 from Amazon), it works and, best of all, there's lots of lovely stuff for free courtesy of iTunes.

Here's what I've particularly enjoyed so far:

1. Nigel Warburton's Philosophy The Classics - a careful, back to basics trip through some of the major philosophers and their key ideas in accessible 10 - 20 min chunks.
2. Nigel Warburton's Philosophy Bites - an interview format this time with Nigel asking really smart questions of contemporary philosophers.
3. Nigel Warburton's Ethics Bites - my mate Nige (he's the senior lecturer in philosophy at the Open University you know) does his thing again but this time in conversation with prominent ethicists and moral philosophers.
4. Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time - always enjoyed listening to this BBC 4 broadcast but as I only ever tuned in on the car radio I usually found myself setting off too late to hear the beginning or arriving too early to catch the end. Now I get to hear the whole of Mr. Bragg's conversations with professors and other clever people on important topics.
5. Emergent Podcast - not everything here has been worth a listen but I particularly enjoyed the recordings of the conference with Jack Caputo and Richard Kearney which finds them in conversation about postmodernity, deconstruction and religion.

What I have yet to find though is much by way of decent theology podcasts. There must be some out there surely. If you know of any could you let me know, especially stuff on missiology, homiletics or theology and culture?