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BURNING WORDS: Podcast Reviews for December 2007

by Tamara on December 23, 2007

by Tamara Kaye Sellman

Welcome to Burning Words: Podcast Reviews, a monthly column reviewing short prose podcasts featuring fiction or creative nonfiction.

What is a podcast? It might be thought of as the 21st Century equivalent to the old time radio show. Using the latest technology, listeners can download these radio shows as media files to their mp3 devices and computers and, with a single click, listen at their own convenience, either through headphones or through a speaker. Most podcasts are free and can be downloaded through various directories such as iTunes, ZenCast and Podcast Alley.

Note: All podcasts reviewed in this column were downloaded to either an IBM ThinkPad or a Creative Zen V mp3 player for listening and review.

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DECEMBER 2007 PODCAST REVIEW Special Edition:
Spirited holiday podcasts

Here are some fun ways to liven up your holidays. Turn off the TV and turn on the following three podcasts, each of them great for listening while baking, making gingerbread houses, wrapping gifts, walking through neighborhoods of twinkling lights, eating fondue, or watching the snow fall outside.

Title: Christmas Stories From Germany
Family Safe? Absolutely.
URL: http://www.christmastories.libsyn.com
RSS: http://www.christmastories.libsyn.com/rss
Language: English
Genre: Holiday

Quick review: Wonderful Advent calendar stories performed in a wonderful German accent and addressed to a 7-year-old girl in the US. Makes for great bedtime listening for younger ones throughout the month of December, with a new episode each night of Advent. Worth saving to CD and listening to every year.

Title: Living Books for the Ears
Family Safe? Absolutely.
URL: http://www.chirotoons.com/living.htm
RSS: http://homepage.mac.com/jlg/livingbooks.xml
Language: English
Genre: Historically based family storytime programs

Quick review: I listened to “A Frontier Christmas Carol” (1953) starring Jimmy Stewart as the wandering cowboy in The Six Shooter while I was driving to stores and getting my shopping done. It defbinitely improved what could have been a miserable day fighting crowds and standing in lines. There are quite a few holiday episodes sprinkled in among the classics and old-time radio shows. I’d download all there are and listen while at the mall. It’ll totally make your day.

Title: Ford Galaxy of Stories
Family Safe? Absolutely.
URL: http://www.classicfm.co.uk/sectional.asp?id=16686
RSS: http://www.classicfm.co.uk.sectionalRSS.aspx?id=17040
Language: English
Genre: Classic children’s stories

Quick review: Classic FM brings these heartwarming stories to life in high quality audio using famous celebrities in their productions. Listen for all the same reasons I suggest you listen to Living Books for the Ears. Definitely a fun alternative to watching TV or if you’re bored of going to the movies for the holidays as a change of scenery. Listening to these stories will add wonderful scenery to your own home.

For 2008: Look ahead to the coming year and make some resolutions.
Title: New Year, New You
Family Safe? Mostly. I’d give this a PG-14 rating due to some content in one episode that discusses the naked body and exotic dancers (still, it’s pretty harmless)
URL: http://www.podcastblaster.com/directory/podcast-7138.html
RSS: http://www.chroniclebooks.com.nynu.xml
Language: English
Genre: Tips for self-improvement

Quick review: Chronicle Books produced these episodes for early January of last year, and so I’m wondering now if they’ll repeat that performance with new episodes this coming January. There are four in all and they were fun to listen to (though definitely directed toward a female audience). Nice fodder to get you started on your own self-improvement projects.

[Have a favorite podcast? Contact me at tamara@writersrainbow.com if you’d like me to review it!]

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Previous podcasts reviewed:
• King Bonk’s Campfire Cast, March 2007
http://metaxucafe.com/cafe/article/burning_words_podcast_reviews
short fiction, essays, poetry, music, soundscape

• Miette’s Bedtime Story Podcast, April 2007
http://metaxucafe.com/cafe/article/burning_words_podcast_reviews1
short classic fiction and essays

• The Stuffed Fabulist on Air, May 2007
http://metaxucafe.com/cafe/article/burning_words_podcast_reviews_may_2007
From the website: “A collection of contemporary fables, parables, and other reports of ‘things that go bump in the night.’”

• Bound Off, August 2007
http://metaxucafe.com/cafe/article/burning_words_podcast_reviews_may_2007
Short stories in the literary tradition

• Special Edition: Hurricane Katrina stories, August 2007
http://metaxucafe.com/cafe/article/burning_words_podcast_reviews_special_edition
First-person oral history re: Hurricane Katrina

• Well-told Tales, October 2007
http://metaxucafe.com/cafe/article/burning_words_podcast_reviews2
Pulp fiction in the hard-boiled, scifi or horror genres

• Special Edition: Podcasts I am thankful for, November 2007
Grammar Girl; Librivox; The New Yorker Fiction podcast; RUSC? R U Sitting Comfortably? Vintage radio program archive; This American Life; The Writer’s Almanac

© 2007, TKS

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