Podcasting is a terrific medium for news, information and analysis of issues and a whole lot more. For listeners, Apple’s iTunes makes subscribing and listening extremely easy, even for those who don’t have or want an actual iPod. For producers, it’s so easy to master the basic technical issues that almost anyone with a pulse can record and distribute a podcast.
For political listening there are a lot of choices on all sides of the spectrum, and a lot of them are garbage. But here are several podcasts that we think are best of the best, from our conservative/libertarian point of view. All of these can be found in the iTunes store or from the respective websites (just click on the pictures), and they’re FREE.
Official Mark Levin Show Audio Rewind
Mark Levin
Levin is an American treasure. For those of you who listen to his radio show and find him to be a shouter and hanger-upper, you haven’t listened long enough. Rush Limbaugh has always said you won’t really “get” his (Limbaugh’s) show in less than six weeks, and that’s true of Levin as well. Maybe it’s true of all radio hosts with substance. Give them time. They’ll grow on you if their aim is true.
The left tends to dismiss conservative radio hosts as mere “entertainers” (while deifying actual entertainers such as Sean Penn as deep thinkers). But while Levin is incredibly funny at times, he’s mainly a passionate voice for America who happens to be entertaining. He’s a constitutional scholar with a Jon Lovitz delivery. He’s Gilbert Gottfried with a law degree and a deep sense of morality.
Levin is also the head of Landmark Legal Foundation, a group that actually holds government’s feet to the fire on matters of vital constitutional importance. And he’s the author of Liberty and Tyranny, the brilliant million-selling treatise on the meaning of America.
The podcast is basically Levin’s radio show (heard 6-9 pm Eastern on WABC in New York and at various times around the country), with most of the commercials removed. It’s usually added to the podfeed about an hour after the live radio show ends. It’s well worth the listening, as Levin bemoans our present political situation, not from a strictly partisan viewpoint, but from the point of view of a true patriot who understands in detail the legal and moral framework of America.
Even though the subjects are weighty, Levin is lots of fun to listen to, and while his anger can be palpable at times, so is his compassion for his country and its people. This is a truly accomplished guy who has the ability to communicate his passion and knowledge in a fun, interesting way. Spend some time with him. http://www.marklevinshow.com
KCRW’s Right, Left and Center
Photo from L-R: Matt Miller, Arianna Huffington, Tony Blankley, Robert Scheer
RLC is an NPR show hosted by Matt Miller, who is supposedly a centrist (we respectfully disagree, since he’s a fellow at John Podesta’s decidedly lefty Center for American Progress), with a panel of three: progressive Robert Scheer of Truthdig.com, conservative Tony Blankley from The Washington Times and Arianna Huffington, from The Huffington Post. Huffington is away from the show a lot (but from our point of view, she’s mentally absent even when she’s present.)
Ok, so it’s NOT a conservative podcast per se, but Dave listens to it every week (the podcast version comes out on Friday, after the NPR show runs). Blankley is usually alone in his opinions, and plays the role of the articulate smart guy (a la Wm. F. Buckley), to Scheer’s socialistic curmudgeon. Arianna is there for comic relief — she seemed a lot smarter when she was a conservative — and Matt Miller plays cat-herder to this diverse bunch.
Dave listens for the fun of the arguments, as well as for the fact that (mostly) the participants don’t cut each other off in mid-sentence with weird non sequiturs, etc. It’s good to hear the opposing points of view, and although it’s not often, Dave even finds himself occasionally agreeing with Scheer.
http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/lr
No Agenda
Adam Curry & John C. Dvorak
Dave’s current fave, No Agenda, comes from an outside-the-box, “makes ya think don’t it?” sensibility that really can’t be pinned down. The hosts are media veterans Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak. Curry is the former MTV Vee-Jay who originated the idea of podcasting and is one of the driving forces behind the online media company Mevio. Dvorak is a longtime tech journalist and podcaster who knows his tech, and apparently, his politics as well.
As Crackpot and Buzzkill (their nicknames, not ours), Curry and Dvorak research stories and angles on stories they believe the the MSM ignore, and if there’s any political “ism” involved it’s “No BS-ism.” Curry and Dvorak don’t suffer fools or political hacks gladly. It’s fun and fast-paced, produced by Curry with the same manic panache baby boomers heard in the likes of Murray the K and Larry Lujack. Dave has to laugh every time Curry hits the “douche-bag” button and, well, you get the idea.
But again, the show isn’t all fun-and-games. Not by a long shot. Curry and Dvorak ask some serious questions about some very important issues. For example, in a recent episode they lamented that the media and politicos (on the right AND left) prefer not to discuss the fact that Arizona’s immigration law is a response to criminal activity that’s far more heinous than just walking across the border. Just for starters, Arizona is the second-most kidnap-prone place in the world.
While they may not have all the answers, they call things as they see them. Besides the fact that these are both pretty smart guys, what makes the show work is the juxtaposition of personalities — Curry as the conspiracy theorist with an actual point, and Dvorak as the shrewd curmudgeon who cuts through the memes-of-the-moment.
It’s recorded (with live listening possible at mevio.com) Thursday and Sunday mornings, and it’s really great radio conversation.
NOTE: No Agenda does have a bit of crude language, mostly from Curry. So f***ing get over it.
I’m an avid listener, the show is really different. These two guys lets most people think that’s easy to crank out the show but don’t be fooled, the pace and wittiness varied with the recurrent topics such as executive producers(sponsoring the show), a pet peeve story, or the lucid thinking to debunk another meme is each time surprisingly interesting, sometimes or almost every time I have to laugh so hard it’s not good for your health!
I can recommend the show to everyone who is ready to take the blinders off.
In the morning.
No Agenda is produced in a former porn studio.
Hmmm. Hasn’t every office in California been a porn studio at one time or another? OH if only walls could talk, right?
I love listening to No Agenda in the morning. They hit people in the mouth and that’s something I can support.
You have to go out, and punch people in the mouth. It wakes them up, in the morning. It is always morning somewhere.
In the morning
noagendastream.com
I’ve been a listener of Adam Curry’s podcasts since Day One. It has been very interesting watching his evolution, including his daughter growing up and Adam getting divorced, into a man who is interested in getting to the bottom of EVERYthing. Often times, once he’s gotten to the bottom though, none of us like what we see.
In The Morning!!
i’m a NA listener (a good mix); but if you prefer a real liberty-minded show, try Free Talk Live; http://www.freetalklive.com
Way to have a comment thread highjacked by No Agenda listeners!
Though I love the show, in the morning, you have to beware that Curry and Dvorak, like every other media outlet out there, don’t always have their facts and stories straight. Beyond that I find it terribly entertaining, and often times a good jumping point to read up on other stuff I’d never heard of…
I don’t feel it’s been hijacked, although I’m surprised there are no comments on the other aspects of the original post. How about it folks, anybody listen to Levin or LRC?
WHPITMITM
In the morning.
Best political podcasts?
No Agenda?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Those two fools don’t know a thing about REAL NEWS.
they do very little research and regularly foul up some info on some story. Every single show is packed with disinformation, errors in truth and much hearsay and conjecture…assumptions, belief in EVERY conspiracy theory going. apparently, if you live in their universe, nothing ever happens just because it happens. It MUST be part of a global conspiracy, ‘controlled by the real rulers of this planet, the global elite’
If you like the sound of a show with quotes like that and a regular ‘New World Order, shut Up Slaves’ dumbo jungle then yeah, you will love it.
If you value such things a TRUTH, you will steer clear or like many of the listeners, tune in for much laughter as you listen to just how uninformed these fools are!!!
It can be hilarious but not always.
When they start on their MMR hoax (which, by now, even the ants in my garden know is, always was and always will be…untrue) and the dangers of vaccines in general, when the scientific data does not show this, it can get pretty annoying. they never bother to mention the increased levels of old illnesses that are breaking out all over the globe, where vaccines have been stopped or denied by panicking parents who have listened to idiots telling them it is dangerous…idiots like Adam and John.
That is just one topic they fail miserably on but it is an important one, kids are dying because of it. In countries like USA and UK, where medicine is a highly developed concept these days, there are epidemics of measles, rubella and other diseases not seen for a long time. Coincidentally, around the time vaccines were brought in.
So I hold people like A&J responsible for the fear and doubt about things like this.
They are, in a way, killing people. albeit totally indirectly and of course, unintentionally. they don’t mean to be stupid.
They just are.
But other than that it’s great, right? In the morning to ya!!
In the morning.
“How about it folks, anybody listen to Levin or LRC?”
No but I do listen to the Gitmo Nation Roundtable podcast. Check it out: http://gnr.noagendaforums.com
JCD and AC may not be experts, BUT the do know Real News.
@aighead – ITM! what are you doing here?
@FaeGin – I have a place for you: http://noagendaforums.com/
check out this podcast: http://noagendaforums.com/index.php?board=15.0
peace!
Ned
Well, after Adam claimed that Saudi Arabia was landlocked and had no need for a submarine, my girlfriend ‘banned’ the show from being played in her presence. And just his week, they played the YouTube video of the Redskins cheerleader that started walking backward after receiving a H1N1 vaccine. If they had bothered to go to the next item whilst doing their Google ‘research’, they would have found out that it was a bogus claim. Apparently she has recovered and many experts her symptoms were not from the flu shot.
Yeah, Adam and Dvorak pull ‘facts’ from their butt frequently but it’s my guilty pleasure. Wish they would do more of their Dvorak centered restaurant and wine talk. Their discussion on Halliburton, Goldman Sachs and Monsanto are right on. Dvorak is knowledgeable about a wide range of topics and it’s good to hear opinion -then again, he recommended a french cheese from Costco that was horrible.
Looking forward to my NoAgenda pancakes on Sunday morning…
I’ve listened unextensively to Levin when he’s filled in for Rush (I think) and he seems to know what he’s talking about, but that’s coming from a fairly ignorant listener…
@ Ned- Heh…
NA is my favourite podcast, very entertaining once you get to know the hosts characteristics.
I LOVE No Agenda, but will check out the other podcasts also. Thanks for the recommendations!
As for the incorrect facts, two thoughts: One, it keeps the black helicopters from coming as they are ‘discredited’ in some ways. And Two, all media outlets neglect or misrepresent facts, so why should that bother anyone so much?