Science Podcasts

Scarinae

Does anyone else listen to Science podcasts on their mp3 player/computer? Which ones do you think are worth subscribing to?

These are the ones I'm subscribed to, and my opinions of them:
- Discovery News Bulletin (Discovery Channel) - nice and concise, easy to understand, with most episodes about 3 minutes long; however it hasn't been updated since November which is a bit disappointing
- Nature Podcast (Nature) - I was apprehensive about this one as I find some Nature journals quite hard to follow, however the podcasts are very good imo, they talk about some of the interesting articles in each new issue and it is easy to understand the topics that are not from your specialist area. It is also nice to have a podcast that isn't in an American accent
- Scientific American Podcast (Scientific American) - usually this one involves interviews with scientists about various topics, and itis aimed at people interested in Science who aren't necessarily scientists so it is very easy to understand. There is a section at the end called 'Totally Bogus' where they give you four quick snippets, three of which are real and one of which is false, and you have to guess which one is 'totaaaaaally bogus!' - it is a bit cheesy, but you'd often be surprised when you find out which one is false as it is not often what you'd expect.
- 60-Second Science/Earth/Psych (Scientific American) - three separate podcasts, one on science in general and the other two on Earth Science and Psychology respectively, that aim to get through a current topic in sixty seconds. Good if you just want a flavour of what is going on in science right now, or if you don't have much time to sit around listening to long podcasts! Once again, they are aimed at people interested in science rather than specialists, so some might see them as being a bit 'dumbed down'

Anyway, I quite enjoy listening to science podcasts, so if anyone has others they'd recommend I'd be happy to give them a try!

r3nu4l

Great Post Fishie.

it's not always science but I like to listen to 'In Our Time' a show hosted by Melvyn Bragg on BBC Radio 4. Sometimes it has some absolutely phenomenal science pieces. Always worth looking at the show agenda.

The BBC Radio 4 website has a great science section with links to some good shows

For some more academic podcasts try this site.

iTunes have some excellent FREE academic podcasts available at the moment too. I'll link later (when I find them again :rolleyes:)

positron

Thanks for the links!

I would recommend NPR Science Friday, you can tweet your questions to Ira etc.

http://www.sciencefriday.com/

darjeeling

r3nu4l wrote: »

The BBC Radio 4 website has a great science section with links to some good shows

Material World (webpage here) is a good one. It's a weekly hosted discussion where scientists give an overview of current research in their field.

The Guardian newspaper weekly science podcast (here) is good too.

.

darjeeling

BBC Radio 4 currently have a weekly 10 minute slot called 'Life Stories' where David Attenborough talks about natural history.

198 LW Fridays at 20:50 , repeated Sundays at 08:50.

Web link for podcast / listen-again: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00krkgt

HoldStady

Anyone know if TED do podcast feeds for their talks. On the website and connot find one.

I'm going to steal some of these for the links thread in Expand Your Horizons. Thanks.:pac:

SaturnV

I would heartily recommend radiolab. A diverse range of topics from an interesting perspective, with some very interesting production and sound design. Spent the last few weeks obsessively listening to the back catalogue after finding ti by accident.

Accessible without dumbing down, the holy grail of science communication...

Dave!

Any more lads? Was just about to start this very thread! I've not been one for podcasts, but I decided to get a few from RTÉ and Newstalk yesterday, and now I'm diversifying Joining a gym tomorrow, so I reckon these'll keep the mind active while the body goes into convulsions!

Fluffybums

Royal Society Lecture pod casts, listened to a really interesting one by Prof Steve Jones (I think) about creationism vs evolution.

There's a good few links for podcasts (a lot of them from here) over in Expand Your Horizons, if any of you are interested.

Marvinthefish

I've only listened to a couple of them but the Royal Society of Chemistry have podcasts for elements of the periodic table here that are fairly accessible to a general audience. I think I listened to "Osmium" and "Cerium". They seem to focus on the weirder elements (Erbium, Technitium, Polonium...) but they also have Iron, Gold, Copper etc too! Their normal podcasts are pretty interesting here

Marvinthefish

HoldStady wrote: »

Anyone know if TED do podcast feeds for their talks. On the website and connot find one.

Not sure about podcasts, but on the website they tell you how you can download TED talks, store them and play them offline. Link to TED blog. I only heard about these talks this week (while browsing Nature, as you do...) and it looks amazing! Hmmm I think I'll start with Steven Strogatz.

Dave!

ooooh Ted will keep you going for ages FYI the videos are on YouTube also, if the TED website is too fancy for you

filo87

I really enjoy The Naked Scientists podcasts. Easy listening but informative.

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/

Futurism

All these podcasts are overwhelming. This, along with Expand Your Horizons take up most of my time.

Turtwig

Just decided to give this thread a much needed bump for any newcomers that may not be aware of it, or the oldies that have forgotten it.

(If you ask me, it should really be a sticky .)

HigsBoson

Look forward to every Monday so I can download the latest episode of "Are we alone?" from the SETI Institute. They have a huge archive of episodes on almost any subject.

http://radio.seti.org/

Just Like Heaven

I think it has been mentioned before but i must also again recommend the Guardians podcast science weekly. They cover current developments or whatever is making the news at the time.

But he also seems to have some interview power, only last week he interviewed the woman leading the hadron collider project, (skipped straight to the good stuff about finding the higs and the results so far).

Of course with such a general science podcast over half an hour its not gonna be your cup of tea every week, but i would still recommend it.

Dave!

http://www.theskepticsguide.org/

cooker3

For those who have asked Ted podcasts are available. Just type Ted in search on iTunes or whatever you use and they have a giant collection there, must be over 500... I've only listened to 200odd, slacker.

They've been mentioned but I would, heartily, recommend Skeptics guide to the universe, guardian science podcast, Nature, Sciam and Radiolab.

Some that haven't been mentioned Astronomy Cast - if you have any interest in astronomy than this is must a subscribe. There are over 200 episodes now and they have covered every topic imaginable along with a bunch of question shows. They do their best to explain everything to a layman. Each episodes tends to be 30 minutes long. Top show.

Brain Science podcast - This can be hit and miss as a times as I can find it too heavy going but some interviews can be really enthralling. I've picked up a good few book recommendations out of listening to this. It's worth going through the back catalogue and just picking out certain episodes.

Little atoms can have some interesting interviews. That covers science, pseudoscience and such like. I find it totally depends on how good the guest is to how good the show will be so this too can be hit or miss.

Rationally speaking is a really great podcast. Now it delves into philosophy as the main host, Massimo Pigliucci, is a philosopher but he also has a PHD in biology as well so he has credentials. It delves into the demarcation problem, what is science? It also ventures into skepticism and religion. I've found every episode so far, only 15, really thought provoking.

Yes I have a problem with podcasts. I'm going to regret clicking this as my I wend up subscribing to something when I really don't have the time :mad:

Beeker

http://radio.seti.org/ SETI

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/drkarl Dr Karl and the naked scientists

http://www.abc.net.au/science/drkarl/scienceontriplej/ Dr Karl on Australias Triple J

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/ockhamsrazor/ Ockhams Razor.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/ The Science Show from Australia.