Driving Entertainment

Sometimes my journey to work or home from work can take an hour or more. And filling that time can be a chore.

It took me a while to cotton onto podcasts. I know! and there is an awful lot of chaff in the wheat.

I started with the "ricky gervais show" radio series, and whilst initially not a podcast it did turn into a podcast show, and they are very funny.

And this is a bit convoluted but then came twitter, and on twitter I came across a twitterer from the NZ Sceptics society, and then to another twitterer who mentioned some podcasts.

These then were "The Merseyside Skeptics -Skeptics with a K" and the awfully good "Righteous indignation" podcasts. However having listened to each of  them all from Episode 1, which was rewarding, I got to the point where I'd caught up, and was back to the radio for entertainment, so now I get my fix on a weekly or bi-weekly basis from these guys.

I tried other podcasts from the sceptical range but you know when you're enjoying something or someone, and if you're not engaged with the personalities or voices, pace or content you soon stop. So I never did get on with others, yet. Of the two that I mentioned above one has a slant towards "alternate medicine" but also covers a range of topics and subjects, there is always something. The latter has a paranormal focus, and I was hooked from episode 1, which I still think was one of the best. So crop circles, monsters, and interviews with a psychic, it all gets an examination.

I latched on the Play of the week podcast from the beeb, they can be challenging, but now I'm catching up on the "Irriligiosophy - the one true podcast" which is an atheist podcast that examines religion from the perspective of two people who were part of the mormon church and are now atheist. It's sometimes stodgy, sometimes a bit off track, sometimes not relevant but frequently funny.

Thinking about the content of the podcasts mentioned, with the exception of the play of the week, they're all belief based podcasts.  And they have sharpened up my critical thinking and questioning of things, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in an angry way. I don't believe everything I hear, and I don't agree with it all, Vaccinations are good (for instance), fluoridation of water bad.

I get a lot of pleasure out of affirmation of my beliefs, that there are others that share similar thoughts about religion, alt-med, ghosts, psychics and monsters. I wouldn't have it any other way.