The Great Podcast List of 2017

With the year drawing to a close, a good resolution to consider would be to check out some podcasts you've never come across (or pick up podcast listening in general if this is your introduction). I mean, becoming smarter and gaining a more well-rounded perspective of the world on a weekly basis isn't such a bad way to pass 2018. So below are 120+ podcasts that both me and my wife have encountered since we first started listening.

Titles are organized by style of podcast and then sorted alphabetically. Since there is a mixture of genres as well as personal familiarity presented, the simplest way I chose to sift the wheat from the chaff was to rate them out of five stars like a standard podcast app. These ratings are based on my personal-Catholic-manly-engineering-musical background so take it all with a grain of salt.

5/5 - Recommended unabashedly for superior content and practicality.
4/5 - Frequently deep discussions that requires familiarity with jargon.
3/5 - Good content for its genre and doesn't delve into the weeds too much.
2/5 - Sometimes insightful, mostly passable.
1/5 - Avoid altogether or listen at your own risk! Usually carries a heavily contrarian agenda.
?/5 - Not enough listening experience to garner an accurate rating.

N.B. - I've complied a more detailed list of 20 podcasts here from January 2016.

P.S. - I didn't want to wait to get the list out before completely finishing the post, so there are some missing descriptions that I will include in the next couple of days.


Catholic - Commentary / Keynote / Presentation [19]

All Things Catholic (4/5) - Dr. Edward Sri offers insights on living a deeper and richer Catholic faith.

Aquinas College Lecture Series (?/5) - Older talks from Aquinas College

Aquinas College Podcast (?/5) - Guest lectures from Aquinas College in Nashville.

Augustine Institute Special Events (3/5) - Keynote speakers from the Augustine Institute in Denver.

Catholic:Under the Hood (3/5) - Franciscan Fr. Seraphim Beshoner offers a slow and thorough of the history of the Catholic Church through all its ecclesiastical conflicts and theological clarifications.

Podcast of the Week: Orchestral Music From Latin America

Another week, another Alt.Latino pick. This time Felix Contreras sits down with Tom Huizenga as they embark on a journey following the influence and evolution of classical music in Latin America. Part music lesson and part history lesson, this podcast offers a great introduction to a genre that is as diverse as the countries that produce it.

Listen to "Alt.Latino Goes Classical: Orchestral Music From Latin America"

Visit Alt.Latino

Why not a mariachi opera, right?
Kelvin

Podcast of the Week: It Takes Guts to Be Alive

The latest guest DJ session presented by Alt.Latino is actually a re-run from 2012 and features Dominican author Junot Diaz. Diaz brings with him an eclectic setlist with bachata, merengue and pop-punk, all sounds that reminded me deeply of my formative years (being half-Dominican myself). The trio of Diaz with Felix Contreras and Jasmine Garst also discuss the evolution of musical styles and influences in Latin America, specifically in the Caribbean, and the role music plays in asserting the identity of those with a stake in the name latino.

Listen to "Guest DJ Junot Diaz: 'It Takes Guts To Be Alive'"

Visit Alt.Latino

Breaking the omertà,

Kelvin

Podcast of the Week: Remembering Prince

In the wake of the death of Prince this past Thursday, two of my pop culture podcasts released separate 15-minute reflections on the legacy of the artist. At All Songs Considered, Bob Boilen, Robin Hilton and Ann Powers conversed about the impact Prince had in their personal lives, especially during critical turning points and coming-of-ages. At Pop Culture Happy Hour, Linda Holmes and Stephen Thompson painted the portrait of the enigmatic figure that Prince embodied and how he shook convention in multiple aspects of culture.

It is this latter podcast especially and this topic of non-conformity in particular that resonated with me because I see that with the passing of other great innovative pop musicians in recent years, like David Bowie and Michael Jackson, the mainstream culture is quick to aggrandize their influence and attribute to their stature social implications that could legitimately be out of their reach. It may just be that the boilerplate eulogy lends itself to canonization, thus making media personalities patronages of the societal progress, but time will tell what super-man may or may not arise from the image of the man that was Prince.

Listen to "Remembering Prince: The Utopian"

Visit All Songs Considered

Listen to "Remembering Prince"

Visit Pop Culture Happy Hour

℣ Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.
℟ Et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Fidelium animae, per misericordiam Dei, requiescant in pace.
Amen.

Casting Pods

When I was younger, I thought that podcasts were just glorified radio shows that only old people listened to. Now that I'm older, I think that they are one of the greatest media avenues ever created! Though I don't claim to know the first thing about podcast broadcasting, it is suffice to say for the layman still living under a rock that a podcast is an audio / video channel where the channel's host can upload episodic content to the podcast client server (which I presume is maintained by Apple) which is downloaded by the subscribers as often as the channel is updated. Basically, it's like TV for your earbuds.

The genres of podcasts seem as varied and versitile as what you could find on your phone's app store: news, sports, music, food, history, religion, comedy, education, etc. And I've yet to find any podcast whose content isn't free! So whatever you're into, it's likely that there's a podcast about it and that it's being regularly updated.

Below I've listed the podcasts I'm currently subscribed to and the reasons why I keep listening. I know there's dozens more I should also check out (some of which I'll list at the end), but I've kinda got my hands full with the content I already get from these 20 podcasts. If you have any suggestions, though, don't hesitate to leave a message on the (very lonely) comment bar :)

1. Lanky Guys (Runtime: 45 mins) (Updated: once a week)

This list is structured in the order that I have my podcast app (Podcast Republic) check for new updates and it's no surprise that I have it check for Lanky Guys first. Every week, Scott Powell and Fr. Peter Mussett call in from Bolder, Colorado, to break open the Scriptures and try and find the themes and topics that tie together each of the Sunday Mass readings from the Catholic Lectionary. I can always trust on the duo to be well researched, but far from sounding like a graduate lecture they do a good job of interspersing light banter and offering concrete take-aways that are pertinent to the Christian of today.

2. Word on Fire Sermons (Runtime: 15 minutes) (Updated: once a week)

On Word on Fire Sermons, Bishop Robert Barron of Los Angeles, California, shares his homily on the upcoming Sunday's Mass readings which is regularly dense with theological, philosophical, sociological and historical discussion.

3. St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology (Runtime: 3 minutes) (Updated: once a week)

Every week Dr. Scott Hahn from Steubenville, Ohio, offers in his podcast a short reflection on the Sunday Mass readings and draws out the implications of not only where do the readings fit in Salvation History but also how we are called to participate in the same.