First, get Juice software to subscribe to podcasts. It's a "podcatcher"--software to manage podcast subscriptions and automatically download episodes to your computer (where you can save them until you're ready to put them on your mp3 player). Download the user guide for step-by-step instructions on setting it up and managing your subscriptions.

The first link in the list below is to the podcast web page. Some sites, like NPR, the BBC, etc. have a lot of podcasts to choose from. Others just have a single podcast. The links after that are the subscription addresses that you'll put into Juice. You can either right-click on the name and choose the option to copy the link address on the context menu that comes up, or click on the link and copy the address in the address bar.

For sites with a lot of podcasts, I only listed a few direct subscription links to things that looked interesting. The only exception is the New York Times podcasts, where I listed a lot of them because it's virtually impossible to find the RSS subscription links on their site--they only link to the iTunes subscription information.

If you want to subscribe to a podcast you find on one of the pages below that I didn't already list the subscription address for, look for an option that says something like "subscribe by RSS" or "get the XML feed." Those are the options that will work in Juice. Most pages will also offer iTunes links, sometimes more prominently placed. You don't want those. (Dealing with iTunes is a pain in the ass. You're better off just not getting involved with it.)

When you set up Juice, one of the options when you add a new subscription will ask you if you want to "catch up." What that means is that, if you tell it yes, Juice will download all the recent episodes listed in the subscription feed. Sometimes it's just four or five, sometimes it can be twenty or more. If you want to download a bunch of back episodes (which you might, for something like Clarkesworld or Escape Pod or especially Leviathan Chronicles) then telling Juice to catch up is an easy way to do it. If you don't want a bunch of old episodes (like you probably don't want a month's worth of headline news stories) then tell Juice no when it asks. (This is covered in the user guide too.)

You probably don't want to subscribe to all of these. Some update more than once a day, some only monthly, and lengths range from around five minutes to an hour or more. Sometimes you can tell from the site what the average lengths and update frequencies are. If you go to the site, you can usually find a link to download an individual episode as an mp3 file, so you can listen to an episode before you waste a lot of time/space downloading a program that you end up not liking.

News

• New York Times podcasts | subscribe to: Front Page | Backstory | Book Review | Tech Talk | Political Points | Science Times | TimesTalks | World View | Your Money | Today's Business | Weekend Business
• NPR podcasts | subscribe to: Talk of the Nation | Fresh Air
• CBC podcasts | subscribe to: As it Happens | The Hour | CBC News World Report | CBC Radio: Editor's Choice
• BBC podcasts | subscribe to: Global News | Global Arts and Entertainment | Business Weekly | Documentaries | Digital Planet | Health Check
• Radio Sweden podcasts | subscribe

Government and Politics

• White House podcasts | The President's Weekly Address
• Prime Minister of Canada | subscribe
• C-SPAN podcasts | Podcast of the Week
• Common Sense | subscribe

Arts and Culture

• Smithsonian Institute podcasts | Behind the Scenes at the National Museum of Natural History
• National Arts Centre of Canada podcasts | Explore the Symphony

Science

• Science magazine's podcast | subscribe
• NASA podcasts | NASACast omnibus
• Scientific American podcasts | Science Talk
• NPR's Science Friday podcast | subscribe
• NOVA podcasts | subscribe
• CBC's Quirks & Quarks podcast | subscribe
• Nature podcast | subscribe
• The CERN podcast | subscribe
• Slacker Astronomy podcast | subscribe
• The Science Show | subscribe

Technology

• The Tech Guy | subscribe
• Engadget podcast | subscribe

History

• Hardcore History podcast | subscribe
• BBC History Magazine podcast | subscribe
• History Channel podcasts | Our Generation
• Military History podcast | subscribe
• Pritzker Military Library podcasts | subscribe to all podcasts
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography podcasts | subscribe
• Story Corps | subscribe
• U.S. National Archives | Presidential Libraries podcast
• U.K. National Archives | subscribe

Skeptic/Atheist

• Skepticality | subscribe
• The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe | subscribe
• Point of Inquiry | subscribe
• Humanist Network News podcast | subscribe
• The Non Prophets | subscribe
• Atheists Talk Radio | subscribe
• Atheist News podcast | subscribe

Books, Fiction, and Literature

• The New Yorker podcasts | Out Loud | The Political Scene | The Fiction Podcast
• Between the Covers | subscribe
• Writers on Writing | subscribe
• New York Review of Books podcast | subscribe

Science Fiction and Fantasy

• Escape Pod | subscribe
• SFF Audio | subscribe
• Spider on the Web | subscribe
• The Leviathan Chronicles | get the archive | subscribe
• Clarkesworld Magazine podcast | subscribe

Poker

• StoneColdBluff Poker podcast | subscribe
• PokerRoad Radio | subscribe
• Full Tilt Poker podcasts | subscribe
• Rounder's Radio | subscribe

Other Stuff

• Car Talk | subscribe
• The Money Pit home improvement podcast | subscribe
• The Handyguys Podcast | subscribe

Not exactly podcasts

The following aren't podcasts, but they're good places to find downloads. Mostly audio books, or other audio entertainment.

• Internet Archive: Audio Archive - Audio books, podcasts, radio shows, music, and more.
• Project Gutenberg - Listing of human read audio books.
• LibriVox - Free audio books in the public domain.
• OTR Network Library - Archive of old time radio shows for download.
• Zoot Radio - More old time radio shows. (Free membership is required to access the download section.)
• FSI Language Courses - Public domain language courses from the Foreign Service Institute. (Swedish, Dad, download Swedish.)
• MusOpen - Public domain classical music.

• Open Culture - Blog that rounds up links to educational and cultural media.

We got my dad an mp3 player for Christmas, and I was telling him about podcasts, so I put together a list of some that he might enjoy. Hi Dad!