Five Podcasts That Will Make You Fall In Love With Podcasting – The EarIdeas Challenge

Hugh McGuire – the guy behind LibriVox and all ’round great online community guy recently launched his latest project – EarIdeas – which is described as "a collection of the best thoughtful audio available on the web. We’ve got shows from public and other broadcasters, magazines, newspapers, museums, as well as individuals." Hugh and his team actually listen to each submission and categorize them for your listening pleasure.

As part of the launch for EarIdeas, Hugh has asked some of his friends in the Social Media space to choose their top five Podcasts in the ever-so-popular game of Blog tagging. While I meant to jump on this earlier, Julien Smith at In Over Your Head beat me to the punch and posted his here: The EarIdeas Challenge – along with tagging me. When two friends (who also happen to live in my hometown) call me out, I must respond.

Here are the five that have inspired me the most lately (you can view all of my faves over on the left-hand side under the Listen To These Podcasts section).

In no particular order:

1. Search Engine hosted by Jesse Brown and produced by the CBC. This is quickly becoming one of my personal favourites. "Search Engine is your open source to all the surprising and significant ways the Internet is transforming our world. Join us each week for a look at politics and culture through the lens of the Net. It’s radio that predicts the present."

2. Spark hosted by Nora Young and produced by the CBC. And it’s not just because I am interviewed on the latest episode. "Spark is your guide to the Next Big Thing. On-air and online, join Nora Young for a surprising and irreverent look at tech, trends, and fresh ideas."

3. For Immediate Release – The Hobson And Holtz Report hosted by Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson. These guys just celebrated their 300th episode (way to go guys). A "twice-weekly show at the intersection of online communication and public relations." Don’t let that description fool you – most of the cool things I hear about in Social Media and Online Marketing I hear on this show first.

4. Managing The Gray hosted by C.C. Chapman. Along with Joseph Jaffe from Jaffe Juice, C.C. Chapman is not only the music DJ at end of my Podcast, Six Pixels of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast – but one of the main reasons I am Podcasting today. His show is all passion. "Managing The Gray is a marketing podcast about new media, social marketing, no control PR and how you can embrace the evolution and not be left behind as the world moves forward. It’s a mix of tips, insights and the occasional interview."

5. Marketing Over Coffee hosted by John Wall and Christopher S. Penn. Two smart guys in a coffee shop talking Marketing. "Marketing Over Coffee is an Internet radio program (podcast) that covers both classic and new marketing. The program is runs about 20 minutes and comes out on Thursday mornings."

Those are five Podcasts that will keep your ears burning (not in that way ;). I’m hopeful that the EarIdeas team finds them worthy of being entered into the directory.

I’d be interested in knowing what the following people follow for audio: David Jones host of Inside PR – Chris Brogan – Bryan Eisenberg from GrokDotCom – Avinash Kaushik from Occam’s Razor and Bob Goyetch from the Canadian Podcast Buffet.

You can check out Hugh’s new project here: EarIdeas.