Staying sane on a long commute - podcasts etc?

[Toaster Pilot]

I often see people when talking about a long commute by car mention listening to podcasts and stuff like that to break up the monotony - anyone have any recommendations?

[grayze]

audiobooks?

[longblackcoat]

The Bugle. Andy Zaltzman on a pun-run is either the funniest or the most appalling thing you'll ever hear, depending on how mauled you like your language.

Empire for film-related

Desert Island Discs - the archives are out there and surprisingly listenable

[pti]

All of the Ricky Gervais podcasts (with Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington) are excellent IMO (flamesuit on)

[surveyor]

Radio 4 - Comedy of the Week.
Radio 4 - Friday Night Comedy
Radio 4 - Drama of the week (been a bit crap for quite a long time now...)

I also listen to an aviation podcast - Airline Pilot Guy.

Oh and the Archers Omnibus...

[tannedstamina]

I'm a big fan of the Radio 4 stuff and I'm not even that old...Check out Infinite Monkey cage podcast as well

Also worth getting some good Audio Books - they can make the trip fly by (well, drive by). In Australia I did some long drives and they made it all a bit more interesting. Just make sure your ipod isn't set on shuffle as that really make one book very confusing for me.

[KTF]

Language courses? Plenty of time to practice speaking out loud in the car

[tomfreay]

The Radio 4 stuff is good as has already been said, my list:
- Answer me this
- Radio 4: Comedy of the Week
- Radio 4: Friday Night Comedy
- Radio 4: The Infinite Monkey Cage
- Freakonomics Radio

Those are usually enough to cover my commute but there are some others I also listen to if I run out

[james_gt3rs]

pti said:

All of the Ricky Gervais podcasts (with Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington) are excellent IMO (flamesuit on)

I think I would crash a car listening to that

[Toaster Pilot]

Any stupidly cheap audiobooks on tape would be welcome too (shed motoring, not paying for a fancy stereo when the current one works)

Going to find one of those tape to iPod adaptor things, still no idea how that witchcraft works mind!

[Engineer1]

longblackcoat said:

The Bugle. Andy Zaltzman on a pun-run is either the funniest or the most appalling thing you'll ever hear, depending on how mauled you like your language.

The problem is you either end up laughing till you have tears in your eyes or wanting to end it all.
There is a source of free podcast books PodioBooks.

[lufbramatt]

james_gt3rs said:

pti said:

All of the Ricky Gervais podcasts (with Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington) are excellent IMO (flamesuit on)

I think I would crash a car listening to that

I nearly did, the one about giving a goat to an African family. Needing to wipe the tears from your eyes but wearing glasses is not good.

[longblackcoat]

Engineer1 said:

longblackcoat said:

The Bugle. Andy Zaltzman on a pun-run is either the funniest or the most appalling thing you'll ever hear, depending on how mauled you like your language.

The problem is you either end up laughing till you have tears in your eyes or wanting to end it all.

Often both.

[SrMoreno]

Kermode and Mayo's film reviews and Fighting Talk are both excellent.

[GetCarter]

His Dark Materials... took me many, many, many miles in an instant. (360 minutes play time)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/His-Dark-Materials-Trilo...

[BaronVonVaderham]

Alan Partridge - I Partridge on audiobook kept me sane and sniggering all the way from London to Edinburg a few times.

[new_bloke]

The cabin pressure series on Radio4 is great - being repeated at the moment....

[RizzoTheRat]

tomfreay said:

- Answer me this
- Radio 4: Comedy of the Week
- Radio 4: Friday Night Comedy
- Radio 4: The Infinite Monkey Cage

All of these plus:

Little Atoms - Reviews of science based books
Material World - Sciencey magazine show
Festival of the Spoken Nerd - Recordings of their live science/comedy shows, sound quality tends to be a bit poor though

[limpsfield]

longblackcoat said:

Engineer1 said:

longblackcoat said:

The Bugle. Andy Zaltzman on a pun-run is either the funniest or the most appalling thing you'll ever hear, depending on how mauled you like your language.

The problem is you either end up laughing till you have tears in your eyes or wanting to end it all.

Often both.

Another Bugle podcast fan here

And also, the Frank Skinner weekly podcast via Absolute radio. Long time reader.

I used to be a fan of Radio 4 podcasts but occasionally they do stretch the definition of comedy

[RizzoTheRat]

limpsfield said:

I used to be a fan of Radio 4 podcasts but occasionally they do stretch the definition of comedy

Agree the Comedy of the Week ones can be a bit hit and miss, but the Friday Night one is usually either the News Quiz or Now Show, both of which are pretty constantly good.