MediaReview

BuzzMachine � Blog Archive � My favorite podcasts: "I am also a big fan of Diggnation, where Digg.com founder Kevin Rose and friend Alex Albrecht talk about the stories that the public voted up to the front page of Digg… while they try a new beer. It’s that simple. But that’s what makes it so good: They actually care about this stuff. They give their opinions. They give credit to the people who found these stories. And they give us news. They’re two guys talking and you can imagine joining them over a beer and joining in the conversation. And, like Rubens, they produce the show to a clock and keep it moving.

My son is the one who got me into Diggnation. Today, he’s wearing his Diggnation T-shirt. And I hope he’ll forgive me for messing up an effort to meet Rose when I was at Web 2.0/1.0 in San Francisco. But note well that Rose is a celebrity to Jake and the audience. Podcasts are making stars.

Jake also got me to make it a habit to listen to and enjoy TWiT (This Week in Tech) with host Leo Laporte and a bunch of regular guests, including chronic curmudgeon John C. Dvorak. And he got me to watch video versions of both.

So one week, I thought I’d download tech podcasts produced by NPR so we could listen together. But they quickly bored Jake — and me — silly because they’re overproduced. They’re underhuman. That is the voice of “professional” radio and it’s not a compelling voice at all. I’d rather listen to friends — or people I come to think of as friends, or at least would like to meet — than the strangers of big-time broadcasting.

That is the true voice of the internet."