There are so many podcasts out there to listen to. In fact, there are over 630,000 podcasts available! No, I don’t mean episodes, I mean podcasts. The episode number is absolutely staggering, at over 18.5 million episodes. That’s a lot of listening!

What’s Good?

There are so many great podcasts out there, and they cover just about any subject matter you can imagine! As a voice talent, sound designer, and audio production guru, I am always interested in great podcasts that cover things I find interesting. I have three, excellent podcasts I want to highlight for you. Twenty Thousand Hertz, The Tech Guy, and This Week in Tech (TWiT), are all amazing. I find each of these stimulating and interesting. Each is educational and informative to me in what I do as voice actor, sound designer, audio producer, and a teacher of audio production. I will explain a little about each.

Twenty Thousand Hertz

Twenty Thousand Hertz is simply amazing! To use their words, it is a podcast about “The stories behind the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds.” That sums it up perfectly! Everything from Voice Acting, Foley Sound, Voice of Siri, to Jingles, Slot Machines, THX Deep Note, and more! The topics are so well produced and the stories told so well, that it is one of the BEST podcasts I have ever heard. Dallas Taylor is the host and executive producer. His background is as a sound designer and mixer. He launched and runs Defacto Sound, an award winning, sound design and mix studio for high profile projects. He and his team are the people who put together the podcast. It has become a passion of Dallas’. The topics are interesting, the interviews are with experts in the field, the stories are so well put together, and the sound design of each episode makes it a masterpiece! This is my absolute favorite podcast. So much so, that I am sustaining monthly contributor. Dallas has recently put out a challenge to each listener to spread the word and to get 10 new listeners to Twenty Thousand Hertz. So, if you check it out and listen, to even one episode, please email me and let me know. I would like to report back to them that this blog got them at least 10 new people to take a listen. I am at mike@mikesvo.com or you can let me know via my Twitter, MikeRaphone. The podcast is worth your time, especially if you are into sound and the stories behind them. You can find Twenty Thousand Hertz website here and you can subscribe through so many players and sound providers, including Apple Podcasts, and Google Play. Also, be sure to follow them on Twitter, 20korg.

The Tech Guy

These next two podcasts are part of an amazing empire of what are really called Netcasts. These podcasts and Netcasts are the brainchild of Leo Laporte. Leo is the host of The Tech Guy. Let me tell you about these next two podcasts, and then I will tell you more about the incredibly well-thought out and orchestrated TWiT.tv Netcast Network.

Leo does a masterful job on this podcast of explaining all things technology! This includes computers, and the Internet. This feed is actually twice a week and is the full audio of his radio talk show that is heard on the Premiere Radio Networks on radio stations all over the U.S. He covers a wide array of topics and is probably the most knowledgeable tech guys I have run across. I actually met Leo a long time ago at a Podcasting conference at the Ontario Convention Center. He was promoting his show and what was then, the very onset of podcasting. More about Leo in a bit. This podcast is worth your time!

TWiT – This Week in Tech

This podcast is also hosted by Leo Laporte (and Friends) and is part of the TWiT.tv Netcast Networks. Each episode of This Week In Tech records every Sunday and starts starts the week off with top tech pundits and experts in a roundtable discussion of important news and trends in technology. Also worth your time, if you are interested in or work with technology. Whatever the latest topics in technology in a given week, that is usually the topic of conversation and inquiry for that week’s show.

TWiT.tv

Now, let me give you a little background on this incredible brainchild of Leo Laporte, and company. TWiT.tv Netcast Network has approximately 20 different shows currently in production. I believe Leo hosts about 10 of the 20 shows! He also produces many of the shows. Check out the complete listing of shows here. This all started back in 1998 with a cable television network, I remember watching, called ZDTV. This channel was great. All of the programming was dedicated to computers, the Internet, and technology. After a while, ZDTV turned into a channel called TechTV. In 2004, it was sold and basically evaporated. Leo Laporte, and many other of the TchTV hosts, and producers, came together again in 2005 and started the beginnings of TWiT. From very humble beginnings, Leo and company have created an amazing network of great shows centered around computers, technology and the Internet. They work out of incredible studios in Petaluma, CA. Not sure what all they have added to the technology they use to produce the shows (they are available on line from their website as studio video productions, as well as podcasts), but it is an amazing set of NewTek video production gear using the TriCaster at the heart of the operation.

Amazing Podcasts and Free Knowledge

Each of these three podcasts/shows are amazing. They are all free for you to listen to and have access to the expertise of the hosts, their guests, and the stories they tell. You also can learn from the technical and production quality of each of these as well. Hope you will give each a listen. If so, please drop me a line and let me know what you think.