Pick Of The Pods

The 12 Pods of Christmas - In the show we cover podcasts about books, music, films, murder, ukuleles and hopefully the true meaning of Christmas. Along the way there’s also some pretty big podcast news with the return of two old friends, and someone celebrating a BILLIONTH DOWNLOAD! So park your family with a bottle of port and some mince pies, take your laptop upstairs, and let us guide your ears through the last bit of 2011.

On this week’s show we tackle society, the economy, religion, the search for sasquatch, and what to do if you fall in lovewith your own mum. We’re joined by comedian, actress, presenter, activist, wild swimmer and all round brilliant egg, Josie Long. Josie’s the new podcast partner of Andrew Collins who we met a few episodes back. She’s also a podcast partner of Robin Ince, and she tells Tom about plans for a third podcast partnership starting in the new year, not forgetting chart news from Lisa O'Sullivan and Tom Whalley's dead feed.

This week on Pick of the Pods with Tom Robinson...we celebrate the sheer entertainment of NPR CarTalk, the expert knowledge of The Football Ramble, the diverse radio stations WFNU and The Sinners Crossroads and the OneLife gamers pod. Meanwhile, the guest facing the PotP questions, not forgetting chart news from Lisa O'Sullivan and Tom Whalley's dead feed.

This week on Pick of the Pods with Tom Robinson...Science Fantastic the bizarre US podcast of popular science. We also visit Freakonomics based on the book of the same title that explores real world economic behaviour. There is some Chinese poetry in a translated scottish voice courtesy of the weekly Scotish Poetry Library Podcast and The Conspiracy show from Canada. Meanwhile, the guest facing the PotP questions this week is journalist Andrew Collins whose podcast with comedian Richard Herring has already reached centurion status. Plus there is chart news from Lisa O'Sullivan and Tom Whalley supplies his dead feeds.

This week on Pick of the Pods with Tom Robinson... we meet the bizarre world that is the daily offering from The Onion, the long-running Skeptics guide to the Universe, The Great Speeches in History and The Football Ramble. Special guest - New Noise's Jon Hilcock - means this week's podcast covers almost every popular subject dominating podcast listens.

This week on Pick of the Pods with Tom Robinson... we meet the host of the superb Guardian Podcast Tech Weekly, Dr Aleks Krotoski discussing podcasts and bringing technology and science to the masses. There's the WTF podcast with comedian Mark Maron, Sony Award nominated Flaps Podcast and the return of Adam and Joe. Meanwhile, Lisa presents the latest chart news and Jason finds his Dead Feed with the Dutch Dub podcast.

This week on Pick of the Pods with Tom Robinson... we delve into the world of podcasts that captured the dynamism of this years South By South West in Austin Texas and discover a new emerging faction in the UK’s Labour party called Blue Labour. A suggestion via Twitter we discover the musical talent of Bido Lito podcast and for foodies we twist the lid on the wonderful NPR Food Podcast. We meet Mike Leigh from the superb The Spurs Podcast and finally producer Jason Phipps features another Dead Feed, this week The Ethicist Podcast.

This week on Pick of the Pods with Tom Robinson... personal accounts of the tragedy unfolding in Japan and a sober description by a survivor of the Thailand tsunami of 2004. We discover that some of us are super-tasters and we hear a jaw dropping encounter from the 1955 TV show, This Is Your Life, dedicated to a survivor of Hiroshima. Special guest is Independent newspaper columnist Johann Hari who has just entered the world of podcasting and the Dead Feed is the very first series of the Ricky Gervais Podcast.

This week on Pick of the Pods with Tom Robinson.....the award winning Radiolab podcast from WNYC in the U.S. and storytelling at it’s best The Moth podcast features big cat expert Alan Rabinowitz who tells of his crippling stammer and how he found his voice and saved the jaguars of Beliz. We hear from the lunar world of Project Moonbase and their unusual take on news involving noisey children and a mysterious “Jason Bieber”. Our very special guests this week are the founders and presenters of the award winning podcast Answer Me This! Olly and Helen. Finally Dead Feed pays hommage to Slash Music.

Tom Robinson celebrates the comic talents of John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman in The Bugle. Author of Net of Delusion, Evegny Morozov features in the Guardian’s Tech Weekly and there's Valentine's sex advice from columnist Dan Savage. New kid on the pod-block Elton Perryman dispenses advice on Christina Aguillera and football while this week’s studio guest is Sony Gold UK Podcast winner Francesca Panetta - the force behind The Hackney Podcast. Finally ‘Dead Feed’ introduces a since departed podcast that left an indelible mark on the world of podcasting.

From the sublime and uplifting to the down right ridiculous join Tom Robinson for the Pick of the Pods.