I don’t listen to a lot of podcasts. I don’t have a lot of time to find them, and I’m not sure I have a lot of time to listen to them, but Sean Wallace pointed out the latest instalment of Tony Smith’s Starship Sofa yesterday morning and I spent a very enjoyable time listening to Smith, Jeremy Tolbert and Jeff VanderMeer discuss all sorts of things of interest. I’m sold. Probably the most interesting they discussed was the future of short fiction and certain magazines. I think a lot of people were interested in the demographics for the Dell magazines (Analog & Asimov’s) and F&SF pointed out by Warren Ellis. I was too. I have no idea if they’re remotely accurate, but if they are, they’re very interesting indeed.
Speaking of podcasts, Clarkesworld podcast Kij Johnson’s “Spar” – one of the year’s best stories. Oh, and you can also here Johnson’s “The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles” over at Tor.com. Johnson is just writing out of her socks right now – when it someone doing a collection?!?
One suggestion I’ll make is to look for an MP3 player with a faster replay option. My old cheap one lets me listen at up to 130% speed. It takes significantly less time, and it’s still very comfortable listening. Sadly, my newer player doesn’t have this option.
It won’t replace actual reading. Even at 130%, it’s still slower than most of us can read. On the plus side, you can give your eyes a rest.