On Point takes a look at Pandora

Today's On Point (produced by our own WBUR, carried by NPR) takes a long and loving look at that fantastical music compendium; The internet service called Pandora.

In a nutshell, Pandora is a freemium music service, that starts by having you suggest an artist, song or genre you like to listen to, then Pandora creates a "radio station" that plays simmilar songs. If you are looking for a more detailed explanation of how Pandora does this, you'll have to listen to the show!

While I don't listen to Pandora as much as most of the callers seem to (if I did, when would I listen to my beloved public radio programs?) I still consider myself to be an avid user. If you've ever wondered who was behind this modern marvel, then head on over to the show page for the second hour of On Point, where host Tom Ashbrook talks to Pandora founder Tim Westergren.

Later in the show, Tom brings in Daniel Levitin, author of 2 books on music and the brain, who talks about the one thing Pandora can't do: Anticipate how the songs they suggest will affect the mood of the listener. I've been trying to train a fast paced and upbeat Rock and Roll station for about a month now, and within half an hour I always run out of "Skips" to use. Curse those mopey Beatles songs, and depressing Nirvana Tracks! But I suppose that's what I get for being picky.

So what about you, Public Radio Nerds? Are you an avid Pandora user? Do you have a legion of perfectly trained "stations" that give you only what you want? Or are you constantly wishing they would bring back the "Ban Artist" option?

Image of Mr. Westergren courtesy of Rafael Fuchs from Pandora, and image of Mr. Levitin courtesy of Daniel Levitin's Media Photos page, Photo by Owen Egan/Mcgill University

A Language Countdown from the World in Words

This week's offering from Patrick Cox and the World In Worlds podcast is a countdown of language stories from this week, covering:

Top five language-related stories from the past month. Among them: Some birds develop distinct dialects based on the decibel levels of their habitats; Companies doing business in Glasgow are offered interpreters to translate the local dialect; The French government reforms foreign language teaching; And Chinese expats do battle over which script U.S. schools should use to teach Chinese - traditional characters, favored in Taiwan and Hong Kong, or simplified characters, used in mainland China.

This might come as no surprise to those of you who know me, but as a Scottish expat I took a special interest in the story about Glaswegian interpreters. I know the Glasgie banter can seem a little daunting to some, but with a bit of practice and some careful listening there is nothing to be afraid of! And Patrick and his friends from the World come dangerously close to being downright mean about my native brethren. If any of you faithful RPRNerd readers can remember my post from Robbie Burns day, you might have noticed me chiding The World's Clark Boyd for being disparaging towards the Haggis. Well, it looks like Clark is up to his old tricks again, teasing and poking fun alongside Patrick and guest Carol Hills! Come'on now youse! Be nice!

And okay, so I couldn't understand every little bit of the example played, but I got most of it!

... at least half...

ANYWAYS, Patrick says this is not a full fledged podcast, so he should have more wordy goodness for us in time for the Podcast Roundup. In the meantime, go'on and bile yer heid!

Image courtesy of Patrick Cox's blog, found at http://patrickcox.wordpress.com/ The World, and the World in Words podcast are productions of WGBH.

Public Radio Halloween Spooktacular!

For your Halloween listening pleasure, your local public radio stations are practically bursting with stories of spooky and frightful things. So listen in, and enjoy!

From the WBUR, Arts & Culture reporter Andrea Shea brings us the story of a famous poltergeist roaming the halls of a Boston University dormitory. Andrea takes us down the haunted hallway and explains how playwright Eugene O'Neill came to be on the fourth floor of Shelton hall. And there's a Video too!



Then another WBUR production, NPR's On Point covers monsters and fears in their second hour. Host Tom Ashbrook talks things-that-go-bump-in-the-night with Columbia College philosophy professor Stephen Asma, who's new book "On Monsters: an Unnatural History of Out Worst Fears" is in your local bookstore now.

And to top it off (for this afternoon anyway) PRI's Here & Now ends their show with a nod to the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allen Poe, with one version of of the Master of the Macabre's final days by Nate Dimeo.

Happy Halloween Everybody!Video courtesy of wbur.org, image of professor Asma courtesy of his website: stephenasma.com and the image of the Jack-o-Lantern is courtesy of me!

Massive Weekend Podcast Roundup!

Seeing as the Bugle has taken this week off, I thought I might make up for our missing podcast by turning the Friday Podcast Roundup into a Fri+Saturday super podcast roundup!

As always, if your favorite Pubcast is missing from the Roundup, leave me any suggestions you might have in the comments! And Happy listening!

FRIDAY:

On this week's World in Words podcast, host Patrick Cox brings us:

Nobel literature prize winner Herta Mueller dreamed up metaphors in a mix of her native German and the Romanian she learned at school. Try translating that into English. Also, a conversation with the author of “Whatever Happened to Tanganika? The Place Names that History Left Behind.” And a profile of the man the Los Angeles Dodgers hired to interpret for the team’s Japanese players.

And on this week's How we Got Here is a compilation of recent stories from PRI's The World:

Gerry Hadden tells us the story of a Nazi traitor who finally had his conviction overturned. Alex Gallafent tells us about changing U.S. views of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. And Marco Werman interviews Loyola University historian Elizabeth Schmidt about the significance of the September 28th stadium in Guinea.

Clark Boyd and the World's Technology Podcast brings us:

In this week’s technology podcast, you can hear how some scientists in Britain are working to develop an open source application for smartphones that will allow field researchers to do some pretty sophisticated data collection and mapping. It’s all in an effort to fight the spread of infectious diseases across the globe. Also, we have a story on the future of electric vehicles, and a US researcher takes a look at how politicians Tweet in the US and UK.

BBC Friday Night Comedy podcast is currently running my favorite of the rotating comedy podcasts, the News Quiz, with Sandi Toksvig. This week:

Questions, Questions, Questions. Sandi Toksvig and team take a wry look at the News in the week that Nick Griffin appeared on Question Time, The Pope opened the doors for 400,000 Anglicans to join the Catholic Church, and Peter Mandelson came under fire for his role in mediating the dispute between management and unions at Royal Mail. Joining the panel this week are Steve Punt, Robin Ince, Francis Wheen and Jeremy Hardy. The producer was Victoria Lloyd.

Are your ears tired yet? Well I hope not, 'cause you've got a whole bunch of great Saturday podcasts coming your way!

SATURDAY:

On this week's Car Talk:

Tommy invokes his marital mantra to helps settle a dispute over burning bugs and a smoking defroster vent. Also, a hairdryer proves to be the crucial piece of evidence in a soggy starting mystery, how to handle an annoying passenger who's also telling everyone you're a lousy driver, and a Hall of Fame worthy display of answer avoidance from Tom and Ray. Plus, a new Puzzler and lots more.

And on NPR's weekly news quiz Wait Wait Don't Tell Me:

Stories: 1) Who's Carl This Time? 2) Opening Panel Round 3) NBC News Anchor Brian Williams Plays 'Not My Job' 4) Panel Round Two 5) Limericks 6) Lightning Fill In The Blank 7) Prediction: What's Next For Cable News?

And don't forget NPR's great and irreverent sports show Only a Game:

Recognize that tune? This week on Only A Game, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of college football’s most famous fight song…oh, the letters we’ll get from South Bend. We’ll be talking baseball, too, and then the show will go to the dogs for the sport of beagling.

And finally, this weekend I got around to adding 2 new podcasts to my podcatcher, NPR's On the Media, and PRX's Moth Radio Hour. Have you checked out either of these shows? Lemmie know what you think!

The New How We Got Here is ... Here!

Stepping away from our Friday Podcast Roundup (because it's usually released earlier in the week) the newest 'cast of Jeb Sharp's How We Got Here gives us an uncut conversation about President Warren G. Harding's love affair with his neighbor Carrie Phillips.

The heart of the podcast is an Interview fellow World producer Marco Werman conducts with James David Robenalt, author of The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage During the Great War. Robenalt was given access to love letters that were sealed to the public that Harding wrote to Phillips, and uses them to provide a personal touch to the elements that led up to American involvement in WWI.

For those who don't know, How We Got Here is a podcast all about providing historical context to modern issues, and exploring history in in a new and exciting way. Jeb Sharp says she chose to dedicate the 'cast to this conversation, because she felt like listening to Marco and Robenalt was like "stumbling onto the greatest dinner party in town." And after listening, I think you'll agree.

Don't forget, if you like the How We Got Here podcast, or any other podcasts from The World, let them know you're listening by joining their groups on facebook, or signing up for their RSS feeds! That way you'll be notified of new podcasts the moment they come out, and you can have a direct line to the podcast producers, who all love input from their listeners.

All images are courtesy of the How We Got Here Web page, care of PRI's The World and WGBH.

A Little Public Radio Competition around the Hub

Boston area public radio listeners will soon have another choice when it comes to where they get their news and talk programs. Public TV powerhouse WGBH (producers of shows like NOVA and Masterpiece, to name a few) already packed an FM punch with RPRN favorite radio program The World, but now they are migrating their classical music programing off of 89.7 fm and onto newly acquired WCRB 99.5 fm, a commercial classical music station.

WGBH currently airs news programing on it's 89.7 frequency from 5 until 9am, and again from 4 until 8pm during the weekday, and carries NPR standards Morning Edition and All Things Considered, as well as WNYC produced The Takeaway. The Takeway is a daily news and arts show produced with the BBC World Service, PRI, and The New York Times. By shifting their classical music programing, WGBH opens up 6 hours of air time to possible news and talk programs.

WBGH also operates an entirely classical music station online.

This of course means WGBH will be going head to head with that other public radio station, WBUR. The Boston Globe article on the changeover quotes WBUR general manager Paul La Camera as saying that WGBH would have a "steep climb" in coming into the local news radio market, and saying that WBUR is "not going to surrender any of that ground."

WGBH is planning to pay of the new addition to their family with the Keep Classical Alive fundraising campaign. A press release issued by WGBH says that although WCRB is licensed as a commercial music station, it will become a public radio station after the changeover.

Personally I think this is great news. As a Public Radio Nerd the thought of having even more shows to choose from is fantastically exciting, especially considering all the difficulties WGBH has been having lately. I just hope there is enough of the public radio pie in Boston for both WBUR and WGBH to share. Can't we all just get along?

Images courtesy of WGBH's mission page, and WBUR's Administraion page.

Set Aside an Hour for Today's Here & Now

If you were, I dunno at work or something around noon today, I can understand why you might not have heard today's Here & Now from PRI and WBUR. But now the show is up and available on the Here & Now Web site, so you have no excuse!

Today, host Robin Young opens up the show with a conversation about the proposed creation of a federal consumer protection agency. Robin speaks to Harvard Law School professor and the brains behind the proposal Elizabeth Warren. Robin puts forth many of the criticisms that have been leveled at Warren, and she in turn touches on what she would like to see change for the average American consumer.

Then, Robin remembers classical composer Leon Kirchner, who died yesterday of heart failure. Kirchner was, among other things, teacher to cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Following that, Robin Lets the gentiles know that Rosh Hashanah, or the Jewish new year, begins at sundown today. Robin speaks with Rabbi Charles Klein from the Merrick Jewish Center on Long Island, NY, about how the economic downturn and the fallout from the Bernie Madoff scandal are affecting Jewish communities.

In the fourth part of the show, Robin talks with senior reporter for Politico.com Ben Smith about the most recent controversy surrounding the political group ACORN, and what might happen to the group in the near future.

And finally, Robin talks with Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David about the new season about to air on HBO, reuniting the cast of Seinfeld, and his apparent love of whistling.

Phew! What a way to end the week huh?

Images are courtesy of UC Berkley graduate student newsletter and the Politico.com staff page.