Castaway

As exciting as village life can be, there are time when the isolation from outside news leaves me feeling like a ship-wrecked Tom Hanks – making conversation with sports equipment (my bike is named Jack) and writing compulsively on my cave (hut) walls. It is a fact of volunteer life that we are removed from American culture and always feel a few weeks (or months) behind the trends. With the 24/7 news cycle, stories break, peak, fade and are completely forgotten between trips into town. This is not entirely unfortunate, since stories that last only 1 issue of US Weekly are probably better missed. There are times though, when it would be nice to know what’s happening in my natal land. I by no means want to know every detail of the 2012 election, but it’s nice to know who’s in the race. I didn’t watch the Oscars, but I still want to know who won (and what they were wearing).

Anyway, the real point of this post is not to blabber about my lack of current cultural awareness but to profess my love…for podcasts. I was a novice podcast listener before Peace Corps but have recently turned into a rabid downloader of all things NPR. I don’t know if podcasts have grown in popularity over the last 12 months or if I am only now discovering the deep subculture of radio on demand.

Here are some of my current favorites and sanity savers:

-I am a longtime lover of RadioLab and spend many hours on I-95 between New York and Virginia with Jad and Robert. My only complaint is that there aren’t enough of them, so I’ve been rediscovering the early years. If you know anyone at NPR, my life dream is to read the closing credits.

-Another yuppie favorite, This American Life, is great for biking – until the episode of scary stories when you find yourself alone in the woods. Thanks Ira.

-Two other NPR releases are Fresh Air and Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me – which I imagine my mother listening to at the same time.

-My recent discoveries from Slate.com are their Gabfests, one on pop culture and the other on politics. Although I’ve rarely seen the movies they discuss and can’t watch a presidential debate, the hosts always seem to be having a great time and I invariably end up with a list of things to Google later on.

-TED talks are all the rage, and although the talks are less fun without the visuals they’re still good to hear.

-Keeping in line with my 2012 new year resolution to improve my French skills, I’ve been listening to Coffee Break French. I think it’s helping my language skills but may also be giving me a Scottish accent.

-For the public health nerd in me, there are tons of long and short episodes focused on current trends in global health released by universities and think tanks. I consider listening to these “work.”

When I just need to get away and listen to English for a little while, you can find me doing laundry or biking along with a podcast.