’Tis the Season; What’s a Podcast Listener to Do?

Over the past decade, what we quaintly used to call “radio” has become unrecognizable. Though this brave new era is a good thing, the local and national public radio apparatus is being dragged kicking into it.

I, along with millions of other folks, listen to a lot of public radio and yet to none at all. That is to say, I consume lots of podcasts and a bit of streaming news, but I almost never turn on my radio. Why listen to what your local station’s serving up at any random moment when, whether in your car, at home, or out jogging, you can stop, start, pause, and rewind at will your favorite shows free of traffic reports, nonstop plugs for local businesses, and begathons?  Who wants to spend two hours time prying the 45 minutes of Fresh Air out of its 60 minute local time slot when it can be streamed or downloaded at will?  As a bonus, you get to skip the Seth Rogen interview.

Don’t get me wrong: I think my local NPR station provides a useful service, and I support it. It’s just that, unless I’m unexpectedly stuck in a car for a few minutes, I rarely listen to it.

On the other hand, two of my favorite shows, Planet Money and On the Media, are, respectively, products of NPR and WNYC, the latter on the opposite coast. I’d like to contribute to both shows, but NPR and WNYC won’t let me. (And since I don’t live in New York, contributing to WNYC’s general fund doesn’t seem like a meaningful use of my money.)

Russ Roberts’ Econtalk is another favorite, and it’s a special case. It may not be the most downloaded program in podcastdom, but it certainly is one of the most influential. If you think you’re a policy wonk and you don’t listen to it, then you’re not managing your time properly. In any case, Russ doesn’t openly solicit contributions, but you can do so here.

The good news is that there are some programs I can donate to, so here goes:

For those who lament the “decline” of investigative journalism, know that it’s alive and well at Propublica (which, of course, is not a public radio outfit, but rather a donation-supported online news organization that just happens to produce a dandy podcast). You can donate online or send your checks to:

Propublica
One Exchange Plaza
55 Broadway, 23rd Floor
New York, NY 10006

I also support Ira Glass’s This American Life; the parent station, WBEZ/Chicago Public Media, allows direct donations to the show through them, which should be snailmailed to:

This American Life Donation
Chicago Public Media
848 East Grand Avenue
Chicago IL 60611

Other programs that allow direct donations are Serial, Jesse Thorn¹s Maximum Fun, Radiotopia, and Transom.

If you know of any other news, policy, or economic-related podcasts, do let me know; contact me at [as a spam prevention measure]: “press” “at” “efficientfrontier.com.” Make sure you include the show’s snailmail address, and that the online donation link does not send the donation to the station’s general fund.

And if any of you can figure out a way of letting me donate directly to On the Media, Planet Money, or to any other WNYC or NPR podcast, or if you can pry loose from their managements a non-rent-seeking explanation of why they don’t allow direct podcast donations, I’d appreciate that too.

Copyright 2014, William J. Bernstein. All rights reserved.