Andrew Wirtanen » Podcasts

Obama’s First Weekly YouTube Address

Andrew Wirtanen — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:14:30 +0000

President-elect Barack Obama has started posting weekly video addresses on YouTube. As president, Obama will will deliver both the traditional weekly radio address and a weekly YouTube address. The “weekly fireside coffee talks” are a throwback to FDR, who delivered 30 evening radio addresses between 1933 and 1944 (Wikipedia: Fireside chats).

I think the weekly YouTube address will have a much larger audience than the radio address. The radio address is also available as a podcast (iTunes: The President’s Weekly Radio Address).

Here’s the first YouTube address by President-elect Barack Obama (interestingly enough, comments are closed for the video):

Click here to view the embedded video.

[via Gizmodo]

This American Life Season 2

Andrew Wirtanen — Thu, 22 May 2008 03:08:38 +0000

Every week, you can catch me listening to PRI’s This American Life with Ira Glass on my iPod. Last year, Showtime picked up a television version of the radio show last year. Currently in its 2nd season, This American Life the TV show is a wonderful adaptation of the radio show. Below is an animated short by Chris Ware from this season (and here’s one he did last year):

MacWorld Keynote in 60 Seconds

Andrew Wirtanen — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 03:52:46 +0000

Out of all the video podcasts that I watch, Mahalo Daily is quickly becoming one of my favorites. The podcast is hosted by Veronica Belmont, formerly of CNET’s Buzz Out Loud. When people ask me about what happened at MacWorld this week, I’ve been pointing them to this short and sweet summary:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Apple TV’s Niche Market

Andrew Wirtanen — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 02:10:37 +0000

Last year, I predicted that Apple TV was going to fail. While I still may be right, my thoughts on the device have changed dramatically.

This weekend, I was listening to the latest UIE podcast (SpoolCast Crew Episode #6) and the panel was talking about Apple TV’s failure. The group cited the obvious reasons (it’s not a media center substitution, you can’t play your DVDs, you can only play iTunes content), but failed to mention one of the best uses for the device: video podcasts.

Video podcasts have come a long way since their inception. In fact, a few companies have been born that focus solely on producing quality video podcasts (see Revision3, On Networks). They are such high quality that they are already a substitute for regular TV. I would love to have an Apple TV with all of my podcasts so I can watch them on the big screen.

If you are new to the idea of video podcasts, here are some to get you started:

Ask a Ninja
Beautiful Places in HD
commandN
Cranky Geeks
Cute with Chris
DiveFilm
Geekbrief.TV
HD podcast | washingtonpost.com
Hubblecast HD
MobuzzTV
Noodle Scar Daily
Onion News Network
On Networks (Backpack Picnic, Stump the Chef, etc.)
Revision3 (Diggnation, InDigital, etc.)
Rocketboom
Tiki Bar Tv
TreeHuggerTV
Webnation

Beautiful Places in HD

Andrew Wirtanen — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:52:24 +0000

Out of all the podcasts that I watch and listen to, Beautiful Places in HD with Tony Farley is one of my favorites. Tony takes you on quick 5-10 minute tours of some of our country’s most amazing places in 720p HD. You may need a fast computer to play back the HD video (most computer screens are HD–don’t worry), but Tony has links to standard-definition versions of the video on the website. I prefer to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

In the Fern Lake episode (the most recent as of writing this), you will notice my name at the end of the credits as a supporter!

Here is the first video from the podcast, where Tony takes you to Yosemite Falls:

Click here to view the embedded video.