Listening Material for Long Drive

[king_of_drafts]

What sort of short stories/lectures/programs that are available on CD would you listen to on a long drive? I listen to a lot of audiobooks and podcasts because I always plug in my iPod when I am walking around campus or driving. I try to stick to stuff that is easily digestible because my attention wanes a lot of the time and I obviously have to focus on driving/walking. I avoid long novels because it's easy to miss crucial information if your mind drifts out for a second or two.

Main stuff I enjoy:
-This American Life; awesome weekly NPR show about regular people, hosted by Ira Glass who is the most endearing radio personality out there (aside from Rush Limbaugh LDO). TAL is available in podcast form (it's the #1 subscribed to podcast I believe) and you can also download old episodes for $1 a show which is very cheap considering each show is an hour long

-Stephen King and Ray Bradbury short stories; for all the flack Stephen King gets, he is still a fantastic, polished author whose material entertains pretty consistently. Ray Bradbury is obviously a genius, but his stuff is a bit more poetic and possibly harder to follow if you are driving and a bit tired. King is probably a bit better at grabbing attention and holding it.

-David Sedaris essays; he's probably the most universally loved author in the world right now, and with good reason. His stuff is funny, moving, and easy to relate to. He actually reads his stories on CD/tape, unlike a lot of authors. Similar content to TAL. Everyday stuff; depressing, ironic, self-deprecating...

-Random lectures from The Teaching Company; Similar experience to sitting in a lecture hall and hearing a professor speak. I've listened to some on religion, philosophy, and history, and while the material didn't all stick with me like a normal class, I did feel like I was becoming vaguely knowledgeable in those subjects. These are hard for me to listen to unless I have a clear head and can focus on both driving and hearing what the professor has to say.

Fresh Air with Terry Gross; another NPR plug. Terry does great interviews with all kinds of people. I think these are kind of expensive to download/buy on CD, but definitely worth it.

[Dadswell]

Last driving trip I listed to a bunch of Brain Food podcasts. You can subscribe in the iTunes store. Just various discussions on a wide range of topics. Some are great, others not so much. A lot of them I find interesting. They haven't released a new one in awhile unfortunately, but you can still get the past 21 episodes.

[reno expat]

A lot of universities post lectures as pod casts. They generally things given at one time events like a famous professor speaking at parents weekend. As a result they stand alone, are often fairly digestible and have a wide range of topics. I know Yale, Princeton and UVA all have this somewhere in the itunes store.

[kylephilly]

Stern!

[HorridSludgyBits]

Time really flies by for me listening to Dickens' books (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist so far), depending on the length of the trip. Even though the story lines are pretty familiar, you forget how interesting his characters and observations about human nature are.