1. NPR: Jon Stewart, The Most Trusted Name in Fake News
The audio is very clean, and the interviewer speaks clearly without a single stutter. Natural sound exists in the form of audience laughter. Interviewer keeps Stewart on-task without interrupting or rushing him (i.e. "But what is the March?") Her questions are indubitably planned but delivered organically.
2. Auto-Tune the News #12: Legal Weed and Law-Making Lesbians
Auto-tune the News has the funniest podcasts ever, and this one is no exception. They're made by adjusting the pitch and rhythm of real newscasters' voices to sound like hip-hop music. The result is a mash-up of the most ridiculous stuff on TV (mainly gleaned from Fox News). The podcast includes the groups' signature videos, in which they insert themselves along newscasters. One touch I really enjoyed from this podcast was towards the end, when the singer sang directly into his lapel mic, which could be both heard and seen.
3. The NotHans Podcast: Tina Fey and 30 Rock
The speaker's voice is very engaging, reminiscent of old time radio. This clearly satirical podcast features a radio ad with "natural sound" from a haunted petting zoo and from radio interference. I'm fairly sure all the characters in this podcast are voiced by the same person. Even though this is supposed to be funny, I really wanted to navigate away at times. I think that's because the speaker seems to be reading. The podcast didn't get into the topic of Tina Fey (why I clicked on it in the first place)until 4 minutes in, and she didn't get to speak until 6 minutes in. Counting off all the phrases with "rock" in them is not the greatest way to introduce my favorite show. He should have let the audio clip from the show speak for itself, because Tina Fey really is funny. It was pretty clear he dubbed in the audio of her after the fact. The transitions are really choppy. Come to think of it, I don't think he interviewed her at all.
4. Fox News Radio: Latest 5-minute Newscast
From the sound of it, this audio was taken straight from the radio and turned into a podcast. While the timeliness is obvious, I'd appreciate an introduction, such as that given in the NPR podcast, before launching straight into the radio clip. There are commercials in this podcast!!! Why would anyone accessing news via iTunes put up with commercials? I think Fox News has a podcast for the sake of saying they have a podcast.
5. Stuff Mom Never Told You: Is Roller Derby Sport or Spectacle?
This feels like an old-timey radio show, with the cheesy music interrupted by a voice-over advertising Dove Body Wash. The speaker has a lot of pauses and repetitions, and her voice sometimes trails off at the end of sentences. (On a side note: she gave up on roller derby after one try. No one's good at it the first time around.) The podcast is a conversation between two podcasters. It makes it more conversational, but a little awkward, as their conversation is clearly planned.
The winner: NPR. The loser: Fox News.
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