Adam White

I love film. I always have and I think I always will. I watch an awful lot of films and regular readers of this site will know I review a handful of them too (followers of me on Twitter get to see my mini-reviews as well).

I keep up to date with the latest film news through a couple of film websites but I also choose to listen to two film podcasts:

 

Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s Film Review

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lvdrj

This is by far my favourite podcast out of all I listen to. It is the one I regularly look forward to every week and am sad when Dr Kermode or Dr Mayo are on holiday as it is just not the same. The way these two banter between each other is brilliant and the film reviews are always entertaining. I even got the opportunity to go to Leeds and see a live version of the show which was brilliant.

While I may not always agree with the opinions given I don’t primarily listen to find out what to watch, I listen for the pure, unadulterated wittertainment.

 

Cinemagogue (Mars Hill Church)

http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/cinemagogue

Pastor James Harleman of Mars Hill Church regular shows films and chats about them before and afterwards from the Christian perspective. I find him very entertaining and he highlights things in the films that I would have otherwise missed. If you are a Christian and a film lover I recommend you catch a listen.

 

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Just in case you didn’t know; I am a software developer who specialises in web development utilising the latest Microsoft .NET technologies. Every day something new comes out from the open source community or Microsoft themselves and in order to keep up with everything I listen to a fair few podcasts that hopefully will keep me up to date with everything I need to know (and even some things I don’t):

.NET Rocks!

http://www.dotnetrocks.com/

With shows normally lasting an hour, Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell interview people from the .NET world about all kinds of topics. This is my number one choice for .NET developers and at over 500 shows it has a great history behind it.

 

RunAs Radio

http://www.runasradio.com/

RunAs Radio is a new one to my list but I place it second due to its relationship with .NET Rocks. It is considered to be the sister show and Richard Campbell also hosts this one. What makes it different though is it is aimed at the IT professionals out there and covers more hardcore topics like patch management and security. It is not aimed at developers but I find it does nothing but help me to understand some topics outside the scope of my actual job role.

 

Hanselminutes

http://hanselminutes.com/

Hansel minutes is hosted by Scott Hanselman who is a greater speaker on all ASP.NET related topics. He is also another regular listen of mine and it is rare that he speaks on a topic I am not interested in.

 

Polymorphic Podcast

http://polymorphicpodcast.com/

Similar to Hanselminutes this podcast focuses on ASP.NET and related topics. The frequency of the podcast can vary but when it comes it is usually worth it.

 

Herding Code

http://herdingcode.com/

Herding Code has four hosts: K. Scott Allen, Kevin Dente, Scott Koon, and Jon Galloway. This makes the chats more varied as everyone chips in with there opinions. They don’t focus on a specific topic and have covered everything from iPhone development to development patterns. This can make it quite hit and miss as to whether an episode is worth listening to but the variety and quality of the show makes up for it.

 

SitePoint

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/category/podcast/

The SitePoint podcast focuses on web and as such covers every kind of web topic known to man. This limits the appeal to me down to the odd podcast but I keep an eye on it just in case.

 

Software Engineering Radio

http://www.se-radio.net/

This is my least listened to podcast as it covers software engineering as a whole and therefore can be a little too high-level or left-field for my liking. They sometimes come out with one worth listening though.

 

UK MSDN Flash

http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/UKMSDNPodcast/

And finally we have the relatively new UK MSDN Flash podcast. Eric Nelson has only been doing these for a while but they are generally only short so are perfect for filling in those tiny gaps.

 

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I’ll be honest with you; I find reading my bible difficult and unless I am willing to sit down for an extended period of time and get into to some proper study with additional books for assistance I very rarely do it. With the new year I am hoping to get into some regular study time as I know it is nothing but help but I find that listening to people talk about the bible is a lot easier.

This is where my faith-based podcasts come in. I was first introduced to some preachers from around the world when I first started getting into God properly and haven’t stopped listening since.

I have dabbled with a number of different speakers over the years but below are the ones I listen to regularly and try and keep up to date with:

 

Andy Stanley (North Point Community Church)

http://www.northpoint.org/messages

Andy Stanley (along with the brilliant Louie Giglio) was the first preacher I listened to from another church. He heads up one of the largest churches in America and is a very gifted speaker. He is in his 40s and is very down to Earth in the way he speaks. I find the topics he covers excellent for new Christians and even though he is usually quite light on the doctrine I still find his talks excellent to listen to.

 

John Piper (Desiring God)

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/

I would describe John Piper as being at the opposite end of the spectrum to Andy Stanley. I first came across him when when I was still new to the Christian world and found him to be a little heavy and hard to listen to. Coming back to him years later I find him amazing. He seems to know so much about God and the bible and this shows in his very comprehensive messages. He is currently preaching his way through the book of John and has been for well over a year now. Full of doctrine and a definite pick for anyone that wants to learn more about their bible and God.

 

Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church)

http://www.marshillchurch.org/

Where would a list of preachers be without Mark Driscoll. A man who is still very young for a preacher in his late 30s he has an approach to God and the bible that just rubs off on any of his listeners. He is the only person I know who can bring humour and deep conviction to a message with ease. He is very tough and holds nothing back in his messages but talks with such love that you can’t help but be gripped. He has recently started a series with the aim to preach through every chapter of the book of Luke in 3 years. A stunning speaker and highly recommended to everyone.

 

Matt Chandler (The Village Church)

http://www.thevillagechurch.net/

I have only been listening to Matt Chandler for a little while and found him to be a very good speaker in the Mark Driscoll mould. Sadly, late last year, he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and understandingly hasn’t been speaking for a while. My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife and young family.

 

Mark Thornett, Nigel Howarth and Colin Thornton (Gateway Church Swindon)

http://gatewaychurchswindon.org.uk/audio/

And how can I complete a list of preaches without mentioning my own church? While I don’t listen to the online recording often as I usually listen to it first-hand I do recommend it to anyone in the Swindon area if they are interested in finding a local church or just getting an idea of what our church is like.

 

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I love walking to work. It is a great way to get some fresh air before the day starts and is so much better than sitting in traffic to clear my mind on the way home. Also, I have found some nice walks in the area around where my office is to get out a lunch on a nice day.

That can give me up to 1.5 hours per day where I am out with nothing to do. I choose to fill this time with podcasts.

Before I get into the actual podcasts I listen to I should start by explaining what a podcast is: The best comparison I can make is it is like a downloadable radio program that you can put on your mp3 player and listen to on your travels.

Getting podcasts is really simple. You find the website it is on and you download it. Then it is just a matter of transferring it to your mp3 player in the normal way. The trickier thing is to keep up to date with the latest podcasts, especially if you listen to as many as I do. This is where RSS feeds come in to it. Most podcasts will have an RSS feed available which you can subscribe to in something like Google Reader (http://reader.google.com) which will update itself automatically whenever a new episode is available and all you have to so is remember to check this one place.

As the tagline of this website suggests, I can easily break down my podcasts into three separate categories:

1. Faith based talks from a number of churches around the world
2. Software development podcasts focussed on .NET and the web
3. A couple of film podcasts to keep me up to date with what’s out there

I’ll be focussing in on the talks I regularly listen to in each of these categories in later posts.

 

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