One night last week, as I started for home after my 5:15 exercise class, I realized that I had left my iPod in my desk at work. Annoyed with myself for feeling that I couldn’t go for one night without it, I drove back to the office and retrieved it, wondering all the while if I had been invaded by a body snatcher who had transformed me into one of the Pod People. I bought the 2 GB Nano in late January of 2007, and I remember the salesperson looking rather bewildered when I declared that I had no intention of listening to music with this device. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m simply not a “music person” — in fact, I’m probably one of the few people on this planet who doesn’t own any cassette tapes or CDs or even LPs. Regardless, as of today, my iPod is three-quarters full, mostly with the spoken word.

I subscribe to four podcasts on a weekly basis and never miss an episode.

• Girl Meets Girl is produced by a singer-songwriter duo named Makena, who live and work in Southern California.
• Science Talk is one of three podcasts produced by the monthly print magazine Scientific American.
• This American Life, hosted by Ira Glass of WBEZ Chicago Public Radio, is an award-winning radio show and also one of the most highly-rated podcasts in any category.
• A Way With Words, hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, is a weekly radio show about the English language broadcast by KPBS in San Diego.

Click on the links above to go directly to each site; these podcasts can be downloaded through the iTunes store as well. These podcasts, like most, are completely free, but contributions to the organizations which produce them are most welcome.

I’ve also discovered that a number of the lecture courses offered to undergraduates at the University of California at Berkeley are available as podcasts from the Berkeley website. Last spring, I listened to ESPM 160AC, Professor Carolyn Merchant’s American Environmental and Cultural History, which was utterly fascinating. Last fall, I followed History 4A, Professor Isabelle Pafford’s Ancient Mediterranean World, which I liked so much that this spring I’m listening to History 106B, her History of the Roman Empire. Simultaneously, I’m following History 5, Professor M. Lavinia Anderson’s Making of Modern Europe. So addictive is listening to these lectures on my iPod that I keep thinking I should go back to college and major in History.