My favorite podcasts for now...

USA TODAY's Popcandy
Amateur Traveler
FM94/9 San Diego (Interviews)
MSNBC Countdown
NBC Today Show
Stuff You Should Know
VH1 The Best Week Ever
Oprah.com's Spirit Channel
New Yorker: Fiction
This American Life

I think I have said this, but I spend a lot of time at waiting around at ballet and other activities, so I use this time to catch up on news or other interesting information. The following podcasts also help keep me awake while driving or during other boring activities, so I thought I would share:

• FM94/9 San Diego (Interviews) - I stumbled onto this podcast after a recent trip to San Diego while driving up the coast to Hollywood, but basically 94/9 seems to be the best station in the country as far as I can tell. The interviews are with some well-known and some not-so-well-known bands (Artists such as Plain White T's, Perry Farrell, and Peter Buck), but they are all really interesting. The DJ who does most of the interviews (Halloran I think??), has a great ability to conduct interviews. I think he talent is mostly due to the fact that he really knows his stuff musically-speaking. I just wish they would keep the live versions of the songs in the podcast; most of them are cut out of the interview. Maybe that has something to do with licensing.
• USA TODAY's Popcandy - The funny thing about this podcast is that Whitney Matheson is really into comics and Battlestar Galactica, which I am not into at all, but yet the entire podcast is really engaging and interesting. The topics of the podcasts are diverse, such as the interviews she conducts with directors, actors, etc. I am often wishing the podcasts were longer than the typical 20-30 minutes. I especially like when she has a call-in session with readers of her blog and you can listen to them talk about the most off-the-wall things.
• Amateur Traveler - I love to travel and this is a great podcast to get you motivated and to find out about places you may have not have even heard about. The host Chris Christensen is also smart and likeable simultaneously.
• MSNBC Countdown - I know it doesn't seem this way, but I don't have a lot of spare time. Countdown is a daily news dose, without all of the commercials and extra fluff stuff that wastes time. The show leans towards the left, but in an educated, well informed way. Plus, the show manages to make news entertaining, which is not always easy to do.
• NBC Today Show - For obvious reasons... mostly diversity of information though
• Stuff You Should Know - Short five-minute podcasts telling you about well, stuff you should know, like How Yawning Works. I like the guy who hosts, he is funny in a weird way.
• VH1 The Best Week Ever - Enough said, and they even have full episodes.
• Oprah.com's Spirit Channel - Corny, I know, but I find that these give me a little extra motivation to "deal."
• Nick Jr's Making Fiends - Okay, at first glance this cartoon is really bizarre, but the more you watch, the more you get sucked into the ongoing saga of Vendetta and Charlotte's one-sided friendship.
• New Yorker: Fiction - I already gave an overly detailed explanation of this; however, I will say I work in, let's just say, a financial type of job and tend to find myself craving more thought provoking activity throughout the day. This podcast allows me to use the more creative side of my brain when I find the time to listen.
• This American Life - A new one for me, this podcast has the ability to grab the listener's attention through short stories from different people, based on a particular theme. One podcast about lack of knowledge talked about a woman who didn't realize that unicorns weren't on the endangered species list, because well, they are not real. She discovered the truth at a keg party with her friends staring blankly at her. I was laughing out loud at some of the people's confessions of stupidity, or maybe just naivety. I would just say to avoid the one called "Life After Death" because it is sad, although very interesting still