Blogs
This is worth 20 minutes......
The best kept secret of the Internet for Brits may be American Public Radio. The initials NPR usually are taken to stand for National Public Radio, unless you are right of centre (in which case you claim they stand for National Pinko Radio) or perhaps Zionistically minded (in which case it's known as National Palestinian Radio). Which said, regardless of your politics, the quality of the best programming is spectacular and an instant riposte to Europeans who see Americans as unintellectual or even sometimes a bit thick.
Think Radio 4 times ten.
A lot of the best programming seems to be produced by WGBH in Boston, KQED in California and WFMT and WBEZ in Chicago. Much of it is podcasted. Including this fascinating fifteen minutes (start from 8'45" in) which I heard in the car on the way to Bluewater this morning (I love the disjointed feeling you get listening to overseas media when driving). In this segment, the daughter of Julian Koenig (he of Papert, Koenig Lois) celebrates her father's genius (and rather disparages that of George Lois). In the interests of balance, I should point out that Sarah Koenig is a Producer of This American Life for WBEZ, and it seems a bit odd using your employer's airtime to settle old family scores. On the other hand I never knew JK invented Earth Day or thumb-wrestling (in its way just as great an achievement as writing Think Small).
