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seamus2389

Limited run podcasts

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Most suggestions for podcasts I come across are for ones that are weekly/ no end date and I was wondering what good podcasts that had a limited run and are no longer updating.

 

The ones I have listened to are mostly history - the history of rome, the military history podcast, 12 Byzantine rulers, norman centuries (both by the same guy) and the life of Napoleon (about 60-70 hours long which seems insane in retrospect), a lecture series on the life of Hannibal and a series on ancient greece I came across in itunes U.

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You Look Nice Today is a dead cast that was excellent. It wasn't intended to be limited run, though.

 

Edit: Oh, looks like they put out a new episode on 11/1. Weird.

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I can't remember the name, but I found a British philosophy podcast that was a limited run.  It was kind of like a philosophy 101 course in podcast form.  Each episode covered a philospher or theme, and it was designed to just run 12 episodes or so.  Seems like it was sponsored by the BBC. 

 

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History is not limited per se, as he's still doing them, but he often has series that span 3-5 episodes and are completely self-contained.  These things are epic in lenght, which each episode often spanning several hours, and a full series being a dozen or more hours.  I highly recommend it though, he spends months researching each topic before delving in with a depth that is almost unheard of in consumer grade history.  It's probably my favorite podcast that's not news/gaming related.

 

A Life Well Wasted is functionally limited, as he only released 9 episodes, but each one is pure audio gold.  He applies the This American Life model of radio to gaming related themes.  It's really wonderful and I wish he would have continued producting them.

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The entire backlog of GFW Radio? >.>

 

I downloaded the torrent of them all and listen to them sometimes for no reason. They hold up.

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I can't remember the name, but I found a British philosophy podcast that was a limited run.  It was kind of like a philosophy 101 course in podcast form.  Each episode covered a philospher or theme, and it was designed to just run 12 episodes or so.  Seems like it was sponsored by the BBC.

In all likelihood it wasn't just sponsored by the BBC; it was probably a BBC Radio 4 programme that they also made available in podcast form. Most Radio 4 programmes run in an either one-off or series format, so if they're put up as podcasts they'll either only update for a limited run or only update seasonally.* Might you be thinking of The Philosopher's Arms? That was a fairly informal philosophy programme whose premise that it was a series of pub discussions of philosophy topics. There was a live audience that was invited to give their opinions on various questions, which were then discussed by the host and a guest. At least, that's how I remember it. It was pretty good.

 

I'm sure there have been other introductory programmes on philosophy on Radio 4, but that's the only one I can think of off the top of my head. There's also the In Our Time subject-specific archive for Philosophy, but that's not so much limited run as very infrequently updated (whenever a philosophy-related episode is recorded, I suppose), and I believe the subjects can be a bit more esoteric.

 

Actually, reading back over your description, I'm not sure I'd say The Philosopher's Arms was especially "designed" to run for twelve episodes. In fact, there are thirteen of them. So not that.

 

Another Radio 4 podcast that occurs to me that was only ever intended to be a single series and which can therefore very much be termed "limited run" is A History of Mathematics. I think it's pretty good, but if nothing else, you get to enjoy Professor Marcus du Sautoy's name. Marcus du Sautoy. Brilliant.

 

* As an aside, the economics programme More or Less has a half-hour Radio 4 version and an abridged five-minute World Service version. The Radio 4 version is seasonal but the World Service version runs all year round, meaning sometimes both are available, but others only the short one is. I took a look at its iTunes page, and someone was complaining about them shortening it, and that there was no reason to do so for a podcast. I guess for international listeners it might not be clear, but as radio programmes these shows have to fit into a schedule, and therefore can't sprawl off into multi-hour extravaganzas just because the topic allows for it, and they can also only run while there is a spot in the schedule for them.

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In all likelihood it wasn't just sponsored by the BBC; it was probably a BBC Radio 4 programme that they also made available in podcast form. Most Radio 4 programmes run in an either one-off or series format, so if they're put up as podcasts they'll either only update for a limited run or only update seasonally.* Might you be thinking of The Philosopher's Arms? That was a fairly informal philosophy programme whose premise that it was a series of pub discussions of philosophy topics. There was a live audience that was invited to give their opinions on various questions, which were then discussed by the host and a guest. At least, that's how I remember it. It was pretty good.

 

I went looking for it when I posted that, and couldn't find it.  Though a bit of searching now makes me think I may have just been mixing up multiple podcasts in my head.  It may have been the Oxford general philosphy lecutres I was thinking of, though it ran for 24 episodes, not 12.    About 2 years ago I got really obsessed with listening to philosophy podcasts for a month or two.  Would be surprising if I mixed a few of them up.

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A collection of interviews with former Looking Glass studio developers!

 

http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/audio/looking_glass_studios_podcast/

 

Note: I literally just found out about this so I can't vouch for the quality or anything, but I'm excited about this and figured I would share it here since I'm sure others will find this fascinating.

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Great find! Report back with information if you listen to it at some point. I'll download all the episodes and forget I did so, then some day remember. When I do hopefully I'll post here.

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