Late last year, I heard about this podcasting concept. I was immediately intrigued by the idea of little indie radio-like showsor, really, mini audio booksbeamed right into my iPod. To my dismay, however, I was such an early adopter that the vast majority of available podcasts at the time were utter crap, boring amateurs broadcasting from their bedrooms and bathrooms. Everything I found seemed to be about music or technology, two subjects that I appreciate, but don’t want to listen to a stranger drone on about for an hour. Blah.

In the past few months, however, that’s all changed. There are tons of Podcasts available, from the likes of Slate and Al Franken’s Air America show, to spiffed up amateurs discussing everything from abstinence to zydeco. Apple just released an updated version iTunes with an Podcast directory for easy browsing, and the phenomemon caught that eye of both the New York Times and Fortune yesterday.

Anyway, my love for podcasts has been renewed. Slate’s are great (short and sweet readings straight from the site), and I’m secretly obsessed with a hobby-related podcast (about a hobby I’m too embarassed to admit to on this here Slog). I spent two hours last night catching up on my backlog of podcasts while I ran errands, made dinner and cleaned up the apartment. It was great! (And much more efficient than trying to read while I cook.)

But I ran out of podcasts! I don’t want to obsessively check iTunes to see if the four or five I’ve subscribed to have new casts, so I turn to you all: Any suggestions for podcasts to check out? I’d love to get ones in the vein of Slategood, brief, general storytelling or news, on a variety of topics (Salon needs to get on board with podcasting). But I could be persuaded to check out a compelling podcast on something uber-specific, like bananas. Tell me what to look up, in our Slog forum.

(Speaking of the forums, a reader there recently suggested that The Stranger start podcasting. I couldn’t agree more.)