If like me you no longer want to bleed out your ears and empty your brains listening to the radio stations we have here, may I suggest that you seriously check out The Story podcast.

At once inspiring, touching and sometimes even poignant and funny, this podcast works on the telling the stories of ordinary folks overcoming challenges and prevailing issues. Even though the theme and stories are American-centric, listeners can easily relate to issues like joblessness, materialism, the Haiti tragedy (guaranteed to move you), serendipity, family among others. I especially love the episode about the views of a child on her parents’ laying off . A must listen.

Some episodes are eye-opening, like the one on the professional fan (yup, paid to cheer teams!) which you can download here and on the investigation into 3 prisoner deaths at Guantanamo. A true departure from our local channel’s bland banter and fixation on celebrities and hypes don’t you think?

Host Dick Gordon has the uncanny ability to draw the interviewees out into talking about sensitive and very personal issues. His voice conveys empathy and genuine interest in the subjects. The questions he asks are questions I find myself wanting to ask.

The Story is just one of the many General Interest, Photography, Running and Technology podcasts I follow. You don’t need an iPod or MP3 player to listen to podcasts. You can subscribe, download and listen to them via iTunes, listen to them online or have them synced to your portable player of choice. Or like me, burn them to a rewriteable CD for listening in the car.

Once you realize the power and relevance of the new media, you’ll understand why the traditional media companies are suffering, with many newspapers going out of business even, in the US. And why archaic business models and  governments comfortable on their pedestals will continue to be left behind failing to understand that the new media isn’t a passing fad.

Do you follow any podcasts? Let me know your favorites and I’d like to check them out too.

Note: Photo of C2 above was taken with the cameraphone last month during a visit to a bookstore. He’s hooked to listening to the music via the cans at the listening stations. Naturally I’d tone down the volume to a minimum and gave him only 5 minutes with them. On this particular occasion he kept insisting that he was listening to Richard Clayderman and not Jim Brickman because the RC disc wasn’t spinning!