The iPod and Podcasts are revolutionary

I'm not a news junkie or anything, but I do try to stay up to speed with what's happening. Yahoo! still seems to be the best at gathering what I like and presenting it to me, but I haven't tried hard to make Google work as much. I'm sure it can do everything I want, honestly once you're set up with something that works then why change unless the value is really substantial.

While I like reading a real newspaper, I also like hearing different points of view in a conversational way. I spend a lot of down time while running, excercising, commuting and traveling, and it's during these times that a physical newspaper or magazine doesn't work. Just try reading a newspaper on a subway during rush hour. I've got a daily routine that includes a trip to the PC to plug in my iPod and download the latest podcasts that cover a wide range of topics from the NY Times headline news, politics, comedy and esoterica like "Learn French", "12 Great Byzantine Rulers", and "Great Speeches in History."

What's so handy is that all the content is on your iPod and if you're like me you always have more than you need and it's not a waste to do this. How many books, mags and newspapers are purchased and then discarded partially read if not at all? When I commute in the morning I like the news, so it's NYT headlines for 5 minutes. Because it's a quick commute of 30-40 minutes I don't like a chunky interview and instead opt for a 15-20 minute podcast that I can handle while walking and jostling on public transport. NPR's It's All Politics works for me, as well This American Life. This one in particular is supposedly "the best podcast available" and is usually a story about a unique individual in America with some unusual situation, often paradoxical. I don't know how they find these people quite honestly because none are famous and their stories are typically unreported. The last one I heard for example was about a group of mentally disbled journalists who get people on the street to talk to them. The interviewees would normally give some PC or newsbite answer, but when approached by an obviously mentally challenged yet professional and capable reporter with a microphone, they respond much more insightfully. They perhaps think that their normal content can't be processed by the interviewee so when they tone down the rhetoric what they say comes out quite clear and in a more personable tone.

When I run, which is 30-60 minutes, I forego music for NPR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook. He gets great interviews with interesting people on topics that often are the same as headline news, but with a deep dive from fascinating interviewees. The 60 minutes breezes by very quickly. Yesterday I finished up a show on a British author who has a new book on the angry British, in opposition to the normal perception of British people being reserved. His point is that Brits are reserved because they're trained to not feel, and that latent emotion comes out in humor and during sporting events, and is displayed toward animals and plants rather than family and friends. It was a great interview, and was followed up by an hour on Rupert Murdoch's takeover of Dow Jones. There were opposing views on that, and I changed my mind on Murdoch as a result.

Nighttime is usually NPR's comedy quiz Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me. It's a traveling show with a rotating panel of comedians, authors and commentators who are asked questions about current events in a humorous way. Guests appear each week and because the show is so widely heard, somewhat intellectual and lighthearted, the guest list is always great. Recently on the show was US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Chicago prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald (who took down Conrad Black and Scooter Libby), Ted Koppel and Linda Ronstadt. Another super fave comedy podcast is HBO's Bill Maher show. It's political, uncensored and forthright. Unfortunately it comes on for a few months and then goes off, so I'm looking forward to the next series.

If you also have down time, consider an interesting podcast. It fills the time productively, is portable, and always there when you need it.

Meltdown coming?

No, I don't think so, but it's certainly a time to: 1)Be careful if you're heavily into any speculative investments e.g. anything in China; or 2) Go after recently clobbered stocks that you recently thought were too pricey. I read the South China Morning Post this moring (Sunday) and saw that a Chinese professor is warning about the huge amount of risk in the Chinese property market given the amount and ease of borrowing in China. Beijing and Shanghai are so expensive right now that middle class households are mortgaged to the teeth, and I would guess that many, many people have taken on investment properties. Since the mainland Chinese have only ever experienced prosperity (I am obviously omitting that lovely period from 1949 to 1980 that was hell and not prosperity) they don't see that a bubble can burst. Here in Hong Kong I've experienced a few serious property and stock market bubbles, and have a strong sense that the local Hong Kongers are much wiser these days. Now mind you, they'll fleece every mainlander with a dollar to spend in Hong Kong, but they'll keep the dollar and use it to grow the economy instead of acting hot stock market tips from grandma and the taxi drivers.

Will the U.S. and global markets tank? I also don't think so. I think they'll soften, but the global economy is still growing, companies are investing and consumers are spending. The July retail numbers in the US were soft though, and that tells me that confidence perhaps is waning. People with paper gains on their home feel good about spending those gains and taking on debt. But now that those gains are going away, well I think most people tighten up their spending and are not so ebullient. It would be nice if the US media and politicians stopped all this nonsense about China and India somehow causing problems for the US. I guess they're easy targets in an election year.