Lose yourself in a great story with LeVar Burton Reads. In each episode, host LeVar Burton (Reading Rainbow, Star Trek, Roots) hand-picks a different piece of short fiction, and reads it to you… Subscribe here.

Excellent.

Episode 1 – Kirk Israel

Kirk Israel talks about JoustPong, a game he has made and remade many times over the years. We dive into the homebrew community surrounding the Atari 2600 in the early 2000s, the strain of obsessive assembly coding on relationships, and the challenge of finding a supportive community.

Kirk is very active on LIM and also very supportive. His discussion on the above podcast is also a fascinating insight into the world of early homebrew gaming,

A Swedish man who spent 13 years in prison has been released after a podcast convinced the country’s Supreme Court to retry his case.

Kaj Linna was convicted of robbery and murder then sentenced to life in prison despite what experts called a lack of evidence or eye-witness testimony.

Linna maintained his innocence throughout the trial but testimony from one witness, whose name hasn’t been released, lead to the conviction. The same witness then appeared on Swedish podcast Spar, which was created in the vein of the popular American Serial podcast. Inconsistencies between statements the witness made to police and those made on the podcast are what, reportedly, prompted officials to request the appeal. Court of Appeal President Margareta Bergström told The Local. More at TNW.

A great story.

The Podcaster Pro™ is a USB Audio device that has been over a decade in the making by Adam Curry.

The Podcaster Pro™, your laptop, and an XLR mic are all you need to make podcasts that sound like they were recorded in a professional recording studio!

The Podcaster Pro™ brings Mic Preamps, EQ, Compressor, Noise-gate, Mix-minus, and Voice Processing in a single USB device about the size of a hardcover book… More at Indiegogo.

Seems expensive, but there is a lot to be said for ease of use and just getting down to creating something. Still amazes me how many low-grade podcasts there are out there- a decent microphone is far from expensive these days.

 

On the Internet, people say all kinds of things they’d never say aloud — about sex and race, about their true wants and fears. Seth Stephens-Davidowitz has spent years parsing the data. His conclusion: our online searches are the reflection of our true selves. In the real world, everybody lies… Listen to the episode here.

Thanks to Sami who also shared this podcast episode through the LIM WhatsApp group.