I’ve had an aversion to podcasting and they hype that surrounds it in the past (in no shart part due to the *pod connotations, I’m sure). That being said, I’ve always been excited about the self-publishing potential that the medium holds for independent content producers - Couple that with my recent introduction to the syncing power of Odeo + Amarok, and you’ve got the makings for my latest aural addiction. I’ve done some digging around to see what’s available in the world of podcasting these days, and I thought I’d share some of the highlights:

• Ken’s Last Ever Radio Extravaganza (feed)
  Bi-weekly, live, improvised sound experiment, collaged while you listen.

• BBC Documentary Archive (feed)
  Landmark radio documentaries from the BBC archives. ‘Nuff said.

• The RU Sirius Show (feed)
  The mastermind behind the legendary hipster technoculture magazine Mondo 2000 brings you a podcast meant to challenge, excite, sicken and induce hallucinations.

• One Minute Vacation (feed)
  One-minute vacations are unedited recordings of somewhere, somewhen. Sixty seconds of something else. Sixty seconds to be someone else.

• NPR’s Science Friday (feed)
  Panels of expert guests join Science Friday’s host, Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science.

• Make Magazine Audio Show (feed)
  MAKE is a quarterly publication from O’Reilly for those who just can’t stop tinkering, disassembling, re-creating, and inventing cool new uses for the technology in our lives. It’s the first do-it-yourself magazine dedicated to the incorrigible and chronically incurable technology enthusiast in all of us. MAKE celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend technology any way you want.

• musicNerve (feed)
  The musicNerve.com weekly podcast is an eclectic mix of just about every type of music. We seek out the best indie rock, the weirdest outsider music and the most ground breaking of the experimental and avant-garde. If people call it music and it has a purpose other than filling the pockets of the major labels we hope to share it with you.

• Democracy Now! (feed)
  Your daily progressive news fix.

• Linux Reality (feed)
  A podcast for the new Linux user.

• Xan Phillips Presents… (feed)
  …people, ideas, opinion, musicians. and artists from around the world.

• Chicago Public Radio’s Re:Sound (feed)
  Intriguing radio stories culled from around the world by Chicago Public Radio’s Third Coast International Audio Festival. Hosted by Gwen Macsai.

• Onion Radio News (feed)
  The Onion. Only more.. Audio-like.

• Echoes (feed)
  Absolute ambient.

• Research At The University Of Chicago (feed)
  Research at Chicago is produced by The University of Chicago Office of the Vice President for Research in cooperation with the University News Office and a variety of university research centers. The content included on this podcast was created by the University and/or has been selected from recent publications, press releases, newspapers, and Web sites produced by the University of Chicago.

• NPR: Story Of The Day (feed)
  Funny, moving, exceptional, or just offbeat—the NPR story people will be talking about tomorrow.

• Open Source Radio (feed)
  For an hour every day, we’re using the Internet to talk about the world. Bloggers in Kenya, podcasters in the US Army on the Iraqi border, legions of wikipedia editors: we’re putting their voices on the air with the thinkers and writers who can help us make great conversation (and sense of the world).

• KCRW’s Bookworm (feed)
  A must for the serious reader, “Bookworm” showcases writers of fiction and poetry – the established, new or emerging – all interviewed with insight and precision by the show’s host and guiding spirit, Michael Silverblatt.

• Word Nerds (feed)
  A weekly podcast about words, language, and why we say the things we do. Three language teachers share their ideas about the roots of everyday English. Each edition explores a rude word of the week. In addition to looking at language change, the podcast features new music by independent artists each week.

• Wooster Collective (feed)
  Street art inspiration…

• Ubuntu Podcast (feed)
  Any and all things Ubuntu.

Starting sometime tomorrow, I’ll have a master RSS feed of all of the incoming podcasts I’ve got my eye on available in the sidebar, via my Odeo subscriptions.

Feel free to share your favorite podcasts in the comments…!