These are my favorite podcasts. The first URL is what you paste into your podcast software in order to subscribe; the second is for information about the podcast.
Virtually every supplier on this page offers many more podcasts than those to which I subscribe, so if what you see doesn't quite meet your needs, try going to the site itself, and follow the links back to either the home page or the podcast home page.
Personally, I like to start the day with news summaries, so I arrange my Ipod playlist so that it includes the latest NPR hourly news summary. The BBC, Deutsche Welle and Radio Netherlands have all stopped posting their hourly news summary; if they ever restart, I'll add them back because I love the them.
News Summaries (Hourly)
For comprehensive scope, great correspondents and fantastic production values, with an American point of view, it is nearly impossible to beat NPR:
NPR: Hourly News Summary
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=500005
http://www.npr.org/templates/topics/topic.php?topicId=1001
At present I am experimenting with RFI, the French International Service and NHK, the Japanese international service, but their "hourly" newscasts are 14:00 long, which is a little much. The CBC has a five minute podcast, but it is a little too Canadian--but more international the NPR or CBS
CBC News Hourly Edition
http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/hourlynews.xml
A little too Canadian for my taste, but better international than NPR. Just the right length at 5 minutes
NHK News
http://www.nhk.or.jp/rj/podcast/rss/english.xml
A little long for my taste at 15 minutes, but especially good for Asia
News Summaries (Daily)
The venerable CBS Radio World News Roundup allows me to get a quick read on the commercial view of the news each morning--without commercials!
CBS Radio World News Roundup
http://feeds.cbsnews.com/podcast_icast_1?format=xml
http://www.cbsnews.com
Radio News 24/7 | Deutsche Welle used to be the second-best daily podcast on the Internet (actually, twice daily). Alas, the German national broadcaster did a stealth shutdown, halting production on May 11, 2012, with no announcement in the podcast, on the web page, or anywhere else. It also disappeared from Itunes and the DW podcast page the same day. Probably the result of huge budget cuts.
RFI Podcast English News 0400 GMT
http://www.rfi.fr/radiofr/podcast/Podcast_en_journal_10.xml
After auditioning Canada, Japan and France, I settled on France for my daily foreign news fix. Deutsche Welle was twice a day, whereas RFI, the French national broadcaster, only does an English news summary once a day. At 13 minutes, it is a bit long. But since I am more interested in Europe than Asia, the winning combination of good foreign coverage, actualities from the field and funny French names, have won this podcast the coveted number three slot (after the Howdyland News Bullet and NPR) in my weekday morning lineup.
News Summaries (Weekly)
Apparently not heard in any radio market larger than Waco is this excellent hour-long program (40 minutes after commercials). Radio Netherlands does one too, but I didn't care for it.
CBS World Podcast - Weekend Roundup
http://feeds.cbsnews.com/podcast_weekend_1?format=xml
http://www.cbsnews.com
OTHER
New York Times Book Review (host/editor Sam Tannenbaum is a kick in the pants)
http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/bookupdate.xml
http://www.nytimes.com
(RIP: New York Times front-page podcast, and (Washington) Post Politics Podcast.)
NPR's iconoclastic daily interview program Fresh Air with Terry Gross
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13
(the podcast link is at the bottom of the page)
NPR's equally iconoclastic podcast of the most e-mailed stories from each day's broadcasts
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php?type=provider&value=1#podcast1
BBC Podcasts
Much to choose from at the Beeb. My personal favorites:
Global News (World)
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/globalnews/rss.xml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/newshour/
NewsPod (Domestic)
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio/newspod/rss.xml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/newspod
Broadcasting House (Funny review of the Sunday papers)
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/bh/rss.xml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/bh/
Night Waves
The Arts and Ideas podcast from BBC Radio 3 (the classical music channel)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/r3arts
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
(The Now Show and The News Quiz--the latter a vague British ancestor of "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me," on which I won the listener limerick challenge in 2000)
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/fricomedy/rss.xml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/newsquiz.shtml
Entertainment
Entertainment shows that are personal favorites of mine. For gentle humor:
APM: A Prairie Home Companion's News from Lake Wobegon
http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/podcasts/xml/prairie_home_companion/news_from_lake_wobegon.xml
http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/
For humor with some edge:
KCRW's Le Show (Harry Shearer)
http://media.kcrw.com/podcast/show_itms/ls
http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/ls
What can I say. Harry Shearer is a genius. And his weekly show from Santa Monica, the Home of the Homeless, is hysterial, week in and week out. And on the Podcast, you don't even have to listen to the music. In fact, you can't!
Howdyland News Bullet
http://feeds.feedburner.com/howdyland
Also edgy is the Howdyland News Bullet, sponsored by Funny Times, a comic newspaper I have subscribed to since its inception. Stan Douglas and his engineer "Steve" are hysterical, as is Chip Wizzler, the temporary job correspondent.
