Podcasts have made long drives a little more bearable, working out a bit more enlightening, and some of your favorite TV and radio shows mobile-ready.

Here is a diverse list of 10 audio podcasts you should listen to. If you have any other good suggestions, please leave us a comment.

• Buzz Out Loud: With 1000 shows, BOL is CNET’s daily podcast of indeterminate length and your gateway to the best in tech. If I had to live with only one podcast, it would be this one.
  – Sample Episode: “994 Smilish Out Loud” released on 6/10/2009
• BusinessWeek Cover Stores: John A. Byrne and some of the finest BusinessWeek writers talk about each week’s upcoming cover story. BW is not the same without this podcast.
  – Sample Episode: “What’s a Friend Worth” released on 5/21/2009
• Diggnation: Digg’s Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht go over some of the top digg.com social bookmarking news stories. Usually hilarious.
  – Sample Episode: “Affairs to Remember” released on 6/3/2009
• NPR Live Concerts from All Songs Considered: From live recordings of Radiohead, Of Montreal, and Jose Gonzalez, SXSW live shows, this might just be the best music-related podcast out there. NPR’s rise to music relevancy is astounding.
  – Sample Episode: “Iron and Wine live in concert” released on 11/04/2007
• The McKinsey Quarterley: Intelligent thoughts from one of the world’s finest management consulting firms.
  – Sample Episode: “Hal Varian on how the Web challenges managers” released on 2/23/2009
• The Adam Corolla Show: Guests range from the very random to the very famous. Often offensive, always thought provoking and funny.
  – Sample Episode: “Adam, Teresa, and Bald Bryan” released on 06/11/2009 (more…)

It was my privilege to interview Christopher Barger, Director of Social Media at General Motors, this past Monday morning.

The GM Social Media Team took some time off their busy schedule to talk with me and I write about it on the paragraphs that follow. I also highly recommend that you listen to the interview by downloading our very first podcast on iTunes or streaming it via blogtalkradio:

First of all, let me say that Christopher proved to me, over the course of our 30 minute conversation, that GM is serious in its efforts to engage in sincere communication with real people, particularly during the challenging phase in which the company is operating in. Christopher’s openness and candor, combined with his deep insight and thorough knowledge of the auto industry, make him an example of how to lead a corporate social media initiative.

Now, I did not previously know Christopher or anyone in his team, but I felt as if I almost did by the time we finished talking. As you listen to the interview you will notice that Christopher answered each question with a combination of deep and simple thoughts that he conveyed with confidence, poignant honesty, vision, and passion.

(more…)