Studio: podcasts@play.it (CBS Local)
Category: News & Politics
What It Is
60 Minutes is one of the longest running and most revered news programs in the United States. It began as a television show in 1968, spawned numerous spin-offs, some international. In late 2007, CBS News began providing the show as an audio only podcast. Each episode contains the entire broadcast of the most recent 60 Minutes.
Technical Details
The television shows airs every Sunday evening and that’s when the podcast episodes come out as well. Each podcast runs approximately forty-five minutes, since the podcast (mercifully) does not contain the commercials. At any given time, only the last two to three months’ worth of episodes are available. Neither iTunes nor the official website keeps any archives beyond that.
What About It
60 Minutes is kind of mainstream, old-school media for me, if you know what I mean. Then there’s the fact that they seem dedicated to covering extremely interesting stories about two months after I heard all about them on Fresh Air. But still, it’s typically an interesting listen and, somewhat surprisingly, the transition from video to audio doesn’t really detract at all. The segments are occasionally riveting and often very interesting. It isn’t groundbreaking or anything, but when you want a news podcast less provocative than Democracy Now!, less thoughtful than Fresh Air, less opinionated than Best of the Left, less hilarious then Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me, less idiosyncratic than Citizen Radio and less entertaining than the Slate Political Gabfest, this should be your first stop. That right there should tell you why, despite the fact that I think it’s actually a very good podcast, it’s one that you should probably almost never listen to. It’s a victim of news/politics proliferation; there are simply too many other better podcasts that do everything this one does. People of a certain generation or raised on it might like it better than I do; it fits so perfectly in the old-school news program mode that it’s probably kind of comfort food. If you’re a huge fan of the television show, but can’t quite schedule it in every week, definitely go for this. Otherwise, good as it is, I’d say probably don’t make time for it.
Essential If
Your ASMR is triggered by the dulcet tones of Steve Croft.
Avoid Like the Plague If
You think a podcast should DAMN WELL BE AS LONG AS THE TITLE SAYS IT IS
Best Entry Point
I heard quite a few good episodes, while I was listening to this podcast (I actually listened for quite a while, far longer than my usual five episode test period): a special music episode with a great segment on Adele and a surprisingly revealing and interesting segment on Taylor Swift (seriously); a wonderful, infuriating, emotional segment about the contaminated meds that led to a meningitis outbreak; a heartbreaking segment focused on a single dad after Sandy Hook; a terrifying segment about free diving. But the archive is so small that these are all no longer available for download. I’ve not heard any of the current archive. If you’re interested, just subscribe.
2 ½ stars. Above average.
Next time, it’s almost certainly the shortest podcast we’ll talk about in this thread. Barring a podcast dedicated entirely to Napalm Death’s You Suffer.