It's getting harder to claim you have no time to follow the news

Oxblog has a piece on U.S. Senator's podcasts. This is a nice step towards being a more small-d democratic nation. It's not easy to keep up with your Senator, but this is a great way to be better informed and you can do it on your time. Even on your iPod. I imagine the staffers are checking the log reports so they know how many people are downloading each Podcast. This will be fodder for lots of smack talk down in the cafeteria.

Another good example of asynchronously following the news is Fareed Zakaria's Foreign Exchange program. While the title hints at a finance focus, it is a broad international news show. The broadcast hours are not too convenient in Portland, so I appreciate that all the shows are available online. I am especially interested in this interview with Tom Friedman. If you don't know Zakaria from his Newsweek columns or books, he is an excellent foreign policy analyst who takes the centrist viewpoint. He comes from the academic world, having gotten a PhD at Harvard and worked at Foreign Affairs, so he has a good grasp on foreign policy issues. Fortunately he is also able to communicate clearly, unlike some from the academic world.