Gamora reluctantly listens to the Walkman, starts bobbing her head, and yells, "THE MELODY IS QUITE PLEASING."

I love that moment.

~ma for your friends, Anne.

Podcasts: Smartest Man in the World, Mental Health Happy Hour, The Read, On Being with Krista Tippett, JV Club, Girl on Guy. All of which are generally way longer than 1/2 hr. The Read is pretty hilarious and has ads scattered through which could be pause points.

T and I realize that that is the key, contempt for the prize

That is too funny! Glad you had a good time.

Kiba, I hope you get the score situation figured out.

Oxford comma yes, cilantro yes, don't like olives and therefore don't eat muffalettas. I do enjoy the Muffalottas, though. [link]

Muffalettas, or Oxford commas?

This, this, and cilantro.

Oh, you people. I do still love you all despite your wrong-headedness about the Oxford comma.

JZ, I listen to Start Up which I really love even though it makes me cringe. I definitely enjoy Reply All.

JZ, good luck on the move, I hope it's not too traumatic. My podcasts (in addition to some you already have) are:

Planet Money (entry-level economics/marketing, quite informative & entertaining)
Hardcore History (possibly the opposite of what you want, it's usually 4+ hours long)
Revolutions (currently doing a detailed history of the French Revolution in 25-minute chunks)
Stuff You Should Know
Stuff You Missed in History Class (which I think you would like, they do lots of women's history and lots of literary history)
On the Media
Backstory (another history podcast, which I picked up from megan walker)
TLDR (which is basically Intro to Internet Wanks in 8 minutes)
NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour

I get a nice mix of more-and-less narrative, and more-and-less serious. I also listen to a ton of audiobooks, and if you have any interest in, say, the entire Lord Peter Wimsey oeuvre, LotR, Harry Potter (read by Stephen Fry), Patrick O'Brien, or Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles on audio, let me know and I can hook you up.

A story about moving offices: They moved most of the folks in my division to our building from a leased space about 3 miles away last year; they've all settled down now and everyone seems fairly happy. It is a very nice office, with views of the bay and it's right near BART with lots of restaurants etc. Except the other day the Big Boss announced they're doing a study to see if we ALL can consolidate with other pieces of the agency on a nearby base, because the rent in the building we're in is about $2m/year. Argh! Although he didn't sound very optimistic about it happening, because the move itself would cost $6M or so, which they don't have. They would just rather not pay rent if they have the space on owned property. Which I get, but jesu christo, you just moved a division of 60+ people not 18 months ago, why wasn't this issue considered then?

The Splendid Table can also be a whole lot of fun, and is made up of shorter segments. They have been known to talk about cilantro and muffalettas.

Ooh, these all sound great! I may still dread the open office, but y'all are making me feel quite a bit more reconciled to the commute.

A $6M move? Gott in himmel.

TLDR (which is basically Intro to Internet Wanks in 8 minutes)

How is TLDR these days? I stopped listening when the original hosts retired (I'm so bad with names).

Open offices have their good and bad points. If your office culture allows headphones, take advantage, and if you REALLY need to focus, book a small conference room where you can hide. But being able to listen in on half of everyone's phone conversations has definitely made me feel more in the loop about what the rest of my team is up to, which is an overall plus.

Here!

Allyson's hair is the shiniest.

JZ, M really likes Chris Jericho's podcast Talk Is Jericho. He has a lot of wrestlers on, but also music & movie stars, & he's always got something interesting going.

But being able to listen in on half of everyone's phone conversations has definitely made me feel more in the loop about what the rest of my team is up to, which is an overall plus.

That is true, I sometimes pick up vital information that way.