Best .MP3-based lecture series?

[Razgovory]

Or "podcasts" if you will, although sadly that term has been tainted irreparably here.

We used to do that when I was a kid.  These vines that grew up on the fence around our yard produced little green seed pods.  We'd throw the squishy little things at one another casting them every which way.

[mongers]

I just started to listen to the 'Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy', you can pretty much get all five radio series on to a 1gb mp3 player - in some ways it's quite 'educational'. 

[Sheilbh]

I'd second mongers and Brazen's recommendations.  I'm listening to the In Our Time on 1848 at the minute and it's really good:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019gy9p

The range of topics is brilliant too.

Edit:  The more general archive to browse is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/in-our-time/archive/

[Brazen]

As an aside, is there an Android phone app or an iTunes-like PC facility that will enable me to subscribe to podcasts automatically without having to seek them out and download them as and when they become available?

[Viking]

http://www.ancientromerefocused.org/

Ancient Rome Refocussed. Very few episodes, but each one is fascinating listening. A former soldier looks into the ancient world often from the perspective of the person on the ground.

http://commonsenseatheism.com/

Conversations from the Pale Blue Dot. More episodes. Alot about analytical philosophy and apologetics. Mostly a conversation with a serious philosopher about his work.

http://iq2.podbean.com/
http://www.npr.org/series/6263392/intelligence-squared-u-s

Intelligence Squared. Has the full panel debate style debates. The two links are the UK and US versions.

http://www.hbo.com/podcasts/billmaher/podcast.xml

The Real Time with Bill Maher podcast. Has the audio of the episodes.

http://www.theskepticsguide.org/

The Skeptics Guide to the Universe

I'll recomend all of these


Edit; I'd also add The Teaching Company lecture series on all issues. Lecures on history and philosophy are very often very worth while.

http://thepiratebay.org/search/ttc (a search on the pirate bay)

[Viking]

As an aside, is there an Android phone app or an iTunes-like PC facility that will enable me to subscribe to podcasts automatically without having to seek them out and download them as and when they become available?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_podcatchers

[mongers]

As an aside, is there an Android phone app or an iTunes-like PC facility that will enable me to subscribe to podcasts automatically without having to seek them out and download them as and when they become available?

I use Juice as it's a nice small, sell-contained program; all you have to do is cut and paste the rss links into it and it downloads and archives them for you.

http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/

[Brazen]

Found the BeyondPod app to feed direct to my phone  Together with finding my phone plays everything I've copied from iTunes, I can ditch my iPod Nano with the smashed screen that I couldn't afford to replace.