The five law-related podcasts you should listen to

Living in suburban Los Angeles, I have a fairly substantial commute each day, in addition to still longer commutes to LAX or Dodger Stadium. During my commute, I listen to podcasts. I don't listen to all of them all the time; I'll skip past ones that are outside my general interest. I also tend to listen to podcasts at 1.4x speed, which allows me to consume far more of them and I rarely lose comprehension. I use BeyondPod for Android to listen, an invaluable app.

Here are five law-related podcasts I recommend listening to.

Supreme Court Oral Arguments

Unsurprisingly, the Supreme Court offers no RSS feed to its oral arguments (but it does include a "print-friendly" link). Andrew Grossman at BakerHostetler has created an RSS for the oral arguments, which includes every oral argument. Strictly speaking, I suppose it isn't a podcast; but, I put them in my RSS and listen to many of the arguments.

Frequency: about 70 a year, between October and April.

Typical length: 60 minutes.

SCOTUScast

The Federalist Society offers podcasts for every Supreme Court cases, usually twice-over: one summary of the case at oral argument, and one after the opinion is handed down. They are usually brief and thorough summaries of the cases from a variety of perspectives and often a useful analysis.

Frequency: about 140 a year, between October and July.

Typical length: 15 minutes.

This Week in Law

TWiL is hosted by Denise Howell and Evan Brown, taking on the intersection of technology and law. Patents, copyrights, FCC, IP litigation, and a host of other issues are on the table with these two and their rotating cast of excellent guests.

Frequency: weekly, Friday afternoons.

Typical length: 90 minutes.

Liberty Law Talk

The Liberty Fund's Online Library of Law and Liberty focuses on the relationship between law and liberty, first principles of a free society, and includes discussions and debates about these things. Its podcast, Liberty Law Talk, features a discussion of books of recent interest on these matters.

Frequency: twice a month.

Typical length: 60 minutes.

Oral Argument

The newest podcast of the bunch, Oral Argument features mostly University of Georgia professors discussing topics of interest in law. Discussions vary from substantive law to legal education (including a recent and useful discussion on law school textbooks). I confess it's a bit more meandering than the others, perhaps because it's the newest of the group (one could pretty easily skip the first ten minutes and miss virtually nothing), but I've found it worthwhile and enjoyable.

Frequency: about twice a month.

Typical length: 90 minutes.