When looking at the podcasts I enjoy, the topics vary from Web and technology (not surprising, given my career) to politics to music. Though I spend a lot of my time thinking about design, I haven’t found many podcasts about design that I enjoy. I think we designers tend to be insufferable when we talk about our ‘craft’.

What does connect the podcasts I love is simple: People talking to each other about things they love.

• The Shop Talk Show is two people who love the Web and love talking about front-end Web development.
• The Accidental Tech Podcast is three people who love tech (and cars?), and maybe most importantly, each other.
• The NPR Politics Podcast is a group of people who clearly love journalism, reporting, and telling stories.
• The wonderfully-named R U Talkin’ U2 2 Me podcast is two people who love U2 (and later, REM & Talking Heads) and dragging out a comedy bit to the bitter end.
• The Slashfilmcast podcast is about three people who love movies so much, I can enjoy listening to them review a movie I know I’ll never see.

While it may be obvious that people will tend to talk about the things they love, it is that love that I find so compelling.

It reminds me of something a friend told about about the band I was in back in high school. They told me they enjoyed our band not because we were good (this was said with love), but because we so clearly loved what we were doing.

So, maybe Interstellar was right. The fifth dimension is love!