Virtual Soapboxes

This past Sunday NPR unveiled the Sunday Soapbox, an opportunity to have serious conversations about politics with a variety of bloggers and NPR listeners, or at least users of the NPR website. Lots of news organizations, radio, TV, print, offer something like this. But this is unique as it doesn't necessarily spin off the stories on the radio and it offers the blog entries in podcast format.
Another way to participate in online conversation is by sharing items of interest-- podcasts, vodcasts, print, photos, etc. -- on your blog, or delicious page, or your personal social networking page.
Blogrunner allows you to see who is blogging what and how often. It's presented by the New York Times but covers blogs and content from elsewhere. It's organized by topic and is a good way to find other blogs, and content, of interest to you. Here's the Books page.