I am planning to invest in some more listening practice and like both of these sites. Popupchinese seems to have more entertaining topics, but Chinesepod seems to resonate a little bit more with me. Anyone have an opinion one way or another about the two listening websites?
Thanks!

I have tried both and I prefer ChinesePod over Popup Chinese, but I think both are helpful. I also use Slow Chinese ( http://www.slow-chinese.com/?feed=podcast
) which is free and is a good source of listening material.

I like both. If you're looking for more free podcasts, I just wrote an entry with a bunch of links on my blog (you can see my blog in my profile).

I've only dabbled briefly with Popup, but I'm a huge fan of chinesepod and I feel they have a lot more to offer, especially for more advanced users.

I don't like Chinesepod, and here is why :

Chinesepod has been on a decline over the last couple of years. In the past they've had all kinds of terrific talent, such as Ken, Amber, Clay (entertainer), Matt, JP, Pete and a couple of others who I'm forgetting, but right now their pool of talent isn't deep. Their weekly "qingwen" show has NEVER recovered since the star of the show (Amber) left. A lot of Chinesepod's current hosts aren't very appealing, such as Liliana, and I'm not fond of Dilu either. Long time American host, John, is extremely dull, and another thing I don't like is that most of the hosts don't speak Mandarin the way they naturally would amongst each other, but with "standard pronunciation" that they don't even follow or practice themselves.

Another thing is, Chinesepod's lesson content, such as dialogues, are always very predictable and one-dimensional. I remember one person wrote that Chinesepod's 1500 lessons seem like one lesson 1500 times, which is an exageration.

The other problem I have with C-pod is that they haven't evolved at all throughout the years. There are all kinds of things they can do for new weekly shows (and they have gotten plenty of suggestions), but they pretty much never try anything new. The qingwen show should have been cancelled 2 years ago, because it hasn't been half as good since John, Jenny, and Liliana started hosting it. They're just not cut out for that kind of show, and they make it very lame.

Despite the hype behind the large amount of Chinese language learners, if Chinespod doesn't begin to innovate to stay fresh and appealing, the recession will reach it sooner or later

It's probably a question of taste, but I still really like Chinesepod, having used it for almost 3 years. It seems to me that their lessons are just very well crafted and intelligently put together, and I just like the vibe they have. They do experiment with format as well - their new Beijing Standard Time show works well.

Popup seems good too - I was a subscriber for a bit - but I find myself always coming back to Chinesepod. It's probably a question of simply finding what works best for you.

Slow Chinese is also excellent for listening practice (after the model of the wonderful Slow German podcast).

I agree with Bohan. Also, I will warn you that CP is not customer friendly or flexible once they have your money. As I tell all of my students, commit on a short term basis only.

I'm really surprised to read Bohan's comments, because my feeling about qingwen in particular was that it got much better after Amber and Clay left. The two of them seemed to just goof around all the time, but with John, Liliana etc. there is a lot more structure and I learn a lot more from it.

I already liked Liliana from spanishpod and was happy to see her cross over. And I certainly wouldn't call Ken terrific talent. Despite the fact that he's the boss of the company, has a Chinese wife and kid and has lived in China for more than a decade, he still can barely speak Chinese, which is why they had to hire John for the more advanced lessons.

But as thinkbuddha said, I guess it's all a question of taste.

I'm going to argue in favor of going to places like http://tv.sohu.com/ and just directly watching movies and shows in the language. The lesson format has the advantage of vocabulary targeted around a topic, but I think it offers what I hesitate to call almost an illusion of progress as you 'advance' up the levels. I'm not totally against dialogues, and I don't know enough about Chinesepod to give my　opinion there (although Japanese pod was pretty bad). However, I still think the language learner should start getting used to the actual language as soon as possible. Movies with mandarin subs, podcasts made for native speakers, etc. Combined with an SRS and you are on your way.