Audio playback was fine once I got all of the restricted drivers installed so I could play any type of audio or video file I wanted. The big trick to playing some of the proprietary formats (mp3, wmv, etc) was figuring out where look to install the necessary software.

This link was a great help in figuring out what to do.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

Once my codecs were all set I needed some good software to listen to podcasts on. I listen to a lot of different podcats because it is a good to digest a lot of information. However I struggled for a while to find a good media player for my podcasts. I tried Rhythmbox, Banshee and Amarok. I really didn’t much like the way Rhythmbox or Banshee worked and Amarok didn’t run all that well because it is a KDE application and Ubuntu runs the Gnome desktop. When all is was said and done I settled on Amarok because it allowed to to organize my different podcasts into sub folders. The one thing I was looking for that iTunes provides is the ability to start from where you left off in a podcast episode even if you switch tracks or close the application.

Overall I had no real issues listening to audio and keeping up with my podcasts. And since my iPod had recently died I didn’t have to deal with trying to sync music between the two.