I came to the podcasts late as well - had to get through a very boring work trip to Bergen last year so downloaded a stack of them, and have now gone through all of them. From memory (and a quick look at iTunes) I'd recommend...

Both the Andy Murray ones (especially 'College Ents')
Mark Hagen/ The BBC Archive
The Ronnie Wood autobiography one
The review of Sly Stone at 'the worst gig ever'
The Radio 2 Folk Awards/Steve Harley incident
The aftermath of the Brits from a couple of years ago with Rob Fitzpatrick and Andrew Harrison
Number 30, for the story about the puppet crow.

If you do a keyword search on the Word bit of Itunes, it should let you know which ones these are numerically...

They're all entertaining.
Some are better than others but not once was I bored.
Enjoy.

But it's true: they are all good. I too came in after about thirty or so podcasts, and gradually went through the whole back catalogue. There's no other podcast I've done that with.

I recommed simplicity: start at the beginning. There's a few running jokes you'll get from the start if you do that.

They seem to always have a special guest these days but the best ones are where it's just David, Mark, Fraser and whichever Word staffer they have dragged into the pod with them. Many a happy hour spent listening to that lot just riffing away and taking a sideways glance at rock and pop.

… but last year's Father's Day one with Barry McIlheney, the Jonathon Green one, and the Pugwash bloke talking about the Move were my personal favourites.

came in with Clare Grogan, went backwards and forwards - all good ... the slightly less good ones, in my opinion, are those live from Glastonbury and other festivals.
Do a keyword search for Van Morrison's anal cleft and you won't go far wrong.

That gives me a few good places to start. However, I can see that working my through them all is something that I'll just have to do. Based on the length of time I am on the bus, plus the fact that new podcasts will prevent me from focussing entirely on the back catalogue, I am looking at two years or so to catch up - if the other podcasts are half as good as the DB one, then its going to be time very well spent.

......might have been at Christmas a few years back there was a best of episode compiled and it featured both of these 2 classic HORA'S plus of course the Mark Ellen/Chrissie Hynde pate incident. You need to hear this one for sure.

a comforting world of chatter around a crackling log fire of the imagination in which erudition and complete bollocks gently fight for supremacy before calling it a draw.

Come dine with me special with Chrissie Hynde - one of my faves.

which will download all availabe episodes of a podcast

Can't remember when he appeared or when he disappeared, but he was always good for a laugh. Ellen/Hepworth/Producer Matt was, for me, the classic line up. All good however.

but why not go back a couple of weeks and listen to the podcast with the excellent and very funny Boo Hewerdine guesting.

... that's me name.

It's a rare podcast but worth getting hold of.

I've worked my way through pretty much every episode now and like other listeners, can honestly say that while some are particularly entertaining, never once do I skip a second.
There are some things that few Word podcasts are without - here are a small selection to get things rolling.
1). David Hepworth saying after 60 - 90 seconds "Fraser/Matt, are we on now"? And then actually seeming to be surprised each time to hear that the recording has started.
2). Mark Ellen getting very excited and laughing loudly or clapping his hands in delight.
3). Mark Ellen finding an opportunity (often with a large crowbar)to do his rather accurate John Peel impression.
Can anyone suggest any more?

I've lost which number it is but these would be the one that contains certain allegations about who was responsible for vandalising the Blue Peter garden, one of the Andrews (C or H) talking about his time with Hugh Grant in the hours before his arrest and Ellen's priceless story about a restaurant visit with Lucinda Williams that just went terribly wrong.

Plus, of course, the Word Zepcast - it's historic, it talks about boats going fast and we learn of the thing on the back of Ellen's study door that his son once made him, in an almost '100 Objects That Changed The World' kind of a way, except with no pictures on the website.

remains a personal favourite, as does the discussion on The Black Crowes CD review.

I've often thought of just listening to the lot from the start again - perhaps a project I can embark on to coincide with podcast 150...

I agree with the million others who said 'all of them'. In chronological order, so that you get the growth from "two blokes talking in an old shed" to the multi-guest audio splendour that is today's delight. You'll also hear the Hoary Old Rock Anecdotes, catch the running jokes, etc.

I envy you.

Thank you all. I can see I'm going to be hooked. One issue I hadn't factored in, though - I downloaded the 'best of HORA' one to listen to on the bus this morning (contains Elton birthday/parachutes; Van Morrison anal cleft (which does indeed contain a John Peel impression; Chrissie Hynde/pate etc)and was forced at one more than one point to bite my thumb and cover my eyes with a hand in an attempt to stave off an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Still, it prevented anyone sitting next to me.

There's one which I got bored in which I won't mention. I soldiered through it. But one out of so many is an amazing quality standard, and I was probably in a bad mood. You lucky thing, I wish I had the whole batch to go at from new!