Is there a way to get the pod casts via ftp or email subscription. I am behind a firewall that blocks the site itself. Thanks in advance.

I am behind a similar firewall. I use the Coral Cache ( http://www.coralcdn.org/ ) to get around this. You can do this by copying the "direct download" link, going to the end of the domain name (libsyn.com) and tacking on a ".nyud.net:8080".  For instance, right now Episode 004 is the current one with an URL of: http://media.libsyn.com/media/butcherblock/BB004_-_Furious_Nerds_and_Prime_C.mp3
All you have to do is change the URL to:
http://media.libsyn.com.nyud.net:8080/media/butcherblock/BB004_-_Furious_Nerds_and_Prime_C.mp3

Another advantage is that once you do this, if libsyn goes down, you still have access to the cached version of the file.