Joining the guys at gnoos, an aussie-centric blog search engine, is Chinswing, which are general discussion forums with a twist - you speak your thoughts instead of typing them.
Finally we can get the human-ness back into the web (yes I know, youtube has had video comments for a while now, but some people just aren't made for the camera). Instead of trying to construe someone's intention from emoticons, we can detect it from their voice, which is far more interesting. Besides, listening to someone just isn't the same as reading text - that's one reason why podcasts took off remember?
Speaking of podcasts, I reckon the ability to listen to a discussion thread as a podcast is one of the best features - it takes podcasting to a new level I reckon, sorta like wiki-style podcasting, where anyone can contribute their own content to it.
Combined with a nice interface, I reckon they've got something going on. If only they'd use some sort of browser technology instead making users install a .NET 2.0 app though (flash or WPF/E maybe? Youtube's just released a video capture facility directly from your webcam to youtube using the built-in flash webcam support).
Check out http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/08/chinswing-brings-audio-to-discussion-boards/ for another quick overview, or better yet, sign up and check it out.