While visiting loads of friends and family during the recent holidays and while conversing with coworkers and colleagues in subsequent weeks, I have been floored by the number of people who tip their heads to the side with a vacant stare and shrug their shoulders when asked, “What are your favorite podcasts?” or, “Which podcasts do you subscribe and listen to regularly?” We’re talking complete befuddlement.
These reactions have compelled me to spread the news about this incredible technology and the amazing sea of solid content that friends, family, colleagues, and cohorts could be enjoying, both to educate and entertain. Even though “podcasts” have been around for nearly six years and have been steadily building popularity, podcasts are still more than a bit under the radar.
Now, if you want to be cool before this technological zeitgeist goes mainstream, here’s a crash course in podcasts to teach you most everything you need to know to…
- Be hip to a cool “new” tech
- Explore a sea of incredibly informative, entertaining, and educational content
It’s 2010, we have two computers per household, ubiquitous wireless broadband in every coffee shop across the nation, 1,000 songs in our pockets* and now we give you the podcast!
Some prefer to use the term netcast as “podcast” is a little misleading. Podcast was borne of the popularity of Apple’s portal media player, the iPod. Also, with Apple’s inclusion of a Podcast Directory in their iTunes software, podcast is by far and away the term you’ll most frequently hear. There’s nothing wrong referring to a podcast as a netcast or vice versa, just know they are the same thing and you can access them on any computer or portal media player, not just Apple’s iPod. I’m in the habit of calling them podcasts and will refer to them that way henceforth.
What is a podcast?
Wikipedia has a great explanation: “A podcast is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and downloaded through web syndication.” It’s like television or radio shows produced for distribution on the web via a subscription.
The audio and video quality will vary, depending on the equipment the podcast producer uses, but one thing is true of all my favorite shows: The content is top notch and delivered with pure passion. 95% of all podcasters produce their shows as a labor of love and from a desire to deliver a solid show that entertains, informs, and educates. Don’t take this the wrong way; it’s not as if every other podcast is a high school kid with a web camera playing Mister Wizard in the basement. Many podcasts are produced by people (or a team of people) with talent and production quality rivaling mainstream media. Some content is even in high definition and starring talent that gives professional broadcast journalists and television anchors a run for their money. Mainstream talent often guest stars on podcasts and some even produce podcasts themselves! You will be amazed at the content and production quality of podcasts available. Moreover, many of the major networks and mainstream broadcast providers such as NPR, PRI, ESPN, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, Discovery, G4, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, the New York Times are available.
Whatever you’re into, whatever you want to be more clued-up about or entertained by, it’s out there; hobbies, health, fitness, video games, business, sports, news, cooking, movies, automobiles, comedy, writing, television, acting, film making, science, technology, politics and the list goes on. As with the internet, there’s no end to what’s available.
Where to find podcasts
iTunes software is available free for download for both Mac and PC and has a beautifully organized directory of 100+ thousand free audio and video podcasts available for download inside their Podcast Directory in the iTunes store.
The iTunes Podcast Directory
Download iTunes here: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
Another excellent, free open-source, podcast client is miro: http://www.getmiro.com/
The Miro Player
Once you have one of these “podcatchers,” software built to find and subscribe to podcasts, you can browse genres or search for topics in their podcast directories, read descriptions, reviews, and sample episodes. When you find one that interests you, subscribe to it, and when a new episode is released iTunes will automatically download it for you!
New podcasts in my iTunes library
How to watch/listen to Podcasts
Options abound for watching and listening to podcasts, but here are the main three:
- Podcatcher software like iTunes, Miro, or others
- Portable media devices like an iPod, Zune, or others
- Web browser on a computer to play episodes right from the web page
If you want to take the podcasts with you wherever you go, you’ll need an iPod or other portable media player such as a Zune (Microsoft only). This is one of my favorite ways to consume podcasts. I grab my iPod packed full of new shows and hit the treadmill or road, learning about all the lastest tech news and video games, movies, and book reviews. I watch most of my subscription video podcasts on my laptop, since it’s hard to run and watch a video podcast. For some podcasts to which I don’t subscribe but on which I occasionally find content of interest, I’ll just watch or listen to a few episodes right from the podcasts’ website, picking and choosing what I want to catch up on.
No matter how you listen to your favorite podcasts, I urge you to explore the podcast directories and find some favorites. Begin enjoying the content podcasters pour into each and every episode they produce.
Here are few staff recommendations worth checking out:
- This Week in Tech (TWiT) - weekly audio podcast on all things tech
- MacBreak Weekly – audio podcast about all things Apple Computer (iphone, iPods, OS X…)
- GeekBrief.TV - quick video podcast geared towards gadgets, tech news and other geekery
- Grammer Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing – excellent audio show on grammar if you want to know the difference between “affect” and “effect”, “loan” verses “lend”, “shall” verse “will” or when to use “which” instead of “that” or what the difference between “biweekly” and “semiweekly”
- Inside Home Recording – all about home studio recording
- Podcast Academy – a podcast about how to podcast, great podcast education
- Net@Night – covers what’s happening on the Net right now like cool sites, web services and viral videos
- Notes in Spanish Inspired Beginners – an awesome free way to learn Spanish
*Actually today an iPod has the capacity to hold over 40,000 songs, or audio podcasts as it were.
