I was having dinner with my family last night discussing an upcoming project here and the question came up of what is a podcast? Being the general technical support for my family and neighbors for years I have been listening to these things for a couple of years now and had figured everyone knew what a podcast was. Then it dawned on me, “What the heck is a Podcast?”. I really had no simple concise, concise answer, in fact I really couldn’t explain it in such a way to do podcasting justice. “Its like a radio show over the internet”, I said, which garnered blank stares, “They are automatically downloaded through RSS feeds”, which left my audience with a who-cares look on their face. So I decided to attempt to come up with something that better reflects what podcast are and the community behind them.

When one describes what a podcast is, you usually end up with the mechanical, technical description. Its simply a audio or video file that is downloaded automatically to your computer or listening device via RSS feeds. But what podcast really are are the people. The technology behind podcast has allowed ordinary people to do extraordinary accomplishments. Podcasting has made it possible for the ordinary Joe Schmoe to produce and distribute his own thoughts and ideas to the world. Anyone can now sit down at a computer with a mic and some simple free software and produce a show that rivals the big media outlets in quality and content. Sure their are a lot of podcast that come out that are simply garbage and only have a few shows (podfade) but then there are others that take their own ideas of what broadcasting and media should be and have actually created their own little empires in the last few years.

Since podcasting allows anyone to make at very little expense, especially compared to what the big media companies spend on content, you get a multitude of shows covering just about any interest. From technology to archeology, from basket weaving (yes I checked) to trucking, there are shows for just about anyone. Since you download the shows and keep them on your own device, you can listen on your schedule. This makes podcast really nice for truck drivers. Instead of having to plan a certain time to listen, you are able to listen to these shows on your schedule. It never fails that when we want to watch or listen to something on TV or radio, its when you have to be on the dock or sleeping.

Just about any audio player lets you listen to podcast, YOU DO NOT NEED AN iPOD to listen. You can even just listen, or watch on your computer. The software to download is free and automatically downloads any new shows to your computer. If you do have an iPod, then iTunes will allow you to subscribe and download with just one click. If you don’t have an iPod then I recommend Juice as an aggregater.

Here are some podcast sources that will give you an idea of what is available:
Farpoint Media All things sci-fi, books and beer.
TWIT All things tech, one of the best set of podcast out there.
Podshow Adam Cury’s, of MTV fame, creation
Podcast Alley Directory of almost all podcast

Most of the big media outlets have started producing podcast also, but most of these are just replays of their regular shows. They are trying to save some of the audience they have lost to the independents by rehashing their same old shows and calling them podcast.

Explore some of these sources and I’m sure you’ll find something that interest you.

Be safe;
Don Rogers