Podcasting is like a super-efficient postman who delivers preselected audio files, normally as MP3 files, to your computer. In the main, free of charge. Simply book a show that you like (see box for a guide) and the podcast is delivered as soon as it is posted online, often overnight, provided your computer is hooked up to the web. Once you receive these podcasted audio files, you can listen to them on your computer or transfer them to a portable MP3 player — iPod or otherwise. Then enjoy the podcasts at your leisure: on the way to work or while relaxing in the sunshine in the garden.
Simon Regan-Edwards, a father of four young children from Kent, loves the way he can listen to his favourite podcasts any time, anywhere, and relishes the sheer diversity of choice. “Because it’s so easy to make podcasts, amateurs can produce programmes to suit every conceivable audience,” he says.
Podcasts are a rich mix of the professional and the home-made. The BBC has announced a digital masterplan to attract younger, more tech-savvy audiences. Top of its agenda is podcasting, though, ironically, the most popular BBC podcast is the Today programme (www.tinyurl.com/edzpk), which appeals to Radio 4’s middle-aged audience. Celebs such as John Cleese and David Bowie are podcasting, as are most national newspapers. The Times has signed Baddiel & Skinner to podcast a fan’s-eye view of the World Cup this summer. A recent poll of UK online publishing companies by the AOP tellingly suggests that half expect to launch a podcast in the next few months.
The distinction between a podcast and an audio download is a fine one. Strictly speaking, a show that you download yourself is not a podcast, which requires the extra dimension of automated delivery. For this, podcasts employ RSS, the technology behind regularly updated online newsfeed services. Efficient delivery is what makes podcasting a virtual postman.
That said, a trial download is often a good way to sample new material before committing yourself to a regular feed. DIY downloading also has the advantage of not cluttering up your hard drive with programmes you will never listen to. Bath University’s public lectures (www.bath.ac.uk/podcast) are outstanding, but the aficionado who enjoys Dead Sexy, a scholarly talk about media interest turning the corpse into a porn star, may not want to listen to lectures about the solar system or global poverty.
Note also that downloads and podcasts are both different from streaming audio — where surfers listen in real time — and from pirated material often found with peer-to-peer software such as Kazaa.
Critics of podcasts say that subscribers become unadventurous by sticking only with their favourites shows. Regan- Edwards could not disagree more. He doesn’t have time to search endlessly for plums, but by picking new podcasts once in a while, and subscribing to a number of them, his listening is far more varied than it would be if he had to laboriously select each file. Without automated booking, he’d never have grown loyal to the marvellous Chicago-based radio show This Is Hell (www.thisishell.net), with its intelligent political discussions and perky factoids (did you know that April 1 is a big national day in both Cyprus and Iran?).
Regan-Edwards also takes issue with those who say: “Because it’s free, it’s rubbish.” Mainstream broadcasters and universities podcast extremely high-class material, he insists.
Of course, there is rubbish out there. Podcasting, like writing, is a skill, and just as most blogs are banal, so are many podcasts. I recently listened to an unbelievably boring podcast about someone’s diet plan, which I won’t name and shame. Nor are all podcasts free. American talk radio is starting to charge (www.talkradionetwork.com), as are some firms providing downloadable travel guides (London audio walks from www.bluebrolly.com cost £5). At the same time, one of the joys of niche podcasting is a personal feel. The official podcast discussing the hit television series Lost is well made, but lacks the verve of the fan-produced www.hawaiiup.com/lost.
The BBC’s podcasts (www.tinyurl.com/ kt6y2), and those of America’s National Public Radio (www.tinyurl.com/abg9c), are superb, but it is amateurs who can now prosper. “Podcasting is a shot in the arm for speech radio,” says Simon Nelson, controller of BBC Radio. “Anyone with a decent computer can have a stab at making radio, publishing it and finding an audience. Some of the new entrants are really, really good.” For a taster of the medium’s rich variety, see our selection.
HOW TO START LISTENING
To become a podcaster, all you need is a computer, a basic microphone and an internet connection. Visit www.tinyurl.com/knum7 for simple instructions.
20 INTRIGUING PODCASTS ENTERTAINMENT
www.escape.extraneous.org
Escape Pod is a slick and funny sci-fi podcast that reviews films and commissions authors to write short stories and even shorter fiction. These tales vary in quality, but some are excellent, and one starts with drowning kittens, which I liked.
www.funkpod.co.uk
Most podcasts are spoken-word only, mainly due to rights issues. However, Funkpod serves up funk, jazz and trip-hop. The DJ is fun, low-key and passionate, flitting from Bill Withers to current artists such as the brilliant Manu Chao. Exactly the kind of show that terrifies commercial radio.
www.goonsnewshows.co.uk
Fan fiction — amateur stories based on well-known characters — is huge online. Some Goons nuts are planning a series, and have started with The Mad Axeman of Basingstoke. Not terrible, but not Spike Milligan.
www.paragraphofmobydick.blogspot.com
A Stephen Hawking-like artificial voice reads from Moby-Dick. Proof that the self-consciously wacky explosion accompanying every new web technology does produce some gems.
www.podcastwho.com
Minnesotan Tom Dillahunt loves Doctor Who, and features guest reviews from as far afield as Australia. He complains that the recent story featuring Queen Victoria squeezed in too much historical research. Committed without being worshipful.
www.pottercast.com
Produced by the huge and efficient Harry Potter fan site The Leaky Cauldron, this offers interviews with fans and stars, along with gossip. Despite decent production values, it feels fan-centred rather than professional.
www.screamandkill.com
Stella, who hosts this bitchy opera-related podcast, is funny, expert and enlightening. In one episode, Jailbait: Junior Divas, she blames American opera’s paranoid overprotection of young voices squarely on Elena Souliotis, who curtailed her own career by singing “voice-wreckers”.
www.slamidol.tripod.com
Poetry is big online. This regular competition for head-to-head performance poetry — known as “slam” — is brief and routinely excellent. The site also scooped an interview with Stephen Fry that compellingly combines amateurishness and intelligence.
NIFTY NICHES
www.ajugglingmum.com
In engaging, unfussy fashion, Australian Rachel chats about how to deal with your child’s first day at school or plan meals around a busy life. The American www.mommycast.com is bigger and more comprehensive.
www.whiskycast.com
Passionate, well made and great fun. In a three-part interview, Jim Murray, the world’s premier whisky expert, shares his considered opinion — which means something, since another reviewer, Arthur Motley, is quoted as saying that a new whisky smelt of cat’s pee. events.wessexarch.co.uk Enthusiastic ’cast for archeology fans, featuring dig reports and chats with archeologists such as Time Team’s Phil Harding, who discusses flint-knapping. A good example of a podcast that supplements a wide-ranging website.
www.knitcast.com
Knitting may not be glamorous, but fans love these well-produced ’casts about knitting patterns and such, calling them a “fascinating” source of “insider information”. You can hear Ann Budd — a former editor of Interweave Knits — as she discusses KnitScene magazine.
MIND EXPANDING
www.altmuslim.com
This transatlantic magazine, produced by Muslims, posts monthly podcasts that articulately discuss pressing current issues, such as the way that the recent Danish cartoon furore has been hijacked by extremists on both sides.
www.metmuseum.org/rss/exhibitionpodcast.xml
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art produces excellent, authoritative podcasts to illuminate its exhibitions, especially for visitors. Last year’s podcast on Van Gogh drawings featured Kevin Bacon reading from Vincent’s letters. Others will follow.
www.thersa.org/audio
Superb series of lectures and Q&A sessions featuring prominent public figures such as Lord Kinnock and top academics such as Dr Nick Bostrom of Oxford University. Subjects include the absence of intellectuals in British public life and global ethics.
webcast.berkeley.edu/courses
University of California, Berkeley, is not merely podcasting a few public lectures, but whole, illuminating courses made for students. Foundations in American cyberculture have an obvious tech appeal; other options include US Foreign Policy after 9/11 and Existentialism in Literature and Film.
KIDS' CORNER
www.thefairytalelady.blogspot.com
Brenda Olsen, from the wonderfully named Medical Lake, Washington State, reads fairy stories from around the world — pleasingly rather than professionally. Recent tales have included The Princess and the Pea.
www.sandaigprimary.co.uk
Glasgow primary schoolchildren podcast recipes, poems and news. They fascinated one seven-year-old I know, who wants her school to do the same. A glowing beacon of how to prepare kids for a superliterate media age.
TRAVELLERS' TALES
www.edinburghcast.com
Weekly audio tours of Edinburgh, with atmospheric music. Despite a home-made, intimate feel, they are detailed and keenly observed by Rick, a 54-year-old taxi driver who explains that he is trying something new to stop his brain stagnating.
www.ricksteves.com/radio
Rick Steves, an American broadcaster and travel writer, hosts this engaging and unpretentious show. His archives feature intelligent outsider’s perspectives on English gardens and excellent walking guides to Paris.
