In 2000 web developers Dave Winer and Adam Curry took a software that had been created in 1999, called RSS, which at that point could only syndicate text, and adapted it to include audio.
In 2001, Steve Jobs announced the iPod, a device that could store your all of your music that you could then listen to anywhere, anytime.
In 2003, Winer worked with a journalist at the Harvard Berkman Center, Christopher Lydon, who began “audioblogging,” in which he would record interviews and insert those recordings in his blog posts as MP3 files. With the help of Winer, readers of the blog could subscribe and access the interviews automatically, turning this audioblogging into an online radio, called Radio Open Source that still runs to this day.
A year later, a reporter for The Guardian, Ben Hammersley, began researching and writing about RSS technology that allowed you to download audioblogs and interviews and put them on your iPod, coining the elegant term “Podcast” that we all know and love.
I’ve mentioned podcasts in my articles several times before so it should be no surprise that I’m a big fan. I have been for a little over a year now when one day I was preparing for a two-hour drive back to school and didn’t feel like listening music. The very first podcast I listened to regularly was WTF with Marc Maron, which will show up on just about any list of essential podcasts. I was hooked. The shows that I began looking for were those focused on the things tat interested me; movies, comedy, literature, philosophy, and storytelling. I was looking for things that could entertain me while teaching me valuable lessons in a wide variety of subjects. Something about wasting time while also being productive tickled me in pleasant way. I would pop in a podcast while I walked to class or while on a drive that would last more than 30 minutes. It wasn't until I woke up this morning and thought, “why do I like them so much?”
For starters, I can’t speak for everyone or every podcast out there, only myself and those that I listen to. The episodic nature of the shows that I listen to make it really easy to create a timeline and generate a connectedness with the host or hosts. I find that, just like a television show, starting from episode one and diving in is the perfect way to acclimate yourself to the cast of characters that each person brings to the table. It might me the psychoanalytical-rambling Marc Maron, the soothing Stephen West of Philosophize This!, the weezy laughter of Kevin Smith, the whole hilarious gang of Aussies over at Sanspants Radio, or the acclaimed and always entertaining crew over at Earwolf. I’ve never met these people, in many cases I’ve never actually seen what they look like and yet if I were to run into them on the street, (assuming I could recognize them) I would have endless amounts of things to talk to them about. It would be like being with an old friend that you have nothing but fond memories of. You form a relationship with these hosts that can only arise from comfort.
The next thing about podcasts that appeals to me, and should appeal to you, is the undeniable expertise. I’ll be the first to admit that I believe many things that I hear on the internet, without further investigation, but something that many podcasts implement is one-on-one dialogues with the men and women who are conducting the research, who are analyzing the data, writing the articles, and deciphering the bullshit from the facts. Sometimes its fun to just hear a story that the host tells and accept it as fact, I sure do. For example, I once heard on a podcast that Hitler, yes, THE Hitler, had a poop fetish. I’ve never backed this up but it sure makes for a fun conversation starter at parties. However, when you throw in someone who has dedicated years on a certain subject and hear their excitement for the topic through the microphone, it becomes almost irrefutable.
I find it fascinating that, as a visual learner, I’ve been training my mind to become more of an auditory learner as well. When listening, it’s not like watching a 70-year–old professor give a Ted talk on microorganisms, it's a dialogue, a conversation in most cases. You’re not the one being spoken to. You’re an eavesdropper, an audience member to someone else’s discussion. It's strange, and I haven’t really figured out why it works but it sure does. You can be entertained and taught all at once by a medium driven by voices. Jad Abumrad, the host the popular podcast Radiolab, said, “In a sense, I’m painting something but I’m not holding the paintbrush. You are. So it’s this deep act of co-authorship, and in that is some potential for empathy.” I think that’s exactly right. When Marc Maron is interviewing some other comedian and they’re telling a story from when they were on the road, I’m the one filling in all the details, deciding what color the walls are or what kind of shirt they were wearing, etc.
Everyone, I feel, thrives on information. We thrive on human interaction and learning things we didn't know yesterday. That is what podcasting is all about. It’s like literature, you’re not going to like every book you pick up. I sure as hell didn't really enjoy 1984 as much as everyone else, but "Lord of the Flies" was just right for me. Just like NPR’s Serial doesn't really work for me but I can go on and binge-listen to Plumbing the Death Star for hours. You find the one that's right for you and you’re hooked, it grabs you as if you’re at a speed dating event and you finally found the one that you’re ready to run off with, marry, settle down with, and have kids. No matter what your interest, there’s a podcast, or a dozen, out there waiting for you to find them.
