Podcast Listening: The Basics, Part I

I'm addicted to podcasts, and rarely listen to the radio anymore. Here's how it happened:

Driving to Tucson or Flagstaff takes 2 hours, and the radio stations fade in and out. A few years ago I got a portable cd player and plugged it into the tape player in my car. My car's sound system is quite awful so I don't like listening to music there (can hardly hear the bass!). So I started getting books on tape and cd at the library, which turned out to keep me more awake.

Last fall I discovered that the library offers free, limited-time audio books for download. Burning them to cd would use 7-15 cds per book, so I purchased an mp3 player. I can plug the mp3 player into my car's tape deck also. I heard about KnitCast through a mailing list, and downloaded each episode. After I got iTunes, I discovered a whole new world.

Podcasts are like radio shows: many of the best are produced by regular folks although commercial media companies are offering lots of stuff. All the cool podcasts are free.

The easiest way to listen is to first download and install iTunes on your computer. Then in iTunes in the left window click on Podcasts, then at the bottom of the screen click on the little arrow to the right of "Podcast Directory". This takes you to a page where you can look at featured podcasts, look at them by subject or search for specific terms. Click on a podcast title to get the details. When you subscribe to a podcast, your computer automatically downloads new episodes as they become available. After you subscribe, you can get past episodes if you want.

You don't need an mp3 player to listen! You can listen on your computer or burn to cd.

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