Does your kid podcast? If s/he’s an aspiring DJ or standup comedian, s/he just might. Basically, podcasting is blogging, audio-style. “The idea behind a podcast is simple, yet brilliant,” the Christian Science Monitor reports. On the listener end, it’s the audio equivalent to TiVo. “Instead of using portable MP3 players such as the iPod only for listening to music, new software called iPodder allows one to download prerecorded [usually home-grown] radio shows onto the devices.” The listener can go to a podcaster’s Web site, sign up as a subscriber, and each time the DJ/podcaster posts a new “show,” it automatically downloads onto the subscriber’s PC so s/he can listen anytime s/he wants. Radio broadcasters like the US’s NPR and Canada’s CBC are beginning to podcast now, the same way print news sites like the New York Times (and Net Family News!) provide RSS feeds people can subscribe to. “For the most part … the medium’s pioneers are do-it-yourselfers” doing the audio version of local-access cable TV, the Monitor adds, pointing out a stay-at-home dad who podcasts his own talk show, “The Bitterest Pill,” during his daughter’s naptime. “After an introductory tune that sounds like a mash-up between a mariachi band and the funk bass of the ‘Seinfeld’ theme, the Los Angeles native launches into a breathless, free-form soliloquy” about everything from child-rearing to politics to “an embarrassing encounter with Meg Ryan at a party.” For other examples, check out the podcast directories, iPodder.org and Podcast.net.
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