I have personally never listened to a podcast that was not a video podcast and I couldn’t relate to the hype. I myself don’t like the term podcast, because it is widely misunderstood and often used for something completely different.
I looked at podcasts on download.com a web-site powered by cnet.com. They have an impressive collection of free music to download and there are also some free podcasts from a recording studio. Every month or so a new artist records in the studio and the interview of this up-and-coming artist, plus the new song, are available via podcasts.
Another music podcast available on podcast.net was “Minor 7th”. More of a downloadable radio-station you can listen to with acoustic music. It was interesting, sometimes giving information about the artist and their music.
If you like music, podcasting is a brilliant way to get yourself acquainted with new music.On pocast.net, I found a commentary on the candidacy of Kinky Friedman as governor of Texas. This was a very political issue and although it was short, the commentator got his point across. Usually podcasts are rather short, because they should be heard in one setting, but some last for half an hour or longer.
The Going Deep Show is a podcast, where people pretty much talk nonsense. It’s a sort of personal commentary on events happening in their lives. However it is kind of long and really lacks humour. However it seems very professional because they talk about actually being in a studio. It sounded like a conversation of employees of a radio station when music is played.
I also found some educational podcasts. I read online that Universities such as Stanford and Duke teamed up wit apple and a huge collection of lectures are made available using iTunes. Even the University of Hannover has some podcasts on its very own e-learning platform. (Although they focus on video podcasts and have a very minimal amount)
BusinessEnglishPod.com is a page where people go and try to strengthen their conversational skills in English. The podcasts are made up like the cassettes used in schools. There are listening examples and tasks given. These podcasts are heavily linked to the website, providing answers and further material for learners.
The podcasts were really easy to download. Some were unfortunately only available on iTunes and this had to be installed on the computer. Some were even only accessible online.On some pages those podcasts were linked to social networking sites, making it easier to share your favourite podcasts with the world.
All in all, it can be said, that if you look on the right sites you find podcasts on any given topic. Ranging from ridiculous funny, to more serious and educational.
