
What’s Behind the Great Podcast Renaissance? - johnny99
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/whats-behind-the-great-podcast-renaissance.html
======
dmix
What was not mentioned in this article is how awful talk radio is these days.
Especially morning-zoo radio [1] where they have the exact same 3 person radio
show in every city: 1) the old school radio guy, 2) the young "edgy" dude who
goes too far, and 3) the girl who never contributes anything, except to tell
the guys they are being too "crazy and wild".

The shows use something called 'prep burger' which is prerecorded or
prewritten comedy bits that multiple stations reuse, such as fake prank calls
(real ones are illegal now). They buy access to a database of them and
shameless reuse comedy bits with zero originality.

It's like mainstream pop music, the corporations have focus-grouped all the
creativity out of the shows and keep everything within the safe confines of
control and management. And I won't even get into their obsession for
political correctness.

The days of Howard Stern or Opie and Anthony style talk shows are gone. Even
XM Satelite radio talk shows have all been neutered.

This is why podcasts are new and interesting. The personailities are free to
do and say whatever they want. They dont have management or producers telling
them what audiences want to hear. So they create authentic and original
content.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_zoo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_zoo)

~~~
hayksaakian
was the world of radio so different 8 years ago?

Everything you mentioned is a negative for traditional radio.

Podcasting became "a thing" many years ago, but it's experiencing a
'Renaissance' in 2014, which means that it's "coming back" to put it simply.

What is actually different in 2014 that makes podcasts successful?

\---

I personally believe it's the success of internet connected mobile devices.
Your phone is a true functional replacement for your car radio. Today, you can
TRIVIALLY listen to live or prerecorded podcasts.

In 2006 you would have to pre-download everything you wanted to listen to,
using a PC or a Laptop. If you wanted to listen to something on a whim, your
only choice was radio.

Today, you can see a tweet from someone you follow, tap a link, and listen
without any technical knowledge.

~~~
dmix
> What is actually different in 2014 that makes podcasts successful?

Podcasting is no longer the domain of amateurs and the tech savvy. Talk radio
is a professional business and the talent from that industry are beginning to
start their own podcasts, and sometimes totally leaving FM/AM/satelitte radio
behind.

In addition to pro radio hosts, nearly every comedian is also starting their
own podcasts. Bill Burr runs one of the best. Hollywood is also adopting
podcasts. Kevin Pollack runs a super popular show and is getting big
interviews guests such as celebrities like Tom Hanks.

Podcasting is merging with the traditional entertainment industry and
branching out from purely simple niche topics. Advertising is paying a lot of
attention to podcasting. I heard one radio host gets paid $2 million/yr and
he's not even the top podcast on iTunes.

So the difference is it's becoming a general, mainstream entertainment
platform.

~~~
avemg
But WHY? You're just describing what happens when a medium takes off.

Why are all of these pros suddenly starting their own? Why is it becoming
mainstream now instead of in 2004? Certainly there are some trailblazers in
there that through luck or foresight were doing it early, but a lot are doing
it because they've seen that the audience is there and it won't be a waste of
time.

I agree with the article because it fits my personal experience. I bought a
car a year ago with a Bluetooth enabled sound system and almost immediately
starting devouring podcasts because of how easy it was.

~~~
kissickas
Podcasting is more accessible, and the fact that it is far better than the
mundane competition (traditional radio) means people are happy to jump to the
alternative of choosing their own programming.

Sure, the iPod made it easier, but beyond connected cars, which the article
suggests, capable software and Wi-Fi (or 3G/4G) on every device means it costs
almost no effort. When I first got into podcasting, I had to plug in my iPod
to a computer every night to let iTunes handle the transfer, and sometimes
even then it didn't work and I would be stuck the whole day without my
programming. Now, you can just pick a podcast aggregator and download the
latest five episodes of any podcast in a matter of minutes. The fact that it
has become so easy is what drives people to switch from listening to their
local talk shows to listening what they actually want to hear.

I believe a parallel can be drawn to the threat felt by cable TV now that HBO
is offering content to subscribers independent of their cable subscriptions.

------
danso
I'm personally experiencing a renaissance of podcast myself, although part of
why I stopped listening to podcasts several years ago was because I had moved
from CA to NY, sharply limiting the time I was sitting in a car for hours (in
a subway, you can play Angry Birds).

The Serial podcast is fantastic...I've forgotten the workflow of how to
subscribe to podcasts and have them show up in my iPod, so I just go to the
homepage ([http://serialpodcast.org/](http://serialpodcast.org/)) and listen
to them individually. This American Life has an excellent iOS app that's worth
the $2.99 fee.

The power of the podcast, or of radio in general, is to me, just another
example of the captive power of basic, non-interactive narrative forms,
something that is too easily lost in the rush to cram doodads into web
publishing...I'm not saying non-interactive narrative is always the most
_ideal_ way to communicate, but it certainly isn't a weak or lesser way. I
think the success of Kindles and of simple publishing sites like Medium also
attest to the power of text. Given that narrative power, and the hugely
reduced complexity in producing single-media content, it never hurts to go
simple if you have a compelling idea or story.

edit: A commenter beat me to this, I was just about to post that the
serialpodcast subreddit
([http://www.reddit.com/r/serialpodcast/](http://www.reddit.com/r/serialpodcast/))
is the best place on the Internet to discuss Serial, with at least a few of
the people involved/related to the events going on to discuss things. It has a
respectable size of 3,580 readers...which is not much compared to the biggest
reddits, but the number of threads and comments is pretty amazing...and hell,
r/journalism is less than 7,000 users.

I also don't think it's a coincidence that reddit, like HN, is a highly-
successful discussion forum because of its commitment to a simplified medium
(virtually all plaintext)

~~~
jordanpg
Check out the Serial subreddit for an astonishing amount of high-quality
commentary on the show:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/serialpodcast/](http://www.reddit.com/r/serialpodcast/)

------
pkulak
I've been into podcasts for about 6 or 8 years now and, as stupid as this
sounds, it has really changed my life. Not in some huge way, but still, those
are strong words. There are just so many mundane, crappy things you need to do
throughout the day. Especially since I've now got two kids. I have no idea how
many hours I spend a week preparing meals, cleaning the kitchen, picking up
toys, vacuuming, etc. Radiolab, TAL, Serial, Startup, et all turn that time
from boring drudgery into something I _enjoy_. The quality of some of the
content is amazing. I feel like I've sat down to watch a documentary, but
instead I just cleaned the whole house or went for a run.

~~~
__david__
I discovered that I could listen to This American Life while playing
Borderlands (and its sequels). The game doesn't have characters that talk to
you nonstop (especially when you are playing side missions) and something
about the shoot-y gameplay meshes extremely well with talk radio.

The weird part is that the two mediums got completely and inseparably tangled
together in my memory. When I think of a specific This American Life episode I
can instantly recall the 3d layout of the level that I happened to be
exploring while listening to the episode. And when backtracking later in the
game I see the terrain features and the ideas and important parts of the show
flood back into my mind.

I find it very strange, and very interesting, too.

~~~
sir-pinecone
That's really cool! I experience the exact same thing. I used to listen to
Stern everyday for years. When I hear old shows with memorable parts, I can
remember the exact location, time of year, lighting, and weather of the moment
when I first heard it. And when I think about various locations, times of my
life or things that I did, I start to remember moments from the radio show.

It's really fascinating how our brains form strong memories through these
auditory and visual associations. It seems like the more interesting the the
sources are, the more likely you'll remember it for many years to come.

------
Derbasti
Personally, I've gotten into podcasting when it became easy enough to do so.
About ten years ago, you could download Podcasts with iTunes, then sync them
as a playlist, then... too complicated.

A few years ago this changed. I now have an app on my phone that auto-
downloads the newest episodes of my favourite podcasts in the background.
Whenever I want to listen to a podcast, the app will have one available.
Additionally, these apps allow me to speed up playback, read through show
notes, and skip forward over ad reads or boring sections.

This is very convenient, and only began to exist in the last few years, hence
the "new" popularity of podcasts in the last few years. I don't think we need
to invoke in-car internet access to explain podcast popularity.

~~~
pbreit
I don't get the auto-downloading. Why aren't podcsts simply streamed like
spotify and Netflix/hulu? I actually think that's what might be continuing to
hold podcasting back. I don't want to subscribe, I just want to listen.

~~~
VLM
Most of the other answers have been technical, along the lines of the storage
space and bandwidth are minimal. Once you can download 20 times faster than
you can listen, and you've got at least one show in the backlog of things to
listen to, it doesn't matter. However, I'll give a content oriented response
against streaming.

Selecting a stream at a random time midprogram would work very well for
content that has no past and no future and no logic or information, like a
morning zoo show or a news show or sports coverage. I guess that stuff is
called infotainment now.

That wouldn't work very well at all for maybe 90% of current podcast content.
If the content were aggressively dumbed down, it might be possible to join in
the middle, but then no one would listen to the dumbed down stream given an
option of non-dumbed down podcasts.

Maybe another way of phrasing it is its like the difference between tuning
into a random webcam at a random comedy sports, vs watching this weeks sitcom
episode. The former is likely to be pretty funny but no idea what you'll get,
and the latter has at least has an 18 minute long story, if not a longer
series based story.

------
Aqwis
One thing worries me that is not about podcasts themselves but about the
podcast delivery ecosystem: a huge share of podcasters use Google's FeedBurner
to deliver the podcast RSS feed and get statistics on listeners and
subscribers.

Unfortunately, after Google acquired FeedBurner, they basically left it in the
state it was in when they bought it, except that they disabled FeedBurner's
API a couple of years ago. With Google's history of closing down projects that
aren't part of their main focus (including other RSS-related projects like
Google Reader), many are worried that Google will soon close down FeedBurner
and leave thousands of podcasters in the dark.

That wouldn't be a problem if there were an easy way to migrate from
FeedBurner to another platform. Unfortunately, there is not. If FeedBurner
closes down, you will have to change to another RSS url, which means losing
all your subscribers. Also, there is no practical way of changing the URL to
your podcast's RSS in iTunes, the biggest podcast listening platform.[1]

It is possible to be in control of the RSS URL and still use FeedBurner by
redirecting an URL on a domain you own to FeedBurner's RSS feed, but I suspect
relatively few people have done that, and doing it after the fact means,
again, losing all your subscribers.

[1]: According to Apple, you can report the podcast and get them to change the
URL. In my experience, they simply never respond to such requests.

~~~
icebraining
If FeedBurner closes down, you'll have months to tell your subscribers to
switch URLs. Google doesn't shut down something like this overnight; Reader
users had 3.5 months to switch.

W.r.t. iTunes, Libsyn[1] and others say you just have to add a <itunes:new-
feed-url> tag to your current feed to make the change. Is this information
outdated?

[1] [http://support.libsyn.com/faqs/changing-your-feed-url-in-
itu...](http://support.libsyn.com/faqs/changing-your-feed-url-in-itunes/)

~~~
kalleboo
A lot of people subscribe to podcasts through directories spread out though
tons of different apps, and you need to get the URL updated in each app. The
No Agenda Podcast (with Adam Curry and John C Dvorak) went though this pain a
few months back when their old meevio feed was shut down. Despite migrating
their main feed years ago lots of directories had the old feed, and dedicated
listeners had to find out it was broken in their particular app and report it.

Owning your own domain and routing all your stuff (ESPECIALLY email but also
anything else associated with your identity) to is so important these days
it's hard to understate it.

------
sjtrny
The article only anecdotally makes the claim that there was a downturn in
podcast quality and listenership. I doubt that this actually happened. Instead
podcasting has slowly been bubbling away and has now really broken through to
be a more mainstream activity since it is a lot easier. I certainly never
stopped listening to podcasts. We used to have to sync podcasts manually over
USB to our iPods. Now we can download or stream them on the go with our
smartphones and send them to the cars sound system via Bluetooth. Technology
has gotten incrementally better until we reached now, where podcasting has
become really easy.

~~~
nichtich
This. Most of my current favorite show aren't new, some goes back to pre-2006
era. For me the game changer is the Podcast Addict[1] app, but it mostly just
allows me to have a bunch of "listen sometimes" shows. For the good ones, I
won't care if I have to download to PC and sync with my phone, like I didn't
complain much when I have to go to a physical store to buy CD back when it's
still a thing.

[1]:[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bambuna.po...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bambuna.podcastaddict&hl=en)

------
insertnickname
Off topic:

What a horrible and evil website! It hijacks the horizontal arrow keys to
change articles. Please, web designers, stop hijacking my keys and doing other
horrible stuff with JavaScript. The web is for documents, and documents
shouldn't change how my browser works.

~~~
hayksaakian
are you frustrated because it did that, OR because it did that with no
indication or hint that it was going to do that?

To me, this seems similar to accidentally swiping left or right causing you to
change articles in google's blogger site.

~~~
Macha
I personally am frustrated by sites that do this. The blogger example is
particularly good as to why. I keep triggering it when I'm simply trying to
scroll down an article or pan over an image.

------
benzimmer
I think another big factor in podcasts getting more popular these days is that
the content and quality of podcasts are getting better. Today you don't need
equipment and staff only radio stations can afford to produce high quality
good sounding content. A computer with an USB mic and Audacity together with a
tool like Auphonic [1] are enough to get good sound. The internet makes it
easier to research stuff and prepare content collaboratively without being in
the same room.

Because we strongly believe that there is a bright future for podcasting a
friend and I started Podigee [2]. Our aim is to make publishing a podcast
easier and faster so beginners can get an easy start and more experienced
podcasters can focus on producing high quality content without worrying about
publishing software and infrastructure.

Additionally we support a movement that was started here in Germany called
Podlove [3]. They provide open source software like a Wordpress plugin for
publishing podcasts and a web player which is currently completely revised
(and will be pretty awesome after that). Besides that they also try to
establish new standards and promote old ones that are not widely used (like
paged feeds). Currently we (I do most of the coding) are working on a new kind
of subscribe button [4] which will make subscribing a podcast a lot easier for
listeners. We have a lot of podcast client developers on board to support
subscribing through the button and we have high hopes that this will push
podcasting even further. The button will see an official release in the coming
weeks.

[1] [https://www.auphonic.com](https://www.auphonic.com)

[2] [https://www.podigee.com](https://www.podigee.com)

[3] [http://www.podlove.org](http://www.podlove.org)

[4] [http://www.podlove.org/podlove-subscribe-
button/](http://www.podlove.org/podlove-subscribe-button/)

~~~
dublinben
There's already such thing as "pcast://" links, which are recognized by most
podcasting clients. It also doesn't get any easier than just offering the
naked RSS feed. Any kind of obfuscation around that just makes things more
painful for users.

~~~
benzimmer
First, it's actually not that simple :) We tried out like a whole lot of
podcast clients (30+ I think) and 'are recognized by most podcasting clients'
is certainly not true. That's why we recommend the following to client
developers: If your OS allows it subscribe to the OS default (which is often
pcast://) but also define your own schema (like mypodcastclient://). This
allows us to have a 'Open device default app' link that on Android shows all
installed clients that subscribe to pcast://, but also to specifically start a
client with its schema.

Second, 'It also doesn't get any easier than just offering the naked RSS
feed.' is also not true. We talked to a lot of people and subscribing to a
podcast is a nightmare for people that don't get (and don't want to get) the
concept of what an RSS feed is. And copying and pasting links from a webpage
to an application is already an obfuscation (and a real pain in the ass on a
mobile device) for the 'normal' user, so why not add a more user friendly
obfuscation :)

However, the button is an experiment and we'll see if and how people will use
it. Until now the feedback from podcasters and listeners is nothing but
positive.

------
mlangdon
It seems strange to me they would go on so long about podcasts and really only
talk about public radio-ish podcasts. I've been listening to podcasts since
the time when it was best described as an on-demand public radio feed. Public
Radio has been riding the peaks and troughs of podcasting, but I wouldn't say
they are leading any renaissance, real or imagined.

If there is a renaissance, it's being created by comedy podcasts. Let's
mention:

Jordan Jesse Go!

WTF with Marc Maron

Comedy Bang Bang

You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes

The Nerdist

Doug Loves Movies

Harmontown

And I'm not a huge fan but you have to mention Adam Carolla and Kevin Smith
here too.

These are the people who made podcasting more than just convenient radio.

~~~
jh3
WTF and Harmontown are great. I think I'll be checking out some others in this
list of yours.

------
arrrg
I think it’s just the Hype Cycle and we are now well on our way, up the Slope
of Enlightenment:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle)

Podcasts are growing up. Access to them is easier than ever before. With
mobile phones it’s nearly as easy to listen to podcasts you like as it is to
turn on the radio – with the added benefit of being able to better pick and
chose and, consequently, get a higher average quality (in respect to your own
preferences). Plus, if you don’t happen to drive but are on the go you
probably don’t have a radio with you, so podcasts (next to music) are just
obvious to listen to.

All that infrastructure that makes access real easy wasn’t there throughout
most of the 2000s. It was a kludgy process and you had to be quite active to
make it work. (Manual syncing!)

So it’s easier to get podcasts and it’s also quite obvious that spoken audio
content is attractive in many situation and with our devices we can make that
content actually accessible to us in those situations – so of course podcasts
are alive and well. We just expected too much too fast from them.

I still expect a bumpy road ahead, but just like blogs podcasts are here to
stay and that’s that. Maybe they will even turn invisible after a while, you
know, just another thing to do online (kind of like blogs did?), as normal as
can be.

------
sopooneo
I smell Blumberg. I know he's mentioned _in_ this piece, but I suspect he was
also _behind_ it. Guy knows the game.

~~~
caoilte
Exactly my first thought too.

~~~
colkassad
Seems like some journalistic backscratching. This American Life is trying to
push Serial, and the Startup guy recently had a piece on This American Life,
and if I remember correctly, is somewhat affiliated (could be wrong about
that). Anyway, whatever. Serial is excellent and should be promoting itself
however it can, and This American Life's quality goes without saying.

~~~
Ressud
Well, This American Life and Serial are done by the same people, so that's not
surprising. The "StartUp guy" was a producer for TAL for many years so that's
where that connection comes from.

~~~
caoilte
Also Blumberg's input on Planet Money quickly descended into the worst kind of
sycophancy. naked capitalism did a very good job of calling him out on it.
It's a shame because some of the early shows (eg giant pool of money) were
very good.

~~~
sopooneo
I'm interested. Could you point me to a link to where naked capitalism calls
out Blumberg? I hadn't actually heard of that site (show?) before and an
initial Google isn't bringing me anything. Thanks.

------
hentrep
Between an hour long daily commute, the gym, and a life toiling away in a lab,
I consume 4-6 hours worth of podcasts a day. I haven't seen anyone in this
thread mention Stitcher Radio. Stitcher is by far the easiest way to consume
podcasts, and is easily my most-used app.

As mentioned earlier, I think the increased prevalence of 4G/LTE wireless
speeds have led to this renaissance. Also, it is now much easier to produce
and distribute a podcast. The fact that advertisers are willing to shell out
$5k for a 30 second ad spot certainly helps encourage the production of
quality podcasts. Podcasts also provide an avenue for content delivery to
those who are terrible writers, but incredible speakers.

For the HN crowd, I suggest checking out the Startup Podcast by Alex Blumberg
of Planet Money fame ([http://hearstartup.com](http://hearstartup.com)). It's
a brutally honest, often painful portrayal of a completely inexperienced guy
ditching his comfortable life in order to start a podcasting company.
Listening to him pitch Chris Sacca will cause you to scream out "WTF!" in
sheer frustration. But good for Alex -- he's taking a risk that most only
dream about.

------
noelwelsh
I've recently gotten into podcasts, using Stitcher as my app of choice (which
is ok, but not great -- any suggestions for Android alternatives?)

Other have already nailed the main points driving adoption: simplified
workflow and the desire to fill dead time (driving is mentioned in the
article; for me it is cleaning the house.)

I don't think enough is made of the fantastic marketing channel that
podcasting is. If you put out a high quality podcast you can get into the ear
of your target market every week, and they are even going to seek you out.
It's really hard to match this with another channel, IMHO. Blog posts are of
course super competitive. There is just a deluge of content and playing the
sharing game is hard work, and visitors bounce. Email newsletters perform well
but there is no doubt that processing email is a chore for most. Video
requires too much active engagement, and is too expensive to produce. Podcasts
aren't so popular yet that the market is crowded, listeners hang around for a
long time, and they seek out podcasts for fill time in their day, rather than
your content having to compete with other tasks that demand more active
attention.

~~~
Simucal
I'm curious to hear what you specifically like about Stitcher. I have tried,
and own, almost all of the major podcast apps and it was my least favorite
experience so far. Their whole business model seems to be to scrape other
people's content, download it, compress it, serve it up from their own servers
and slap additional ads on it.

Some things that turned me off of Stitcher:

* Includes it's own advertisements on top of the ads already in the podcasts themselves.

* Increasingly difficult to skip past the Stitcher ads and if you want to remove ads you have to pay a monthly fee.

* Can't browse the episodes of a podcast without actively listening to a podcast?

The UI just wasn't that intuitive for me. Part of the problem might have been
that I was looking for a "podcast app" and this was more a "radio app" built
out of my podcasts. Using something like PocketCasts or OverCast has been a
much better experience to me:

* No additional ads.

* No extra monthly fees.

* Easier browsing/control of your podcast episodes.

What am I missing about Stitcher? I could see it being useful for podcast
discovery, or for when someone is new to podcasts. I just struggle to
understand it's insane popularity over other podcast apps.

~~~
noelwelsh
I have no love for Stitcher. Back when I did the iTunes / sync dance a few
podcasts I listened to mentioned it, so I tried it out. It's what got me back
into podcasts, by making the process so much more convenient, but I don't
really like how it works.

~~~
Simucal
PocketCasts is far and away my favorite podcast app. You should check it out.
They have both an Android, iOS and web client.

------
vitd
I too love listening to podcasts every day. But I think this article has
completely missed the mark on its main point. Most of the podcasts I listen to
don't have ads (or just have a 5-10 second "sponsored by" spot), which is why
I prefer them by far to commercial radio. On those that do have ads I fast-
forward through them.

Edited to add: I often donate to support the podcasts I listen to in the hopes
of keeping them ad-free.

------
rsync
I wish "podcasts" weren't a thing.

What I mean is, a podcast is nothing but a regular file served from a web
page. That's it.

And yet, by maintaining this false category, the end user is funneled through
all manner of ridiculous and frustrating extra steps and wasted time just to
... wait for it ... download a regular file.

Every major media creator that has made their audio content available as a
"podcast" makes it near impossible to simply grab the file. This has created a
huge amount of confusion among non-tech folks who think some kind of special
thing is happening when they click whatever weirdo pseudo-streaming "let's
cycle through 8 different 250-character URLs before we feed the data to your
browser raw" button ... "what app should I use to listen to this podcast ?"
"how do I get this podcast onto my iDevice", etc.

I should be able to fetch/wget any podcast without doing major surgery on a
webpage, downloading an intermediate XML file and then wading through it until
I see a link.

~~~
dbh937
What's the difference between that and any other type of media on the
internet? Take YouTube videos for example. An MP4 video file is also "nothing
but a regular file served from a web page," yet YouTube doesn't include a
"download" link for any videos on their site.

~~~
ptx
Right. So one has to install additional software to automate jumping through
their hoops and download the MP4 file. In other words: no difference – I wish
they would just give us the file in both cases.

I already have a video player that works the way I want it to work. Same thing
with e-books and audio. (Having an app to manage the library of media is
convenient once the collection gets larger, but I'll choose the app myself.)

~~~
arrrg
Which podcast doesn’t just let you download the file?

I just checked all I’m subscribed to and they all just let me download the
file, no problem. Subscribing just makes it much more practical and
persistent.

There is no need for extra apps, they just make it more convenient.

~~~
ptx
This was in the context of

    
    
      "Take YouTube videos for example. An MP4 video file is also ..."
    

But there was a podcast recently that took me quite a while to get the real
URL for because they only linked to iTunes. They seem to have fixed it now
though (with a libsyn.com RSS link).

------
bane
I totally missed podcasts when they were first a thing. But I've rediscovered
them as part of my love of all things retrocomputing. There's some really
fabulous ones out there, more than I can ever possibly listen to, but they
keep me reasonably entertained while I'm washing dishes or doing house work or
commuting.

It helps that the app I use kind of makes the entire thing pretty painless.

What worries me though is that several of the podcasts I subscribe to, but
haven't gotten around to listening to yet are dead and thus the feeds are
dead, _and_ some of the feeds only show the most recent n podcasts, so I'm
missing out on lots of the earlier shows.

Podcasts and old radio shows now keep me entertained when I can't watch. I
think of them basically like on-demand tv. There's more available than I could
possibly ever listen to.

For the topic area I'm interested in, it honestly doesn't matter at all if the
show is old.

~~~
gabeiscoding
Could you please share some of the 'retrocomputing' podcasts you listen to as
well as the app to manage your subscriptions?

Sounds fantastic and something I would love to check out.

~~~
bane
Yeah sure, I use Podcast addict. It let's you search and subscribe and either
stream or download for offline playback. It also works with your chromecast.

Here's my list (warning it's long and some may no longer be alive):

    
    
       - active time babble
       - retronauts (there's a run of the show from 1up.com that's dead, and a new run that's in progress)
       - 2 dudes and a nes
       - all gen games
       - ANTIC - the atari 8-bit podcast
       - arcade and retro.com
       - arcade hunters
       - arcade impossible
       - arcade outsiders
       - arcade repair tips
       - arcade tired
       - armchair arcade radio
       - brokentoken classic arcade
       - cactus jacks arcade podcast
       - catridge freaks
       - chicken lips radio
       - completely unnecessary podcast
       - factory sealed
       - famicom flashbacks
       - floppydays vintage computing
       - game boy crammer
       - gameroom junkies arcade
       - gaminghistory101
       - genesis gems
       - guys games and beer
       - hardcore gaming 101
       - how I started my own arcade
       - insert coin
       - jmac's arcade
       - knights of the arcade
       - last coin at the arcade
       - lazy game reviews
       - matt chat
       - nes podcast
       - nintendojo
       - no quarter
       - one man & his mic
       - player one podcast
       - radio free nintendo
       - retro asylum podcast
       - retro computing roundtable
       - retro gaming roundup
       - retro junkies minies
       - retro junkies network
       - retro obscura
       - retro rejects
       - retro rundown's podcast
       - retrobits podcast
       - retrocollect fm
       - retrocore
       - retrogaming with racketboy
       - retrograde
       - retrospin
       - sprite castle
       - super arcade theater
       - super gamer arcade
       - tadpog
       - ten pence arcade
       - the arcade (there's 2 of them)
       - the atari 2600 game
       - the c64 take-away podcast
       - the colecovisions podcast
       - the intellivisionaries podcast
       - the mustache arcade
       - the nes club presents
       - pinball blahcade
       - retro junkies super show
       - the retro league
       - retro tech addict's podcast
       - retrobits podcast
       - tone control
       - vgmpire
       - watch out for firewalls

~~~
Gdiddy
Looking at that list, I think you might like Arcade and Retro, a podcast from
Ireland which is still a going concern. I know the makers but have no stake in
it, pretty good show. -
[http://arcadeandretro.com/](http://arcadeandretro.com/)

Edit: Scratch that - they're already on the list, missed it the first time

~~~
bane
Thanks for the recommendation. I actually just started listening to it
yesterday and am enjoying it quite a bit.

------
mdaniel
Allow me to take this opportunity to mention that Roman Mars, of 99% Invisible
([http://99percentinvisible.org/](http://99percentinvisible.org/)) fame, is
holding another kickstarter to fund the collective of Radiotopia -- the idea
that podcast producers can make a living wage to produce great content.

This kickstarter, like many of them, has a funding match going on where if
they get more than 20,000 backers at any level, one of their corporate
sponsors will chip in $25,000.

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1748303376/radiotopia-a...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1748303376/radiotopia-
a-storytelling-revolution)

Even if you don't contribute, I think you'll enjoy 99% Invisible.

------
mason240
It's too bad the article didn't mention the explosion of history podcasts,
thanks largely to Lars Brownworth (12 Byzantine Rulers) and then Mike Ducan
(The History of Rome).

Since then there have been several dozen podcasts to get started, with a
pretty diverse range of topics. Most of the ones I have checked out start out
with "I was inspired to start this series after listening to Lars
Brownworth/Mike Ducan...."

[http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/the_history_of_rome/](http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/the_history_of_rome/)
(He is dire need of webdev)

~~~
jorgeisraelp
Would you mind listing some more? I'm particularly interested in history
podcasts myself.

~~~
gbhn
Hardcore History is fantastic. My History Can Beat Up Your Politics -- another
good choice.

------
programminggeek
Anecdotally, it's a lot easier now with 3g/wifi/4g than it was for the average
person even a few years ago.

Also, you could argue that radio has become even less interesting as a medium
in the last decade. Last, a lot of niche celebrities are doing podcasts now,
so when you combine those things together, it seems like the makings of an
interesting inflection point.

~~~
Scuds
Actually having the ability to download podcasts over WiFi to an iDevice
instead of downloading on a home PC via iTunes and syncing helps immensely by
removing the ritual of the whole thing, and made regular listening easy
because new episodes appeared when they were available.

I forget which version of iOS Apple offered a dedicated Podcast app and
separated it from their regular music app, but it improved things greatly.

I heard that the team working on the podcasts app was one or two people.

------
alex_duf
If it can help to promote Rss and Atom feed I'm all up for it. We don't give
enough credits to these technologies.

------
jordanpg
Some more contributors:

In addition to the higher potential revenues from ads, from the standpoint of
the listener, the DVR-like ability to easily skip ads has been built in from
the beginning. Similarly, most podcasts have the ads entirely at the beginning
or end, making them even easier to ignore (I doubt it will stay this way,
though).

I also like the fact that I can download many, many podcasts ahead of time and
have a huge library to choose from depending on my mood. The storage costs on
modern hardware is negligible.

Lowering costs of high quality audio and editing equipment and software has to
be a huge factor.

And let's not forget that a great many (close to all?) podcasts are free!

~~~
awinder
I do most of my listening in the car so skipping out on ads isn't exactly high
priority. And I'll also say that the quality of ads is extremely high on most
of the podcasts I listen to. Gruber's podcast and the Accidental Tech Podcast
aren't just listing off a random pitch from some random company. They have
discussions about the products, they've used the products themselves, most
placements include discount codes, and advertisers have to love it. I actually
don't mind the ads because they feel engrained into the show, it's a great
model.

------
sixQuarks
Stitcher app is my #1 used app. Highly recommended for podcasts. Also, a
fantastic podcast not mentioned in this article is "Hardcore History" by Dan
Carlin.

~~~
SnacksOnAPlane
"Common Sense" by Dan Carlin, too!

~~~
sixQuarks
Common Sense is awesome as well.

------
bithush
I just got an iPhone and the built in Podcast app is pretty good. I have
subscribed to a couple of the most popular podcasts and have been quite
impressed by the quality these days. Last time I listened to podcasts was
probably around 2007 or 2008 and the quality was poor and that put me off.
Only a few people such as Adam Curry had decent equipment. Now it seems most
people can afford decent kit and do a reasonable job at editing.

------
arafalov
I've listened to podcasts since before the term existed. In fact I seem to
remember "Gillmor Gang" episode in which they are discussing that there is a
new term going around for this thing they've been doing for a while.

Same with IT Conversations, it started as MP3s in directories and then rode it
all the way to a dedicated company (Conversations Network) and SpokenWord.org
super aggregator. All gone now.

------
dodyg
Do not forget to thank Dave Winer and Adam Curry for their pioneering efforts
in giving birth to podcasting.

------
lewispb
I really love listening to podcasts at the moment, one of my favourites is the
NPR TED Radio Hour.

I've recently built a simple RoR app to display the iTunes Podcast Charts..
[http://www.podcastchart.com](http://www.podcastchart.com)

~~~
disputin
Is that hotlinking? Is the podcast community fine with that?

------
camdenre
I've just recently started listening to more podcasts. I've listened to
"Skeptic's Guide to the Universe" for years, but I think my favorite podcast
currently is Dan Carlin's "Hardcore History."

------
mintplant
For someone who likes old radio dramas ( _Suspense_ , _Quiet Please_ , _Night
Beat_ ), are there any good podcasts for modern audio drama? _Serial_ sounds
interesting, and is something I hadn't heard about before.

~~~
caoilte
We're Alive ([http://www.zombiepodcast.com/](http://www.zombiepodcast.com/))
is the only decent podcast audio drama I've heard. Other than that you'll have
to stick with BBC adaptations.

------
jamesaguilar
I'm not sure what it is either. But I did just start really consuming podcasts
this year, so I am a member of the consumption side of this Renaissance, even
if I have no insight to the systemic patterns that caused it.

------
JoshTheGeek
Any podcast recommendations for the HN crowd? I personally listen to Hello
Internet (CGP Grey and Brady Haran) and Still Untitled: The Adam Savage
Project (Adam Savage and friends).

------
joshdance
What is behind the podcast renaissance is on demand downloading via
smartphones, and cars having smartphone interfaces via Bluetooth or USB built
in.

------
ilyaeck
How come nobody mentioned Umano? While driving (or doing something else), you
can listen to stories you'd otherwise read.

------
deelowe
For me, it's because all of my vehicles now have either an aux port or
Bluetooth audio support.

