Locating Podcasts

Being the music junkie that I am, I've come in contact with podcasts before, usually in the form of interviews of my favorite musicians or perhaps album commentaries they recorded and released as "exclusive bonus material!!!!" for their website and message board subscribers. However, I didn't realize before now that podcasts are considered an audio or video file that is NOT music. Learn something new every day.

In a way, the websites that allow people to create and upload their own podcasts are much like YouTube, or at least are in the same vein of self-publication on the web. The neat thing is the ability to subscribe to these podcasts; that's definitely new and different from YouTube. It's funny to see all the self-published "radio stations" people have created. For someone with a creative mind, what a fantastic resource this could be. The only problem that presents for the person seeking a podcast is that you have to weed through a lot of less-than-reputable podcasts to find ones that provide you with reliable information. (If you're looking for reliable information, that is. If you just want something entertaining to listen to, then no problem!)

I found the search engines, like Podcast.net and Podcast Alley easy to navigate, although I prefer Podcast Alley just a bit more because of their system of listing search results (nifty drop down information when you click a link) and their easier-to-navigate tags. I found half a dozen kind of cool podcasts, three dealing with library- or book-related subjects, and three dealing with random fun stuff:

KCRW's Bookworm
Uncontrolled Vocabulary
Written Voices

Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir
KneeJerk Radio
Brain Food

I subscribed to KneeJerk Radio on my Bloglines account (the Bloglines account that never gets used, I should add...), and I was pleasantly surprised at how the podcast search engines just give you the address for the RSS Feed so you can pop it right into your Bloglines account. It's a happy shock when websites work together so well.

Overall, I think podcasts are kind of cool, and I think mainly it would be a great alternative to regular radio. Basically, that's what the podcasts that you subscribe to seem like to me - a radio show that gets delivered to your inbox or wherever. Right now, I tend to use podcasts as a one-shot deal - hunting interviews I want and whatnot, but if I was ever in a position to have a specific time set aside every day to listen to radio-type broadcasts, I'd most likely subscribe to a podcast.