What is Podcasting?

Good question. Let’s break it down.

The first part, Pod, is like iPod–it’s a shorthand term for any small device that you use to store and listen to computerized audio recordings. These players include iPod, Zune, any MP3 player, possibly your cell phone, iPhone, and all kinds of devices these days.

OK. What’s the second part: Cast? Cast is just like as in broadcast or telecast; it basically means a form of entertainment that is distributed regularly for you to watch or listen to.

Now comes the cool part: so what’s a podcast? It’s a form of entertainment that’s sent out over the internet that you can listen to on your computer (many, many websites have audio like this) but that you can also save easily and quickly to your portable MP3 player. Follow so far?

This means you can listen to my books while you’re driving (connect your MP3 player to your car audio system first, as driving with headphones on is not recommended), running, working out at the gym, buying groceries, whatever! It’s basically everything you’d do with a walkman or portable radio, but you can arrange your own listening material easily and listen as often as you like. In this case, you can choose from my three books to listen to and when you get caught up, you just hang in for a new episode next week! Oh, did I mention that all of the content here is FREE? It is. Just like TV and radio.

OK. I get it. Now tell me how.

First you choose the book you want to get. From the home page, look at the covers on the right side. If you’re new, start with JACK WAKES UP. You choose your book by clicking on the cover image.

Then you get the audio onto your Pod by subscribing:

You’ll see a few buttons that say “Subscribe” this around the site, even one at the top of this page. When you click this button, you’ll be taken to a page where you can choose the software program you use to put MP3s on your player. Whichever program you’re familiar with of that list (mostlikely it’s iTunes), choose it and your software program should prompt you the rest of the way. Not so bad, right?

Makes sense? I hope so. If not, or if I can help explain anything else, please feel free to email me at seth@sethharwood.com. I’ll be more than happy to help you out!