My favorite podcast, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, from National Public Radio’s WHYY in Philadelphia, has featured many well-known guests, including Ray Charles, Stephen Colbert, Hillary Clinton, and my favorite comedy legend, Mel Brooks. But what draws me in is Gross’s warm rapport with her guests. It reminds me, as a journalist, to listen closely to those I interview and ask intelligent, relevant questions.
Today’s podcasts aren’t all talk shows and interviews; there’s a full range of formats. A well-known example is the hit podcast Serial, which tells one long story over the course of a 10-episode season.
It’s a great time to experiment with this
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What Is a Podcast?
At its most basic, a podcast is simply a digital audio program or recording, similar to a radio or television show, that can be downloaded from the internet or made available to and accessed from various mobile devices. As with most media in the digital age, the format, structure, and content of a podcast often resemble an older analog medium: the broadcast-radio program. Podcasts, like radio, are often created serially and post new episodes regularly.
There are important distinctions, though. For starters, the notion of time is…