Podcast Love Story

Here’s the love story with Podcasting.
It all began when I got an ipod for Christmas. Goodness me had I been wanting one of those for a while. Had no idea really what they were capable of doing, but all I wanted to do was be like those cool ipod commercials when people just broke out into dance and stuff like that. Also, all the yoga teachers were using them, downloading all their mellow yoga grooves and playing them beautifully during class. I was still carrying around about 20 or so cds and often loosing them, ’cause I left them at the studios and what not, anyway…

So, as soon as I got my beloved ipod I had to figure out all that it could possibly do. I gobbled up itunes. Hadn’t experienced itunes before and just kept messing around looking things up, figuring things out, and this podcast thing revealed itself to me. I followed links and started to see what kind of stuff was out there in terms of podcasting. I actually didn’t know what the heck these things were and I went straight to what I knew, NPR. There were quite a few podcasts from NPR, so I downloaded a couple of them (NPR: Most Emailed Stories and NPR: Latino USA)  I was sooooooooooo happy!!!! I got to listen to stuff when I wanted to and I didn’t loose a signal if going in a tunnel, or if I was chilling out in the afternoon without a radio around.

I was hooked! I had no idea that podcasts where also being done by everyday folks such as myself, just yet. I continued to browse through the itunes music store and kept on inputting searches, just to see what was out there and what I was interested in.

My next addiction where 2 university classes (Biology 2110: Lectures on Anatomy, and Harvard Extension School’s Computer Science E1: understanding computers and the internet). When I found these 2 things my whole world exploded. Oh my gosh!!! I could listen, to these classes while I was on my bike, and learn about things that I wanted to know more about. It was these 2 podcasts that showed me the possibility of the medium. I got primarily hooked on the computer course. I started to learn stuff about computers that I had never known before. It began to demystify the whole thing for me. (I must confess that I only listened to about the first 6 classes before I got hooked on something else) Then, I found one of my current favorites, The Typical PC User podcast, because it was mentioned in the computer course by the professor, David Malan. I also got so into podcasting that I wanted to to do it myself, and of course I searched podcasting and found a bunch of podcasts that deal with podcasting, my favorite is Podcast411. I just love them so much.

Currently I have a gazillion podcasts in my ipod. I don’t have time to listen to all of them really. I listen at night, in the morning and when I’m on my trusty companion, my bike, Fig, zipping around LaLa land. Oh, my favorite time to listen, is when I’m doing the dishes, there’s nothing better. Man, there is so much out there, music podcast, talk-shows, podcast about movies and tv, cooking podcasts, yoga podcasts, you name it, there is something out there that will fit your needs. The most exciting part of the whole thing is that if there isn’t anything out there that you like, you can create it yourself! Woah! So, I’m dreaming about doing something everyday! I have all kinds of ideas, and I think that’s so fun. I love it. If you guys have a chance, check some of these podcasts out. These are everyday people just expressing themselves, contributing by sharing their voices and their passions. That’s why I love podcasts, podcasting and most especially podcasters!!! If you can believe it, I no longer watch tv. It so doesn’t interest me at all, I’d rather choose what I want to hear 🙂

Try it out guys! Click on to some of these links that I’ve put out or, you can go to the itunes music store and search for whatever kind of content you like, or if you don’t have itunes or an ipod, don’t worry, you don’t need these things to participate in this world, try these 2 sites: Wizzard.tv or just go to the iTunes music store. There are a surprisingly large amount of podcasts out there. Listen and participate in the world of podcasting! If any of you happen to get hooked on any podcasts, let me know! Post a comment! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the whole thing!