Podcasts...

Back in 2006 when I owned my first (and last) iPod* I started to listen to a couple of podcasts, I listened for a few weeks and then got bored of them, so stopped listening to podcasts. To be honest, until recently I thought that podcasts were a dead thing, that no one really used any more.

But after a conversation at work towards the end of last year I discovered that podcasts were still a thing, they were still being produced and actually being more popular than ever. Thank you Serial.

At the beginning of January I decided to give the podcast thing a go again, and low and behold I’ve come to the conclusion that they might be the best new habit I’ve picked up this year…

I eased myself in slowly by starting with the podcast that everyone was talking about, the afore mentioned Serial podcast, and have been adding new podcasts in each week.

One of the big things that has changed in my life that has made space to listen to these podcasts is a 40 minute cycle to and from work each day (on canal towpath, not busy London roads) which gives me a lot of time and space to listen to them. I’m actually finding I’ve got time to listen to a news report in the morning, getting to grips with some of the world news, or now can have a vaguely informed conversation around film rather than what I’m picking up off Twitter.

It turns out that there are a lot of apps for Android that do podcasts, a few that are free, and even less that are free and good. When I started out on this podcast journey I wasn’t sure if I wanted to invest in anything. So right now I am using Podcast & Radio Addict which ticks the free and usable box, a little bit of a clunky interface, but I’ll forgive a lot for free. That said, now I have validated that this is more than just a whim, I am considering paying a whole £2.49 for the Pocket Casts app.

On the list at the moment (in alphabetial order):

• Beyond the Roundabout
• ESV Bible Daily Readings
• Faith in Action
• Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review
• Serial
• Tech Weekly
• The World Tonight
• This Week in Tech

Some of these podcasts I am convinced will stay there for a long time (ESV, Kermode and Mayo, Serial & The World Tonight), others I am just trying out at the moment.