In 1939 there was an editorial in the New York Times that stated, "TV will never be a serious competitor for radio because people must sit and keep their eyes glued on a screen; the average American Family hasn't time for it." We can learn two things from this quote. First, never underestimate the American Family's ability to sit around with their eyes glued to a screen! It turns out that we invented it! Second, one advantage of audio over video is that it's mobile--especially now with cellphones and other handheld devices.

Why are Podcasts Popular?

Why are podcasts popular? What are the qualities of the most popular podcasts? To answer those questions we will read the following articles. As your read, take notes that will help you to answer those two questions.

• What's Behind the Great Podcast Renaissance? (New York Magazine)
• Inside the Podcast Brain: Why Do Audio Stories Captivate? The emotional appeal of listening (The Atlantic)
• The Voices: Toward a critical theory of podcasting (Slate)

Discovering Quality Podcasts

It's one thing to read about quality podcasts but it's another to hear them for your yourself. Take some time to explore the following podcasts. Some of the programs can be around 60 min long so don't feel like you need to listen to full podcasts. I recommend listening to the beginning and ending of the podcasts to see how they are branded. You should also listen to as much of the actual program as is helpful to you to get a feel for what they are doing.

Talk Show Podcasts

Talk shows are a staple of talk radio. I think that we are all familiar with them to some degree--a host welcomes her guest(s) and then they take turns talking for 30 minutes. Some podcasts then "open up the lines" for listeners to call in or text their questions. As you can imagine, this is one of the easiest type of podcasts to produce and--as a result--some of the most common. They can also be the most interesting type of podcast IF (and that's a big "IF") the topic is thought provoking and the host and guest are good communicators. In fact, I would say that topic isn't as important as the host and guest because I've enjoyed listening to people talk about pretty boring topics (for more evidence listen to Surprisingly Awesome--a podcast on "ordinary" things such as cardboard, postal addresses, and flossing). When the host and guest(s) are not engaging speakers, it's too painful to listen too--even if you're really interested in the topic.

The following are some talk show podcasts and I'll let you be the judge if they are any good.

• Educate "is a weekly program about ideas and research in education" produced by NPR. Most of the episodes follow the talk show pattern with some important exceptions like "The View From Room 205."
• Techlandia Radio. "The mission statement of Techlandia Radio is simple, great educational content without taking things so seriously." is a great example of an engaging, fun, yet informational, audio series. It's kind of like sitting in the faculty lounge listening to some of your favorite teachers shoot the wind about educational topics.
• Education Talk Radio is a program hosted by Larry Jacobs. The show airs live and then is uploaded online as a podcast. The podcast doesn't focus entirely on issues surrounding online and blended but in one episode Dr. Jered Borup, the professor-in-charge of the BOLS program--was a guest.
• Virtual Viewpoints is created by Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute and is "designed to amplify the voices of those in the K-12 online/blended education sphere demonstrating the power of applicable research." Episode 29 is about Washington D.C. Public Schools that may interest those who live nearby.
• The House of #EDTECH is created by Christopher J. Nesi, a certified social studies teacher.
• Trends & Issues in Instructional Design, Educational Technology, and Learning Sciences. "Dr. Abbie Brown and Dr. Tim Green--professors of instructional design and educational technology--share their observations every two weeks in this podcast."

Edited and Storytelling Podcasts

Movies and television shows are professionally edited. It's something we don't often think about but how well they are edited can either make or break the viewing experience. The same is true with edited podcasts. The following are three of the most popular edited podcasts. I recommend just listening to portions to get a feel for what makes these podcasts different from unedited podcasts.

• Serial
• This American Life
• Radio Lab

Explore Podcasts on Your Own

Lastly, take some to explore some podcasts on your own. There are lots of places to start so we highlighted three possible starting points but please feel free branch out and start somewhere else.

• 50 Podcasts for teachers and teaching from Getting Smart
• 50 Podcasts for learning for high school students from TeachThought
• 9 Podcasts for younger students and teachers from Scholastic

Move onto 3.3 when you have completed this section.