There is more to podcasts than YouTube video interviews

Showing all posts tagged: podcasts

There is more to podcasts than YouTube video interviews

5 December 2024

The Australian Podcast Awards were held a few weeks ago in Sydney, on Thursday, 21 November 2024. The finalists and winners, with productions spanning thirty categories, can be see here.

Podcasting is to broadcasting, what blogging is to publishing. It allows an individual, or a small group of people, to create their own radio-style show, independent of regular broadcast channels. Like blogging, anyone can jump in and give it a try. To start a basic podcast show, all that’s needed is a small amount of equipment and software, and a whole heap of determination to build up profile.

Though you wouldn’t think it from looking at the numerous finalists and winners in this year’s Australian Podcast Awards, podcasting is under threat. The medium itself isn’t in strife however, as Dave Winer writes, it’s more about what the word podcasting seems to have come to mean:

We’re losing the word “podcast” very quickly. It’s coming to mean video interviews on YouTube mostly. Our only hope is upgrading the open platform in a way that stimulates the imagination of creators, and there’s no time to waste.

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podcasts, technology, trends

The disassociated podcast, web design in the wild west of 1997

20 September 2024

I’ve always thought setting up a podcast show would be fun. But, you know, I have no proper recording equipment, nor any idea what sort of subject matter such a “show” would feature. So the idea has sat dormant all these years.

But yesterday, I learned about NotebookLM, Google’s “personalized AI research assistant”, while reading a blog post by Robert Birming. Among NotebookLM’s features, is the ability to take some text, say a blog post, load said text into NotebookLM, and then apply the “Audio Overview” function.

Curious to try it, I took a post I wrote in 2022, about my early experiences of building websites, uploaded the text to NotebookLM, and waited for the result. This quite fun fireside chat, between the two “hosts”, a woman and a man, is what emerged:

The “hosts” confused me with the author of a book I referenced in my post, Jay Hoffmann, but, some people call me Jay, so not all is lost.

And that’s where web standards come in. Hoffman [er, Lampard] talks about using HTML 3.2. Early on he was a rebel, but a structured one.

Update: thanks to long-time disassociated reader, and one-time collaborator CoffeeGirl (AKA Stephanie), for this version of the podcast (dare I call it a remix?) based on my post about web design in 1997. This is a little more on point. #DeepDiveNinetiesWeb

This little snippet is fantastic:

Back then, choosing a domain name was a statement. You were declaring your independence from traditional media.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. For the record, I didn’t get the disassociated domain name until 1998, and when I did, it was disassociated.com.au. I tried to obtain the . com extension, but someone else had it. They contacted me, offering it for sale (at a premium), which I declined. Later, when the name became available in early 2003, I grabbed it.

Nina Wan, Tracey Lien, on Labours of Love podcast with Sarah L’Estrange

26 August 2023

Newly published Australian authors Nina Wan and Tracey Lien, discuss their debut novels, The Albatross and All That’s Left Unsaid, respectively, with Sarah L’Estrange of The Bookshow, in a podcast, recorded during the 2023 Melbourne Writers Festival.

The hour long conversation covers numerous topics, including their inspirations, writing influences, racism and the concept of being a “conditional citizen” of Australia, and what exactly an albatross is in golf. I could tell right now what an albatross is, but far better you listen to find out.

Short interviews with the 2023 Miles Franklin shortlisted authors

17 July 2023

The winner of the 2023 Miles Franklin literary award will be announced in just over a week, on Tuesday 25 July 2023. Ahead of the presentation, The Bookshelf and Book Show have recorded interviews with all six shortlisted Australian authors. View the shortlist here.

Ashley Kalagian Blunt talks Dark Mode at Words and Nerds

19 March 2023

Ashley Kalagian Blunt discusses her new novel Dark Mode, with Dani Vee on the Words and Nerds podcast. Plenty of talk about the dark web, which features prominently in the novel.

Dianne Yarwood talks to Claudine Tinellis about The Wakes

18 March 2023

Australian literary podcaster Claudine Tinellis talks with Sydney based author Dianne Yarwood on her show, Talking Aussie Books. Much of the discussion is about Yarwood’s debut novel, The Wakes, which I also wrote about the other week.

Melissa Clark-Reynolds and Beth Barany discuss science fiction

27 February 2023

Melissa Clark-Reynolds and Beth Barany talk about writing science fiction on the Writer’s Fun Zone podcast. One point that emerges is science fiction’s relevance to contemporary matters on planet Earth. This at a time when some Australian publishers have no interest in looking at science fiction and fantasy manuscripts, possibly because they deem it irrelevant.

I’ve seen so many different stories use science fiction to explore where we are today. And, there’s something always very surprising about them. I just really enjoy them.

A great point. A lot of sci-fi pertains to the here and now. It’s not all a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away. Literary agents and publishers take note.

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podcasts, science fiction

Has the world reached peak podcast?

25 February 2023

Phil Siarri, writing at The PhilaVerse, notes the number of new podcasts has declined by eighty-percent globally, compared to 2020-2022, based on data published by Listen Notes.

219,178 new podcasts were created in 2022 as opposed to 337,063 in 2019.

But James Cridland, writing at Podnews, says that while the number of new podcast shows has declined, the number of new episodes has increased:

The increasing number of episodes suggests that podcasters aren’t, as the narrative suggests, “giving up”. Committed podcasters are continuing to release new episodes, at an ever-increasing rate. Far from podcasting being in severe decline, the industry seems healthy and growing.

I can’t go anywhere on the web without tripping over a podcast show, so suggesting podcasting is in decline seems like a big call, even though some data might indicate this is the case. It seems reasonable the number of new podcast shows would fall once COVID-19 lockdowns ended, and people were no longer looking for so many ways to occupy themselves while at home.

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podcasts, trends

Queer Podcasts, a directory of global LGBTQIA+ podcasts

24 August 2022

Ram Smith, whom I once worked with, has recently launched Queer Podcasts, a directory aggregating LGBTQIA+ podcasts from around the world onto a single platform.

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culture, podcasts

The definition of being a single parent

23 February 2022

Dani Vee, Sydney based host of literary podcast Words and Nerds, writes about being a single parent at Ramona Magazine. If you only read one paragraph of the article, make sure it’s this one:

The next time you hear anyone talking about single mothers, start by replacing words like lonely, stressed, frazzled, broke and struggling with ‘you mean that independent-solution-focused-resilient-kick ass woman with the electric lawnmower?’

Also lookout for her debut picture book My EXTRAordinary Mum, featuring illustrations by Alexandra Colombo.

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podcasts, writing

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