This post addresses the above three questions with help from Trent Hamm’s useful article.
What are Podcasts?
According to Trent Hamm in “Everything You Need to know About Listening to Podcasts, My Favorite Free Form of Entertainment” (on www.thesimpledollar.com updated 2/19/15), “Podcasts are free audio programs distributed over the Internet. You can download them and listen to them as you please…. There are podcasts out there covering almost any topic that you can imagine….”
Where do you find them?
Click here to get to something called the Podcast Chart. It lists the top 200 Podcasts. Scroll down the page and you’ll see featured Podcasts in these categories: Arts, Business, Comedy, Health, Music, News & Politics, Science & Medicine, Society & Culture, and Technology.
If you're interested in the 2016 U.S. election, you may want to check out the New York Times podcast called The Run-Up. They produce new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Click here to listen. They're free but do contain ads.
How do you listen to podcasts?
You need something called a “podcast manager”. According to Trent Hamm, “There are a lot of podcast managers out there that you can use to listen to and subscribe to podcasts. Here are a few options. Click here to listen.
For Desktop Computers
Desktop programs allow you to download podcasts to your personal computer. These are the best options if you just use a single computer and perhaps sync that computer with a portable mp3 player.
iTunes(click on http://www.apple.com/itunes/) is easily the most ubiquitous podcast management tool. It works spectacularly well as a desktop podcast manager and allows you to easily find podcasts to listen to for free through the iTunes Store. It also has stellar integration with iDevices – iPhones, iPods, and iPads....
gPodder (click on http://gpodder.org/) is probably the best desktop alternative to iTunes. It also has an integrated podcast directory that makes it easy to find new podcasts to listen to with just a few clicks and integrates well with Android mobile devices.
For Mobile Devices (like smart phones or tablets)
If you listen to podcasts primarily or exclusively on mobile devices, here are two outstanding options.
Overcast (click on https://overcast.fm/) is easily my favorite podcast manager for iOS. It just works exactly as I want in my head. In fact, if they improved the web interface, it would be my only podcast manager. If you’re just listening using iOS almost all of the time and rarely listen elsewhere, this is my top recommendation.
Pocket Casts (click on http://www.shiftyjelly.com/pocketcasts), on the other hand, is my recommendation for Android users. It features a great interface, syncs well across multiple Android devices, and is very smart about downloading episodes when you’re around wi-fi instead of using mobile data.”
If you find a podcast you especially like, let us know and we’ll post a link to it here.