If you’ve never listened to a podcast before, don’t worry. Listening and downloading shows is a fairly simple process. You’ll need a media player like Quicktime, Windows Media, iTunes, or RealPlayer, which most computers already have installed.  It’s also highly recommended that you have high-speed internet in order to listen to the shows.

To find a show to listen to, click on the Past Shows link at the top of the web site…

…or go directly by clicking on the individual show links on the side navigation:

On each show page, you’ll find a link to the podcast that looks like this:

To listen, click on the Play in Popup link. A small window will pop up and the show will begin to load up. Once the show has loaded, it will start playing automatically.

If you wish to save the show to your computer and listen to them at a later date, or if you have dial-up and you’re unable to listen to the show online, click on the Download link. A new browser window will open and the show will start loading up. Once the show loads up, right click in the browser window and choose Save As to save the episode file to your computer.   After you have saved the episode, you can play it on your computer or transfer it to a portable mp3 player and listen to it any time you wish. If you have any questions, or if you have any trouble listening to the shows, please send an email to: info@craftingvoices.org.

What is a Podcast?

The official definition of what a podcast is according to Wikipedia is, “a method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio programs or music videos, over the Internet using either the RSS or Atom syndication formats, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers”. In plain English, a podcast is a regularly updated audio or video program that you can subscribe to and listen to a portable music player, like an iPod.

Despite the name, most podcasts don’t require the use of an iPod in order to listen to them. You can listen to a podcast using any multimedia device that can play Mp3 files, you can download a podcast to your computer and listen to them using a program like RealPlayer or Windows Media, or you can listen to them as a streaming audio program over the Internet.

The beauty of podcasting is that it allows people to create their own radio programs and publish them over the Internet. Likewise, people who are interested in listening to the podcast can subscribe to the podcast using a program like iTunes or an RSS feed reader like iPodder and automatically get new podcasts when they are available. Unlike traditional radio, where you have to tune in at a certain time on a certain station, you can listen to a podcast anywhere and anytime you want to.

There are literally thousands of podcasts available on the Internet, on any subject, and in most cases you can subscribe to a podcast for free. If you are interested in learning more on podcasts, visit Podcast Alley for more information.