I love podcasts. I have been listening to them for the last few years, because of the flexibility and mobility that mobile devices allow for listening at my leisure. I enjoy listening to podcasts while out walking, gardening, and doing household chores. There are a few podcast shows that I have been listening to for years, while others consist of only a few episodes.  Because podcasts are relatively inexpensive to produce and publish, there is a wide variety of topics for users to look for.  I listen to news based podcasts, some for entertainment, others for spiritual guidance, and some to increase my knowledge and information on specific topics. 

Podcasting allows humanities scholars opportunities that they are unable to do in other mediums. Podcasting rose in popularity because of the internet, whereby users are able to download digital audio files to a personal device, which has allowed humanities scholars the opportunity to reach a much wider, global audience.  With the number of people globally who have and use a personal phone, they now have the ability to listen to a plethora of podcasts, based on personal interests. In addition to the ease of accessibility, listening to podcasts is either free, or low cost, which also helps humanities scholars share knowledge and information to a broader base. They can also reach more marginalized and diverse groups of communities, outside of the traditional academic setting. As a method of communication, by building on the continuity of the show’s structure, music used, and the tonal quality of voices, it can create a level of intimacy where listeners feel a real connection to the hosts. 

Podcasting shares similar characteristics with other digital tools. Like other digital humanities platforms that expand beyond only text based information, podcasting from digital audio tools allows humanities scholars to share and spread research, knowledge and information outside of the traditional text based mediums. Digital humanities scholars can promote community, as we saw with Wikipedia editors and the Transcribing Bentham project. Users can build communities through podcasting by providing feedback to the hosts and making connections with each other. One such podcast, The Daily Beans, schedules weekly online happy hours with the hosts, have accounts on social media platforms in order to interact with listeners, and plan several in person events around the country annually. Like other digital humanities projects, podcasting depends on the collaborative efforts of a group of people, including the hosts, producers, those who provide research and technical support, and from their audience of listeners. 

According to recent polling from Pew Research, almost half of the general public listens to podcasts, making it one of the most effective and efficient, easily accessible and affordable mediums for the dissemination and spread of knowledge and information across the globe.