As you've probably noticed, we've been venturing into podcasting at a pace that was limited by my modest technical skills. Great thanks to all of the many readers who responded to our call for help. Thanks, especially, to Joe Malchow who graciously stepped in and set up our podcast archive and RSS feed himself, rather than trying to teach this old dog some new tricks.

If you check our right sidebar, you'll now see a Podcasts section that includes our podcast archive and RSS feed. So far, the podcasts are all from Northern Alliance Radio Network shows. We'll make them available on iTunes, too, as soon as I figure out how. Or, more likely, as soon as Joe does it for us.

Why bother with podcasting? Three reasons, in addition to the fact that it's fun (creating the podcast, that is; it's what you do with it afterward that had me stumped). First, sheer volume. Blog posts tend to be short and pithy. That's good, but a podcast allows exploring a subject in more depth. For example, on the radio we often interview book authors for a half hour or more. That's a lot more information than you could ever post. Second, the convenience of the medium. A growing number of people like to listen to podcasts in their cars or around the house, under conditions where you couldn't very well be reading a blog post. Third, sometimes it's useful, as well as interesting, to actually hear a person talking. For example, on Saturday, we interviewed Lt. Col. Bob Stephenson on the radio. We talked about his career in the Marine Corps, his experiences in Iraq, and so on. I think anyone who actually heard Bob talk would be impressed by him, and astonished by the Democratic Party's claim that he and the ad in which he defended America's efforts in Iraq are "un-American."

Posted by John at 08:54 AM  |    |