Following this morning's whack at the sophists , er analysts,  maybe it's time that I put up something useful with regards to podcasting. Actually it's nothing other than the usual self interest.Trying to improve my own experience when listening to podcasts  I want something , and unlike Mr Reznor , I want that  to be something I can have. So you , yes YOU the podcaster make it all go away by  , and I don't wish to seem too pushy here but try to create something worth listening to a year from now. Something that isn't reading an aggregation of news feeds with no commentary or insight into why the listener should give a hoot several days after the feeds have crossed their desktops let alone a year from now.    So here's some suggestions.

• Minimise ephemeric content. In a time shifted medium, many people might not get to your show for a few days ,so unless your audience habitually tivo's the news  avoid.
  
• Get out more:  Here we have a form that isn't fixed in time yet so many podcasts are nailed to a desk,  not much of interest happens around the average desk, I'm applying this to people in hotel lounges and cafes too i.e  if your speech based show occurs within a 1ft of a mic it's not going anywhere in my head.
  
• Appreciate the mix of diegetic and non diegetic sound ( M-W.com has no listing for it :(  ) which would eliminate the above complaint.
  

An excellent resource for people that wish to make  programs along the NPR / BBC model is  Transom.org

Not only do they cover the equipment , which everyone and their cat does, but their approach to producing lasting content is to my biased born and bred on BBC radio brain is the correct one.  Research,writing, interviewing  and then editing it into something that lasts?  It's certainly not easy, it doesn't lend itself to a quick turnaround but it all boils down to this..What is stopping you from doing something  so cool that it renders you immortal? 

Three things I listened to today.   Taking up all the spare time where I would have certainly met the immortality criteria mentioned above.

Gillmor daily ( also check out the Gillmor gang)
The David Lawrence personal netcast ( for outright production values, engaging topics and oh I'm addicted)
Skepticality ( for those that don't live in a demon haunted world)