I should probably also mention the Thom Hartmann Show. I used to listen to this very good program, but at present it seems to be unavailable for download. It will probably become available again, so watch for it on Air America.
You may have a hobby or sport or some other interest and you can probably find a program somewhere on the topic. For example, I listen to a folk-music program, Folkalley, that is produced once a month. You just have to do some searching on the web. There are lists of sites that serve as directories to MP3 files for you to download and you can find some of these by doing a search on the word, podcast .
Once you start listening to web radio, you are likely to find a program you really like and you may think to yourself, can I remember to download this every Thursday? It turns out this is a common need and there is a way to have the download simply happen automatically each week. This technique is called podcasting.
The way I use podcasting is to load a program on my computer that periodically scans the internet for the files I want and, provided it finds any, downloads them. There are a number of programs for this purpose and you may want to look around for one. iTunes is a very popular one, but in my opinion iTunes is better suited to music downloads than to talk programs. I use one called Juice and I am happy with it (if you choose to use Juice, be sure to run the catch-up facility once on each program you want to download). If you look up podcast in Wikipedia you will find a list of such programs and aggregators.
The way that you tell a program like Juice that you want to subscribe to a program is to enter a url (web address) for a .RSS file. RSS files are just special kinds of web page (technically, an XML page). Web sites that maintain archives usually also maintain the .RSS file, so just look around the archive for the necessary link. In fact the sites that I list above for programs that I like each support an RSS file and in fact the link in each case is to the RSS file.
For the foreseeable future, our television and radio stations are apt to remain overwhelmingly conservative and so will present a rather narrow range of opinion. An uninformed electorate is a serious problem for maintaining democracy and our narrowly focused radio media is a serious hindrance to there being an informed electorate. Podcasting could provide a tool for improving general political literacy, but there is a problem.
Broadband service in the United States is not up to world standards and is relatively expensive. There is a pretty sizable population who just cannot afford broadband and, although possible, dial-up connections are really inadequate for downloading these .MP3 files, which generally run more than 10 MB and quite often more than 20MB. The problem then is either to drastically reduce the cost of broadband or to find a way to avoid needing it. In fact, since even a dial-up connection is beyond the means of many. In fact, many people cannot afford a computer. For widespread penetration it will be necessary to find a way around needing even a computer and an internet connection.
The public library may serve as a model of how this problem can be approached. In fact the existing public libraries may be the answer. For one thing, many public libraries already have computers and broadband connections. But people without home computers may well be intimidated by the problem of setting up all of this software and hardware.
A better approach could be for the library to provide the pre-loaded MP3 players on a lend-out basis. A library patron would register with the library which programs the patron wants to hear and the library would load the MP3 player with a month or two of programming. The patron would return the player in a month or two for re-loading. Lost or damaged MP3 players would be treated just as lost or damaged books are today. After all, the value of each is similar.
I think this could be made a practical program and I intend to propose it to a local library, but I would be interested in alternative ideas.
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