Episode: 2819
Title: HPR2819: Reply to Knightwise - podcasts
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2819/hpr2819.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-19 17:15:40

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This is HPR Episode 2819 entitled Reply to Nightwine, Podcasts and in part of the series, Podcast
Recommendations.
It is hosted by AYUKA and in about 8 minutes long and carry a clean flag.
The summary is, I provide a slightly different new on Podcasts to have recently given by
ITWine.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by archive.org.
At Universal Access to All Knowledge, by heading over to archive.org forward slash donate.
Hello, this is AYUKA, welcoming you to Hacker Public Radio at another exciting episode.
In this particular little recording, I want to reply to our friend, Nightwise, he did a very
interesting show recently, as number 2798, and it was like, should podcasters be pirates?
And it was interesting, it did take me back, I do remember listening to the Daily Source
Code way back in the day, Adam Curry.
And I think what Nightwise, as I heard it, at least, was saying is things were so much
better when podcasting was kind of an outlaw or pirate activity, not done by the big corporations
and not with tremendous production values, you know, it did just so much better when it
was like a hobby or something that people do on the side.
And I can understand where he's coming from, I mean, obviously, Hacker Public Radio is
a community activity.
So it's pretty clear that Hacker Public Radio fits the model of what Nightwise was talking
about.
And I certainly do listen to a lot of podcasts that are, you know, produced by individuals
who just have something to say.
And I think that's great.
But, you know, is it really bad that there are also corporations producing podcasts?
I don't think so because I think Nightwise has got a hold of the wrong problem.
I don't think the problem is whether it's corporations or individuals that are doing
things.
To me, the key factor with podcasts is it breaks the broadcast model.
Podcasting is what you have when you have media that is produced for the lowest common
denominator.
And that can be pretty bad.
You know, there's a famous expression by Newton Minow, FCC Commissioner, from some decades
back in the United States where he referred to television as a vast wasteland.
And certainly that was all stuff that was produced by corporations and, you know, it was aimed
at the widest possible audience.
And so you would play it safe, you know, never say anything that might be controversial,
never show anything that might offend somebody.
And you know, fine, I guess, you know, let's contrast that model with, you know, I just heard
the last of the shows that I did about the YouTube channels I subscribed to.
Now, some of those channels are definitely produced by, you know, corporations.
There are some good production values on some of them.
Others are produced by individuals.
But to me, the real thing is that it replaces broadcasting with what I think can best be
called narrow casting.
And narrow casting means I don't need a massive audience because it's not going to cost me
a ton of money to produce this.
I just need to reach people who share my interest.
And in terms of podcasting, I think that's more significant than what kind of production
values something has.
Now, by and large, you're probably going to find that a lot of the interesting podcasts,
the quirky ones are probably done by individuals.
I just that I don't think that's the key factor here.
I think of the podcasts that I listened to.
Some of them definitely would fit that model.
I just finished a close to 200 episode podcast called The History of Rome.
It was done by a guy who just decided, hey, I want to do this thing.
And it was fascinating.
I enjoyed it thoroughly.
But there are other ones that I listened to.
And I think, for instance, one of the ones that comes to my mind is Science Friday.
Now Science Friday is a radio program produced by American public radio here in the United
States.
You know, it's on Friday afternoons.
And I really am not in a position to just drop what I'm doing and listen to the radio
when it comes on.
So to me, the fact that they have taken that and put it out as a podcast means that I
have an opportunity to listen to that.
And I'll probably end up listening to it on a Saturday.
Because they'll do the program.
It'll show up in my RSS feed Friday evening.
I'll throw it onto my MP3 player and then Saturday I can listen to it while I'm doing
the laundry or whatever it is I'm doing on Saturday.
Another one that comes to mind is a BBC program.
And this is called the Infinite Monkey Cage.
You know, BBC Radio is originally airs on BBC Radio.
Then it gets put out as a podcast.
So it has all the production values of BBC Radio.
Is there a huge audience for that sort of thing?
Well, I guess there's enough in England for the BBC to put it on.
But, you know, I have not noticed that there's an immense audience for science-oriented programs.
But I like them.
Apparently, I'm enough of an audience that people like me are enough of an audience
that they can put that stuff out there and get by.
So I think the thing that I love about podcasting and YouTube videos and all of these things
is it's an opportunity to say, I don't care what everyone else is doing, right?
I have never watched Game of Thrones.
I really don't care about Game of Thrones.
Everyone in the world apparently is transfixed by Game of Thrones.
And that's all they want to talk about.
Now, I don't care.
But if you listen to any of those shows about the YouTube channels that I follow,
you know, I have my own interests.
And they are not mass interests in any sense.
They're much narrower.
You know, history, science, things like that that I happen to be interested in.
So this is just kind of my two cents on the whole thing about what's important about podcasting.
Of course, I love hearing from night wise.
And, you know, one of the things that I think is good is that Hacker Public Radio gives us a chance
to have this kind of a conversation in a way.
And I really do appreciate that.
So this is Ahuka signing off and reminding you, as always, to support FreeSoftware.
Bye-bye.
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