In an expeditiously changing world and the prompt slashing of opinions, it became almost a racing competition to put out one’s school of thought. We are subjected to millions of tweets and thousands of posts from all directions. In this sea of slants and sides, one prominent tool that is available to completely express yourself and make your thundering point stand on its own is “Podcast”. Wikipedia defines a podcast as “an episodic series of digital audio files that a user can download to a personal device for easy listening”. Well, there is much more to that. In this article, we are gonna see some key points in podcasting and end up with some beautiful suggestions.
i) Origin of Podcast
Podcasts started as audio medium distribution systems in 2000. Podcasts share their similarity with a radio program but here the key difference is that podcasts can be brought as the audio file similar to that of a movie or a song, and can be played according to our comfort. As years went by people started to expand their likeness to podcasts. A big boost to the phenomenon happened when Apple added podcasts as an option in its iTunes which saw a huge roar of success. Many successful television companies added their podcasts to iTunes. This established Podcasts as a way to spread its wings to the public. This is followed by many radio and tv programs acquiring the same pattern.
ii) Entry into Mainstream
A typical podcast has one or two hosts who discuss relevant topics and supply their own opinion on those topics. More often than not several guests grace those platforms to share stories and their opinions. A crucial figure in making podcasts more mainstream and available to all was Joe Rogan with his “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. What started as a fun chat show has grown into a cultural mania. Many established figures around the world appeared in the podcasts. This catalog includes hollywood superstars, war veterans, politicians, scientists, standup comedians, entrepreneurs, and the list goes on. Spotify bought the streaming rights of Joe Rogan podcasts at a whooping rate of $100 million.
iii) Popularity of Podcast
The popularity of podcasts is due to many reasons but one of the dominant factors to it is the rise of the internet and its availability. As the popular saying says, the Internet has made the world smaller. This can be attributed to the inventions of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube. These platforms gave a vast increment in the sharing of public opinions on enormous subjects. From activism to awareness they acted as common ground for debates and discussions. As the platform grew so did the people who are involved in it. Politics, cinema, art, economy, and many more themes cultivated their audiences whose interest enlarged as the times progressed. This led to the creation and production of numerous podcasts from plenty of companies and Audio distribution apps. These podcasts either typically are in a serialized manner or a traditional host-operated manner. This gave a surge to many creators, individuals, activists, tabloids, social commentators starting their podcasts to spread their outlook on the concerned subject matter and creating a community that is tied together with akin and alike ideas. Fuel to this Fire is added by the pandemic, as the demography of people subscribing to podcasts and audio files grew by a huge margin.
iv) Suggestions
The following podcasts are the ones I have been listening to the past couple of months and curated to adhere to a wide range of audiences.
1. Respectfully Disagree:- This is a podcast where work buddies of cultural magazine Swaddle come together to discuss the topics that they passionately disagree with. This podcast tops my list because of the way they discuss the current cultural environment with an objective lens and lend their judgment through their life experience. All the topics they discuss are culturally related and socio-economic strata of the society with a lot of fun and humor. You can tune the podcast on Google Podcasts and Spotify.
2. Mahabharat:- This is hosted by Popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee. In this podcast, he deep dives into the various Indian political and economical history and narrates to us the important events that shaped and changed India in many ways. For history aficionados and political junkies, this podcast is all they need. Dhruv dwells into the deeper significance of historic events which are greatly researched and fact-checked. This podcast is in the Hindi language. You can tune the podcast on Spotify.
3. “In the End” and “Point Entante” :- These are two separate podcasts. But the reason I am suggesting them together is that they both are in the Telugu language. Both Podcasts focus on Telugu entertainment and its cultural impact throughout the years. Both podcasts are separately Hosted by different sets of people. These podcasts shed light on many subject matters related to Telugu Culture specifically through the lens of TV and Movies. For any Telugu film lover, these podcasts are Gold and are highly recommended. You can tune both the podcasts on Spotify.
Tune into a few Podcasts from Spotify here:
About the Author
Abhinav has finished his graduation in Civil Engineering only to realise that writing is also as analytical as Structural Analysis. From finding hidden references in movies to writing them in his stories, which may one day triumph as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, he is all about the culture of Pop Culture. He considers music as therapy and story telling as catharsis. You can write to Abhinav at his email address: abhinavsriramoju@gmail.com