Basically, podcasting is just like blogging. If you are a podcaster, you create a post (in this case, an audio one instead of written) and put it up on the web. You can make it like a radio program with music and everything. Or you can just chat. Then you create an xml rss feed. The rss feed references the audio (mp3 or whatever) file. If you are a podcastee (I made that term up; it's probably not the *right* one), you get a podcast aggregator (you can find one here) which "subscribes" to favorite podcasts, and downloads new ones. Then you listen to them.
I don't have an iPod, but instead I listen to them on my iPAQ. Instead of 40 or 60 gigs of storage, I only have 1 gig on my ScanDisk SD card. But that's good enough. I can listen to hours of stuff on the way to work and back. I just plug the iPAQ into my cassette adapter thingy and it comes out the car speakers.
It's like some combination of radio, TiVo, and CDs. On the radio if you miss your favorite program bit (like Paul Harvey for example) because you didn't happen to be listening at the right time, then too bad. With podcasting, you listen whenever you want. And you can replay them, or even rewind a bit if you get momentarily distracted. And no mindless commercials. And you can skip over boring or disagreeable parts.
The key to it all is finding the good podcast programs. There is a huge variety of podcasts out there. Everything from religious to raunchy. Since there are no FCC rules, some people feel the urge to out-do Howard Stern. Of course, what is good to one person might be garbage to someone else. I am finding that there is a lot of garbage out there. But a lot of good stuff too.
What is interesting is that there are a lot of cheaply-made podcasts (just some guy in his house doing a psuedo radio show) that are actually pretty good. Take Engadget for instance. Or ".Net Rocks!". Actually ".Net Rocks!" is more than just one guy, and it is pretty darn good quality for what they are doing.
I also like "IT Conversations", which are various interviews or excerpts from professional conference presentations. Pretty educational.
I think the concept is going to really take off. It will be popular. The neat thing is you can find people who have interests in common that are not necessarily mainstream. And it is pretty personal -- you feel like you are getting to know the podcasters more intimately than if they were radio personalities. That's probably because they are cheaply-made, and therefore you get warts-and-all. I actually like that.
There are certain types of podcasts I would like to see. I will have to keep an eye out for them. I guess if I was energetic enough I would do them myself. Alas, I have too many other endeavors competing for my time. How about some decent jazz, for instance? Someone to say, “if you like Tom Harrell, check out this cat” or something like that.
Anyway, it's cool. It's the Next Big Thing. At least I think so.