Luke Armour – Digital Marketing and Public Relations Observations, Commentary, Frivolity

I’m happy to report, NPR is celebrating podcasts on Morning Edition.

First of all, let me tell you I was caught off guard. I have always felt, anecdotally, that podcasting continued its slow burn of acceptance and usage. But it’s hard to tell as research on it is thin. PEW hasn’t covered it much since 2008, and Edison put out The Current State Of Podcasting 2010, which showed, among other things, that podcasting had emerged from the early adopter phase into a more mainstream community. My guess is, anecdotally, that it’s because we’re no longer counting a podcast as an audio file delivered by RSS – per the definition, but also because tech has gotten a little easier and mainstream media continues to push podcasting as an on-demand distribution channel. See NPR Podcasts, for example.

So anyway, it was a pleasant surprise to hear an Arts & Life episode featuring “‘Bowery Boys‘ Are Amateur But Beloved New York Historians.”

The authors, from the story:

“We bought Podcasting for Dummies,” says Meyers, “partially to figure out what a podcast was, and also how to record these things.”

The pair doesn’t use fancy equipment, either.

“Bowery Boys” co-hosts Tom Meyers and Greg Young call themselves “home-schooled historians,” and they do extensive research for their show and its related blog. For an episode about Manhattan’s grid pattern, they dug up this map from a book published in 1840.

“I think that for the first episode, we recorded with a spare karaoke microphone that we had in the closet for … other occasions,” recalls Meyers, laughing.

Their story really resonates with me for several reasons. Podcasting – and much of social media – is not about production or gear or even spelling (based on much of it I see), it’s about passion. It’s about sharing your passion with the world – and the technology just helps amplify. To hit any sort of critical mass – and I use the term loosely – you still have to be cogent, informative and entertaining. Why else read/listen/watch?

I’m looking forward to catching the rest of the featured podcasts. In the meantime, what are you doing to share your passion for work or life?

Filed under: Podcast, podcasting, Social Media | Tagged: Bowery Boys, NPR, passion, podcasting for dummies | 1 Comment »