GOODNIGHT PHUKET PODCAST - EPISODE 001

I've recently become hooked on podcasts, mostly because of browsing within the iTunes Store.  A podcast is an audio or video program, usually in a talk show format, that includes a syndication feed that you can subscribe to.  New episodes can be automatically downloaded to iTunes and added to your iPod.  It's really the next step in broadcast radio and there are a lot of really cool shows out there (and a lot of junk, too).

That's part of the appeal of podcasting — any yahoo with a microphone and something to say can make one and distribute it far and wide.  I've just read the chapter on podcasts in Steven Levy's fascinating The Perfect Thing:  How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness (Simon & Schuster, 2006) which has inspired me to create my own.

I doubt if the GOODNIGHT PHUKET Podcast will garner as many readers as, say, Car Talk or that it will be interesting to anyone at all.  This first episode (001) is simply an experiment.  I wanted to check each step of the process — from recording the program (and I don't even have a real microphone, just sort of a tiny hole on the top of my laptop) to editing it, uploading the show to a server, and generating an RSS feed so listeners could subscribe.

Episode 001 is just a brief introduction to who I am — Mark in Phuket, new family man and unemployed English teacher living in a new country — and offers an idea or two of what I'd like to do in future episodes of the podcast.  The only audio in this first episode is the sound of me talking into that tiny hole on the laptop, wondering if it's actually recording.  It's just under three minutes long but it could be the start of something big.  Or not...

 
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UPDATE:  I did something wrong — the podcast subscription shows up in iTunes but it won't download the episode.  Back to the drawing board.  (At least you can listen to it online...)