On June 24, 2026, Dave Winer pointed to a podcasting article in – wait for it – Glamour Magazine – and the South African version at that! Anyway, it gives a brief history of podcasting (mentioning Dave Winer and Adam Curry), but then says that Ben Hammersley coined the word “podcast”, and I felt that was incorrect. I reviewed the Podcast article on Wikipedia, and it mentions the Ben Hammersley article. I reviewed the archived article, from February 2004, and the word “Podcasting” appears within a list of possible names for what the act of podcasting is, but does not recommend/promote the use of the word “podcasting”.

Dave Winer has a page discussing how the people involved in podcasting started using the term in September 2004, and that it had been called “audioblogging” before that point. Wikipedia does mention some of the September 2004 events. From my review, I think that the September 2004 point is a better reference point for actual use of the terms “podcast” and “podcasting.

I know I am late to comment on this, but I saw the Golden Globes last weekend, and was surprised to see that an award was given for Best Podcast (the winner was Amy Poehler for “Good Hand with Amy Poehler” (Apple Podcast link)). Seriously? Why are they doing this? From the history page on their website, the awards started out for film, and then grew to television. Who was asking for them to try to recognize a “best podcast”? After all, there are already 32 top awards for podcasts – who needed another one? Save us, please!

Well, well, well….my last chapter on this topic was written almost one year ago (one year ago tomorrow!)! Why bring this up again? Reason: a recent article from TheVerge.com on the name “podcast”, and a rationale for why this should be dropped (“end the use of the word “podcast””). Some pull quotes:

“But in 2025, with almost every major podcast now having a video component, the definition of the word “podcast” has become pretty meaningless.”

“So in 2026, instead of trying to define what a podcast is, I think we need to stop using the word altogether. “Podcast” is becoming an outdated or even a potentially cringe internet relic, similar to how the phrase “web series” faded from use online.”

Ah – I see where this person is coming from. As mentioned in chapter 64, many audio programs that are being created now are really videos. Also, instead of using the above pay-walled link about defining a podcast, we need to turn to this definition by Dave Winer:

“A podcast is a series of digital media files made available over the open web through an RSS feed with enclosures. Podcasts usually are audio, but you can distribute any media object this way.”

Here is a clear definition of a podcast. Admittedly, it is a “technology-based” definition (need to use a RSS feed to distribute the content), but still, a good, clear definition. For videos, go ahead and call them “videos” or “shows”. For audio that is controlled via apps and not using RSS, those media creations should use some other word (I suggested “appcast” back in 2019).

My final beef – is this “genre” of article needed or wanted? Audio programs are branching into video programs – so what? Podcasts and the creation of podcasts (podcasting) will continue, because no one can stop people from creating or publishing podcasts. Some quotes from Dave Winer on why podcasting is not dominated by a single company (although some might think Apple Podcasts dominates podcasting):

“There is no gatekeeper that can turn down your podcast, make you not cover topics they don’t want covered or use language or images they don’t think are acceptable, or compete with them.”

“Why is podcasting still open after over 20 years? Drumroll please. The answer: there are enough users who understand how it is supposed to work. They expect to be able to listen to any podcast anywhere they want.”

As long as the above two statements are true, there will be podcasts, along with shows, appcasts, or other names for media content that people want to consume using various tools/apps/web sites. I end with a quote of my own:

However, I think the thing to do is to make great things and find ways to innovate. Let’s get out there and compete people – come on!

I think that many podcasts are basically commentary (see just about any political podcast where the host interviews someone on current events, no need to provide links here…). However, I think there is a growing list of podcasts that provide criticism/critiques of podcasts, similar in some ways to general media criticism or literary criticism. Recently, I listened to the first episode of a podcast (the Phongraph Podcast) which analyzed the very first episode of the show that became “This American Life“. The hosts talked about specific parts of the episode, how they thought the parts worked or didn’t work, or how they liked/didn’t like certain parts of the episode. The hosts admitted that they worked in radio, and had wanted to create stories in the manner that This American Life evolved into over its history. I listened to this podcast based on a post by Alan Levine who heard about it on another podcast (his post is titled “A Podcast about Podcasting Recommended by a Podcaster on a Podcast”). Interestingly, the podcast stopped in 2019, then resumed in 2024, broadening its scope to a range of podcasts other than This American Life.

I was aware of other “fan” podcasts about other podcasts, and “official” podcasts about podcasts, but this was the first one I had ever heard. I was also intrigued how technical it got (analyzing production techniques). Finally, it was amusing that a podcast was used as the medium for analyzing a podcast. For most other media criticism, the analysis occurs in written form. I don’t think there are many examples of radio broadcasts analyzing radio shows, or television broadcasts analyzing television shows. Dave Winer had some thoughts on “official” podcasts today, which I agree with: “There has to be at least a possibility that they will say something critical, or funny, irreverent, even inconsiderate things, and not are not 100% self-promotion”.

My last thoughts on this topic: I will not be listening to more of the Phonograph Podcast, as I would like to spend my time listening to actual podcasts, where people are sharing their thoughts/conversation/knowledge, as opposed to analysis of production techniques or deficiencies in story or plot.

A few days ago, I wrote about discovering that the feed of the “Preserve This Podcast” podcast had a problem (episode 1 link was no longer good). To correct this, I thought I would reach out to people who were listed on the About page to see if they could help. None of them responded, so I next went to the Preserve This Podcast Github repo, which houses the source data for the podcast website, and figured out what file needed to be updated to correct the error when the feed was rebuilt (the site was created using Jekyll). I then created an Github issue and a pull request, and within two days, someone merged in my change and re-deployed the site! After two more days, the site cache was updated with the new feed, and I was able to load episode 1 successfully from two separate podcast apps. Victory!

Recently, I wanted to re-listen to the episodes from the Preserve This Podcast podcast (a podcast that discusses strategies for saving artifacts used in creating podcasts). I had written about this podcast when it came out in 2019, and poked at the creators for depending on the Internet Archive to publish the site instead of paying for hosting themselves. After all, they had a GRANT to cover the production costs! Surely they could have budgeted for 5-10 years of hosting. I went to the site, got the feed URL, added to my podcast app, then started listening. When I got to the second podcast (Episode 1), my podcast app displayed an error message that it could not download the file. However, the app was able to download the remaining episodes. I decided to open up the feed in a text editor to see if there was any problem. I found the URL for the episode and pasted it into a browser tab. To my surprise, the browser said there was nothing at that URL in the Internet Archive. I then checked the URLs for several other episodes, and they showed the expected files. After some searching at the Internet Archive, I found this collector page for Episode 1, which led to this URL for Episode 1, which did not match the URL in the feed. UGH!

It is quite ironic that a podcast about preserving podcasts has a problem with its own feed! I will try to contact the team from their About page, but if anyone knows how to get in touch with one of the producers, I would appreciate it!