Shengliver’s Note: This is an update of an entry which was originally published on my MSN space in 2006, by which year iPhone had not come out yet. When you go podcasting, you will be a globetrotter without need to step across the threshold. For learners of the English language, podcasting will render their traditional language course books obsolete, for it provides a reservoir of real English. Try it, buddy!

Etymology

With new technology come new words and expressions. A case in point is a brand-new word podcasting.

What does it mean? Where does it originate?

As with “jaywalker” discussed in the last entry, podcasting is a compound, comprising pod and casting. Let’s examine casting first.

CAST is a verb commonly used in everyday English, meaning “throw something in a certain way”. Farmers cast seeds over a field while or before they sow them. They scatter the seeds in the field. Fishermen cast a net in the sea, hoping for a big catch later in the day. They throw the net into the sea.

When the radio was invented, people had to come up with an expression to describe the way signals or programmes were transmitted from a radio station to the listeners. The station was in the centre, with the audience scattered around it. Don’t you think the radio station is very much like the farmer? The farmer casts his seeds over a field; the radio station casts its programmes far and wide to reach out to its audience. Hence the word BROADCAST. This word, BROADCAST, is today used not only for the radio, but also for TV and the Internet. On the net, it is called WEBCAST. When did the BBC start its first ever webcast? Probably in the 1990s. Today, most big broadcasters go online, operating 24/7.

You might well have seen that the second part of the word “podcasting” means “broadcasting”. What does “pod” mean then?

If you looked it up in your newest dictionary, you would still be puzzled. As a matter of fact, pod comes from “iPod”, a proprietary name owned by the American electronics corporation Apple Incorporated. Its range of products with the name “iPod” are a device for storing and playing multimedia digital files, especially audio ones in the beginning. An iPod is little and cute. People can download their favourite music or whatever there may be from the Internet and move it onto their iPod so that they could read, hear or/and watch it whenever and wherever they like. It is a common sight in many parts of the world where people are walking, with their ears plugged with a pair of earphones, which are connected by wire to the gizmo called “iPod”. It is trending everywhere. For in my city and in my neighbourhood, there are guys of this style, intoxicated by audio on their digital player and oblivious of what else is going on in the world.

The trademark iPod is a clever name in that the digital player resembles a pod, which peas call home.

Do we have such gadgets in China? Yes, we do. We call them MP3 players. MP3 players came first, followed by MP4 and MP5 players. Will we have MP6 or MP7 players some day? No idea, but they would be the same thing for the same purpose as an iPod, should they come along.

Unfortunately, iPod was discontinued by Apple in 2019, yet the way of broadcasting brought about by the digital player is here to stay.

We have got a clear idea of “pod” and “casting”. You may have guessed the meaning of “podcasting”. It is a new way of broadcasting, being adopted by more and more media groups. They offer their programmes in the MP3 format (probably in more formats in the years to come) and make them available on their websites. Their listeners download them onto their iPod or MP3 player or stream them anytime anywhere. This audience-friendly approach is sweeping across the globe in broadcasting circles. Almost all leading broadcasters are competing to make their offer, for free, to maintain and expand their listenership. The shortwave radio still has a role to play in international broadcasting, but I dare say that more and more people are switching to the Web and podcasting where access to the Internet is a reality. Whoever is still willing to be tortured by noises and interference that typify most foreign shortwave services accessible in China?

How to Subscribe

You might use some podcasting app to subscribe to and download your favourite casts automatically as long as the connection is on. A lot of podcasting sites display a button on their page for subscribing to their shows. Just click it and your app on the local drive will respond to it. Were no such button there on the page, you would have to paste the podcasting link of your favourite programme (RSS) into the subscription address bar on your application before clicking the button for go. Whenever there is an update of the show, the podcasting software will download it onto your computer. I used Zencast in the very beginning. Later I switched to Microsoft’s Zune. Both worked very well. Apple Incorporated offers a free podcasting application called iTunes to go with its digital player iPod. I ran iTunes on my laptop for years. Today on Windows 11, Grover is the app for organising my favourite podcast shows.

If you would not take the trouble to download and set up a subscription app, an alternative would be to locate those shows available for podcasting and download them straight from their webpage onto your local disks by means of a downloader. Then you could still enjoy them.

New Way of Listening

Every evening after supper it is time for my share of housework, dishwashing, cleaning and tidying. The work used to be bothersome because I felt it a waste of time to do the dishes for an hour almost daily. By the time everything was in place in the kitchen and I sat down to my studies, it was around 10. There was no more than an hour before I retired to bed.

In contrast to the past, I enjoy the hour in the kitchen in the evening. How? The time for household chores has been turned into time for relishing my favourite English language shows. I have got a special headset. It is special in that it is mobile and multi-functional. It is used both for tape-recorders and computers. A mike is incorporated in it, enabling me to record myself and to chat with my epals. Best of all, it is accompanied by a separate transmitter. I connect the transmitter with the laptop and turn it on. Then I put on my headset and press the button. My headset picks up the signals sent by the transmitter. Whatever is played on the laptop is heard on my headset. Isn’t it marvellous? So it is mobile. The sound effect is awesome. Every evening, while drudging in the kitchen, I lose myself in the podcasts on my headset. The scrubbing and washing is no longer a bore. Perplexed, my wife asks, “Dear, why are you so happy with your share of housework?”

I have no MP3 player, but I strongly recommend my learning buddies take full advantage of this new learning resource and this new way of being. It is good. You would probably bin your shortwave radio set.

Here is a link to the BBC podcasting website. Follow the link, and you will know what to do. Just a few clicks and the shows will be yours on your computer and your digital player as well.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/podcasts

Happy podcasting!

Update

Today in 2023, a smartphone is all it takes to access your podcasts.

I count it a dream come true. I have my own podcast show to share with the world, where I narrate stories about Chinese teens in English. Welcome to subscribe to it. This is the link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/shengliver