Chapter 4. Podcasts in Context

Podcasts in K–12 School Classrooms

One place where podcasts are being used increasingly is in school classrooms—from first grade through high school. The producers of Brains On! (a science podcast for kids) have heard from elementary school teachers in several states who use the podcast in their classrooms. And high school teachers around the United States have been using podcasts like Radiolab, This American Life, StoryCorps, and Serial in their classrooms.1

An unexpected finding is that young people benefit from and enjoy reading the transcript while listening to a podcast. Here is what one teacher says:

What I know now is that high-schoolers—at least my students—like reading and simultaneously listening to podcasts even more. . . . Unlike the first season, Serial’s second season features almost perfectly accurate transcripts of each episode. I knew it would be a bonus to my lessons this year; I didn’t know it would be a game-changer. I turned off the lights, projected the words, and told them, “Here’s the script in case that helps anyone.” It apparently helped everyone. They all turned their heads, and some of them shifted their desks.2

She went on to say,

The reasons were as varied as they were compelling. Many of them said that reading along with the audio helped with their focus and kept them from “spacing out” while listening. Others, paradoxically, wrote that they were able to multitask—they could take notes or write on their worksheets and could keep up with the story even with their eyes off the screen. Some explicitly recognized that they could look back and re-read something they didn’t understand when they first heard it; others said they read slightly ahead and then could write down a quote while they listened to it. A student with eyesight problems said he appreciates the ability to take reading breaks without stopping his enjoyment of the story. A few students learning English as a second language wrote that they like how they can read the words and—as one student put it—promptly “hear how they’re supposed to sound.”3

Because of the usefulness of reading a transcript while listening, you may want to look for podcasts with transcripts to recommend to your users. Later in this chapter, I’ll discuss the importance of transcripts for accessibility, especially for deaf and hard of hearing people. I’ll also give some examples of podcasts that include them and tools for having transcripts created.

There is more research that supports the benefits of audio learning for young people.4 It turns out that when words are spoken aloud, children can understand ideas that are two to three grade levels higher than their normal reading level.5 Also, kids have improved reading skills when combining listening with reading.6

Molly Bloom, host of the Brains On! podcast says, “There are a lot of kids who love Radiolab. Kids are read[ing] stories that don’t have pictures and they can follow it, easily. . . . It engages their imagination in the way that watching a television program probably doesn’t. . . . I think podcasts are huge, because for kids, that is how they listen to things.”7

She mentions the fact that many times kids enjoy watching the same movie or reading the same book over and over. The nature of podcasts makes it easy to listen to particular episodes over and over, learning something new each time. And they fit into existing routines, like drives to school and stories before bed.8

Advocacy groups are beginning to form for creating high-quality audio content for kids. One example is Kids Listen. This group of podcast producers has joined together to create a community of podcasts for children and develop standards and ethics.9 Learn more by reading their blog.

Kids Listen

www.kidslisten.org

Kids Listen Blog

www.kidslisten.org/blog

Some students and teachers are starting podcast clubs, where people gather to discuss podcast episodes instead of discussing books.10 A podcast club could be a huge hit for adults as well and could make a great addition to your library’s programming events.

Lesson Plans for Podcasts

We are beginning to see both free and paid membership sites that offer lesson plans for using podcasts in the classroom. Here are some examples.

One innovative way to use podcasts with kids is The Walking Classroom. This program combines brisk twenty-minute walks, together as a class, with listening to custom-written podcasts for kids on a preloaded audio device. It’s reported that students return to the classroom in better moods, more focused, and more likely to participate in discussions.11 Learn about this program on its website, and find resources for teachers on its teacher resources page. One could imagine designing one’s own walking program with a group of young people, similar to this.

The Walking Classroom homepage

www.thewalkingclassroom.org

The Walking Classroom: Teacher Resources

www.thewalkingclassroom.org/teacher-resources

Another site worth visiting is Listenwise. It includes a directory of podcasts and lessons plans for using them with children. They curate the best of pubic radio in order to make it easy to bring audio learning in to the classroom. Teachers can join the site with basic features for free. Premium accounts include interactive transcripts, student submissions, and more.12

Listenwise

https://listenwise.com

The popular site Teachers Pay Teachers (where teachers can purchase lesson plans from each other) saw an increase in downloads of plans related to podcasts in 2014 and 2015.13 Search the site for podcasts to see some sample lesson plans.

Teachers Pay Teachers search for “podcasts”

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:podcasts

Podcasts in Higher Education

K–12 schools aren’t the only place where the use of podcasts is beneficial. Academics are also finding podcasts to be useful in a variety of ways.

Helping Students Review Lessons

Incorporating podcasts in the classroom or as a supplement to classroom teaching is effective for enhancing learning. This example is from a paper about using podcasts to learn precalculus:

Problem-based video podcasts provide short, web-based, audio-visual explanations of how to solve specific procedural problems in subject areas such as mathematics or science. A series of 59 problem-based video podcasts covering five key areas (operations with functions, solving equations, linear functions, exponential and logarithmic functions, and trigonometric functions) were created as self-study tools and used by 288 higher education students to acquire pre-calculus skills over a three week period. The results indicated that a majority of students used the video podcasts frequently, rated them as useful or very useful, viewed them as easy to use, effective learning tools, and reported significant knowledge gains in pre-calculus concepts.14

Another study looked at using both lectures and podcasts sequentially to help improve learning and found that to be very successful.15

And yet another study found that students and especially adult learners believe podcasts to be more effective for reviewing and studying material than their textbooks.

Statistical analysis of the results of the study indicates that students believe that podcasts are more effective revision tools than their textbooks and they are more efficient than their own notes in helping them to learn. They also indicate that they are more receptive to the learning material in the form of a podcast than a traditional lecture or textbook. . . . Coupled with the advantages of flexibility in when, where and how it is used, podcasting appears to have significant potential as an innovative learning tool for adult learners in Higher Education.16

As you can see from these examples, using pre-recorded audio or video (such as podcasts) to review learning is helpful in a number of ways. Students can use them at times convenient to them, review and rewind as much as needed, and they can be just plain fun. You might consider recommending podcasts related to subjects that students are studying as one more way to supplement learning and make it more enjoyable for students of all ages.

Encouraging Independent Learning outside of the Classroom

A study from the National University of Ireland, Galway, looked at ways to creatively prompt independent learning outside of the classroom and found podcasts useful for this. Here’s what the study found:

The relative ease of using podcasts and minimal technical requirements for both lecturer and student means that it is a learning technology of considerable practical value, and its portability is particularly well-suited to the diverse and non-traditional student body of today. By drawing on the experience of podcast support provided for a final-year module of approximately 100 students in Geography at National University of Ireland, Galway, this paper reflects on the opportunities of technology-enhanced learning in higher education by outlining how podcasting can practically and creatively prompt and steer independent learning outside of the lecture environment.17

They found that the portability of podcasts was one of the best things about them. Students with work and family commitments could review their learning while listening in spare moments outside the classroom. The podcasts created by the professor included feedback on student assignments, recaps of key concepts, and prompts for additional readings and why they mattered. Students were motivated by this to do additional reading, and they found the podcast format practical and enjoyable.

Students Creating Podcasts as a Way to Learn Material

In one study, students created their own podcasts as part of their learning experience. The results were positive:

First, using podcasts included four categories: (1) the development of meta-skills, (2) mobile learning, (3) support for content learning, and (4) facilitating student involvement. Second, the students saw podcasting as a study tool. The study proved authentic, internally and systemically valid and opened up logical generalizability. Some recommendations are given for a better educational use of podcasts in higher education.18

If you’ve ever learned more about a topic by creating training for others, you’ll recognize the value of asking students to create their own podcasts. It’s clear that creating in addition to consuming information is one of the best ways to learn.

For more ideas about how podcasts are being used in higher education, see the Wikipedia article “Uses of Podcasting,” the section on podcasts in higher education.

Wikipedia: Uses of Podcasting, Podcasts in Higher Education

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uses_of_podcasting#Podcasts_in_higher_education

Spreading the Word about Research

One political scientist, Todd Landman, at the University of Nottingham, writes about how podcasts are a useful way to bridge the gap between academia and the real world.

In his words, “I am part of a wide network of people dedicated to producing sound evidence on human rights, and my work has been communicated through articles, books and reports. But I am limited in my ability to reach the people I would most like to engage and influence—those who do not have an academic understanding of human rights but might benefit from finding out about it.”19

He decided to add a podcast to his blog and worked with a colleague to produce it. He said, “For me, the podcast format is like a fireside chat—it allows listeners to hear experts discuss their work in their own voices, and allows the experts to express themselves more freely than in the usual academic forms of dissemination.”20

When academic researchers want to reach a broader audience, podcasts are a practical way to do it. Knowing this, you might do two things: recommend creating a podcast to the researchers you work with, and look for podcasts created by academic researchers in order to point people to sources they can understand without being an expert in a particular field. For examples, see some of the podcast guides created by academic librarians that I mention in chapter 5. Here is one of them, with several science and medicine podcasts recommended by librarian Christine Beardsley of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Library: http://libguides.mskcc.org/podcasts/science.

Podcast Accessibility

Blind and Low-Vision Users

One of the first things that comes to mind when we think about the accessibility of audio podcasts is that they are well suited for individuals who are blind or with low vision. Video podcasts are of course best if they provide transcripts. Those transcripts should not only provide the text of spoken words, but should also give descriptions of information that is only seen in the video (such as a science experiment being demonstrated).

There are many sources of information for podcasters on how to make their shows accessible. A good example is the guidelines page from Indiana University, Accessibility Information for Podcasters.

Accessibility Information for Podcasters

https://kb.iu.edu/d/awuz

Since audio podcasts are so popular with the blind community, there are many that discuss technology solutions for the blind.21 See the section of this report on podcasts for diverse audiences (physical disabilities section) for examples of podcasts specifically for people with vision problems.

An interesting solution for people with low vision or those who are blind is the option of using an Amazon Echo.22 It’s a Bluetooth speaker that has a conversational interface. For example, you can say, “Alexa, play the podcast This American Life,” and it will play the latest episode from TuneIn. To learn more about the Echo, see, “Why I Love My Amazon Echo: Alexa Makes Life Easier for Both the Blind and the Sighted.”23

TuneIn

http://tunein.com

If you are providing lists of podcasts for your users on your website, make sure that your site meets accessibility standards and can be easily read by screen readers. Many universities have guidelines for this, such as the site from the University of Washington, Developing Accessible Websites. If you use the popular content management system for libraries LibGuides, see “Accessibility Testing LibGuides 2.0” for information on accessibility features and how to make your content accessible.24 If your website uses WordPress, see “Make Your WordPress Site Accessible with These Themes and Plugins.”25

University of Washington, Developing Accessible Websites

www.washington.edu/accessibility/web

LibGuides

https://www.springshare.com/libguides

Accessibility Testing LibGuides 2.0

http://acrl.ala.org/techconnect/post/accessibility-testing-libguides-2-0

Learning More about Options for the Blind

If you would like to learn more about what’s happening with technology for users who are blind, I recommend the following podcast episodes.

The O’Reilly Design Podcast: “Chris Maury on Voice-First Design”

https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/chris-maury-on-voice-first-design

In this episode designer Chris Maury (who is in the process of losing his sight) talks about what kinds of design principles will help the blind. He discusses “chatbots” and offers principles for designing conversational user interfaces.

Note to Self Podcast: “Blind Kids, Touchscreen Phones, and the End of Braille?”

www.wnyc.org/story/blind-kids-touchscreen-phones-braille

In this episode, hear a conversation about how “reading” on a smartphone is becoming very popular for the visually impaired at schools like Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Hear different opinions on these questions: “Are iPads and iPhones rendering Braille obsolete? If so, should advocates for the visually impaired be worried?”

Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Users

Providing transcripts of podcasts is an excellent idea for several reasons. Not only does this make a podcast accessible for those who can’t hear them, but there are several other good reasons:26

• Search engines can index the topics and keywords included in the podcast.
• Many people retain information better when they read it while listening or instead of listening.
• It benefits people whose first language is not English in case it is hard to understand the way a particular person speaks.
• It’s easy to grab quotes so that you can write about or review the content of a podcast.
• People can access the content in situations where it’s not convenient to play audio, such as quiet environments and where headphones are not convenient to access.

For an interesting discussion of the use of transcripts by deaf journalist Charlie Swinbourne, see his story “‘Did Adnan Do It?’ How Deaf People Can Follow Serial, the Murder Case Podcast the World Is Talking About.”27 It includes links to transcripts for every episode of Serial. He began listening to Serial using headphones with the sound turned way up (since he is not completely deaf) and later discovered the transcripts, which helped him realize what he had missed and made all future episodes much easier to understand.

If you are making a guide to podcasts for your users, you can indicate whether transcripts are available for each one. Look at the website for each podcast to find transcripts. Some examples of popular podcasts with transcripts are

• Freakonomics Podcast Transcripts, http://freakonomics.com/category/transcripts/podcast-transcripts
• TED Talks—Look for Interactive Transcript link for each episode, for example: www.ted.com/talks/elise_roy_when_we_design_for_disability_we_all_benefit/transcript?language=en is the transcript link for this episode www.ted.com/talks/elise_roy_when_we_design_for_disability_we_all_benefit
• This American Life—look for Transcript link on each episode, such as this: www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/593/transcript

Sadly, there are many podcasts without transcripts, usually because it costs money and time to create them and is beyond the budget of many small producers. Here are a couple of services that create transcripts for podcasts.

Popup Archive

https://www.popuparchive.com

An example of a service used by those who can afford transcriptions is Popup Archive. Here is its pricing page: https://www.popuparchive.com/account/plan. You can also browse its archive of audio from public collections (https://www.popuparchive.com/explore) or subscribe to Popcast (Podcast by Popup Archive: https://www.popuparchive.com/collections/4425), its podcast of found audio.

Transcribe Online

https://transcribeonline.mybluemix.net

Another service (in beta as of late 2016) is Transcribe Online. It’s an automated service that is much cheaper than the usual rates charged by transcribers. To learn more about this all-woman tech startup, see its website (URL above), FAQ page (https://transcribeonline.mybluemix.net/faqs), and the article “Building Accessible Tech and Culture” about the company.28

The Future of Podcasts

Because podcasting is undergoing a surge in popularity, much is being written about the future of this format—both on problems to be solved and on directions where podcasting is headed.

Problems to Be Solved

There are two problems that are being discussed by many commentators: (1) improving discovery and (2) monetizing podcasts.

Improving Discovery

Currently, the iTunes store is the best known place to find out about podcasts, with its featured podcasts in different categories. Many people also hear about podcasts by word of mouth from friends or on social media.29 And most podcast listening apps include a directory with featured podcasts.

But if a podcast doesn’t happen to show up in those places, it can be difficult to discover. It’s a problem that several journalists have written about:

If you want to share your favorite moment from last night’s TV episode, you can upload a video on Instagram. But there’s no easy way to share podcasts, other than posting the external link to a full episode and explaining which part of it you like best.30

Still, the podcasting business faces one major roadblock to expanding its own success: There’s no Netflix-style service that tells you what you’d like based on what you consume.31

In the meantime, as discussed in the “Podcast Discovery” section of this report, there are directories of podcasts and newsletters about podcasts, though most people don’t know about these. It’s likely that we’ll see more experimentation with tools to help with podcast discovery in the future.

Monetizing Podcasts

In order for podcasting to thrive, there needs to be a way to monetize it, especially for independent creators who don’t have financial backing. Some, of course, do podcasting as a hobby or labor of love, but many podcast producers need to monetize their programs. So far, advertising seems to be the most popular way, and it keeps podcasts free for listeners.

One problem with this is that only certain types of businesses like to advertise on podcasts—business that can offer online services with a promo code for signing up.32 A unique promo code makes it easy to count how many new customers signed up using the code they heard about on a particular podcast.

In order to sell ads to most businesses, one needs statistics on how many listeners will hear the ad—and podcasts don’t have easy or consistent statistics. Since each media file is hosted on the producer’s own site, advertisers must rely on the word of the podcasters about how many listeners they have. And podcast producers can count only the number of times each episode was downloaded from their server. They have no way of knowing whether people actually listened to those episodes or how far into an episode people listened. In addition, many podcasts are offered on streaming services, each with its own different way of counting statistics. “This environment, one would argue, is a function of the industry not having relatively strong third-parties able to independently verify metrics for advertisers (like a Nielsen or a ComScore) and enforce competitively productive behavior in the space.”33

For now, one way some are dealing with this is via networks of intermediaries that generate revenue for established podcasters, like podcast advertising service Midroll. And we’re beginning to see podcast hosting services that are finding ways to help with funding. One example is PodBean, which integrates the crowdfunding platform Patreon into its platform.34

I expect we’ll see more experimentation with different ways to monetize podcasts.

Midroll

www.midroll.com

PodBean

https://podbean.com

PodBean crowdfunding page

https://patron.podbean.com

Where Is Podcasting Headed?

Here are some trends and directions for the future of podcasting.

1. Continued Growth of On-Demand Listening

On-demand listening, customized to people’s specific interests, is one of the reasons podcasts are growing in popularity. People are used to this way of consuming TV shows, with Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, or individual show purchases on iTunes or Amazon. People appreciate this same convenience from podcasts.

2. Experimentation with Creative Programming

These days we are seeing lots of experimentation with new and creative programming, with shows of different lengths, styles, and formats, both fiction and nonfiction. The podcast network Earwolf has been experimenting with creative formats and finding success with this.

Knowing that podcasts are a particularly intimate experience, creators have tried to cement deep relationships with their audiences, primarily by offering truly distinctive programming. “Every time we roll out a show with an inventive format, it surprises us at how well it does,” says Adam Sachs, CEO of podcast network Earwolf, which scored a hit with The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project. Each of that show’s nine episodes is presented as a pilot of a new show, with Daly (a comedian known from Comedy Central’s Review) playing a different character in each. On another Earwolf podcast, called With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus, the guest of the week interviews Lapkus (who played a corrections officer on Orange Is the New Black) as one of her alter egos. “There is no TV show where the star is playing a guest of a talk show,” Sachs says. “There is no TV show where every episode is a pilot. It doesn’t exist anywhere else.” That creative freedom—from format, frequency, and length—is why talented performers increasingly want to do podcasts.35

Since podcasts aren’t bound by the restrictions of radio broadcasting rules and regulations, it’s an area where many are experimenting.

3. More Podcasts Created by and for Diverse Audiences

When podcasts began, they were mostly by white males on topics related to technology. Now we are seeing more podcasts for all kinds of diverse audiences: young and old, various races and ethnicities, LGBTQ audiences, and more: “The great podcast renaissance is here. The problem, according to James T. Green: It’s mostly white, straight, and male. Green is the cofounder and chief digital officer of Postloudness, (www.postloudness.com), a Chicago-based podcast collective trying to create a community of shows by women, people of color, and queer-identified hosts. The goal: to help more underrepresented voices create their own shows, and, in the process, bring more diversity to podcasting.”36

4. The Growth of Transmedia Storytelling (i.e., “Spinoffs”)

The media scholar Henry Jenkins, defines transmedia storytelling in this way: “Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.”37

Some podcasts are spinning off additional multimedia content that add more experiences to the show. “A great example of this would be Serial, arguably the most popular podcast of all-time, which was co-created and co-produced by This American Life’s Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder and hosted by Koenig. The show’s website features multimedia elements that accompany each episode such as photos, maps, text and more. It is a simple but effective multimedia environment that enables fans to continue to engage with the stories even after they’ve finished listening to the episodes.”38

In addition, we’re beginning to see podcasts being made into movies and TV shows.39 Here are some examples of shows and movies in development that began as podcasts:

• Limetown (TBC)
• Lore (TBC)
• Serial (Fox 21)
• StartUp (ABC)
• This American Life’s “The Incredible Case of the PI Moms” (TBC)
• Throwing Shade (TV Land)

These are (or were) already in production.

• Comedy Bang! Bang! (IFC)
• The Nerdist (BBC America)
• Stuff You Should Know (Science Channel/Discovery Network; cancelled after its first season in 2013)

As you can see, transmedia storytelling (as defined above) is becoming a very popular way to spread fiction storytelling throughout different delivery channels. I expect we’ll see more spinoffs of popular podcasts in the future.

5. Availability in More Channels and Devices

Podcasts are spreading (from the traditional way of subscribing via iTunes or podcast apps) into every major streaming audio channel, such as Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Audible, and more. And podcasts are being made available in many kinds of audio devices, such as car audio systems, Amazon Echo (with voice control), smart watches with wireless earbuds (such as Apple Watch), and smart TVs (Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, etc.). “The connected car is here. . . . Dashboards are changing, though. Of the estimated 75 million new vehicles shipped in 2015, 13% were ‘connected,’ or internet-enabled and will help provide easy access to streams.”40

If you have any of these streaming devices, such as an Apple TV or an Amazon Echo you’ve seen that podcasts are easily available from their menus. With the conversational interface of an Amazon Echo, you can say, “Alexa, play podcast Studio 360,” and it will play the latest episode. Watch for podcast channels coming to new cars that you purchase as well.

6. Easier Access and Terminology

Podcasts are becoming easier to access without needing to understand the technology of RSS feeds or subscriptions since they are now available in so many familiar channels, such as Spotify or your car audio system.

We may eventually see the end of the term podcast in favor of simply “audio programming on demand,” or “digital audio programming.” “By 2015, 50 percent of new cars worldwide will come equipped with internet connection. By 2025, it’ll be a 100 percent. ‘When that happens and there are podcasts in everybody’s car, it’s not podcasts anymore,’ says Harbinger, ‘it’s just the radio.’ This is bound to grow the podcast industry dramatically, as people without smartphones or who don’t really know how to access podcasts through an app on their phone will have easier and direct access.”41

To summarize, these are the trends for the future of podcasting. There will be more experimentation with the challenges that need to be solved: making discovery easier and finding ways to monetize and support podcast production. There will be growth of on-demand listening (instead of waiting for broadcasts at particular times). We’ll see more experiments with creative formats and genres. Happily, there will be more podcasts created by and for diverse audiences. We’ll see more spinoffs from podcast shows to movies and television. All sorts of channels and devices will include the audio programming that podcasts offer. And finally we may see the end of the term “podcast,” in favor of simply “digital audio programming,” or maybe people will simply refer to the names of particular programs and shows that span across multiple media. 42

Notes

1. Stephanie Hayes, “Where Are All the Kidcasts?” The Atlantic, March 21, 2016, www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/03/where-are-all-the-kidcasts/476157.
2. Michael Godsey, “The Value of Using Podcasts in Class,” The Atlantic, March 17, 2016, www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/03/the-benefits-of-podcasts-in-class/473925.
3. Ibid.
4. Tiffanie Wen, “Inside the Podcast Brain: Why Do Audio Stories Captivate?” The Atlantic, April 16, 2015, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/04/podcast-brain-why-do-audio-stories-captivate/389925.
5. Judith Gold and Akimi Gibson, “Reading Aloud to Build Comprehension,” Reading Rockets, accessed September 14, 2016, www.readingrockets.org/article/reading-aloud-build-comprehension.
6. “Why Listening to Podcasts Helps Kids Improve Reading Skills,” Mind/Shift, March 18, 2016, http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/03/18/why-listening-to-podcasts-helps-kids-improve-reading-skills.
7. Molly Bloom, quoted in Lindsay Patterson, “Kids Love Listening to Stories. So Why Aren’t Public Media Podcasts Telling Them Any?” Current, January 21, 2016, http://current.org/2016/01/kids-love-listening-to-stories-so-why-isnt-public-radio-telling-them-any.
8. Ibid.
9. Including the producers of podcasts like Ear Snacks, Tumble, Story Pirates, and more.
10. See “The Podclubs: Bookclubs for Listeners,” http://www.thepodclubs.com/ and “About Podcast Brunch Club,” Podcast Brunch Club, accessed September 26, 2016, http://podcastbrunchclub.com/about.
11. “Program Overview,” The Walking Classroom Institute, accessed September 26, 2016, http://www.thewalkingclassroom.org/our-program/.
12. For information on premium accounts on Listenwise, see “Listenwise Plans,” accessed September 26, 2106, https://listenwise.com/how_it_works#premium_info.
13. Godsey, “Value of Using Podcasts in Class.”
14. Robin Holding Kay and Ilona Kletskinilona, “Evaluating the Use of Problem-Based Video Podcasts to Teach Mathematics in Higher Education,” abstract, Computers and Education 59, no. 2 (September 2012): 619, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235676133_Evaluating_the_use_of_problem-based_video_podcasts_to_teach_mathematics_in_higher_education.
15. David Jiménez-Castillo, Raquel Sánchez-Fernández, and Gema M. Marín-Carrillo, “Dream Team or Odd Couple? Examining the Combined Use of Lectures and Podcasting in Higher Education,” Innovations in Education and Teaching International, published online February 22, 2016, doi:10.1080/14703297.2016.1148622.
16. Chris Evans, “The Effectiveness of M-Learning in the Form of Podcast Revision Lectures in Higher Education,” abstract, Computers and Education 50, no. 2 (February 2008): 491, http://uwpodcast.pbworks.com/f/Podcast_Effectiveness.pdf.
17. John Morrissey, “Podcast Steering of Independent Learning in Higher Education,” abstract, All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (AISHE-J) 4, no. 1 (2012): 1, https://aran.library.nuigalway.ie/bitstream/handle/10379/2911/Aishe.pdf?sequence=1.
18. Raphael Struck, Heikki Kynäslahti, Lasse Lipponen, Ollii Vesterinen, Sanna Vahtivuori-Hänninen, Jarkko Mylläri, and Seppo Tella, “Podcasts as Learner-Created Content in Higher Education,” abstract, in Curriculum, Learning, and Teaching Advancements in Online Education, ed. Mahesh S. Raisinghani (Hershey, PA: International Science Reference, 2013), 21, www.igi-global.com/chapter/podcasts-learner-created-content-higher/76734.
19. Todd Landman, “Podcasting Is Perfect for People with Big Ideas. Here’s How to Do It,” The Guardian, January 13, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2016/jan/13/podcasting-is-perfect-for-big-ideas.
20. Ibid.
21. For two examples, see Cool Blind Tech: Shows, accessed September 26, 2016, https://www.coolblindtech.com/category/podcasts, and AppleVis: Podcasts, accessed September 23, 2016, www.applevis.com/podcasts. For a list of podcasts produced by people who are blind, see “Blind Podcasters,” Whitestick Website, last updated August 20, 2016, www.whitestick.co.uk/podcasts.html.
22. Grant Clauser, “What Is Alexa? What Is the Amazon Echo, and Should You Get One?” The Wirecutter, last updated September 14, 2016, http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/what-is-alexa-what-is-the-amazon-echo-and-should-you-get-one.
23. Christine Ha, “Why I Love My Amazon Echo: Alexa Makes Life Easier for Both the Blind and the Sighted,” The Blind Cook (blog), June 9, 2016, www.theblindcook.com/2016/06/09/why-i-love-my-amazon-echo-alexa-makes-life-easier-for-both-the-blind-and-the-sighted.
24. Lauren Magnuson, “Accessibility Testing LibGuides 2.0,” ACRL Tech Connect Blog, September 28, 2015, http://acrl.ala.org/techconnect/post/accessibility-testing-libguides-2-0.
25. Jenni McKinnon, “Make Your WordPress Site Accessible with These Themes and Plugins,” WPMUDEV blog, last updated January 27, 2015, https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/make-your-wordpress-site-accessible.
26. “Six Reasons You Need to Have Your Podcasts Transcribed,” AudioTranscription.org blog, accessed September 17, 2016, http://www.audiotranscription.org/six-reasons-you-need-to-have-your-podcasts-transcribed.
27. Charlie Swinbourne, “‘Did Adnan Do It?’ How Deaf People Can Follow Serial, the Murder Case Podcast the World Is Talking About,” The Limping Chicken (blog), November 27, 2014, http://limpingchicken.com/2014/11/27/charlie-swinbourne-did-adnan-do-it-how-deaf-people-can-follow-serial-the-murder-case-podcast-the-world-is-talking-about.
28. Alice Wong, Katie Klabusich, Raquel Hosein, and Wagatwe Wanjuki, “Building Accessible Tech and Culture: Interview with the Women of Transcribe Online,” Model View Culture, no. 41, September 6, 2016, https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/building-accessible-tech-and-culture-interview-with-the-women-of-transcribe-online.
29. “Over 75% of podcasters list social media or word of mouth as their top two drivers of new listenership” (Praise Parvizi and David Silverman, “The Future of Podcasting,” TechCrunch, July 18, 2015, https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/18/the-future-of-podcasting).
30. Charley Locke, “To Attract New Listeners, Podcasts Need to Move beyond Sound,” Wired, January 11, 2016, https://www.wired.com/2016/01/serial-podcasts-multimedia-distribution.
31. Rebecca Greenfield, “The Future of Media Is Podcasting,” Fast Company, February 9, 2015, https://www.fastcompany.com/3041522/pod-power.
32. Online services like Squarespace (http://squarespace.com) or MailChimp (http://mailchimp.com) frequently advertise on podcasts with promo codes.
33. Nicholas Quah, “The Future of Podcasting Metrics,” MediaShift, accessed September 18, 2016, http://mediashift.org/2016/02/the-future-of-podcasting-metrics, reprinted with permission from Hot Pod: A Newsletter about Podcasts.
34. Patreon is a crowd funding platform that offers recurring subscriptions as a way to generate income from fans; see Patreon homepage, accessed September 26, 2016, https://www.patreon.com.
35. Rebecca Greenfield, “The Future of Media is Podcasting,” Fast Company, Feb. 9, 2015, https://www.fastcompany.com/3041522/pod-power.
36. Ricardo Bilton, “‘People Want to See Themselves’: Postloudness Aims to Build a Podcast Network for Diverse Voices,” Nieman Lab, April 21, 2016, www.niemanlab.org/2016/04/people-want-to-see-themselves-postloudness-aims-to-build-a-podcast-network-for-diverse-voices.
37. Henry Jenkins, quoted in Paola Mardo, “On the Emerging Trend of Adapting Podcasts into TV Shows and Movies,” Film School Rejects, September 5, 2016, https://filmschoolrejects.com/on-the-emerging-trend-of-adapting-podcasts-into-tv-shows-and-movies-4c731b13aa38#.4xzyconv5.
38. Paola Mardo, “On the Emerging Trend of Adapting Podcasts into TV Shows and Movies,” Film School Rejects, Sept. 5, 2016, https://filmschoolrejects.com/on-the-emerging-trend-of-adapting-podcasts-into-tv-shows-and-movies-4c731b13aa38#.4xzyconv5.
39. Ibid.
40. Chris Giliberti, “6 Reasons Why Podcasting Is the Future of Storytelling,” Forbes, March 31, 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/under30network/2016/03/31/6-reasons-why-podcasting-is-the-future-of-storytelling/#a8f5562120c1.
41. Shivangi, “The Future of Podcasting,” The Pubcast, Feb. 18, 2016, www.thepubcast.org/2016/02/18/the-future-of-podcasting.
42. For more thoughts on both the history and future of podcasting, see Niraj Pant’s article “Analyzing the Podcast Renaissance,” Medium, August 26, 2016, https://medium.com/the-mission/analyzing-the-podcast-renaissance-fddeefc3147c#.haokjr6dc.