What actually is a podcast?

You probably think you know. You might think you are listening to one right now. But are you actually?

The definition of the word podcast has been changing over the past few years. I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, especially with platforms like Spotify and YouTube changing how we listen and what podcast means.

Video podcasts, for example, are everywhere now (including Thinking in English) and some podcasts don’t even use the traditional RSS feed anymore. It made me wonder: What actually is a podcast?

In today’s episode, I want to explore this question from different angles. We’ll start with the etymology of the word of the word podcast, move on to the technology that made podcasts possible, look at the content that defines them, discuss how definitions are changing today, and finally, consider what the future might hold!

Borough by Blue Dot Sessions

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