I’ve been busy this evening working on my new book, something my editor will surely be glad to hear. After a few hours at it, I took a much needed break. That’s when I remembered that I had mentioned podcasting in a recent Monday night chat. In fact, the current poll question asks about podcasts. The bottom line appears to be that most people don’t know what a podcast is.

If I enter the word “podcasting” into Wikipedia, I get some interesting information.

“Podcasting” is making audio files (most commonly in mp3 format) online in a way that allows software to automatically download the files for listening at the user’s convenience. The word “podcasting” is a portmanteau of the words iPod and broadcasting. A podcast is like an audio magazine subscription: a subscriber receives regular audio programs delivered via the internet, and they can listen to them at their leisure.

For the full definition, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

I read in the current issue of Wired Magazine (which has a bold cover announcing the death of radio, as we know it) that the average podcast is 3 minutes long. Since this was my first podcast, I figured I should go easy on whoever might be crazy enough to listen and keep it at three minutes as well. Anyhow, without further ado, here is podcast 1, off the cuff, unscripted, and as messy as it was.

Click here to listen to podcast number 1.

The scary thing in all of this is that I was once a top 40 disc jockey. No, really.