The Podcast Asylum

While the Podcast Brothers focus on podcasting (and specifically on making money from your podcast), Podcast Sisters Krishna De, Anna Farmery, and Heather Gorringe set out to explain all of Web 2.0 to “the non-geek.” This is a perfect show for the novice who wants to find out about Twitter, Facebook, social bookmarking, widgets, blogging, podcast interviews, and teleseminars, and all the rest of those hip, hot, social media tools.

Recommended by Robin Matuk. Endorsed by ‘Professor’ Goetsch. And with a special tribute to her sisters from Anna Farmery.

Listen or subscribe at http://www.thepodcastsisters.com.

Anna Farmery picked her mate and countrywoman Heather Gorringe and the Wiggly Wigglers podcast as a favorite. Wiggly Wigglers is a mail-order gardening company in Herefordshire, England, named for its worm composting kits. Heather is one of the funniest, most convivial—and shortest—podcasters the Asylum has been blessed with encountering. The show itself keeps winning awards, and now Heather is exploring ways other farmers can use Web 2.0 to connect to the people who eat the food they grow.

Jerry Franklin and Sallie Goetsch are also regular listeners.

Listen or subscribe at http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/podcasts/.

Cali Lewis of GeekBrief TV was actually one of the choices for “hottest women in podcasting.” Chris Christensen, Paolo Tosolini, and Michaelangelo van Dam, who listed the show as a favourite, didn’t mention whether that factored into their choice of Cali and her “Shiny happy tech news” video podcast. They are all men, but they’re also well-briefed geeks.

This 3-to-5-minute show about “technology, consumer electronics, and Web 2.0 projects” appears 4-5 times each week and gets millions of downloads each month.

Watch or subscribe at http://www.geekbrief.tv.

Canadians Dave Delaney and Dave Fleet recommend Nora Young’s Spark podcast from the CBC (that’s the Canadian Broadcast Corporation to the uninitiated). The show’s website describes it this way:

“Spark is a weekly audio blog of smart and unexpected trendwatching. It’s not just technology for gearheads, it’s about the way technology affects our lives, and the world around us.”

Listen or subscribe at http://www.cbc.ca/spark/.

Radio personality Kim Serafin now has a video podcast on WireImage that provides “Your inside access to the world of film premieres, music, parties, award shows, and everything entertainment.”

Recommended by Eric Schwartzman, who is also based in the entertainment capital of the world.

Watch it at www.wireimage.com.

With series like “The New Key Players” and “The $5.99 Question”, and “Marketing to Women 2.0,” Lisa Johnson of Reach Group Consulting tackles marketing to the perpetually plugged-in of all ages. To quote from the show’s intro:

“The connected generation is behind the hottest headlines; they are doing the biggest business deals; and they are creating the most talked-about cultural phenomena on the planet. We’ll give you the insights, stories, and actionable tips that will help you reach the most savvy, hard-to-reach consumer group in history.”

Though it initially suffered from Podcastus Inhospitus, the show has made great strides in accessibility, and is now on the must-listen lists of Sallie Goetsch and Anna Farmery.

Listen or subscribe at http://www.reachgroupconsulting.com/blog/.

Our Canadian podcasting ‘professor,’ Donna Papacosta, has attracted numerous endorsements for her Trafcom News Podcast, ‘the podcast for people who care about communicating.’ The show appears on an irregular schedule (never often enough) and covers topics from writing to podcasting to public speaking, with a new segment debuting about business communications in the non-profit sector.

Recommended by Anna Farmery, Dave Fleet, Jonathan Hoel, Allan Jenkins, Peter O’Connell, Eric Schwartzman, and Paull Young (as well as by her colleagues at the Asylum, Professors Goetsch and Hopkins.)

Listen or subscribe at www.trafcomnewspodcast.com.

According to the Smarter Podcasts website,

“Smarter Cancer Care is a cancer information podcast, focused on the issues facing cancer patients, their families, and friends when faced with a diagnosis. In casual conversation with host Joanne Greene, Dr. Robert Rodvien, hematologist and oncologist associated with California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, provides easy-to-comprehend answers and compassionate insight into the journey that lies ahead.”

Jon Leland also recommends Joanne Greene’s other podcasts, The Good Dog Show and By Women, For Women.

Listen or subscribe at http://www.smarterpodcasts.com.

Jon Leland recommends eMarketing Talk Show, in part because he was a guest on it once.

The eMarketing Talk Show is hosted by Cindy Turrietta, Brooke Schumacher, and Todd Sarouhan. All highly experienced in various aspects of Internet marketing, the hosts launched the eMarketing Talk Show in March of 2005 as a way to share their knowledge and bring the knowledge of guests to listeners who are interested in Internet marketing.

The show is recorded live using TalkShoe on Fridays; for call-in details or to subscribe, visit www.emarketingtalkshow.com.

For a show that only has five episodes so far (as of February 3, 2008), Sandy Shepard’s Be a Bond Girl podcast has attracted an amazing number of fans.

In the podcast, Sandy talks you through the steps to living a passionate life−starting with clearing out the clutter.

Recommended by Warren Yamashita, Seb Jarakian, Randy Schroeder, Allison Fortini, and Nancy Wagner.

Listen or subscribe at www.BeABondGirl.com.

(Disclosure: ‘Professor’ Goetsch helped Sandy write her book, fEmpowerment, but claims no credit for the popularity of the podcast.)

Nathan Ketsdever says this of Epic-Fu, a video podcast featuring Zadi Diaz: “Very entertaining. Very useful for geeks. Pretty funny. Honors creativity, discovery, and the mashup culture.”

The show sums itself up as “Art+Tech+Music for Geeks.” Zadi’s bio describes her as “a pioneer and thought leader in the online video and new media community.”

Eric Schwartzman is a fan, too.

Watch or subscribe at EpicFu.com.

Eric Schwartzman recommends Jennifer Jones’s weekly Marketing Voices video podcast in PodTech’s social media channel. PodTech’s description of the show:

Silicon Valley Marketing Veteran Jennifer Jones discusses social media practices and technologies and its impact on marketing, tools & best practices, with industry leaders such as Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, and Charlene Li.

Denise Wakeman of the Blog Squad is also a fan, and says this about the show:

Jennifer is an excellent interviewer; she has amazing guests who are the movers and shakers in social media marketing and the podcasts are generally 10-20 minutes. Excellent stuff.

Watch or subscribe at http://www.podtech.net/home/category/marketing-voices.

Megan Morrone’s Jumping Monkeys: Pretend You Know What You’re Doing podcast is part of the This Week in Tech Network—which I suppose means that technically it’s a ‘netcast,’ not a podcast. Back in the day, Megan and Leo Laporte were both part of the ‘Screen Savers’ TV show. The show provides ‘Links for parents of children of all ages, and interviews with geek parents.’

Recommended by Christie Goodman.

Listen or subscribe at the Jumping Monkeys podcast page: www.jumpingmonkeys.com/jumpingmonkeys/podcast/.

Blogger & Podcaster describes MommyCast, hosted by Gretchen Vogelzang and Paige Heninger, as ‘the original’ podcast by and for moms. The show also won a ‘best of 2007’ award from iTunes. From their gorgeous website:

Started in March 2005, MommyCast.com has been featured in the Hollywood Reporter, Washingtonian Magazine, BusinessWeek, Variety magazines and the USA Today.

Paige and Gretchen of MommyCast.com have also been interviewed by CNN, NBC, the BBC, Brandweek and the Wall Street Journal.

MommyCast.com holds the distinction of being one of the first independent podcasts to land a major corporate sponsorship, which came via Dixie Paper Co. They have also established themselves as a member of the Buena Vista Entertainment Press Corps and are sponsored by Walt Disney Studios for family fare DVD movie releases.

Recommended by Christie Goodman.

Listen or subscribe at the MommyCast website (www.mommycast.com).

Manic Mommies Erin Kane and Kristin Brandt ‘are working moms, juggling kids, careers, husbands, and households.’ They’re also successful and popular podcasters who have attracted sponsors like General Motors. (See the July 2007 issue of Blogger & Podcaster magazine for more.)

Recommended by Christie Goodman.

Listen or subscribe at the Manic Mommies Website (www.manicmommies.com).

While recursions were once the province of mathematicians, computer programmers, and halls of mirrors, Recursionitis afflicts marketing podcasters who have to market their podcasts in order to podcast about marketing. In fact, a form of this syndrome can affect anyone who wants to podcast for marketing purposes.

Other forms of Recursionitis involve producing podcasts about podcasting, and using podcasts to evangelize podcasting.

Even thinking for too long about Recursionitis can cause dizziness.

This dangerous condition results from listening to podcasts whose creator has applied the ‘Truncate Silence’ effect too liberally or used other tools to speed up the tempo and remove pauses from the recording. When listeners can’t hear you pause for breath, they stop breathing, too. Symptoms include faintness, gasping, and turning blue in the face while fumbling for the ‘pause’ button. To prevent fatalities among your listeners, please use silence-removing and tempo-increasing tools with care!

A milder version of this condition, called podcast hyperventilation, can result from listening to  podcasters who speak very rapidly, like C.C. Chapman. It’s possible to counteract podcast hyperventilation by slowing down playback. 

New for 2008: ‘Professor’ Goetsch collaborates with business coach Michele Molitor and Live Oak Studio‘s Priscilla Rice to bring small businesses in the spectacular San Francisco Bay Area a podcasting package covering everything from your business goals to your RSS feed, and including time in a studio people drive up from Los Angeles to use. Details on the Podcasting Package Website.

From the For Immediate Release Blog:

If you’re wondering about business podcasting—how to start one, where it might fit within your communication planning, or even how to make your current podcast more effective—winning the FIR Listener Contest could be the answer you’re looking for!

To mark the third anniversary of For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report on January 3, we decided to run a contest for listeners where the prize is a free copy of How to Do Everything with Podcasting, the book written by Shel Holtz with Neville Hobson (FIR’s co-presenters) and published last June by McGraw-Hill. The book’s list price is $24.99 / £14.99 / C$29.95.

How to Do Everything with Podcasting walks you step by step through the process of creating, publishing and promoting your own podcast. It includes a substantial business focus that will help you see how businesses can use podcasting as an effective and measurable way to communicate with customers and employees.

There are actually three copies of the book up for grabs, depending on where in the world you are.

We’ve arbitrarily divided the world into three segments—The Americas, Europe and the Rest of the World— and we’re looking to award the book to one winner in each of these areas.

The whole FIR team is behind this contest—Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz, together with FIR correspondents Lee Hopkins, Dan York, David Phillips, Eric Schwartzman and Sallie Goetsch—and will judge each entry.

How to Enter

1. Tell us your answer to this simple question:
   “I think a podcast will help my organization/my client because...”
2. You can communicate your answer to Shel & Neville in English in any way you wish—email, recording (audio or video), comments to this post, whatever way you think is the most effective. Look around the FIR blog for your contact options.
3. Submit your answer by the deadline—Friday January 25, 2008 at 6:00pm GMT.

That’s all there is to it.

We’re looking forward to your entries! (Complete Rules Here.)

Meetup envy is a condition that afflicts podcast listeners who hear about geek dinners and other social events for podcasters but are unable to attend them. The more their favourite podcasters travel to other cities and hook up with fans for dinner, drinks, or coffee, the worse their sense of frustration and isolation becomes.

Left untreated, sufferers of Meetup Envy may be driven to such desperate acts as hocking the family silver to purchase an airline ticket or even–in extreme cases–devoting hours to creating virtual meetups. While they may start out as humorous mashups, these substitutes for real contact can escalate into violent fantasies.

For a suitable fee, the Podcast Asylum will be happy to unite sufferers of Meetup Envy with their favourite podcasters amid the vineyards of the glorious Adelaide Hills–under careful supervision from our staff, of course.

What’s a podcast and why should you care?

Before the year ends, would you like to check “learn about podcasting” off your to-do list? About a dozen communicators have already signed up for ‘Professor’ Donna Papacosta’s next free Webinar, Podcasting 101 for Communicators and Marketers, scheduled for 2 p.m. Eastern on December 5. Would you like to join them?

Here’s what one participant said after a recent session:

Thanks for a great webinar! You do a great job of sharing important information while still keeping everyone involved. I’ll be sure to recommend the webinar to anyone I know who’s curious about how podcasting can help their business. –John Watkis

In this 45-minute session, we cover what podcasting is all about; how to find podcasts relevant to your interests; how organizations are using audio for internal and external communications; and how to sell the idea to management.

I like to keep the number of attendees small so that people can ask questions. So if you’re interested, sign up soon! To attend, all you need is a phone and an Internet connection. To register, send an email to trafcom@gmail.com. Did I mention that it’s free?

This phenomenon occurs when a podcast appears to be at odds with itself. If, for example, the host of a podcast appears to have been recorded in a separate session from the guests, the hosts never identify themselves—even with a pseudonym—or the tone of background music and bumpers conflicts with the tone of the show’s content. A show that claims to encourage listener comments but provides no show blog, e-mail address, or comment line also suffers from Podcast Dissonance, though in this case there is a dual diagnosis of Podcastus Inhospitus.

The effect on the listener of these internal inconsistencies ranges from distraction (trying to figure out why things don’t match up) to distrust (wondering whether the guests are actually answering the same questions the host is asking).

Preliminary findings suggest that this syndrome is most common in corporate podcasts, possibly because of the number of different departments that have to sign off on each episode.

Professor Goetsch got together with some of her favorite podcasters at the Podcast and New Media Expo in Ontario, CA, at the end of September, 2007. The photographer is Stefan Didak.

SnapKast version 2.0
Windows XP, XP Tablet PC
http://www.snapkast.com/
MSRP US$79.99

Longer ago than I care to admit, I was asked to evaluate SnapKast, a product by Lecture123.com designed to “create PowerPoint podcasts in a snap.”

The interface is very simple: you just drag your PowerPoint file onto the “Record” button in SnapKast, rather the way you use the Levelator. Nevertheless it actually took several snaps before I could produce a video, due to two problems. The first is that I’m constitutionally incapable of producing a podcast without audio and video clips in it, and SnapKast can’t process those, so it spat out an error message at me the first time and hung up.

SnapKast processed the second file I tried successfully, and I was able to record myself narrating the slideshow, even if I couldn’t play any of the included recordings. This part of the process reminded me of nothing so much as using the Co-op World interface for the Online Podcasting Expo back in April, though I can’t remember whether their system produced the same pixelated effect when processing transparent images.

Once you’ve recorded your presentation, you choose the format you want. The options are .mp4 video and .mp3 audio, with some advanced options for choosing the size of the video and the frame rate. The recommended 320 x 240 size for video podcasts is painfully small for viewing PowerPoint slides, even those like mine which include mostly pictures and very few words. The largest size, 1024 x 768, is fine for playback on a computer, but not too useful for playback on a portable device. That problem, however, is really due to PowerPoint as a medium and not to SnapKast.

After the conversion phase comes the playback phase. I noticed two problems: the audio tends to skip every so often, and the video switches to the next slide before I’m finished narrating the first one. The latter problem might be solved by adjusting frame rates, which is something I’ve had to do to get audio and video synced properly with Camtasia.

At this point, you can e-mail your presentation or copy it to the clipboard, but I, of course, was interested in the podcasting function—and this is where I ran into my second problem. I have a 1440 x 900 widescreen laptop, and I had set it to use large fonts so that I wouldn’t have to squint to see things. This messed up the way SnapKast displayed and meant that I was unable to enter a URL into the required field for generating the RSS feed. When I re-set my display, it worked just fine, and I was able to get to the “Publish” window, which is the last stage of the SnapKast process.

I was a bit puzzled at first, since it said “Drag and drop to publish,” but not until I opened the help section did it explain where to drag it. (You have to open your FTP client, connect to your site, and then drag the podcast folder over.) I’m not sure that I’d exactly call this “publishing,” given that if you hit the “Publish” button in, say, Microsoft Expression Web, it actually connects you to your web server and puts the file there.

For actual podcasting purposes, in order to include a click-to-play option and show notes, I’d be better off just uploading the file into my media directory and using PodPress to include it in my feed existing feed—which is what I’m doing here in order to let you see the video. The only viable option on the SnapKast feed page seemed to be iTunes, which did work correctly. Otherwise I could see the RSS feed, but not a link to the file. And there’s no autodiscovery on the feed index page, either.

Apart from that, the quality of the video produced is quite good for the file size, and the audio (between skips) is fine. If someone only wants to create videos of PowerPoint presentations, and doesn’t mind adapting the presentations to accomodate SnapKast, it’s a decent tool. But I don’t expect it to be a big hit with podcasters, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone whose budget extends to purchasing Techsmith’s much more sophisticated Camtasia.

The support team was very responsive, though.

SRG

Note: click the “Play in Popup” button to see the video.

Podcast Video [ 3:14 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

How to Do Everything with Podcasting
Shel Holtz (with Neville Hobson)
McGraw-Hill, 2007
Paperback, 360 pages
ISBN: 978-0-07-226394-7
MSRP US$24.99

Disclaimer: As a contributor to the authors’ podcast, For Immediate Release, I might be expected to have a biased opinion. I do, but I also held the book to the standards of their podcast and their blogs. If it hadn’t been good, I would have been seriously disappointed.

But not to worry, it’s good.

Naming a book “How to Do Everything with Podcasting” is ambitious, but that was the publisher’s choice. They have a whole series of “How to Do Everything” books. And while there might be things you can do with podcasting that aren’t covered in the book, it’s impressively comprehensive.

I particularly appreciated the details about sound editing in Chapter 9 when I had to assemble the interviews from the iMeme conference. (It helped, but with background noise as bad as that, there’s not a lot you can do if you don’t use a directional mic in the first place.) The only omission I’m aware of in that section is a reference to the Levelator, an amazing tool every podcaster should have. (It’s free, too. Gigavox invented it in self-defense.)

I imagine many people will head straight to Part IV, “Make Money with Your Podcast,” but I really appreciated Part V, “Use a Podcast as a Business Communication Tool.” These 65 pages are pure gold for any podcast evangelist operating in either the corporate or small-business world. Shel and Neville start by pointing out that creating a podcast is not a business goal. Rather, podcasting is a tool that can serve a purpose in the business’ overall strategy. If your company starts podcasting “because everyone else is doing it,” the podcast is not likely to be a success.

There’s also an appendix about legal considerations for podcasters, one listing podcasting resources, and a podcasting glossary to help you sort out the jargon. And to keep up to date (because things on the Web change so quickly), there’s a website for the book. You can find Shel’s mix-minus instructional video (for recording Skype calls without echoes) and a whole lot of other good stuff—including a long list of links to podcasts.

Three cheers and five stars, guys.

SRG

The Business Podcasting Bible
Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian
Heritage House Publishing, 2007
Paperback, 286 pages
ISBN 1-933596-37-6
MSRP: US$19.95

I hadn’t gotten very far into The Business Podcasting Bible before concluding that the book designer should be hauled out and shot. The book is very difficult to read, not because of the writing but because of the way it’s put together. The font for the main text ought to be called “eyestrain.” It’s plenty large enough, but seems to vibrate on the page. (Being able to see the text on the other side doesn’t help, either.) Given that one person in eleven is subject to migraines, as I am, headache-provoking print is not a good investment.

The sans-serif font in the sidebars is actually easier on the eyes, the graphic design truism about not using sans-serif fonts for long blocks of printed text notwithstanding. But the sidebars themselves are maddening, because most of them run to several pages. A sidebar is an eye-catching thing, particularly when set off with a shaded background and a different font. It distracts from the main text. In order to finish reading the sidebar, I had to go forward several pages, then come back and read the rest of the main text—or read the main text first, and then come back for the sidebar. Either way, it created a lot of work, and it interrupted the flow of ideas, making it very hard to take in the information the authors were trying to impart.

I also found it jarring that the word “podcast” was capitalized and often used instead of the word “podcasting.” We don’t capitalize “radio” or “television” or “film,” so I can’t think why we should capitalize “podcast.”

These formatting issues are a terrible pity, because Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian have some great things to say about podcasting for—and as—a business. I’ve been a regular listener to Marketing Online Live, where most of these ideas were previewed, for years. Colligan and Mandossian are probably the ultimate authorities on making money with your podcast, because they’ve used everything they tell you about in their own businesses.

This is not a technical how-to book about podcasting. If you want to know how to record and edit your podcast, set up your feed, and so forth, read Podcasting for Dummies or How to Do Everything with Podcasting. If you want to know about dead-time learning, teaching your audience to consume podcasts, premium podcasting, and monetization, read this book.

Better yet, buy the book and download the bonus audio you get from the member site (instructions on page 77). It’s a sight easier to take in than the printed version (so to speak). The member site hasn’t been all that active lately, but the recordings of the LA an Orland Podcasting Secrets Workshops contain tons of helpful tips, and Paul Colligan’s “Picking Your PodcastTopic – 17 Questions You Must Ask Yourself” is not to be missed.

It’s probably worth the 20 bucks just to get the audio downloads, but my recommendation would be to wait and see whether they overhaul the next edition to be more readable. It would be easy enough to solve the layout problem by incorporating those long sidebars into appropriate parts of the main text, saving sidebars for short tips, and to pick a better font and thicker paper.

Or go back and listen to all the archives of the Marketing Online Live podcast, which covers most of these topics. And whether or not you download the earlier episodes, subscribe now if you have any interest at all in podcast monetization.

SRG

Podcasters suffering from this syndrome do everything in their power to prevent people from finding, hearing, and subscribing to their podcasts. Common symptoms of Podcastus Inhospitus include:

• Not posting any show notes, thus making the podcast invisible to search engines.
• Not providing any information about how to subscribe within the podcast itself.
• Using a proprietary file format which requires a particular media player.
• Not offering listeners a way to comment on or contribute to the show.
• Not providing a direct link to the RSS feed for those who don’t use iTunes.
• Not providing a “click-to-play option for people who prefer to listen at their computers.

If your podcast is keeping people out instead of inviting them in, contact the Asylum before it’s too late.

Adjunct professor Heidi Miller (left) discovered Social Media Stupor Syndrome in June of 2007. She describes the warning signs as follows:

• Shaking, fear and trembling before clicking to Google Reader, My Yahoo! or NewsGator
• A full iPod, but constant occasions to “forget” headphones to “catch up” on podcast listening
• Adding people you don’t know to your Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or MySpace accounts
• More than four email addresses, just to keep up with the comments from your blogs and podcasts

Although Social Media Stupor Syndrome can be treated successfully, we advise precautionary measures to prevent contracting it. Restrict your podcast listening to the shows you really love. Make sure to spend time each day away from your computer and other gadgets. Examine every social network you belong to and ask yourself whether the benefit you get repays the time you have to spend.

Of course, if you are already deep in the throes of this disease, we at the Asylum will be glad to help you. A week spent in the glorious Adelaide hills enjoying the ministrations of dusky handmaidens and muscular masseurs, far from anything with a screen, will leave you refreshed and restore your perspective.

Are you wondering what’s involved in creating a podcast? Are you curious about the kinds of audio files your corporate communications colleagues are producing? Get answers to your questions at Donna Papacosta’s next free 45-minute Webinar: Podcasting 101 for Communicators and Marketers on June 19, 2007, at 2 p.m. EDT.In this fun, fast-paced session, we’ll discuss:

• What podcasting is all about
• How to find podcasts relevant to your interests
• How organizations are using audio for internal and external communications
• How to create a podcast
• How to sell the idea to management

You need just a computer, an Internet connection and a phone to attend, but you must register in advance. Send ‘Professor’ Papacosta an email to book your spot. Space is limited.

‘Professor’ Sallie Goetsch (rhymes with ‘sketch’) co-hosted episode 243 of For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 while Shel Holtz was in Brazil. With help from FIR listeners and regular contributor Dan York, Sallie and Neville Hobson discussed PR 2.0, MyRagan, the lack of Internet savvy among politicians, the exaggerated rumors of Bob Lutz’ podfading, the ongoing ghost blogging controversy, Dolphin Music, ‘blogola,’ the lack of corporate access to the Internet and Web 2.0 tools, and the American Express Members’ Project.

Neville experienced recording problems yet again, leaving him with only Sallie’s recording to edit (and a dreadful four-hour slog that was). The repeated technical difficulties may mean that it will be quite some time before ‘Professor’ Goetsch repeats her Shel Holtz imitation.

Jon Hoel interviewed ‘Professor’ Sallie Goetsch about ‘podcasting without podcasting’ for PR Junction Podcast 009. If you want to learn more about how you can get the benefits of podcasting without producing your own show, check it out.

My favorite Writing Show episodes (it’s so hard to choose!): Writing Comic Books, with Buddy Scalera; Spark Your Creativity, with Linda Seger; Writing Biography, with Bob Andelman.

‘Professor’ Goetsch (rhymes with ‘sketch’) braved the terrors of her own perfectionism to co-host For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report episode 239 on Thursday, 10 May, 2007. Skylook saved the day when Skype crashed on Neville Hobson, obliterating his Pamela recording—a reminder that whenever possible, interviews should be recorded at both ends.

Drill Sergeant Tee Morris has just informed us that his podcast, The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy, is suffering from Comment Deficiency Syndrome.

Specifically, the Sarge has noticed an unexpected shortage of audio comments just as he was planning to prepare a Mail Call episode. Never in 29 regular episodes and 10 special editions have the Survivalists failed to produce a superabundance of comments. In fact, the number and frequency of the comments were what inspired Tee to start producing Mail Call episodes.

Clearly, it was time for the Asylum to step in and investigate the cause of this problem.

The most obvious cause of Comment Deficiency Syndrome is not providing listeners enough ways to contribute comments. Nevertheless, CDS can strike even podcasters who announce their call-in number, blog address, and e-mail during every show.

The best way to prevent Comment Deficiency Syndrome is to play, read, and respond to listener comments right away. Because podcast listeners are just as narcissistic as podcasters, they will tolerate a longer show length if it gives them the opportunity to hear themselves.

Of course, in order to play comments right away, the podcaster has to produce regular and frequent shows.

If you find yourself suffering from Comment Deficiency Syndrome, try listening to For Immediate Release for lessons in producing a proper comment-driven show. Alternatively, you could emulate the model of Inside PR, where audio comments go directly into the podcast feed so everyone can hear them immediately, or create shows from collected audio comments, as Carmen Van Kerckhove has done with Addicted to Race.

The syndrome Podcastus Compulsivus is characterized by the inability to refrain from podcasting for more than a few weeks at a time. (Example: ‘Professor’ Lee Hopkins attempted to take a sabbatical from his weekly reports to ‘For Immediate Release’ and the ‘Better Desirable Roasted Communications Cafe,’ but was only able to stay away for a month rather than the more usual full university term.)

Extreme, advanced cases of this disease manifest in starting more and more podcasts, so that a single individual may be producing as many as five or six different shows. The compulsion to podcast can override even basic survival instinct such as the need to sleep or to eat, though it rarely seems to interfere with the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

‘Professor’ Goetsch will be representing the Podcast Asylum at the Podcast and New Media Expo in Ontario, California this September. Keep an eye out for the white coat!

Episode #55 – A CEO Roundtable recorded live in Utrecht (over 3,000 downloads)

Happy 2007 from the Wiggly Team! It’s a compilation of Heather’s favourite moments in podcasting (like the Hedgerow Row), and very funny it is, too. At 55 minutes, it’s nearly twice as long as a typical episode, but still fits easily on an audio CD.

Wiggly Podcast Archive

Wiggly Podcast 0064 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Mitch Joel asked all the Communications and Advertising Podcasters of the World—not to mention all the hosts of the shows he’d been a guest on—to send in audio files talking about the most important things they learned in 2006. The idea was to create an auditory Yule log that would just keep on burning.

The result is a sample from several different podcasts, including Across the Sound, Inside PR, Return on Intention, and Managing the Gray. It’s a crash course in communications and marketing podcasts.

See the Show Notes for the complete list.

SPOS 32 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

To celebrate producing their 200^th show on December 21, 2006, Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson created a retrospective starting with FIR #1 in January, 2005. The only down side to this tour-de-force from PR’s most prolific podcasters is that it’s too long to fit onto a single audio CD. Of course, that was true of all their episodes until 2007.

FIR 200 Show Notes (FIR blog)

FIR 200 Detailed Show Notes with Time Codes (New PR Wiki)

FIR 200 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

John Watkis interviewed Donna Papacosta for his Entrepreneur Exclusive podcast on March 26th, 2007. ‘Professor’ Papacosta described the interview as follows:

We talked about the difference between an audio file and a podcast; shared tips on publishing your podcast through a blog, including costs; and discussed the steps you need to take before starting a podcast, plus a whole lot more. If you’re a small business, or if you work with small businesses, you might find this interview useful.

Podcast Asylum consulting physicians Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson of the For Immediate Release Podcast invited ‘Professor’ Sallie Goetsch to replace ‘Professor’ Lee Hopkins as a Monday correspondent on the Hobson & Holtz Report. ‘Professor’ Hopkins is taking a sabbatical from podcasting while he completes his degree in Second Life Studies.

‘Professor’ Goetsch’s qualifications as a correspondent for this long-running PR podcast include:

• Not being a podcaster
• Not being a communications or PR professional
• Not having a background in audio production
• Not being anywhere near as funny as Lee Hopkins

We therefore expect the segment to be a smashing success and wish Lee a speedy conclusion to his doctorate and return to his post.

Skylook 2.0
Netralia Pty
USD $99.95
www.skylook.biz

Skylook is the brainchild of Australian Jeremy Hague, designed to integrate Skype into Outlook. I liked Skylook 1.5 and love Skylook 2.0. (You can read my review of Skylook 1.0.3 at Kickstartnews.com.) The SMS message features (you can send text messages to your cell phone through Skype) aren’t as interesting to me, or likely other podcasters, as the call recording.

One thing I always liked about Skylook’s recording feature is that it starts immediately. No forgetting to press the “record” button and having to re-do the interview. But recordings used to be MP3 only, one channel. Now Skylook records both sides of the conversation on separate channels, and offers a variety of audio formats and bit rates.

Audio geeks will tell you not to record directly into your computer, but Skylook is easy, reliable, and produces sound quality as good as most of the podcasts I listen to. Plus it gives you a Skype answering machine with an Aussie accent, and it saves your text chats, too. (All these things get sent to your Outlook inbox, so you don’t have to remember to check for them.)

SRG

Podcasting for Dummies
Tee Morris and Evo Terra
Wiley Publishing, 2006
Paperback, 340 pages
ISBN 0-471-74898-6
MSRP: US$21.99

Disclosure/Disclaimer: I was a Tee Morris fan before I read this book. I still am. So obviously I was predisposed to like it.

Wiley Publishing’s ‘For Dummies’ series is wildly popular in spite of the fact that most of us don’t like to think of ourselves as Dummies. Fortunately, this book works just fine for smart people who don’t happen to know much about podcasting, and there’s a great companion podcast by Tee Morris. (Season 1 contains 20 episodes; Season 2 will accompany the sequel, which has the unlikely title of Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies.)

The book is both readable and comprehensive, and includes plenty of humor (and not just in the cartoons before each section). I could do without the font used for the subheadings, but at least it’s legible, and I presume they chose it to convey friendliness. Podcasting for Dummies walks you through the basics of choosing your equipment (microphones and mixers), using audio editing software, podcast blogs, RSS, bandwidth and hosting—and that’s just chapter 2!

It was Podcasting for Dummies I turned to when I needed to know how to put a music ‘bed’ under a voice recording. (I later used that knowledge to record a comment for Tee Morris’ podcast, The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy.) The explanation of bit rates, sample rates, and ID3 tags should be required reading, and the chapter on XML and RSS is a useful reference for moments when feeds won’t validate. Indeed, the traditional ‘For Dummies’ design makes it easy to use the book as a reference on any of the topics covered.

The final section of the book is a series of Top Tens (types of podcast, most influential people in podcasting, reasons why podcasting won’t kill radio—and reasons it will). Some of these lists, like specific links and details about software, may become obsolete quickly, but the principles remain sound and neither audio editing nor ID3 tags are going away any time soon.

Many of the example podcasts used in the book relate to science fiction, reflecting the interests of the authors, and there’s a wee bit of Macintosh bias in the screenshots. (Why are so many podcasters Mac users?) Those are just observations, though, not criticisms, and the inclusion of podiobooks.com is a boon to would-be podcasters who are either published or unpublished authors.

One thing that is missing, at least from the first edition (I think I have the first edition, though they were up to the third printing by the time I got my copy at the PME last year), is any discussion of PodPress, the popular WordPress plugin for podcasting (used on this site for the Reports from the Asylum). Of course, PodPress was much less sophisticated at the time the book was written, and WordPress hadn’t yet opened up the WordPress.com hosted service.

It will be a great relief when the sequel to this book appears and Tee Morris can get back to podcasting.

SRG

Free 45-minute Webinar: Podcasting 101 for Communicators and Marketers, March 20, 2007, 2 p.m. EST

Donna Papacosta explains what podcasting is all about; how to find podcasts relevant to your interests; how organizations are using audio for internal and external communications; how to sell the idea to management. You need just a computer and an Internet connection to attend, but you must register in advance. Send an email to book your spot.

I’m fast becoming addicted to Carmen Van Kerckhove (rhymes with ‘her stove’)’s podcast about America’s obsession with race. It takes me back to my university days as an honorary member of the black community, getting my eyes opened about things I’d never had to consider as a privileged middle-class white girl. The show suffers some technical difficulties (mostly a need for the Levelator), and I’m not much on the music, but the content is important, thought-provoking, and not to be found elsewhere in the podosphere. www.addictedtorace.com

This marketing podcast is the brainchild of Reid Givens, a dedicated fan of podcasting and new marketing based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Episodes have entertaining titles like ‘Wii the People,’ ‘Murky Water,’ and ‘The Backlash Episode.’ I like the multicultural marketing discussions.

www.reidgivens.com/roi_blog

This new Australian PR podcast from Jon Hoel could easily go from good to great, but at three episodes, it’s just a bit too soon to tell. I’m looking forward to more of the Australian/Pacific Rim perspective.

www.prjunctionpodcast.com

This first of the QDNow podcasts has achieved astonishing success in a short period of time. It’s no surprise that so many people need help with their grammar, but it’s heartening to discover that they want it, too. The shows are short, charming, and very clear. Host Mignon Fogarty has expanded the QDNow franchise with other shows like ‘Mr Manners’ and ‘Money Girl.’

www.qdnow.com

Science fiction and fantasy author Michael A. Stackpole does a great job of teaching writers the craft of creating good fiction. Since he’s a prolific writer himself, the podcasts appear somewhat erratically, but I always listen to them right away when they appear. It doesn’t hurt that he’s got a wonderful deep voice. Unfortunately, discussions with listeners are limited to a forum—no listener feedback makes its way onto the show. www.stormwolf.com.

As of March 2007, there hasn’t been an episode for several months. I don’t know whether this is a temporary hiatus or a permanent conclusion. But this is definitely a podcast whose material is timeless, so it’s worth downloading the archives.