Podcasts. Drought and Surf & Turf taste tests. Highs and lows of a 3,000 klm road trip North

Dust storm, just South of Walgett NSW
Photo Credit: Campbell Cooney

Greetings from the warm, sunny and temperate hills of Queensland's Atherton Tablelands.

The trip meter on the car tells me that since leaving Melbourne I've travelled nearly 3,000 kilometres with a driving time of around 30 hours, with all of it apart from the final leg from Townsville, through the inland of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Across the last two states the signs o...

Right now it's a sad and sorry time if you're a fan of radio. The ABC's had its feathers trimmed, if not not completely shorn off. Commercial radio's dominated by a mix of boofy fuckwitted brekky, afternoon and drive crews dismally failing at being funny, or opinionated overpaid senior citizens who are happy to embrace the paid for views of their biggest sponsors, and make them their own. Sad thing is that the number of people who listen to this crap means they stay on air. Furth...

When it comes to poking fun at a program like "This American Life" it's something you do carefully.

As we've heard here its spinoff podcast "Serial" is already being played for laughs. Now "That American Life" is doing it to big daddy.


Photo Copyright: That American Life This American Life's great success is that it takes human stories, which at first you might think are totally unimportant, and turning them into something that becomes gripping listening, something w...

I don't know where you're reading this, maybe in one of the capital cities of Australia, maybe overseas in Europe, the USA or even in Asia?

But I'll take a bet that wherever you are it's hard to avoid this subcultural group?

Photo copyright: zanachin,blogspot.com.au

You guessed it. The Hipster, the urban, quasi intellectuals, who, like every subculture before them, try so hard to look like individuals, they look exactly the same as each other. And in the race...

I'm going to use one word to describe "The Serial".

F@@@*^g amazing!

Yes I know that's more than one word, but the first word's not used in polite company.



Photo Credit: serial.podcast.org Since it came into being The Serial has garnered praise from anyone who's heard it. There may be someone out there who hates it. There probably is. It's a free world and idiots have just as much a right to oxygen as any of us. The serial's produced by t...

If you think about it a podcast if the perfect platform for a documentary. Short or long, a one off or a serial. It allows you to listen at your leasure, at home, in bed, in the car, anywhere you want, whenever you want to. The thing about a documentary is that if you want to do it justice then you have to listen to it actively. It can't really be background noise. What that means is that if you listen to on the radio or watch on TV, which is where most if not all the great ons originate, more on ...

Now I'm not a lecturer. But as the title for this blog'll tell you, I listen to a lot of podcasts. I listen to them in the car, and when, like I'm doing now, writing for this, and for the other things I do to try and earn a crust. So, if I don't mind saying so, I reckon I have an idea of what works. So if you're passionate about the idea, and you and your mates, or family have the idea to create something, then here's a few ideas. Now don't expect a list of the best technology you can use, or...

I hate to say it, but in my career in the media one disappointing fact I have become aware of is that while science is important the science world's terrible at selling itself and the achievements of its members. From day one, be it at university, or on the job, reporters learn that at its essence when you tell a story, you answer six questions; who, what, why, when, where and how. Depending on the story one of those will be more important than the rest, but none are ignored. But scientists seem to w...

In broad terms a podcast will into one of two categories.

The first is the rebroadcast of a radio or television program. It goes to air, then's made available as media on demand. Think Hamish & Andy, or Late Night Live on the ABC's Radio National network. Often now if it's a prerecorded program, the release is simultaneous.

Second is the podcast created to straight online. The Sweetest Plum produced in Australia by Declan Fay and Nick Maxwell a notable success.,...