John Travers
This is an incontrovertible fact: especially if you are elderly. That is because podcasts listeners generally are listened on a phone while walking, exercising, gardening, painting so they keep fit and therefore live longer. A bonus is that podcasts generally engage the brain so the podcasee becomes smarter and able to have more interesting conversations.
A podcast is a series of audio recordings that one can subscribe to on a podcast app on a phone. A new podcast appears on one’s phone as soon as it is published. It is in effect on-demand-radio. There are over a million podcast available. Podcasts are generally free and have become a major publishing industry because people like to listen to people’s stories and opinions. A spectacular example is the ABCs Richard Fidler Conversations. Nearly all Radio National is available on podcasts.
How do you get podcasts?
- Find the podcast app on your phone. You don’t have to listen on a phone, but they do have the advantage of being very portable. Connect your ear-buds.
- In the app, search for topics that interest you and Subscribe to those you want to try. You can try out as many as you like.
- Choose the option to only keep, say 2 episodes, so you don’t fill up your phone with old podcasts — audio files are large.
- They will automatically download at home via wireless as they become available. (Make sure your podcast app is set NOT to use mobile data otherwise it will download while out and about and eat up your mobile data.)
- Think of all the tasks you find tedious and consider listening to a distracting podcast while you are doing it.
- Consider getting cordless earbuds like Apple AirPods. They remove the annoying cords.
These are some of the podcasts that I listen to. You can find podcasts in whatever you are interested in because people have found it a very cheap and effective way to get their message out.
If you enjoy podcasts you may find that listening to audio-books is also appealing. You can get free audio-books from Libby, the SA public library app.
Podcast can also be an effective insomnia aid. You can quietly listen, and can set the sleep timer to stop after a set time.