What even is a “podcast” anymore?
Until recently, “podcasts” were audio distributed over the Internet — listened to, not watched. But nearly all of today’s most popular podcasts have video too. Some are video-only.
Spoiler alert: Hosts Willa Paskin and producer Evan Chung basically conclude that the word “podcast” now has two meanings: One is the traditional meaning, audio distributed over the Internet using RSS. But a newer meaning of the word is a video program of “two or three people chatting behind big bulky microphones.”
And they note that the microphones are just props — lapel mikes and other hidden mikes have been around for decades. Those big mikes strictly for show.
I am definitely an audio-only podcast man. I listen to a couple of hours of podcasts daily (though I’m lately listening to more audiobooks as an alternative to podcasts). We watch a few talk videos too, but I am turned off by the visual podcast format, with tight closeups on faces, amateurish set design and those big mikes.