Podcasting and The Seanachai
Have you heard The Seanachai yet? If you haven’t, you’re missing out on the best podcast out there, period.
[Brief Interlude to define podcasting for the uninitiated:
Put simply, a podcast is an easy way to subscribe to audio content. Just like a newspaper subscription brings you written content every day, a podcast brings you audio content on a regular basis. Whenever the podcaster publishes a new mp3 file, the podcasting software automatically downloads it to a folder on your hard drive.
From there, you can either put the files on an mp3 player, burn them to a cd, or just listen to them, just like any other mp3 files. Some podcasting software will even automatically load them onto your mp3 player for you. (What convenient times we live in!)
You subscribe to a podcast with a program like Doppler or iPodder or any of the other programs listed here. I use Doppler myself.
End Interlude]
Now, there are many kinds of podcasts, although most are spoken-word rather than music. Some, like the Rip-n-Read Blogger Podcast, are about current events. Others, like the CIO Podcast and the Slashdot Review are about technology issues. Others are about business issues, like 800-CEO-READ Podcasts, still others are about spiritual issues, like those at Godcast.org. The Seanachai is in a different category altogether: It’s very entertaining short fiction.
In fact, here’s a new 60-second commercial that he’s created to promote the podcast. Go listen, then come back.
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My personal favorite stories are The King of the Lendu, A Very Slow Getaway, and his St. Patrick’s Day Episode.
Now, fair warning for the easily offended, since my audience does consist primarily of conservative Christian BJU students: The author does occasionally curse, so don’t play it too loud in the dorms. (Personally, I’ve decided that people curse, and that you’ll cut yourself off from a lot of good content–like the Seanachai–if you don’t learn to ignore it. Besides, you can’t go through life expecting the whole world to change its behavior because it offends you. But I do realize that others don’t feel the same way; hence the warning.)
It’s really a great podcast, full of very interesting and entertaining stories. And hey, it’s free! What more could you ask for?
Oh, one more podcast to mention: If you prefer hearing some of the classics, I recommend Tim Aldrich’s readings of Sherlock Holmes stories. He’s already completed A Study in Scarlet and is in the process of reading The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
Podcasts definitely make my commute to BJU much more entertaining.
March 31st, 2005 at 1:01 am
First, thanks for your support.
Second, the cursing. I appreciate being polite. And I do alter the way I speak and write depending on my audience - however - a great deal of the Seanacahi is fiction. And one of the primary demands of fiction is that characters must be true to themselves and their own aims. So if you have a character who is a longshoreman and he drops an iron box on his foot, you can’t have him say “aw, fudge” It’s not believeable.
I balance this artist’s license with a sense that art is deeply moral. And if you don’t have a purpose or integrity to your devices (like the swearing longshoreman) than pretty much anything you do is going to be bad.
It’s kind of like Schindler’s List. Awful, awful things happen in the film. And as a good person awful things are abhorrent to me. But what are you going to do? Awful things do happen. To whitewash over them is not only to do the story a disservice, but also to trivialize the victims.
So yeah, there’s cursing. But honestly, it’s not some unwholesome lust for invective on my part - soemtimes the characters and the story demand it. And when they do, I do what any good author should. I surrender to the demands of versmillitude.
March 31st, 2005 at 11:03 am
I completely agree. But, like I said, there are many who don’t. I’ve even heard one preacher say that the second you hear a curse word on a TV show you should turn it off and never watch the show again. While his heart is in the right place, I think he’s being a little…over-zealous, to say the least.
But since there are people who feel that way, and since I imagine at least one or two of them read my blog (since I’m from a conservative religious school), I felt compelled to let them know ahead of time.
April 5th, 2005 at 1:00 am
Hey, thanks for mentioning my Sherlock Holmes pod-cast. Glad you like it. I am having a really good time producing it five days a week, and I hope others continue to enjoy it.
-Tim Aldrich