The Podcast Pedant

Oh, what a frabjuous day. Not only is it my last day at my day job, but this popped up on my morning Technorati search:

Podcasts Part 2: Science Fiction or Satanic Fiction?

Tristan, a guest blogger for Shelley the Republican, is on a crusade against podcasting as the next Hot New Immoral Thing. His first article on the subject is all about the iPod and why it’s a ticking heathen time bomb:

Apple neglected to mention that every iPod ever sold included a hidden feature called “Podcasting” which they unveiled in mid 2005.

This feature allows liberal media direct access to young Americans without any of the safeguards that make TV channels like Fox News fair and balanced. A quick scan though some of America’s most popular podcasts is proof enough that a dangerous liberal minority have seized control over this influential channel.

Wow. Just wow.

But the second piece is the beautiful one to me, because he reviews my very own Escape Pod to reveal that we’re leading children down the path of perversity and occultism. He cites a few stories as examples. I don’t know what the hell the “industry standard CAPAlert scoring system” is, but EP apparently scores an 8.2 on it, which means we’re evil incarnate or something.

The blog post wraps up with a petition to the FCC to regulate podcasting, and tips for what to do if your child has become “addicted to science fiction.”

This is my favorite review ever. Now I know, for certain, that we’ve Made It.

Yesterday’s Rocketboom has a very solid interview with Russ Holliman about his startup Podcast Ready and the stuff they’re doing to make podcast subscription easier and more portable. A client that lives on your MP3 player, a Web site for anywhere-anytime feeds access and social “friends” sharing, and a client-side one-click button that works on any podcast site are just some of the features. Oh, and the MP3 players with their software pre-loaded are about to go on sale at major retailers.

Since their PR machine is rolling into full swing, I don’t see any reason to keep quiet about it now: these are the guys I’m doing that contract work for. Nothing on the “outside world” side yet — I can’t point to anything on their site and say “Yeah, I built that” — but I’ve been contributing some maintenance utilities, etc. Russ is a great guy, and I’d say that even if he wasn’t giving me opportunities that might soon allow me to work from home and get more done with podcasting.

Because I have a business relationship with them, I don’t expect to talk about them here too much. I know that may sound contrary, but one of my driving intents with this site is to present highly personal but trustworthy opinions and advice. My take on Podcast Ready is very positive, but also biased for reasons other than their product quality. Therefore I wouldn’t expect you to take anything good I said at full face value; and I won’t say anything bad about someone I’m working for.¹

So to offset any future laconicism, I’ll say it now, with spirit fingers: These guys are making cool stuff. Check them out. And if you have friends and family that just Don’t Get the podcasting thingamahoosit, you could do worse than to point them at Podcast Ready.

1. Yeah, I bitch about the day job. But have I named them? No. And I actually have no beef with the company itself; it’s just not the lifestyle I want right now. ↩