What is a podcast?

A podcast is a recorded radio show that you can listen to for free on-demand on your phone, computer or smart speaker. 

Podcasts are about anything and everything! Aboriginal Art! The human brain! Climate change and race in Norfolk, VA! A fictional radio play about a giant rock! (And those are just our podcasts!)

Most podcasts are “talk radio” (as opposed to music shows).

Some podcasts are also on the radio. A lot of NPR network shows like “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me” or “Car Talk” are available as podcasts.

 

How do I listen to Podcasts?

Most people listen to podcasts on their smartphone using an app like Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Youtube.

To start listening this way, go to the App Store on your device and download one of these apps for free.

  • Spotify & YouTube will ask you to create a free account to start listening. You will also hear ads. These ads are chosen and controlled by Spotify & YouTube not by the podcast you listen to.

  • If you have an iPhone you can download and use Apple Podcasts without having to make an additional account.

Once you have this app downloaded and are signed in, you can browse for podcasts by title, by topic and by publisher i.e. “Virginia Audio Collective” “New York Times” “Radiotopia.”

All our podcast pages include a few logos:

You can click on these to open that podcast in the app you have downloaded on your phone.

When you find a podcast you like be sure to hit the “Subscribe” or “Follow” button to see future episodes when they post!

You can also listen to podcasts on your web browser or smart speaker!

If you want to listen to a podcast from your computer, it’s often easiest to just google the name of a podcast and navigate to their show website. Many podcasts will also post episodes to SoundCloud, a website that makes browser-based podcast listening easy!

If you want to listen to a podcast from your Amazon Alexa, Apple HomePod or Google Nest device, simply ask it to play the name of the podcast. “Alexa play the podcast “Democracy in Danger.” It will automatically start the most recent episode.