Listening to a podcast

How to Receive and Listen to Podcasts

A podcast episode is nothing more than an MP3 audio file that you download from the Internet. Once you download the file, you can either listen to it on your computer or transfer it to an MP3 player to listen on the go.

The only things you absolutely need to listen to podcasts are a broadband Internet connection and a computer. Don’t bother with this if you use dialup net access, unless the shows you wish to download are very small files (say 2MB or less).

You have two options for downloading a podcast:

1. Direct download

Locate a show from an online list that intrigues you. Find the link to that MP3 file in the list. Click-and-hold (or right-click) that link. When the menu pops up, instruct your computer to save the target of that link to your computer. The file will then download. If you wish to listen to the show on your MP3 player, transfer the file manually to that device.

This strategy will suffice the first time or two that you want to listen to a podcast, just to get a sense of what the shows are like. However, if you want to listen to a variety of shows regularly, this labour-intensive method will quickly get tedious. In that case, you’ll want to move up to…

2. Subscribe for automatic downloads using podcast software such as iPodder or iTunes

All true podcasts are distributed by webfeed. What’s a webfeed? This is a simple broadcast of any content that is pushed out to users depending on the settings that they have set up with their desired software programme, such as iPodder or iTunes.

Podcast software is very similar to an online news feed reader. What’s a feed reader? It stores all your podcast subscriptions (a list of feeds) and checks them periodically for new shows (attached MP3 files).

First, select and install a podcast application. I recommend iPodder or iTunes, which are available for all major computer platforms, such as Windows and Mac OSX, and they are free.
Whenever a new episode of your favourite podcast is posted, your podcast software will see the new MP3 file and automatically download it to your computer or MP3 player. This is a time-saver.

After you have installed some podcast software, find a podcast on the www that you wish to subscribe to. There are podcasts listed at this web site:
Browse there to find a show that sounds interesting. In each show’s listing, you’ll find a link to its feed. Copy the feed address (URL) and paste that into your podcatcher using the add feed function. Then, tell your podcatcher to check (or update) your feeds. The software will automatically download the most recent episode of that show.

Then, connect your MP3 player to your computer and transfer the file there. You can automate this transfer with some podcatchers and MP3 players – read the FAQ for your preferred podcatcher for details. Once your podcast is loaded onto your MP3 player, take your show(s) and go!

Here are some screen shots from the excellent iTunes and iPodder (now known as Juice) applications.


Using iTunes

Launch or open the iTunes application

Step 1. Copy and paste the podcast link obtained from the Internet podcast site and open the mp3 software player application iTunes. Perform these actions.

  1. Select “Subscribe to podcast” from the “Advanced Menu”
  2. Paste in the address of the Subscribe to Podcast window. See Figure 1 below.
  3. Click OK.
  4. The podcast will download to the iTunes player software. See figure 2 below.

Note: In some instances the podcast will automatically download within iTunes once you click on the podcast feed link in Podifier.

Figure 1. Subscribe to Podcast.

Figure 2. Your podcast is being downloaded.

Your podcast will appear in your podcast listings complete with its description. See Figure 3 below.

Figure 3. Downloaded podcast.

Select and click the podcast entry to listen to it.


Using Juice

Launch the Juice application. Download here: http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/index.php

You can add a “podcast feed’ by clicking on the “+” button or selecting the appropriate menu item. Have you located some podcasts on the Internet?


You can also add a “podcast feed” using the Podcast directory window and clicking the Add button. Note the website address of the podcast ends with the .rss file.

You can right click on a feed to view its properties.


When you update a podcasts feed you will see the name of the latest mp3 file that has been added to the podcast feed begin to download. See the window below.

You can choose to play the file in a media player.

You can also set the player of your choice in the Preferences window. See below.


In addition you can also schedule when your application downloads the latest podcast feeds from your subscribed podcast sites. See below.

Preferences Settings in iPodder

It is very important to correctly set the Preferences for iPodder if you wish to download several podcasts at the same time. As well you need to ensure that your proxy settings have been correctly set in the network section of the preferences. Your network administrator will be able to help you with this.

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