I finally got off my ass and installed iPodderX on my Mac yesterday morning, and spent my last two morning commutes listening to podcasts from around the net (and the world).

Podcasting rocks. Really it does. Everyone should be doing this, and in this blog entry, I'll talk about how you can join in. But first, I'll answer the question I'm sure some of you have -- what the hell is a podcast?

What's a Podcast?

The short, non-geek answer is that it's like an internet radio broadcast that you can download and listen to either on your computer, or via an MP3 player. Amateur radio hosts create the files, and post them to the Web. You then use a special bit of software to download this "broadcast" to your computer; depending on the software, that process can be automatic.

The technical answer is that a podcast is a digital audio file (usually an MP3, occasionally a BitTorrent) that's been embedded into an RSS 2.0 feed. Podcasting takes its name from its earliest incarnation, which was as a tool for downloading audio files to iPods, but the podcast-reading software now support a variety of MP3 players, and if you don't have one of those, you can just listen to them on your machine.

Making the Catch

So how the heck do you do this? It's pretty simple regardless of whether you're using a Mac or a Windows-based machine.

1. Get Audio Software

The first thing you need is software for listening to audio files. If you want to put these files on your MP3 player, then you'll need a program that supports that player. On both Mac and Windows, I recommend using Apple's iTunes as your audio software, and their iPod as your MP3 player.

2. Get a Podcast Reader

Next you'll need some software capable of grabbing these internet broadcasts and pulling them down to your computer. On the Mac, I recommend iPodderX, which can download both audio and image files (going to iTunes and iPhoto respectively). On Windows, check out iPodder. In both programs, the downloaded audio are automatically imported into iTunes if you have them installed.

Once in iTunes, a couple of things can happen. You can listen to the files right there, or you can load them onto your iPod. Since I often hit my iPod's maximum capacity (10 gig) what I've done is created a dynamic playlist that looks for new podcasts and told iTunes that it should always load that playlist onto my iPod. (for more about managing your iPod when you've exceeded it's capacity, read this blog entry.

3. Get Some Podcasts

Now you need something to listen to. iPodder.org maintains a directory of podcasts broken down by category. Surf through the list, and grab the addresses of the RSS feeds you want to subscribe to, and then add them into your podcast reader. I recommend Adam Curry's Daily Source Code and Geek News Central. There are tons more podcasts out there, but these will get you started.

And that's it. Catching podcasts is pretty easy, even for the non-technically inclined. If you have recommendations for audio software or MP3 players, please let me know and I'll add them to this page.