Free Friday - Podcast Apps

This article is going to be a bit different from my usual Friday free stuff recs. A couple of weeks ago friend asked me about podcasts and how to listen to them. Here it is.

I'm addicted to podcasts. I love them. I listen to them compulsively. 

Podcasts are big right now. Huge. It's easier than ever to both find a player (podcatcher) and find a podcast that captures your interest and compels you to listen. Professional actors and newscasters are involved in making podcasts. The subjects are broad. My own subscriptions range from Celtic Christmas music that posts only in November and December every year to Ronan Farrow's new podcast that covers the release of his new book "Catch and Kill".

There are a plethora of apps available for all platforms. The podcatcher that I use on my desktop is GPodder. It's short for Gnome Podder and it is an open source tool for catching and maintaining a feed of podcasts for Linux machines. GPodder is not a podcast player. It is an aggregator. When you hit the play on an episode you want to listen to, it opens up in the media player of your choice. I use VideoLAN and recommend it highly.

But that's me. I am compelled by unseen forces to use open source everything unless it is on my phone. Which is where nearly everyone else else listens to podcasts. The lesson here is don't be like me. Go with the easy stuff.

The easiest way to listen to podcasts is with native apps:

If you have an Apple phone use the pre-installed Apple Podcasts app.

• Open the app.
• Search for an interest or browse the page for something that strikes your interest
• Scroll down the episodes and either find the first episode (if a serial) or one that looks interesting (if episodic). 
• Tap the + icon and then tap the download icon
• Go to the Library and tap Episodes
• Tap the one you want to play.
• If you like - Subscribe.
• It will be in your library for clicking

Yes. It's that simple.
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If you have an Android Phone use the Google Podcast app. I've been using it for a couple of days now and I like it. It's dead simple to use and doesn't drain my battery to death. The app is a win for me. (Side note: I'm not sure WTH is up with the reviewers - I have not had the problems they are describing at all. It's easy to close the program in 'close all' and the podcasts are supposed to start where you leave off. That's how it works.)

• Go to the Play Store and install it
• Open the app
• ​Search for an interest or browse for something that strikes your interest
• Scroll down the episodes and either find the first episode (if a serial) or one that looks interesting (if episodic).
• Hit play to stream (Or download for offline listening)
• If you like - Subscribe.
• When you open your app, you will see all of your subscriptions.

It's a very intuitive app. I've highlighted some things you can do in screenshots below.
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As the app will appear when you open the Google Podcast App

Searching for a podcast

View search result in app

View episodes and subscribe

View information about an individual episode

Pull up screen and play episodes

​You can also rinse, lather, repeat with Spotify. Spotify has an excellent interface for podcasts and is one of the podcast catchers/players of choice for all platforms - Mac, Windows, Android, Chrome, iOS and even Linux. I've been using it on my desktop for a few days and it's good. The ads can get annoying, but it's a commercial product, not open source. I didn't expect to get it for free.

Basic, free Spotify on Linux opened up to podcasts.

Finding podcasts and browsing categories on Spotify

Subscribing or following. Same thing.

​There are other podcast catcher/players that are platform specific like Overcast (iOS) and Podcast Addict (Android/Chrome). I didn't like Podcast Addict when I tried it a couple of years ago, but other people seem to like it well enough. Like Spotify, Podcast Addict is free for basic use, but has a paid version that removes ads.

Finding a good app for catching and listening to podcasts is easy. What's hard is finding a good podcast - Mostly that's because there are so many good ones out there. You could spend the rest of your life listening to interesting podcasts and still not reach the end of them.

And that's what I'll be talking about next week. Finding good podcasts that are right for you in an ocean of good podcasts.