Each month, a different Hive team presents to the rest of the Hive about what they do. This January, it was our turn: the Creative Content & Social Media team, which does podcasting, photography, and social media (in English and Chinese). Each Hive member has their own specialty, and the podcast team decided to demonstrate their interviewing and editing skills -- during the meeting. While Dana Rogers took awesome photos of everyone, the podcast team interviewed Christian Ecker, edited and produced the piece, and played it for everyone. The finished product, "On the Spot," can be found here.

Upon doing a list of all the podcasts made in 2011, I was astonished to find that the A&S Podcast team made more than A HUNDRED PODCASTS!!! Holy moly! 

And we covered SO many different topics -- from the geological reasons why Kentucky's groundwater is best for bourbon, to the process of translating a rare language guide into English from Chinese, to move-in day at A&S Wired and Ahmed Kathrada's gallery opening in April... 2011 was quite a year for A&S, and I feel really glad to have been here to document some of it. 

Of course, this ridiculous feat couldn't have been possible without the help of Christina Buckner, Stephen Gordinier or Sam Burchett -- all three of whom have been instrumental in the success of our podcasting endeavors. It started with just me, an H4N zoom, and sort of a plan... and to look at where we've come in the last year is really amazing!

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to 2012, and to pestering every student in the Hive for an interview. :) 

While catching up with Robert Krulwich's blog, I was struck by the entry about sounds. The sounds of things that are no longer ubiquitous; though I remember rotary phones and watched film strips as a young kid, these were displaced by more modern technologies, which have been displaced yet again!

This entry, "What I Still Hear: Sounds That Have Disappeared" features lots of recordings of old bits of technology doing their stuff, and then some more contemporary versions of similar technologies (or at least, similar in intent or effect). As a podcaster, I know that ambient sounds can make or break a recording... or add some unexpected sound effects. (Does anyone recall the Janis Joplin song with the typewriter in it? The Moldy Peaches song with the phone ringing? Ah, the joys of field recording...)

Some sounds that have stayed the same in my lifetime: planes overhead, freight trains outside, and emergency vehicle sirens. I suppose when we get flying cars, bullet trains and travel internationally by teleportation machine, these sounds will change along with the technology.

If you haven't already heard about Stitcher, it's pretty cool! This is a service that's free and can stream to a mobile device or a desktop computer. It takes what you like to listen to and suggests similar shows -- sort of like Pandora Radio's "Music Genome Project." There are lots of well-known podcasts like This American Life,  and The Onion's (fake) newscasts, and Stuff You Should Know, as well as more obscure, but related, shows. 

There are podcasts in a variety of languages, on a variety of topics, so there's bound to be something that suits you. Happy listening!