Marco Arment has a great take on how the decentralized nature of podcasting is a feature, not a bug, and Apple being more proactive there would be harmful to the ecosystem. As an aside, since I’ve been in Houston more recently, which means driving a lot, I’ve been really loving his app Overcast and I opted in to the optional paid subscription for it. I just need to get in more of a habit of listening to podcasts outside of Houston.
Overcast is such a great app! My colleague Joe introduced me to it a few months back, and I’ve been listening to podcasts so much more since.
Would love to hear some recommendations of podcasts from you, Matt!
Hi Matt,
Recently, I’ve started developing a keen interest in podcasts and would sure appreciate any app that makes the process a lot easier…I’ll be checking out Overcast in a moment.
Be sure to make the day great – and thanks a ton for the recommendation!
Always,
Akaahan Terungwa
I’ve been on Overcast for over a year; it’s some of the best £4 I’ve ever spent. Best features:
– Your podcasts sync between devices
– You can go to Overcast.fm to play podcasts from there or Delete shows/individual episodes or subscribe to new shows
– On paid, there are about 8ish speeds you can run the podcast on and you can even set the amount of time a Quick rewind or Quick forward will do (7 sec, 15 sec, 30 sec etc.)
– Attractive, clean interface that I found far easier to use than Apple’s own Podcasts app
– If you are listening with headphones that have a remote attached, you can set it so that, for instance, 2 clicks fast forwards, 2 clicks and a long click goes to the next track…
I have 2 children under 5 and a wife in full time university. In other words, I’m inundated with chores. As long as I have my podcasts on, I can keep going even when it’s 10pm and my body is saying PLEASE STOP MAKING ME MOVE I AM VERY TIRED.
With many of the podcasts, to me, it feels like I’m hanging out with a good friend. I look forward to their show popping up in my feed. They keep me in a good mood, they make me empathise, they make me laugh, they make me learn – my life is enriched by them. We’re incredibly spoiled for choice.
I am happy to talk about this endlessly and offer recommendations to anyone that asks.
Matt, if you’re in the mood for a cool and motivating distraction, you’ll want to check out Bob Reynolds’ amazing VLOG. It provides a very candid look into the day-to-day life of a professional touring saxophonist and composer. Bob loves to share productivity hacks and even references the Pomodoro Technique in this video at 2:57: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5HMQiFPUjU. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw this and had to send it to you for a laugh…
He is also rocking WordPress in a major way with http://bobreynoldsmusic.com/! It’s an elegant, subscription-based music education site. The amount of videos and printed material is blowing my mind and I nominate his site for the WordPress Showcase, if nominations are currently being accepted.
WordPress Music Festival? 😉