Each week we make available–absolutely free via podcast–both hours of Bob Edwards Weekend. Thanks to those of you who have subscribed and for those of you who have no idea what a podcast is or how to listen to one, click here for a really great explanation. Keep in mind that you don’t have to have iTunes on your computer to subscribe to a podcast, but iTunes is absolutely free to download and it makes the whole thing very simple.
We’ve gotten a lot of requests to make past episodes of Bob Edwards Weekend available as a podcast. So each week, we will post a show from our archive. Today, it’s our first Bob Edwards Weekend from January 2006 featuring a discussion on the then-impending confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, an essay from Tom Bodett and conversations with Maureen Dowd and Bonnie Raitt. Not a bad way to kick things off. (Keep in mind that in iTunes the new podcast will appear at the bottom of the list of previously published episodes.)
The response to the Bob Edwards Weekend podcasts has been tremendous. Again, thanks to all of you who have subscribed and, please, if you like what you’re hearing take a few moments and write a review of the podcast at the iTunes store. The reviews really work to increase the profile of the podcast at iTunes and help us reach even more people. Finally, there has been some confusion about whether or not the podcasts are free. THEY ARE. Completely. The XM Web page where you go to subscribe doesn’t make this very clear, but rest assured that subscribing to the Bob Edwards Weekend podcast does NOT mean you are purchasing anything.
Enjoy!
Steve Lickteig
Charlie is absolutely correct. I’ve guided folks toward iTunes because XM has essentially geared its podcast subscriptions toward that service. But there are dozens of clients one can use to subscribe to podcasts that don’t hog as many resources as iTunes.
Steve
iTunes is absolutely free to download and it makes the whole thing very simple
Yes, but it is also unnecessarily bloated, and an unabashed sales tool for the iTunes store. There have been, and continue to be, questions about how much user data the application returns to Apple’s servers, which may or may not be a privacy violation (depending on who is writing the article). It may be more sensible for those not purchasing 99-cent songs from the iTunes store to avoid it and the resultant problems/issues.
Real podcasting clients like Juice are equally easy to use, don’t automatically connect to an external server to report anything back, are open-source and so the underlying computer code may be audited by anyone interested, is cross-platform, and doesn’t include unnecessary codecs or other "bloatware."
I’m not suggesting that iTunes is a "bad thing," and for those with an Apple-branded iPod it is the simplest way to connect, but for everyone else it is neither the only, nor for most people the best, alternative for subscribing to the Bob Edwards Weekend podcast.