Episodes

Bias in the news is a hot topic and is the focus of News in Context, a weekly podcast discussing the issues that impact how information is delivered, how we consume it, and how that affects our interactions with each other. In this episode, Prof. Lori Beckstead talks to creator and host of News in Context Dr. Gina Baleria. A former broadcast and digital journalist, Gina now teaches journalism, media writing, & digital content creation and delivery at Sonoma State University. In this wide-ranging conversation, issues covered include: navigating information in the Digital Age, audio journalistic forms, the role of the journalist in news, control of media content, economic considerations of podcast journalism, and much more. Dario introduces the episode with some reflections on the end of the academic year, continuing research and life generally, offers a few Podcast Studies recommendations, and outlines some news about a 'rebranding' of New Aural Cultures that is coming for the new a…

Dario is joined in this episode by two of the leading lights of Podcast Studies to discuss some of the major changes in podcasting infrastructure and their implications. Apple’s decision to add a mechanism for paid subscriptions to its podcasting architecture is a move that is arguably as significant as when the iTunes first specified podcasting in its audio listening directory. In a recent article in The Conversation co-written by John Sullivan (Professor of Media and Communication, Muhlenberg ...

The role of early career researchers is absolutely fundamental to the emergence and future development of “Podcast Studies”. And today I’m delighted to be joined by two such scholars whose own research is expanding the horizons of how podcasting is being theorized and analysed, AND, who are providing organisation, leadership & support for other ECRs in podcasting. This is particularly in light of their recent organisation of an International Graduate Symposium on Emerging in Podcast Studies. Dar...

In this episode, it was my pleasure to discuss politics, podcasting and the media more broadly with one of the top political commentators in the country Steve Richards. Steve is the host of Rock and Roll politics, a podcast that showcases his talent for the single voice monologue and we discuss this format, Steve's personal inspiration - the historian and broadcaster A.J.P. Taylor - and how it differs from dialogue and panel formats in production and delivery. We analyse the audience for Rock an...

In this episode, Dario talks to a producer and host with his finger on the pulse of the American podcasting landscape, Matty Staudt. Matty has been obsessed with audio broadcasting since childhood, listening to seminal shows such as Bob and Ray's morning show and Dr Demento. Moving into radio at the first opportunity Matty quickly became an an on-air host, morning show lead and executive producer at stations as WJFK in Washington DC, WNEW in New York City, Alice Radio (KLLC) and Live 105 (KITS) ...

In this episode, New Aural Cultures is delighted to be collaborating with the SpokenWeb podcast. Produced by a collective of researchers who are dedicated to the discovery and preservation of sonic artefacts that have captured literary events of the past, SpokenWeb is both a vital resource for the analysis of the spoken word history in Canada and beyond, and a vital intervention into the present and future of literary performance, communication and knowledge exchange from critical and pedagogica...

Alyssa Chafee is the co-producer and host of the Vagina Museum podcast which explores, in a playful yet in-depth tone, the cultural history and symbolism of what is still remains a taboo subject. Alyssa talks to Dario about her MA thesis in science podcasting audiences, he work with the Vagina Museum, and the idea and development of the podcast. Also under discussion is the podcast as a tool of education and awareness raising, how to challenge myths around taboo subjects, and the value of humour...

Podcasting as a form that is utilised by students in educational contexts has, of course, been an important strand of the medium's development and a key focus of academic analysis. Recently, there are increasing examples of MA and PhD students utilising podcasting as a form of practice-led research. Our own partnership with Jerry Padfield and his PhD casting is a key example of that. But on this episode Dario talks to another student podcaster Olivia Trono, whose project My Master's Thesis: It's...

In light of the momentous and quite frankly exhausting week leading up to the election of Joe Biden as 46th president of the United States, Dario catches up with an old podcasting friend, writer journalist and true sage of the American political system Denis Campbell. Denis produced The Three Muckrakers podcast on which Dario was one of those three along with Wales based Journalist Phil Parry; a show that looked across the main political stories from both a UK/US perspective. In this chat, Dario...

SHOW NOTES This week’s podcast features an interview with Andrew Bottomley, assistant professor of media studies at the State University of New York-Oneonta. His research is concerned with the social and cultural dimensions of communication technologies, in particular, the internet and broadcast radio, podcasting, recorded music, and other sound media. He is particularly interested in the history of new and emerging media, especially during moments of technological convergence and transference w...

SHOW NOTES This week’s podcast features several podcast scholars reporting on their recent research regarding podcast formalization and platformization. The panel is moderated by John Sullivan from Muhlenberg College. This panel was originally intended to be presented at the annual meeting of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) in Dublin, Ireland, but was transitioned to an online conference after the global pandemic. In keeping with the spirit of the topic, we decided to release our ...

After a summer break, we are back with a new season of shows for podcast lovers, producers, critics, and academics. And we begin with a bang. Dr Dario Llinares hosts a wide-ranging conversation with one of the foremost academic podcaster working today: Dr Hannah McGregor - Assistant Professor of publishing at Simon Fraser University. On the programme, Hannah discusses her expansive podcast output including Witch, Please, Secret Feminist Agenda and The SpokenWeb Podcast in terms of their developm...

A little over a week after the big podcasting news that Joe Rogan is moving to Spotify for a reported $100 million, Dario Llinares, Richard Berry and John Sullivan sat down for a remote discussion on the implications of the deal. The episode covers the economics of the move in terms of Spotify's continuing strategies for gaining not only market share from Apple, but determining the podcasting ecosystem. What does this mean for Rogan's extensive and vociferous fanbase, many of whom are attracted ...

PhDCasting aims to be research through podcasting practice. Jerry Padfield documents his personal reflections of a journey through a PhD at Falmouth University, researching #podcasting and #CommunityRadio practice for wellbeing. The podcast talks about the experience of completing a PhD, from the perspective of a research student: the milestones, the emotional highs and lows, and also becomes a research tool in itself, interrogating the embodied knowledge within the practice. Each episode also f...

PhDCasting aims to be research through podcasting practice. Jerry Padfield documents his personal reflections of a journey through a PhD at Falmouth University, researching #podcasting and #CommunityRadio practice for wellbeing. The podcast talks about the experience of completing a PhD, from the perspective of a research student: the milestones, the emotional highs and lows, and also becomes a research tool in itself, interrogating the embodied knowledge within the practice. Each episode also f...

PhDCasting aims to be research through podcasting practice. Jerry Padfield documents his personal reflections of a journey through a PhD at Falmouth University, researching #podcasting and #CommunityRadio practice for wellbeing. The podcast talks about the experience of completing a PhD, from the perspective of a research student: the milestones, the emotional highs and lows, and also becomes a research tool in itself, interrogating the embodied knowledge within the practice. Each episode also f...

PhDCasting aims to be research through podcasting practice. PhD student Jerry Padfield documents his personal reflections of a journey through a PhD at Falmouth University, researching #podcasting and #CommunityRadio practice for wellbeing. The podcast talks about the experience of completing a PhD, from the perspective of a research student: the milestones, the emotional highs and lows, and also becomes a research tool in itself, interrogating the embodied knowledge within the practice. Each ep...

After a bit of a hiatus, New Aural Cultures is back with a new series written, produced and presented by PhD student Jerry Padfield. Jerry is based down in Falmouth, Cornwall and is half-way through a PhD by practice which focuses on community radio and access. However, during the development of his project, he has begun to use podcasting as a research tool. Also, the podcast series acts an at kind of auto-ethnography for charting the process and progress of his PhD by practice. In this episode,...

For our first episode of the new year, we bring you a podcast panel recorded at the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association Conference held recently at the University of Brighton. The panel features Dr Dario Llinares, Dr Neil Fox and Dr Martin Spinelli each giving 20minute papers and then answering questions from those in attendance. The papers were all works in progress to a certain degree and though on different topics cross-over and common themes were still found and addressed i...

New Aural Cultures returns with this fascinating in-depth discussion with the science communicator and podcast producer (among many other things) Joseph Fridman. Joseph very generously took a brief break from his role as executive director of the upcoming Sound Education Conference taking place in Boston, MA from the 9-12th of October to talk about a range of themes particularly science communication and journalism, and the possibilities that podcasting provides in such areas. Joseph also outlin...