The Podcast-as-Method?: Critical Reflections on Using Podcasts to Produce Geographic Knowledge

Abstract

In this article, we consider the potentials and limitations of podcasts as a geographic research method by reflecting upon our own podcast project that focused on a graduate student unionization movement. We found that the podcast medium allowed us to approach this study in innovative ways. First, podcasts can communicate visceral elements of data through speakers’ voices, potentially changing how an audience responds to the research. Second, an emphasis on dialogue changes the way we collect, analyze, and present data, creating a more polyvocal product. Third, podcasts present opportunities to reach broader audiences. Podcasts also raise methodological challenges; limited time and technical expertise, diverging participant goals, and distribution challenges limited the potential of our intervention into the unionization debate. Despite these obstacles, the podcast-as-method could enable geographers to engage in academic and public debates in new ways, providing more accessible forms of geographic knowledge on pressing social and environmental issues.