Making a podcast: Reflecting on creating a place-based podcast

Abstract

Although podcasts have become a popular medium since the early 2000s, geographers' use of the format as a research and dissemination method is underdeveloped. This paper examines how audio podcasts can be deployed as geographical processes to explore place and convey spatial themes in an impactful and innovative inclusive manner. Using the case study of a short series produced to consider the role of a river in the life of a region, I show how field recordings, interviews, and historical sources can be woven together to examine a place in an evocative and accessible manner. Podcasting is a research and communication tool, which can dovetail with existing approaches, with the potential to understand different environments in new ways, let community voices speak for themselves, and reach broader audiences. The paper argues that podcasts present new opportunities to consider how we appreciate and use sound to tell the story of places in participative and evocative ways.