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Slate Podcast RoundupAnd a few tips for the podcasting neophyte.

By Andy BowersPosted Friday, Sept. 16, 2005, at 2:03 PM ET

I talk to a lot of people these days who've heard something about podcasting but really don't want to take the time to figure it out and don't think it would improve their lives if they did. Fair enough. I feel that way about BlackBerrys.

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And yet we who've become addicted to podcasting feel it's just a matter of time before the rest of you join our club. We know that it puts you in control of your own listening time, allows you to time-shift radio shows you used to miss, and that you can discover and fall in love with programs—both professional and amateur—you never would have found before. Actually, we're a lot like converts to TiVo, the last technology to spawn legions of boring cocktail party evangelists.

(But you know what? TiVo actually does change your life. Grab another drink and I'll explain … sorry.)

So in an effort to make podcasting more appealing, I wanted to pass along two tips:

1) You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts. In most cases, they're simply MP3 audio files that you can listen to on your computer or any digital audio player you like.

2) Your computer can actually record any radio show you want right off the air (even if it's not available as a podcast), and you can then listen at your leisure. There are several products to help you do this, including RadioTime and Radio Shark. Click here for a Slate guide.

And in case you missed any of Slate's podcasts this week, here's a list (you can also visit the archive of all our past podcasts here):

Sept. 15: The Safest Place to Live in America (Slate piece)
Sept. 15: Roberts' Rules of Order (Slate piece)
Sept. 14: John Roberts is So Humble (Slate piece)
Sept. 13: Leave Snowball Behind (Slate piece)
Sept. 12: Swiping From Seinfeld (Slate piece)