How can podcasts connect us in better and more meaningful ways?
I’m Rahul Nair and this is the question I asked myself when I decided to build Storiyoh
Podcasting in India has traveled much in the last 18 months that I’ve been a part of this ecosystem.
It has indeed come a long way since Ben Hammersley suggested this combination of the words — Pod (Portable on Demand) and broadcast.
The geeks among us would define a podcast as “a digital audio or video file that can be downloaded from the internet to a portable media player”.
But here’s how I, as one out of the rest of us, look at podcasts.
A podcast is someone telling you a story that informs you or entertains you. If you look at it, it is a lot like the radio.
It’s a funny story. I so believe in this, that ‘Stereo’ was the first thing that came to my mind when we were naming our mobile app.
Now, I’ll get to the reason why I find podcasts interesting.
It has to do with how Blogs, and internet at large, has evolved in these last 20–25 years.
Back in 1994, Google wasn’t a part of this world. An American journalist, Justin Hall, created one of the first blogs to “get his writing online”. This decision earned him the title “the founding father of personal blogging” from New York Times, 10 years later.
Gradually, everyone else followed. Fast forward to today, more than 4 million blog posts had already been written yesterday, by 5 pm IST.
There’s something to be said here about human expression.
The Internet has been a powerful force in helping us express ourselves in new ways. It brought us Blogs, YouTube, Twitter, Medium, Instagram. Basically, everything wonderful we have in the world of social media and content platforms today.
Podcasting is a natural extension to that. Put simply, it’s another way to express and share your stories.
Podcasts are fast becoming the hot new medium to learn and grab information. In India, it’s happening the fastest.
It’s easy to understand why.
One, they come in all sounds and sizes.
They can educate you (Ted Talks), make you better at what you do (Marketing School), tell you success stories (Masters of Scale) and best practices (The Knowledge Project).
Podcasters include educators (Adam Grant), philosophers (Sam Harris), businessmen (Garyvee Audio Experience).
It’s a fairly diverse and inclusive set of people doing podcasts. Which means you will probably be able to find something you like.
Two, you can listen to them on-the-go.
If you’re smart about it, you don’t need to find any more time from your schedule to listen to these podcasts. If you’re traveling, running or eating today, my guess is you’re listening to music, or watching a show on Netflix, or relaxing by yourself. At some of these times, I would say you can listen to a podcast.
There is one other thing that’s interesting but has largely been missing from the world of podcasts.
I have been listening to podcasts for over 4 years now. I have often told my friends about these podcasts. I’ve made some new friends based on podcasts that we both listen to and like. That feels a lot like being a football fan, or a cricket fan, or a movie buff for that matter.
But interestingly enough, there is no online platform where I can do this effectively.
My friends and I could be using the same podcast app but we still remain disconnected. In this day and age, when everyone is so well connected through the internet, this just doesn’t seem right. Isn’t it?
Granted, you can tweet about a podcast on Twitter, and you can then find a person who also watches the show and maybe you two become friends. But the whole experience is broken. Badly broken.
I imagine a better world.
Connections are important to us as humans. It makes us happy to find new people to meet, discover what each other is like and hopefully build a relationship. It’s so valuable that these relationships are considered as a person’s social capital.
While listening to podcasts, it’ll help to know what my friends are listening to. I’ll like to find new people who listen to the same podcasts as I do. I’ll like to hear what they have to say about it all.
Look at it this way. Your friends often tell you good places to go have dinner, books that you should read or that new movie you should totally see. But when was the last time someone told you about a podcast?
The fact that your friends are not talking enough about podcasts is the reason why you’re not listening to them yet.
This is what I want to change with Storiyoh. I think audio stories can really change our lives for the better and we should pay more attention to them.
Create your profile and subscribe to the shows you like. You can choose from more than 5,00,000 podcasts on the platform. We have made more than 50 collections that you might find interesting. There’s one for dog lovers, parents, film history, BBC Buffs, and entrepreneurs.
Invite your friends to Storiyoh and follow them on the platform. Aishwarya Chaturvedi and I connected on our mutual appreciation for BBC Earth. I have picked up tens of podcasts that my brother, Rohit, chose to listen to.
You can also make playlists on themes that you find interesting. This will help others discover new podcasts easily. Be tastemakers, if you will :)
Drop by. I’ll add you once you’re there on Storiyoh. Let’s create some magic together.
How do you feel about podcasting?
Drop your 2 cents as comments anywhere on this story. Will love to discuss.
