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What's Podcasting?

As MP3 players become more and more ubiquitous, podcasts are becoming more and more popular. DW.COM explains what podcasting is, how it works and how you can listen to podcasts.

https://p.dw.com/p/7gHE

Where does the expression "podcasting" come from?
"Podcasting" comes from mixing "broadcasting" with Apple's now-famous iPod MP3 player and amounts to radio you can download and listen to whenever you want.

So what does that mean to me?
With podcasting you can download Deutsche Welle radio programs to your own MP3 player -- no, it doesn't have to be an iPod -- and listen to them wherever and whenever you want. You're no longer bound to Deutsche Welle's programming schedule.

How technically inclined do I have to be?
Not very. You just need a computer with an Internet connection and software that plays MP3 files, which usually comes pre-installed. To make the process easier, you can download free podcasting clients that will, in turn, download your favorite podcasts from the Internet and transfer them to your MP3 player. iPodder is the original podcasting client, but there are plenty available, including Apple's iTunes.

What do I need to listen to a Deutsche Welle podcast?
Every Deutsche Welle podcast has an RSS feed. These feeds were first used in blogs but have also become an important part of news Web sites. Podcast feeds contain the so-called "tags" that link to the audio files. You just need to copy the RSS tag into your podcasting client and let it do the work.