Now XFM doesn\u2019t exist anymore, but when it did, it was a friend to lonely scientists like me. You could rely on it to keep you entertained all day. In particular I would ensure that I had a fairly mundane experiment to do when Adam and Joe<\/a><\/strong><\/span> broadcast their regular show.<\/p>\n Adam and Joe were my radio buddies. They were personable, amusing, seemed to share similar interests to me and, most importantly, were very, very funny. It was fantastic. Unfortunately, they had an annoying habit of broadcasting on a Saturday afternoon, when I preferred to be doing other things.<\/p>\n It was then that I first found out about podcasts<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t come across podcasts, you soon will. Fundamentally, podcasts are like radio programmes that you can subscribe to and have delivered automatically to your phone OR OTHER MOBILE ELECTRONIC DEVICE. They can be about anything. You can listen to them at any time. Sometimes they\u2019re distillations of the best bits of a regular radio programme, like the Adam and Joe show<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 or (if you really have to) Russel Brand\u2019s podcast<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, which allow you to avoid timing your experiments with the radio. Other times they can be like exciting box-set style talking-book dramas, sometimes based on real life, like the AMAZING Serial<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. For the crazy academics out there, you can even get the best bits from Radio 4, like Desert Island Discs<\/a><\/span><\/strong>. Or they can be about science. Like Level up Human<\/a><\/span><\/strong> or the Infinite Monkey Cage<\/a><\/span><\/strong>. And that\u2019s where I come in.<\/p>\n About a year ago, my friend and collaborator, Steve Lee<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, met in London to chat about some collaborative work<\/a><\/strong><\/span> we were doing. As usual we went for a pint afterwards and amused each other with our highly witty science-based repartee. Conversation probably turned to Adam Buxton\u2019s excellent podcast<\/a><\/span>, and we thought, surely other people<\/em> could benefit from the comedy gold we were wasting on each other in the pub! So we decided to have a go ourselves. And here we are, podcasting:<\/p>\n As you all know, science communication is IMPACT<\/a><\/span><\/strong>. These days, to get grants, you have to show that you\u2019re trying to engage with \u2018stakeholders\u2019. The public. So why not have fun doing it? That\u2019s what we thought anyway.<\/p>\n Our first podcast was an elastic bands and string attempt. We borrowed a mike from Stephan Caspar<\/a> <\/span><\/strong>at (the now-repurposed) iLiAD, plugged it into a PC and recorded direct to a computer using a free bit of software called Audacity<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. We didn\u2019t really know what we were doing, but it was surprisingly easy to use. We even made some jingles. Go and have a word with Stephan, I\u2019ve even started involving it in my teaching.<\/p>\n Since then we have met regularly and we are now up to Episode 22 (released this Sunday). You can find our podcasts here<\/a><\/strong><\/span> (SoundCloud) or here <\/a><\/span><\/strong>(iTunes). Some of them appear on youtube as tasters, like this one here:<\/p>\n![\"Podcasting](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/medicallyspeaking\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2017\/04\/Podcasting-science.jpg?resize=300%2C168\")
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