{"id":3914,"date":"2022-03-15T20:54:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T00:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agencephdesign.ca\/science-podcast-deciphering\/"},"modified":"2025-01-20T04:49:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T09:49:49","slug":"science-podcast-deciphering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agencephdesign.ca\/en\/publications\/science-podcast-deciphering\/","title":{"rendered":"Science podcast: Deciphering"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Podcasts are exploding and have become THE new way to communicate. From large media platforms to smaller content creators, many have embraced this audio-based format. Today, podcasts can even be found on YouTube, broadcast live or as replays. What is a podcast? What is its origin? How do we navigate this new abundance of content to avoid turning it into a “podcast hype<\/em>“? Manon Boiteux and David Mendes, the agency’s co-founders, decipher all this and share with you their favorites in the world of French science podcasts.<\/p>\n

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What is a podcast? <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Podcasts were born about 15 years ago when some techies<\/em> found a way to encapsulate audio files in an RSS feed, which at the time was mainly used to feed blogs. The word, coined by Ben Hammersley in 2004<\/a>, comes from the contraction of “ipod<\/em>” and “broadcast<\/em>“. He was trying to name the new phenomenon that was emerging among journalists and bloggers in the United States. This format has slowly but surely gained popularity and has become the medium of 21st century “pirate radio”. It seems that this format allows the “best of all worlds” of radio and media to be harnessed by making it easier for the creator to broadcast while freeing the listener from the constraints of time and space, with a downloadable audio capsule that is easy to listen to anywhere.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Since then and in the last few years, podcasting has become a medium in its own right, especially in the English-speaking world, where a huge public interest has fueled not only a proliferation of community and content, but also interest from advertisers, and millions of dollars in exclusive contracts and advertising. This has created a ripple effect that has arrived fairly recently in the French-speaking world. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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What are the different formats?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Now, after 15 years, podcasts take many forms: radio program reruns, themed series, daily or weekly conversations, video podcasts, so it’s easy to feel lost. However, that’s the beauty of this medium, in that it allows science fiction fans to talk for hours, researchers to talk about their field, enthusiasts, or real production teams to tell stories. In fact, storytelling<\/em> is at the center of the most listened-to genre at the moment, the “true crime” podcasts.<\/p>\n

This aspect of storytelling is of great importance for science outreach, especially in these times of widespread misinformation and skepticism about science and scientists. If done right, podcasts can reach a large audience and be between their ears for an average of 30 minutes, much longer than a YouTube video.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Which podcasts are particularly appealing and why?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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As consumers (and producers, for David<\/a>) of podcasts, Manon and David tried to understand why they like this format so much:<\/p>\n