Missionary Talks

The simplicity of how podcasts work often becomes shrouded in the complex jargon that is used to describe them. A podcast is simply a sound, or video, file that is on the Internet that you are able to download through special software. Even without the special software you are able to enjoy podcasts in the following ways.

• You can enter your email address to the right in the box that says “Subscribe via email” which will update you when there is a new podcast available. Then you can can use one of the following methods to actually hear the audio file.
• You can listen directly from the website by clicking the play button at the bottom of each post which contains the sound file.
• You can download the file and listen to it on your computer.
• After the file is downloaded you can put it on your portable mp3 player to listen to later. It is important to note that you do not need to have an iPod to listen to podcasts.
• You can use the special software mentioned above called “podcatching” software. This program will periodically check the Missionary Talks website to see if there are new shows, and then will download the files automatically so that you can listen whenever you notice there is a new show available.

The most popular program to use for this automated process is iTunes from Apple. It is available free for both the Windows and Mac computer platforms. Once you have iTunes installed, you can “subscribe” to the show. As it relates to podcasts, and particularly Missionary Talks, subscription is free and you don not have to give out personal information. Subscribing just means that you tell iTunes that you want it to automatically check for and download any new shows.

If you have iTunes installed, you can click the button to the right under the “Feeds” heading that says iTunes. That will open the Missionary Talks show inside of iTunes and allow you to subscribe to the show easily.

There are other programs which can be used for this as well. Juice is available for Windows and Mac. CastPodder is available for Linux and is the one I use when I don’t use iTunes. But there are many more to chose from. With these programs you can use the RSS feed in the “Feeds” heading to the right.

There are also on-line podcatching clients which will allow you to subscribe from one website. There is a button to PodNova in the feeds that you can use to add Missionary Talks to your managed podcasts at that service. There are other services like this such as Podcast Ready which does on line and off line downloads.

If you have any further questions about how to use your podcatching software, send me an email and I will see if I can help you get started.