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“I’ve been on podcasts, but I don’t podcast. That’s just because I’m busy with my current job,” said Ryan Hulahon, Group Marketing Manager at Des Moines Radio Group, in his office one morning.

Podcasting was first developed in 2004 by a former MTV video jockey named Adam Curry, along with software developer, Dave Winer. According to howstuffworks.com, Curry ended up writing a program called iPodder, which made him able to automatically download internet radio broadcasts to his iPod. With help from several developers, podcasting was born.

Since then, there are now over 30 million episodes of podcasts, with content in more than 100 languages. 51% of people have listened to a podcast, and 70% of the US population is familiar with the term “podcasting” according to PodcastInsights.com.

“The beauty of podcasting is it’s not expensive,” said Hulahon. “You don’t need a big tower, you don’t need a big company backing. All you need is essentially a microphone and a recording device and a place to house the podcast on once it’s done. And there’s even websites that will do that. So somebody who wants to do quote unquote a type of broadcasting has kind of way to do it and has a lot more flexibility doing it.”

According to Live365.com, it generally only costs $200-$500 to make a quality podcast. Which is very cheap when you compare it to the average YouTube video cost of $880-$1200 according to thumbtack.com, and when the average radio broadcast costs $15,000 just to start up according to prometheusradioproject.com.

There are many reasons why people get into creating podcasts.

“I think that they have interests and they want to share those interests with other people,” said Hulahon.

There’s a level of everyone wanting to be a star, and podcasting allows you the chance to do that without having to go through years of broadcasting school and paying the dues and doing the overnights, the weekends. Now, everyone has a voice, and this allows people the chance to use that voice for others to hear.

Many people enjoy listening to podcasts because of the content and ease of use.

“I think one of the beautiful things about podcasting is the fact that if you search, there’s a podcast for whatever niche/hobby you have,” said Hulahon.

For example, originally being from Buffalo, NY, Hulahon doesn’t get a lot of coverage from the Buffalo sports teams in Des Moines on the radio, but there’s a couple of different Buffalo Bill’s podcasts he can check out that will give him stories and news that normally he wouldn’t get by living in Iowa.

Hunter Anderson, a senior at GV, says, “Through the podcasts I listen to, it’s more of a sit-down conversation instead of just information being thrown at you. Like Joe Rogan, he has a serious conversation with people and engages them, which engages you as well, so you kind of sit there and think about it as well.”

“I feel like you get a story, like I’m listening to an audiobook, but usually they’re shorter so it’s easier to pay attention to follow the story, and they usually relate more to the world instead of just being a fictional story,” GV student Payton Schramm said. “I’ve tried listening to audiobooks before but it’s so many hours long and I get distracted and I forget about what I’m listening to. If you stop paying attention halfway through a podcast, who cares? Like it will be over in 20 minutes.”

Hulahon said that he thinks podcasting has great potential. It gives everyone a voice, which is important because in most types of media not everyone gets heard. With podcasting, they can. Groups that were previously underrepresented in the media now have a voice and can share information on their own terms. If you’re interested in checking out a podcast, check out the suggestions below.

Top Ten Podcasts listened to on iTunes according to chartable.com:

1. Office Ladies
2. Crime Junkie
3. The Joe Rogan Experience
4. The Daily
5. Dolly Parton’s America
6. The Devil Beside Me: The Chris Watts Story – Husband, Father, Killer
7. My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
8. Dateline NBC
9. Stuff You Should Know
10. The Thing About Pam