I pride myself on my knowledge and use of new media, but it might be a bit overstated. Just because I blog and I twitter doesn’t exactly put me on the cutting edge of new media technology. Perhaps more than most; maybe less than many. Whenever I adapt some new technology I feel so proud of myself, like, look at me! Not old and obsolete yet! Then my teenager texts me, “You’re such a dork.” and my image of myself is totally shot.

So it’s with great joy that I tell you about my newest discovery: PODCASTS! I know, podcasts have been around forever and this is a little like getting excited over…a fax machine…but bear with me here. For those of you who, like me, are all “huh? podwhat?” let me explain that a podcast is like a broadcast, except that it’s digital – you download it from the internet for playback on an iPod or computer.

The podcast page on iTunes is just ridiculous with content. I’m sure I can’t even begin to scratch the surface of a huge, huge, so-not-melting iceberg because keep in mind, there is like unlimited space out there on the internet. There are podcasts from Oprah, Apple, Martha Stewart, Joel Osteen, all the news channels, Nickelodeon, Disney, The Onion, The New Yorker, The Economist, MTV, VH1 and ESPN. And my personal favorite…

National Public Radio. So if your local NPR station doesn’t air the insanely popular “This American Life” (or they put it on some secret channel that you have to buy a special new radio to pick up), you can download it for free every week on iTunes. In fact, YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE TO IT. And every week, when the new show goes up, your iTunes account pulls it down for you. You can get Car Talk, Prairie Home Companion, Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation, Science Friday, Driveway Moments, Whad’Ya Know?, Frank Deford, StoryCorps, Youth Radio…did I mention the unlimited space?? When I say I could go on forever, it’s not really an exaggeration.

There are THREE PAGES of podcasts on SOCCER, ya’ll. Elephant rescue? Check. Slam poetry? You bet. Knitting? Of course! No matter what sort of quirky interest you have, I bet you’ll find a podcast for it.

(As a side note, NPR is public media, so just like the local stations, they offer up the podcasts for free but they really are listener-supported. If you’re going to subscribe to the FREE weekly “This American Life” podcast, it’d be awfully nice of you to go to ThisAmericanLife.org and make a donation. Just sayin’.)

I download mine from iTunes but a lot of podcasts are available on the media’s web site, too. So if you missed a Larry King you really wanted to catch, go to CNN.com and see if you can’t download the podcast.

It’s right at your fingertips – anything you want. It’s like…The Jetson’s!