Can you explain in detail how to download a podcast to my computer, running Windows XP? I have noticed that in the past that you have recommended Audacity as part of the process.

You will be glad to hear that podcasts are quite easy to download. For those who are not familiar with the term podcasts, these are essential audio shows which are encoded as MP3 files and then distributed over the internet. Strictly speaking, a podcast should be delivered via an RSS (really simple syndication) feed, a system allowing users to automatically “subscribe” to content (such as podcasts) and have this information automatically pulled to the user’s computer. However, in recent times, the definition of podcasts has become much looser and generally means any audio show which can be downloaded from the internet. As such, most podcasts are simply MP3 files which you can download from a podcast’s website. For example, the popular This Week in Tech (www.twit.tv) podcast delivers content via several methods, with the simplest being an MP3 file you can download from the website. If you click the podcast link on the website by default the MP3 file will open and attempt to play using Windows Media Player. This is not entirely desirable, as you may wish to download the MP3 file to your computer so it can be played later and so you can also play the file again without having to re-download the podcast file (which is especially important, since most podcasts are about 30 ? 40 MB and can be quite time consuming to download). Instead, to download a podcast from a website link right-click on the link and select “Save Target As”. This will download the target of the link (i.e. the podcast MP3 file) to your local computer. Once the file has downloaded to your local computer, double-click on the MP3 file to open this in Windows Media Player (or whatever player you have set as the default program for MP3s on your computer).

However, there may be some podcasts which are not downloadable and can only be played online. These podcasts “stream” to your computer directly from a server, and usually play using an embedded player within the webpage. For such podcasts, you just need to click the play button in the embedded player and the podcast will commence to play on your computer.

You also mentioned Audacity in your question. Audacity is an audio authoring program which can be used to create audio content, such as podcasts. So, you don’t need Audacity to listen to podcasts (although you could open podcasts in Audacity and use this program as a player, although Windows Media Player fulfils the same function). Audacity is used if you wish to create podcasts. If you wish to experiment with Audacity you can download the program for free at www.audacity.com .