Streetsblog’s Brand-New Podcast: Episode 1

Behold, Streetsblog’s brand-new podcast! In what we aim to turn into a recurring feature, Reconnecting America’s Jeff Wood and I recently chatted about the week’s news in livable streets, urbanism, and sustainable transportation. The topics are drawn from Jeff’s excellent daily compendium of transportation and planning links, The Direct Transfer, and from stories we’re tracking at Streetsblog Capitol Hill. It’s a treat for me to get back to producing audio — I was a radio reporter before joining Streetsblog.

This podcast is still very much in beta — we haven’t even settled on a name for it yet (suggestions welcome). But we want to share it with you and get your feedback and ideas about where to take it.

This week, Jeff and I discussed whether regional planning matters, the odd timing of Florida Governor Rick Scott’s decision to reject federal high-speed rail funds, and drawing fantasy maps for the transit and bike infrastructure your city needs. Have a listen, let us know what you think, and join the conversation in the comments.

  • Anonymous

    It would be great if you guys could make an RSS feed for those of us who listen to podcasts through apps 🙂

  • It’s in the works. Like Tanya said, this is in beta. We plan to add the full complement of subscription options soon.

  • Thanks, Alex! We’re working on it. If you have any advice for us on that front, we’d be grateful for it!

  • Ted King

    Re : Podcast Name

    How about The Talk On the Streets(blogs) ?

    This is riffing on an old theme. A Google search for [ “talk on the street” ] turned up lots of uses including the link below. Making it plural produced ten times as many results.

    Snoqualmie River (WA) ferry history :
    http://www.chs.riverview.wednet.edu/duvall/Talk%20on%20the%20Street.htm

  • James Gross Jr

    The whole story on how it is cheaper to commute to London from Barcelona(!?!?!) is insane! Plus, a friend of mine pointed out RyanAir makes Southwest look like a rich man’s airline……..That Pittsburgh transit map is awesome. I like how the student’s map would facilitate conversation. It’s an eye opener about how difficult it must be (I’ve never been to PGH) to get around and through town.

  • Anonymous

    This is great. StreetCast? StreetsBlab? StreetTalk? Talksportation? TransporTalk? The Bike-PedCast? The Rollout? The Spoke? I could do this all day…

  • Please do! You’re on fire, here!

  • Thanks! You can now follow the feed on Soundcloud.

  • Any idea how I get this onto iTunes so I can load it on my player? I initially searched the iTunes store, and found a Streetsblog San Francisco podcast from 2009 but I bet that’s not it. :->

  • jwinstonsf

    Its easy. You host the mp3 file on your server with a link on a page with show notes. Then set up a an rss feed using http://feedburner.google.com . Then post the rss feed on your site, preferably on the right sidebar. You will then have a normal rss feed without having to use soundcloud or mixcloud. People will be able to use the podcast player of their choice.

    I’d be happy to help if you need it.

  • Is there any simple way to get iTunes to scrape an rss feed, or do I have to wait till they get it officially run through Apple’s backend?

  • jwinstonsf

    I’m assuming you have submitted a valid rss feed to the itunes store as described here: http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html

    I don’t know for sure but I’ll bet it won’t work with a Soundcloud feed. You will have to upload your mp3 to a server and publish an rss feed as I outlined above.

    I used to produce Bikescape and I found that it was easy, dependable and most of all, free to post the sound file at archive.org, post a link to it on my blog, then update the rss feed at Feedburner. It might take some time but Itunes will eventually pick up the new episode.

    While a lot of people use Itunes for their podcasts, many of us do not so it is a good idea to have permanent links for both itunes and the rss feed prominently displayed in your sidebar.

    If you wish we can speak on the phone or skype and do it together. You can reach me at jwinstonsf AT gmail DOT com. I would be more than happy to help in this and other ways. (Imagine a West Coast bureau!)

    –jw

  • I think you have me confused: I’m a consumer of podcasts, not a producer, and am limited to only iTunes in terms of what I can listen *with*. :-> So I was wondering if a podcast that has an rss feed (but is not ‘in iTunes’) can be listened to via the software somehow anyway. Probably not. But I can hope …

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