The word "Podcast" is a conglomeration of the words "iPod" and "broadcast". So it's an "iPod broadcast". The thing is that you don't need an iPod and it's not a broadcast in the sense that it comes to you via the computer, not over the air. It's not exactly a webcast, in that you don't need to be tethered to your computer to participate either. Steve Jobs of Apple Computer said that it's like "Wayne's World for radio" or "Tivo for radio". That's true, but not quite adequate to describe what it is. Podcasting is what you get when you open up a powerful means of sharing information to everyone with the desire and money (which can be very little) to do it. It's prerecorded, niche "radio". Some day there will be a podcast about anything you can imagine. If you want to know about commercial flight from a pilot, there's a podcast. If you want to know what it's like to be a foster parent, there's a podcast. Many are really bad. Some are great. Now, how do you get it? Strickly speaking you can simply download the mp3 file from the link and either listen on your computer, burned to a cd, on an mp3 player (like an iPod), or even via tape or vinyl (if you wanted to record them in that format). But what if you could subscribe like you subscribe to the paper? What if every time a podcast was uploaded by it's author, it automatically got downloaded to your computer? See the RSS button to the right? Click on it and see the gibberish? If you paste that link into a special program called either an aggregator or "podcatcher", viola you get an automatic podcast download. There are tons of these podcatchers available, some cost money like NetNewsWire. Some are open-source like iPodder. One of the easiest ones, though, is iTunes. iTunes is available for both Mac and Windows. A great many podcasts are available for free download in the iTunes music store. If you find a feed that isn't yet in the iTunes store, click on "Advanced>Subscribe to Podcast" and paste the RSS url in there and you're done. If you're using Safari, you can also drag the url from the address bar in Safari into iTunes. Enjoy. Paul