This week’s 52 challenge is:
Listen to a podcast. A podcast is a digital media file that you can download and listen to any time. There are some wonderful genealogy podcasts including Genealogy Gems and Genealogy Guys (click the POD on either site to listen). You can find many other podcasts on iTunes (free, but you need to sign up). Your task this week is to listen to a podcast and experience this form of media for learning. If you are familiar with podcasts, pick a new one in a different subject such as history, business or anything else that may fit with your genealogy interests.
I’m a big podcast listener. I spend several hours a week in the car and I like to multi-task, so I keep my ipod full of interesting things to listen to.
Genealogy podcasts
Genealogy Guys – George Morgan and Drew Smith discuss genealogy. They have all the latest genealogy news and also answer questions from their readers. This podcast is both informative and interesting.
Genealogy Gems – Lisa Louise Cook is the queen of genealogy podcasting. On the Genealogy Gems podcast, she often interviews a wide variety of people and introduces resources to help in one’s research. There is a free version of the podcast and a premium (paid) version. While I currently only subscribe to the free version, I’ve downloaded a few episodes of the premium version from Lulu.com to give it a test-drive.
Family Tree Magazine – this podcast is also hosted by Lisa Louise Cook. She typically interviews some of the people from the magazine and includes content from the issue. They also talk about upcoming events and new products. I listened to the most recent episode on Thursday and learned three great new Google search tips.
Family History: Genealogy Made Easy – this podcast by Lisa Louise Cook has been discontinued, but the old episodes are not dated. I highly recommend it.
History podcasts
Missed in History – I love this podcast. Each episode focuses on one topic – maybe a person or an event – that you probably didn’t learn much about in school. It is both informative and entertaining. If you like history and you’re not listening to this, you should.
The Teaching Company – while not strictly podcasts, I listen to these in the car, so they fall in the same category in my mind. The Teaching Company offers lectures by college professors. I have listened to many of their history courses and am currently listening to their course on U. S. History. The courses are quite pricey, but each one is deeply discounted at least once per year, so I buy mine when they are on sale. This is an excellent resource to deepen your knowledge of history.
All the podcasts (not including The Teaching Company) can be found on iTunes. I’ve also included links above to their individual websites. Enjoy!
This post was written as part of an occasional series called “52 Weeks to Better Genealogy” – a challenge created by Amy Coffin at We Tree. To see all my posts in the series, click here. To see how other folks have answered the challenge, check out Geneabloggers.com.
