I am a carpenter, theory geek, and an artist (as often as I can manage): Podcasts have changed my life. On demand audio that goes deep into academic and political issues has truly enriched my time at the jobsite, at home, and in the studio. The “spoke net" has given me access to a more integrated version of myself, finally weaving together my once departmentalized my loves for detailed information, discourse, and hands-on production. For that I am truly grateful.
Although podcasts have officially hit the mainstream, especially after Serial and the Trump victory, here in the US, I still think the audio format has brought on a “second generation” of web democratization. Between New Books Network, Aufhebunga Bunga, and David Harvey’s lectures on Kapital, I’ve been able to find my proverbial people in the podcast sphere. But at this point, after several years of 8hr days, podcasting now at 1.5-2X speed, I’ve come to realize the limits of my own “hyper curated” audio-media landscape. Simply put, podcasts are bound up by the same “one way street” of traditional broadcast media, where content producers hold most of the structural power. The interests and demands of content creation are not necessarily the same as community formation. As a listener, locating the obscure voices you are eager to hear frustratingly falls short of the responsibilities and hard-fought rewards of joining a community or formal political group, in the flesh. The sense of always only being part way there is all the more jarring given the Leftist focus and intimate feel of many podcasts, where the listener feels invited into a chat between close friends mulling over nuanced critiques of the status quo and the dire need for better political organizing. Meanwhile, the scope and interconnectedness of the listenership (are 10 or 10,000 listening to this?) remains out of reach. Although the platform is seemingly open--"All May Upload"--and aside from reviews and algorithmic suggestions, there isn’t even a comments board, integrated forum for responses, or even means to track relationships between podcasts. Although the experience of listening feels social, podcasts land in a no-mans-land, lacking the interactivity that normally puts the "social" into social media. Maybe that’s a good thing given the trouble of most comments boards? Nonetheless the question remains, how are we to grow and sustain meaningful political organizations if what our digital platforms do best is host content, meanwhile missing the point of informing responsibilities between participants. Why ask so much of podcasts (or the internet, in general)? Isn't that what nettime is about? Personally, I ask because I spend so much time there. As a committed leftist and digital native, who's feet are also stuck in the old world muck of swinging a hammer, cutting wood, and running a nail gun, the "spoken net" has been a godsend. If Leftists are committed to reinforcing the brick and mortar of the so-called working-class, then audio should be prioritized as a primary mode of organization. The physical program of sitting and reading is not something that fits neatly into the workday, so more's the better when it comes audiobooks, audio-news, and podcasts. However, we must take things a step further in order to redeem the net's radical promise of democratization. Maybe we should be asking for gov-subsidized subscriptions to Patreon? Or build on academic conferences which continue to be a compelling model for "turning out" texts into social forms? How can audio enhance the readership of academic work and open itself to insights from workers in other fields like mine? I can build you a house, but unfortunately, I don't know the first thing about how to renovate a digital platform. If anyone does, it's the good folks of nettime. Any of y'all feel me?
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