Why would I want to listen to a podcast?

By Adam Cochran

Weird Al Yankovic once quipped that he releases a new album every three to five years, so every album is a comeback album.

Like Weird Al’s music, every time podcasting is discovered by another generation, it becomes new again.

The audio and video delivery process known as podcasting has been around since 2000. But it experienced its latest resurgence in 2014, when NPR began producing exclusive podcasts and promoting them along with its regular radio programming.

Podcasting is a delivery platform for audio and video content. If you listen to NPR on the weekend, you likely hear content that is developed primarily for a podcast audience.

Radiolab, Science Friday, TED Radio Hour, Planet Money, etc., are all shows

Bob Levey

From page 41 men had to endure childbirth. Let’s take that one step further: No high heels would exist if men had to wear them. that have more podcast listeners than radio listeners.

Over the years, in the name of fashion, women have endured girdles, bustles and crash diets. But to these male eyes, nothing looks quite as impractical or painful as high heels.

What makes podcasts special

The internet as a media distribution platform began with blogging.

Online services allowed anyone to set up an easy-to-edit website called a “blog,” short for “web log,” where a person could write personal commentary, local news articles, original literary content and more.

But blogs were more than websites — they contained code that allowed readers to subscribe and receive updates whenever new content was added.

This syndication process is referred to as RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, and it’s the fundamental delivery vehicle for podcasts.

Most people think of podcasts as topical

How do you balance? How do you walk? Whoever decreed that high heels add femininity and style to an outfit? A man, probably.

So, I have begun commenting to women who wear flats. I congratulate them. I encourage them.

They have returned the favor. “You must really love your feet,” said one lady to me recently, as she gazed down at my sandals. “Yes,” I replied, “and my feet really love me back.” radio-show-style programs that they listen to with their phone or computer’s media player.

But a podcast can be any audio or video file. What makes it a podcast is that it is distributed automatically via RSS syndication so that listeners can subscribe and hear the most current episodes.

Podcasts run the gamut

Like a blog, anyone can create a podcast. There are no official rules or regulatory agencies for podcasting.

Unlike radio shows, podcasts are typically developed for a small, targeted audience rather than a large, general audience. There are podcasts about woodworking, but there are also podcasts specifically about using a scroll saw.

Likewise, there are podcasts about dentistry, xeriscaping, taco trucks, salmon

I admit that I’m being sneaky in dressy situations. On goes the blue suit. On go the shirt and tie. And then on go…. Sneakers? Really, Robert? You trying to get away with something, you old codger?

Yes, I am. And yes, I do. The truth is that, at business conferences and social events, very few people ever look down. If they do, I’m ready with a ringing one-liner.

“My goal in life,” I say, “is to have feet fishing and virtually any other hobby or lifestyle imaginable.

Podcasts are free to subscribe to. Some may offer premium subscriptions, but the purpose of a podcast is to distribute information or cover a topic that needs more exposure.

Producers of podcasts occasionally make money from advertisers, but most podcast creators do it out of love for the featured topic.

While video podcasts are gaining popularity, it’s unlikely they’ll ever be as popular as their audio counterparts. Video requires more time and energy to both create and consume.

Audio podcasts are popular among commuters and office workers who listen pas- that smile.” Which produces smiles on the faces around me.

Are they secretly jealous of my rebelliousness? Are they genuinely glad that my arches never scream at me anymore? Are they making a mental note to buy stock in sandal manufacturers?

Doesn’t matter. I’ve cast my lot. Shoes and I are done. My tootsies thank me every day.

Bob Levey is a national award-winning columnist.

Trees

From page 1

Teaching kids about nature

During his years as a teacher-principal in Trappe, Maryland, Howard built an “outdoor classroom” with his students. Every Friday, they’d clear brush and build a semicircle of seats in the woods.

Nature can inspire every student, Howard found. “When we were out there working on the outdoor classroom, the socalled ‘problem kids’ were no problem at all. The kids were just real gung-ho doing that sort of thing,” he said.

A few years later, Howard moved to Montgomery County and took a job as the principal of Four Corners Elementary School. When a teacher asked him for permission to create a nature trail near the school, Howard was enthusiastic.

“I said, ‘Yeah, that sounds like a great idea,’ because I had done very same thing down in Trappe.”

Then, Howard researched other outdoor education programs and found a piece of land where kids could go for a week-long overnight trip in Frederick, Maryland. “It was like a five-day field trip,” he said.

The experiment took off. Today, every sixth grader in Montgomery County Public Schools takes a three-day overnight trip to a wilderness lodge near Frederick, where they hike, explore, play predator- prey games and learn about nature.

In October, the county will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the program, which has become a highlight of many students’ school years.

One boy wrote a letter home about the pond, hikes and stargazing, Howard recalled. “He wrote, ‘We’re learning a lot, and that’s how they trick you. They teach you and you don’t know it.’ I thought, that’s kind of the way to do it, right?” Howard said.

Between kindergarten and 12th grade, students also take day trips to the Lathrop E. Smith Environmental Education Center in Rockville, which Howard helped establish. (He also happened to meet the woman who became his wife there.)

Howard eventually left his principal job and began working full-time as the first director of the school system’s outdoor ed program.

He started working for the Montgomery County Forestry Board, an advocacy and conservation group, in 1978. Although he retired from full-time work there in 1989, he launched the county’s champion tree program, overseen by the forestry board. He remains an active member of the board.

“I’ve never had any special ability. But the thing I have, as I look back — I’ve always been able to get capable people” to complete a project, he said.

Big tree tours

Botanist Carole Bergmann, a retired for- est ecologist for the Maryland National Capital Park & Planning Commission, is an old friend of Howard’s.

“We met in a forest about 30 years ago,” she recalled. “I was out in the woods at Rock Creek Park, and he was there picking up trash. That’s a Joe thing — he was out there, in his free time, picking up trash.

“He’s the kind of person who says, ‘Hello!’ and ‘What are you doing here in the woods?’”

Bergmann has long teamed up with Howard for the Big Tree Tours, which always sell out early.

The tours are run by Conservation Montgomery. The group also bestows an annual award to a local environmental advocate, and it’s named after Joe Howard.

“We adore him. He’s a sage,” said Caren Madsen, chair of the board. “He’s one of our tribal elders — witty, knowledgeable.”

Everyone who takes one of Howard’s tours absorbs his passion for the mammoths of the forest.

“I went on a walking tour with him a year ago along the Potomac, and he showed us a state champion sycamore.” recalled Kit Gage, advocacy director and former president of Friends of Sligo Creek.

“You just kind of stand there in the presence of this tree and marvel at it. We all went up and touched it and held it.

“[Howard] is incredibly knowledgeable and the sweetest guy. He’s really a messenger for the importance of trees in the county.”

The next generation of champions

Of course, mature trees eventually pass away.

When the famous 300-year-old Linden Oak in Bethesda was cut down last month, the Washington Post published a photo of the huge white oak. Howard was standing next to it in the photo: a tiny speck next to its massive trunk.

But for all his experience beside champion trees, Howard is also an enthusiast for planting the next generation. After all, he said, “The only way you get big trees is by planting little trees.”

How many saplings has Howard planted in his lifetime? “Personally, I’ve just planted hundreds of trees,” he said modestly.

But, he noted, his students have planted hundreds, if not thousands. Together, they turned 10 acres of meadowland near the Smith Center into mature woods.

These days, Howard is likely to be outdoors — biking, walking in the woods, or visiting the county’s champion trees he’s known all his life.

“They’re like old friends,” he said. “I look forward to coming back and seeing them.” personsmustattendandcompletepresentationtogether.ParticipantsmusthaveaphotoIDandbelegallyabletoenterintoacontract.Thefollowingpersonsarenoteligibleforthisoffer:employeesofCompanyoraffiliatedcompaniesorentities,theirimmediatefamilymembers,previousparticipantsinaCompanyin-homeconsultationwithinthepast12monthsandallcurrentandformer Companycustomers.Giftmaynotbeextended,transferred,orsubstitutedexceptthatCompanymaysubstituteagiftofequalorgreatervalueifitdeemsitnecessary.GiftcardwillbemailedtotheparticipantviafirstclassUnitedStatesMailwithin10daysofreceiptofthepromotionform.Notvalidin conjunctionwithanyotherpromotionordiscountofanykind.Offernotsponsoredand issubjecttochangewithoutnoticepriortoreservation.OffernotavailableinthestatesofCA,IN,PAandMI.ExceptinthestatesofMD,NYandDC,where thegiftcardofferislimitedto$25.Expires8/31/22.

For a list of all the champion trees in Montgomery County, Maryland, including the publicly accessible ones, visit mcmdforestryboard.org/champion-trees. To sign up for a Big Tree Tour, email info@conservationmontgomery.org.

Scrabble answers on p. 47.