For the past 10 years, I’ve been exploring podcasting — as a trend, as a business, and as something that has changed my life.

This post — grew out of a desire to understand and explain what a podcast is, and what podcasting is. To understand — for myself. To explain — for anyone who one day asks the same question. What I do here is simple: I think out loud and write it down. Because for me, words — text — are the foundation of understanding.

At the beginning, I just wanted to know what exactly I was doing. What does it mean when I say “I’m a podcaster”? I didn’t want to just repeat trendy words — I wanted to understand. And it didn’t happen right away. Like many others, I tried to understand podcasting through other people’s definitions: articles, conferences, videos, opinions. But they left me uneasy. Something didn’t fit, something was confusing, something just felt off. I kept feeling that the definitions weren’t getting to the core.

I met people who said, “Oh, a podcast is just a conversation on YouTube,” or others who insisted it’s simply an RSS feed — and that’s it. All of that is part of the journey.

And so, after years of practice, conversations, research, debates — and especially the need to be heard (for some reason, that really mattered to me at the time) — I came to my own clear and simple definitions. They’re built on logic, evidence, history, and hands-on experience. These definitions answer today’s key questions about podcasts and podcasting. They don’t try to make someone right or wrong — they just clarify what’s what, without the noise.

Most importantly, they finally gave me peace of mind. Now I know exactly what I do. And when I explain what a podcast is, I don’t hesitate, second-guess, or doubt. It’s clear. It’s simple. I’ve seen it many times — after I explain it, people feel free, light, clear.

I’ve worked with large commercial companies and industry experts, as well as students and school kids — and it’s always the same effect. These people go on to create unique, untemplated podcasts. It’s amazing: I explain it the same way to everyone, and the outcomes are always different.

I still don’t know exactly why I’m so passionate about podcasts and podcasting. It just happened. I have friends who obsessively photograph airplanes — I’ll probably never understand them. But I respect their passion and their attempts to explain it to me. Or like a chef who knows the subtle difference between one type of salt and another, and why this dish needs one and not the other. Thankfully, we don’t have to understand all that to enjoy a great meal. And you don’t have to dive as deep into podcasting as I have — you can simply enjoy the result.

I’m building this as an open project. If you see a way to say something more clearly or if you have your own take — write to me. I don’t claim to have the final answer. I’m just walking toward it — and I’m inviting you to walk alongside me.

Thanks for reading.

What is podcasting?

Podcasting is the distribution of media files via an RSS feed with an <enclosure> element. These are usually audio or video files. In this context, an RSS feed using the <enclosure> element isn’t just a technical choice — it’s a foundation for freedom and independence.

It could have been built on any other mechanism, but right now, only RSS with <enclosure> gives us that level of openness, portability, and control. The key is that the RSS feed contains an <enclosure> element with a direct link to the file.

If we remove RSS — or the <enclosure> element — and everything falls apart. We lose the definition of everything. What is podcasting? How is podcasting different from streaming or radio? RSS with an <enclosure> element is the cornerstone of podcasting. It’s not just a technical detail — it’s the very thing that makes a podcasting a podcasting.

Without this distinction, it becomes impossible to tell podcasting apart from YouTube — or even Dropbox. Sure, those platforms might be more convenient, more intuitive, more centralized, with “smart” recommendations and polished interfaces. But they are also controlled: bound by laws, rules, algorithms, and corporate interests. You can call that many things — but if it doesn’t involve RSS with an <enclosure> element, it’s not podcasting.

When does a piece of audio become radio? When it’s broadcast over the airwaves. Before that, it’s just audio. Why does the same exact text get different names depending on how it’s sent? If sent over SMTP — it’s email. If sent over the SS7 signalling protocol — it’s an SMS. Even though the content is exactly the same.

Same with the podcasting. It becomes the podcasting only because it distributing files via RSS with an <enclosure> element. Not content production, feeling, or opinion — just the delivery method.

Oh, right — podcasting is not about content creation. Recording audio or video is production, with its own stages: pre-production, production, post-production. Podcasting only begins at the moment of publishing via RSS.

What is a podcast?

A podcast is a media files that is distributed through an RSS feed using the <enclosure> element. These are typically audio or video files — they become podcasts when they are distributed through podcasting.

The main confusion in defining a podcast stems from the tendency to conflate the media file with its content. Many people assume a podcast is a specific genre or format — for example, a casual conversation, an interview, a narrative, or an investigative series.

But this assumption quickly falls apart. If we define a podcast as a free-form conversation, what do we call solo podcasts — monologues recorded by a single person? And what about podcasts that feature no human voice at all, such as audio recordings of elevator sounds or birdsong in a forest?

Every time we try to shift the definition toward genre or format, we end up creating countless exceptions. Eventually, the definition becomes meaningless — it no longer defines anything clearly.

So why is it that people so often associate the word “podcast” with a conversation, or with the presence of a human voice, and so on? There are plenty of such labels. I’ve discovered something interesting: whatever kind of podcast someone first encountered — they tend to believe that is what a podcast is supposed to be. And often, they end up creating podcasts in the same format or genre. And this is absolutely normal.

If someone’s first exposure to podcasts was The Joe Rogan Experience, then that becomes their definition of what a podcast is — and whatever the host does becomes, for them, what podcasting means. Or if it was This American Life — then that’s what they think podcast is. It’s not a rule — it’s just an observation of mine.

Once, just for fun, I created a podcast that contains only a single episode, one second long — Бір. Another example: Elevator — a podcast where I post elevator sounds. And these are podcasts. Just as much as Serial or Podcasting 2.0 are. They have an RSS feed with an <enclosure> element, they can be subscribed to, they’re published on the same platforms as all other podcasts, and so on. And the fact that there’s no human voice in them… well, that’s just the kind of podcast it is.

I call this the absurd level of freedom. At first, it may seem ridiculous — but then you realize what kind of creative freedom you’ve gained.

When I say that “something is a podcast”, I mean one thing only: it's available via RSS — or distributed to platforms through an RSS feed. No RSS? Then it’s just file on the internet. Even with RSS, it’s still the same file — but now it becomes something more: part of a decentralized flow, powered by automation and driven by the principles of freedom and independence on both ends.