The iTunes podcast I listened to was Real Time, hosted by Bill Maher on HBO, Fridays at 10 PM. The main topic of discussion was foreign issues, being debated amongst Maher’s roundtable guests; Naomi Klein, Charles Blow, Gen. Anthony Zinni, John Feehery, and Alexandra Pelosi.
My attention was immediately grabbed because the first subject was the resurgence of anti-semitism in Europe, which I found extremely shocking and instantly became engaged. As I continued to listen from my laptop, they opened up the panel to questions from foreign fans. It brought a very different perspective to the show that I’ve never experienced before when listening to the news — and I say this because of the question asked by the viewer.
They wanted to know what freedoms make America so much better than any other country in the world, such as Australia. Maher continued to speak on how so many preach the idea of “only in America,” but in reality we’re no different than anybody else in the world.
This led me to rate its production value a perfect 10 out of 10, with a length of 12 minutes being an ideal amount of time. After listening to what this podcast entailed and how there was a comedic aspect to it, I have already subscribed and am looking forward to listening further. However, I feel as though because the majority of podcasts are free, I would not seek out to using them as a journalist. Not only would I not be making any money, but I would hate to limit myself to just audio. Plus, I feel as if podcasts have not hit it big in this day and age.