HerbalEd.org offers herbal education via Podcast.

What is Podcasting?
Podcasting is a convenient way of automatically allowing someone to subscribe to content over the web. The content could be text, images, video, or in the case of HerbalEd.org, audio lectures and interviews (or any combination of these). Essentially, anything you can distribute over the web can be podcast.

How is this different to what you already do on HerbalEd.org?
We currently offer visitors to our site a range of audio lectures and interviews via progressive-download (pseudo-streaming). One of the few limitations with this approach is not being able to save the files to your computer and burn them to a CD or load them onto an iPod or other MP3 player. As such, you generally have to sit at your computer and listen to the audio. With podcasting, the audio content is downloaded to your computer in a convenient MP3 file format and listen to it at your leisure. Another benefit is that with podcasting, you don't have to check our site regularly to see what's new (except for all the other goodies we offer, like articles, our Therapeutic Herb Manual, etc.).

What is ‘Podcatching’?
Podcatching is the act of receiving a podcast. There are some similarities between podcatching and traditional methods of automatic content subscription (think magazines or newspapers). However, TIVO is perhaps the best example of digital subscription technology in use today. With TIVO, you can subscribe to video content and consume it on your own schedule. Subscribing to a podcast offers the same ‘time-shifting’ benefit with audio. You simply establish the subscription and let the content come to you!

What do I need to begin Podcatching?
You can subscribe to our podcast using a ‘newsreader’, an ‘RSS compatible web browser’, like Firefox, OmniWeb (Mac OSX only), or Apple’s Safari (Mac OSX only). We recommend using iTunes (version 4.9 and later), particularly if you’re just getting started. iTunes is easy to setup and easy to use. Of course, by downloading iTunes, you’ll also get the coolest ‘music jukebox’ software on the planet (for Windows and Mac users) and have access to thousands of other podcasts through Apple’s iTunes Music Store. No matter which podcatching solution you choose, follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to subscribe to and download content. We wish we could help further here, but all of the solutions require a different setup.

A list of available podcatching software (for both Windows and Mac) can be found at:
Podcast Alley.

A few popular newsreaders are...

Mac OSX:
iTunes (version 4.9 and later)
NetNewsWire
NewsMac

Windows:
iTunes (version 4.9 and later)
SharpReader
NewzCrawler
Awasu

Whether you're using a newsreader, an RSS compatible web browser, or iTunes, you will always have the latest content from your favorite sites at your fingertips and have the flexibility of taking your HerbalEd.org audio downloads with you.