My bit Part In Apple Podcasts’ two Decade story
Apple on Thursday celebrated a big anniversary: Apple Podcasts has turned 20! To mark the milestone, the company released a staff-selected list of “20 podcasts we love.”
“Since the medium came to iTunes in 2005, our team has dedicated countless hours to helping people discover new shows. To celebrate 20 years, here are 20 favorites that best exemplify how far podcasting has come—and where it can go in the next two decades,” Apple writes in the list’s introduction. “This list is a love letter to the podcasts that left a lasting impact on us and the ones we continue to recommend again and again. They are shows with hosts that feel like friends, and shows that make us press play immediately on the latest episode to hear what happens next. These shows have measurably improved our lives and helped define this medium we know and love.”
Of those on Apple’s list, only The Daily (started in 2017) is one I listen to religiously.
Launched in 2005, Apple Podcasts predates my usage by a couple years; my first-ever Apple product was the original iPhone two years later. Over the last 18 years, however, podcasts have remained a constant in my digital life. I love them for the background noise they provide as I work on stories like this very piece, for the ways newsy shows like the aforementioned The Daily keeps me informed, and for the ways they let me indulge in nerdery on shows from friends of mine in the Apple/tech media communities. Once upon a time, I even had a podcast of my own called Accessible. The show’s website/listing is long gone from the web, but it was a fortnightly program I co-hosted with my close friend Timothy Buck during which we discussed all things accessibility in tech. We had a good run, even interviewing Apple’s accessibility boss in Sarah Herrlinger in person at one San Jose-based WWDC. I’m decidedly not an active podcaster nowadays, but have guested on my share of shows since Accessible unceremoniously ended. I do think about getting back into the game from time to time, but for now, I think I’ll focus my energies into getting Curb Cuts featured in Apple News.
(If you’d like me on your podcast to talk disability inclusion and the like, get in touch.)
From 30,000 feet, Apple has generally been a strong steward of its Podcasts platform. From an accessibility perspective, it’s certainly damn notable how the company has invested time and resources in making podcasts more accessible through transcripts. As with Music Haptics in Apple Music, it’s not at all trivial that, as I’ve espoused many times recently, Apple is taking an ostensibly exclusionary medium to, say, Deaf and hard-of-hearing people and making it eminently more inclusive vis-a-vis transcripts.
Apple’s “20 Podcasts” list follows a “100 Best Albums” list shared on Apple Music.
