Humanities scholars have analyzed sources and moments in history in various ways. Many conduct research through the traditional means of reading and analyzing sources and even delve into the digital world through different tools, including maps, graphs, and text mining. However, there is a reasonably recent medium that humanities scholars have begun to use to analyze and research: podcasts. Podcasts have become a viral medium for people to consume different topics. According to the Pew Research Center, “Roughly half of U.S. adults say they have listened to a podcast in the past year . . . including one-in-five who report listening to podcasts at least a few times a week. Among adults under 30, about a third listen to podcasts with such frequency.” (Pew Research Center, Podcasts as a Source of News and Information, 2) With it being a popular medium for people to use, historians have begun to use podcasts to exhibit their research.

There are many different reasons why historians have stepped their toes into the Podcast medium. One reason is that it vastly differs from other modes of research and analysis. Liz Covart, in her article History Podcasts: An Overview of the Field (2022), states, “Podcasts serve as the perfect medium for our mobile, digital age. They are downloadable and streamable audio files that you can listen to whenever and wherever you want. They provide convenience.” (Covart, History Podcasts: An Overview of the Field, 221) Podcasts are a way for historians to reach a wider audience than they would have with traditional means. They are also a form for historians to connect with other people. Covart explains, “When riders and drivers listen through the sound systems in their cars, they invite podcast hosts to keep them company on their trip. Given the human need for stories and connection, podcasts humanize stories in a powerful way unique to the medium. The intimacy, oral storytelling, and this power to humanize make podcasts an effective tool for historians to convey the past.” (Covart, 221) Podcasts connect people to the hosts and the stories they tell, and historians have turned to this medium in the hopes of the same connections to history.

While podcasts are vastly different from traditional and even some other digital modes of research and exhibiting, they share some similarities, too. One of the things that I noticed between podcasts and other digital tools is that they are all new ways to analyze and present data. When someone listens to a history podcast, they go into the host’s mind and connect to the story that the host wants to tell. This is not different from other digital tools. For example, when a historian makes an exhibit using Omeka and text mining tools like Voyant, they want the audience to connect with what they see rather than listen like with a podcast. All of these digital tools together change the way that research is done. In his keynote at the Sound Education conference, Dan Cohen states, “We can take some helpful clues about this situation from other new media formats that have flourished on the web over the past quarter-century. For instance, since the advent of the web, and its ability to serve a wide array of text, in difference lengths, sizes, and contexts, we have seen the birth of new genres that challenge traditional writing and break out of the constraints of print publication.” (Cohen, Sound Education) Podcasts and other digital tools are making waves in how historians analyze and research different material.