In Our Time - how to subscribe to the podcasts

With a bit of effort, I was able to dredge up my my first blog reference to the BBC Radio 4 History of Ideas program In Our Time. It was early 2005, and podcasts were new to me.

Only a bit more than four years ago.

Later I wrote a very geeky post about how to turn the useless streaming archives into useful audio files, but it appears I never wrote a general introduction about subscribing to IOT. Until now.

This is bit a less technical topic than my usual blog fair, but I'm featuring an In Our Time display at my 50th bd party tomorrow and I figured I'd attach this post as a handout. I'll be playing the Best of IOT from my library of 187 programs in a moderately quiet corner of the house.

Yes, it's the party of the year. It's a good thing the younger me isn't around to hear of it.

If you use iTunes there are two easy ways to subscribe (either one works)

1. Go to the iTunes Store. Find the search box and enter "In Our Time". Pick the icon that says "In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg".
2. Go to the BBC podcasts page for IOT and click on the iTunes icon.

That should do it. Only problem is they're done for the season, so you have to wait until the new season starts. The BBC doesn't let you go back and get old podcasts. If you miss them, you're out of luck.

That's why I'll be handing out a starter set of 57 of my favorite episodes on DVD at the party with more available on request. That should carry listeners through the summer.

A word on the BBC's web sites. There are no less than 3 confusing pages related to IOT, but at least now they more or less link to one another (they didn't used to). The pages are:

1. The original page with archives (RealAudio, yech).
2. The aforementioned podcast page.
3. The new page with links to the above two.