Years ago I used to record an archaeology podcast, imaginatively named “Archaeocast” for Wessex Archaeology. Not many episodes were recorded (17ish) but it was very popular, garnering over 800,000 downloads as of early 2012. It’s probably more than a million now. It was the world’s first archaeology podcast, and even made the iTunes charts at its height in 2006/7. Mainstream media took over podcasting shortly afterwards, consigning most independent podcasts into obscurity. A lot of people stopped recording them, and even my own interest wained.
In the past month I’ve come across two new archaeology podcasts, and they’re both great. Andrew R’s Drunk Archaeology and Tristan’s Anarchaeologist.
Drunk Archaeology is a relaxed podcast featuring archaeologists sharing a drink and talking shop. People talk straight, tell it how it is, and have a laugh. It’s a bit sweary, and is essential listening if archaeologists speaking their minds appeals.
Anarchaeologist (“anarchae” / “anarchy” – geddit?) shares many of my original ideals – to be a ground-up show presenting archaeological themes and topics to the interested public from the minds and mouths of archaeologists themselves.
Tristan interviewed me via Skype yesterday and we had a great chat about podcasting and archaeology. He’s got a great radio voice and a quick mind, and is also a veteran podcaster, so expect the show to grow and grow.
Make sure you subscribe to both – load up a podcasting app on your device, subscribe, and get the episodes automatically delivered when they’re released.
Good luck to both podcasts – it’s great to see a resurgence in archaeology podcasting, and more archaeologists being their own media.