Posted on 26 May 2009

Generally speaking, I get my podcasts from the CBC. They cover lots, they cover it well, and there’s only so many hours in a day. There’s a couple of exceptions, and one is TV Ontario’s Big Ideas podcast. So it’s fitting that when one of my favourite CBC podcasts was cancelled on the CBC, TVO would pick it up. Search Engine is a fascinating show that talks about the effects of technology on the world in such a way that you don’t need much understanding about technology in order to get it.

Its production also encapsulates one of the things that makes me think the internet is a good idea after all. From producer/host Jesse Brown:

Search Engine’s resilience mirrors the beat that it covers: like the Internet, the show is scalable, portable, and cheap. I can produce it with a team of professional journalists and engineers in state-of-the-art studios, or I can produce it in my bedroom.

(Currrently, I produce it in my bedroom).

The only thing Search Engine absolutely needs to survive is its audience, who happen to also be its producers. As long as people still listen, still send in stories, still correct my every inaccuracy and grammatical error, and still count on the show to cover the most interesting and ignored beat out there, then there can be a Search Engine podcast.”

You should really listen to this show.

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