Happy International Podcast Day!

Remember when Serial came out? I remember thinking at the time that sure, podcasts have been around for a minute, but I just hadn't gotten into them much, so maybe they weren't for me. Serial was fascinating, but after Season 1, almost a year passed before I found another podcast I wanted to listen to regularly*.

But now, two years later, and about a year since I last discussed podcasts on Mindfully Modern, I am a devout podcast listener. They're great to listen to during my commute, walking to/from the grocery store, or while I'm doing house chores. I don't even mind the commercials, that's how much I like 'em.

Now I wanted to share what I'm listening to these days. And I swear, I started typing this on Friday afternoon and thought, it would be interesting to see what the history of podcasting looks like, and then Google told me that Saturday is International Podcast Day! I know every day is some hashtag holiday so hey, I'm down to celebrate this one as well.

Fun facts from InternationalPodcastDay.com:

• The podcast was invented in 2004, with credit to 2 dudes (including an MTV VJ), although Wikipedia says "audio blogging" goes back to the '80s... and let's all remember Felicity's tapes of the late 90's / early aughts
• "podcast" = "iPod" + "broadcast"
• iTunes started supporting podcasts in 2005 (I use iPhone's Podcast app but link to other sources here as well)
• George W. Bush was the first POTUS to release his weekly address as a podcast, 2005
• Marc Maron launches WTF, 2009
• Apple reaches 1 billion podcast subscribers, 2013

And here are the podcasts I have listened to, fairly regularly, over the past year:

Dogeaters & a "Big Weekend" in the Bay

Lands End

SB50 has taken over the Bay Area. Even though the game itself was about an hour's drive outside of the city, street closures started in San Francisco more than a week ahead of time. Aircraft were flying low, one of the teams' bus caravans got in a fender bender on the highway (typical for the 101), and media descended upon the city. It's funny but everyone I know who actually lives in SF was expecting the worst in terms of crowds and traffic, and therefore avoided downtown as much as they could. I'm glad that so many people have been interested in the festivities, but personally I stuck to my favorite everyday neighborhoods.

Mission Street

Thankfully there wasn't much traffic outside of the Soma/FiDi area. And it's been pretty warm out so it's been so nice to walk through the city. This morning, we walked through the Mission up to Hayes Valley for brunch (surprisingly with no wait for a table) and last evening was spent with a nice walk from Russian Hill through the Marina to Fort Mason.

I went to Fort Mason's Magic Theater to see a new play, Dogeaters. I'd read the book when I was younger since it was a contemporary novel about my native country, the Philippines. I hadn't even known it was adapted to the stage until a friend shared it, but a few of us went to see it in previews (it opens this week) and it was good. The story takes place in 1982 Manila, when the country was still under martial law. A few scenes were really intense and overall it was probably darker than the usual portrayal of the Philippines but I think having an ensemble cast of characters lends itself to portraying a more comprehensive picture of the urban culture at that time. There were young people flocking to the city to chase success in careers and in love, folks in various kinds of businesses/hustles, politicians putting out self-serving spins on reality, families reuniting and being torn apart, and overall people looking to make their own way in and their on mark on a chaotic world. It was exciting to watch and it's been getting press, so I hope it does really well. 

personal photo

I still went to a fun Super Bowl party at a friend's house, but I think getting my culture on at the Magic Theatre was actually the highlight of the weekend.