casting pods before swine

calling out for more podcasting. you know, the first couple podcasts i ever listened to were on coffee. i can recall thinking to myself, "self, this is boring. why would i want to listen to some dude(s) giving up their opinions for an hour?" it felt as if the podcast people were almost struggling to find stuff to fill a respectable amount of time for a podcast.

there are two major podcasters (podcastors?) out there today: the portafilter podcast, hosted by nick cho and sometimes attended by jay caragay, and the coffeegeek podcast, hosted by mark prince. some people categorize the two as one for novices, one for more advanced listeners. this is a fairly accurate assesment but doesn't quite encapsulate it in the opinion of this humble blogger. i would tend to say that while one podcast focuses more on movements, equipment and trends in the industry, the other is more personcentric: who's doing what, what they said about it and what the response is. which brings to my mind the saying i remember hearing many years ago that was something to the effect of measuring levels of sophistication and intelligence. people of high intelligence talk about ideas, concepts and macrotrends. people of midling intellect will focus more on things, events and the moving parts thus associated. people of low smarts talk about...other people.

this post is not to cast aspersions on anyone or to rank one coffee podcast higher than the other, for everyone knows that a critic is one who knows the way but can't or won't drive the car. i'm simply putting out there that, as i scour each's site for podcasted info on the recently completed world barista championships i am looking for solid analysis, an eye toward the overarching themes associated with the event and what some of the best and brightest have to say about it. the event itself is not the news. what does the event mean in the larger context of our industry? having not been there to witness it i can only depend on the good graces of our aforementioned podcast people to bring their global listeners into the event with insightful commentary and spot on evaluations and interviews.

one of the two has already posted podcasts. the other is likely waiting to get home, edit and then display the final product. there are merits to both. one will give you the news hot off the press in the moment (i am reminded that in journalism and reporting a first newstory of an event is almost always incorrect...not that that applies to podcasting). the other will (hopefully) provide more of a wide angle view of the event and make it absorbable (?) to a wide audience.

it's not a showdown. it's a loose collaboration that serves our coffee community well and i hope even more people pick up the mantle and try their hand at quality podcasting. the more expert opinions we hear, the better. so far the americans and the canadians are represented. how about some aussies, brits and any/all scandanavians?

let's see it, folks.