For years, I listened to audiobooks when I drove.  They are entertaining, informative, and in my opinion, a much better alternative to listening to music.  Over the past 5 or so years, I have gone through over 400 audiobooks of varying lengths and subjects, from business to horror, self-help to history.  I enjoy listening to content while I drive, exercise (at least, when I exercised more regularly), and any other time I can.  Audiobooks, while a great source of content, are often not the most up-to-date information.  Enter podcasts.

Podcasts, while being up-to-date, may not represent the best source of information.  Anyone can create and distribute a podcast with little trouble.  They are much shorter in length; typically from a few minutes to an hour or so compared to many 10’s of hours for the typical audiobook.  The content is more recent; you can create a podcast and have it available in a few minutes compared to months or more for audiobooks.  So what is the best solution?

As most things in life, this is not an “either-or” choice but an “and or both” choice.  Both have their uses, strengths and weaknesses.  Seth Godin utilizes blogs, books, and other media options but does not create podcasts.  I would feel it a great disservice to myself not to have the wisdom of Mr Godin to learn from.  Justin Lukasavige from Coach Radio TV does amazing podcasts (up to 179 episodes as I write this).  The episodes are about one hour long and packed full of great information, stories, and coaching to help you do business better.  Again, I would feel it a great disservice to myself not to have the wisdom of Mr Lukasavige to learn from.

As we get further into digital content, we will be bombarded with more and more information.  There will be good information, bad information, and information so awful, terrible, and bad for society, it should be erased from human memory.  What is the best source of this information?  Is it from podcasts?  Is it from audiobooks? Traditionally published books? ebooks? Who knows?

As a society, we must keep an open mind in regard to content as well as content delivery.  Gone are the days of three television stations or nothing on the radio.  We live in an era of global access to information.  Not only can we access the information, not only are we content consumers, but we are  content generators.  We have the power, the tools, and in many cases, the passion to produce quality content for the world.  All you have to do is find your passion and get started.

What is your passion?

How can you turn that passion into relevant content?

How can you share it with the world?