I seriously doubt that podcasts are something that the members of this forum would be able to sustain on a regular basis. To get forum-wide participation requires a lot of time, more time than a bi-weekly production schedule would allow. If the membership was super active about it, I could see a quality podcast being produced within the span of maybe a month, minimum. Of course, if you didn't care as much about quality or variety, a group of one or two people could probably output something more quickly... but no one really wants to listen to that, do they?
Personally, I see a "news" type podcast as somewhat superfluous. I mean, the Compendium already has a news page, and it's much easier and faster to produce to than a podcast would be. It's also easier for someone to skim for news they want to hear when it's in written form. If it were audio, they would have to sit there and listen to the whole damn thing; some people have better things to do with their time.
If we were to make an audio production of something, I think it would be best applied to single subjects at a time. A subject that someone knows in advance that they want to sit down and learn about. I think it would be great if someone made flash presentations of some of our existing articles. Headexplodey ones such as
"Principles of Time and Dimensional Travel" and
"Salt for the Dead Sea", in particular, could really use the additional media imagery and interactivity that flash allows. I do not think that many would work well as straight audio presentations, though some articles, such as the
"Existentialist Reading" have simple enough concepts to be comfortably listened to, IMHO.
