Why Researchers Shouldn’t Overlook Podcasts

Podcasts offer new ways to share research and connect to the public

Posted on March 19, 2025 in Podcasts

Many speculate that podcasts, once a marginal form of new media, have had massive consequences on social, cultural, and political dynamics. Despite the vast market for listeners, they have only rarely taken off as a vehicle for scholarly communications.

Dario Llinares and Lori Beckstead, academics and podcasters, seek to change the conversation around podcasts in academia with their podcast, The Podcast Studies Podcast. We invited them on The Authority File to explore how scholarly podcasting can challenge the traditional principles of academic research.

In this episode, our guests share the ways podcast studies fits within media studies and outline why academics choose podcasting to discuss their scholarship. Underscoring the conversational and “human” characteristics of the medium, they explain how a podcast works in conversation with the guests, research, and audience, encouraging a concise and accessible approach to scholarly communication. Further, Lori and Dario share that while institutions have begun to understand and appreciate the scholarly potential and rigor of podcasting, the medium’s emphasis on fostering ongoing dialogues opposes traditional research’s focus on citations and output.

Listen now to episode 406:

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About the guests:

Dario Llinares
Academic and Podcaster

Dario Llinares is an academic and podcaster whose research has focused on a range of cinema- and media-related themes. He has published on the status and practice of cinema-going in the digital age, the aesthetics of postmodern film, representations of masculinity in prison cinema, and podcasting as a media technology. He is the co-founder and co-host of the podcasts The Cinematologists and The Podcast Studies Podcast and co-editor of Podcasting: New Aural Cultures and Digital Media (2018). 

Lori Beckstead
Associate Professor, RTA School of Media
Toronto Metropolitan University

Lori Beckstead is an Associate Professor of sound media in the RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University in Toronto, Canada. She is coauthor of Podcast or Perish: Peer Review and Knowledge Creation for the 21st Century (2024) and co-host/co-producer of The Podcast Studies Podcast.

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