Podcasts are hailed as the ideal bridge between academic scholarship and the general public because they can convey historical content through the human voice in a way that written text may not achieve (Cohen, 2018). The emergence of podcasts followed the rise of blogs, and their development alongside advances in digital technology enabled open-access scholarship (McClurken & Covart, 2022). Furthermore, podcasts are ideally suited to our mobile digital age, allowing us to explore and even create historical narratives wherever we go, no longer limited to reading on the page (McClurken & Covart, 2022).

As a sound-based medium, podcasts can create a sense of intimacy with their audience. They offer content that is informal and accessible while maintaining a level of expertise and engagement (McClurken & Covart, 2022). Further, podcasts broaden the range of voices and stories heard (McGregor & Copelan, 2022).

Projects like Ben Franklin’s World, Consolation Prize, and Through Line exemplify how digital humanities scholars can produce audio-based scholarship. These projects also demonstrate that podcasts are becoming an increasingly influential format for news and information dissemination (McClurken & Covart, 2022; Shearer et al., 2023). For example, Ben Franklin’s World episode “Slavery and Freedom in Massachusetts” showcases this intimacy. In this episode, host Kyera Singleton offers a moving account of the enslaved people at the Royall Plantation, integrating primary and secondary historical sources, including business records, newspapers, baptismal records, and archaeological evidence, to enrich the narrative.

Visual information also plays a significant role in the effectiveness of podcasts. In Ben Franklin’s World’s episode “Slavery and Freedom in Massachusetts”, descriptions of artifacts unearthed during an archaeological dig on the Royall Plantation’s slave quarters, including marbles, pipes, and earthenware, show how enslaved individuals made a life for themselves outside of their enslavers’ gaze. Additionally, “Unrecognized Citizens” of the Consolation Prize podcast effectively incorporates sources by featuring an excerpt from an interview with scholar Alice Baumgartner, who provides a vivid description of Lucien Matthews in her book, South to Freedom.

The structure of a podcast is equally essential. The “Lavender Scare” episode of the Through Line podcast does an outstanding job of organizing the story into three well-defined segments. It begins with the case study of Madeline Tress, which introduces the first segment focused on the birth of the panic. The other two segments delve into the hunt and the fall of the scare, together creating a compelling narrative supported by historical facts from a time in American history when politicians exploited the private lives of gay and lesbian citizens for political gain.

Podcasts are a natural part of the digital humanities’ evolution, as they share features with tools currently used in the field, including the production and editing of public-facing content such as digital exhibitions. The collaborative ebook platform Perusall can transform an uploaded podcast into a crowdsourcing experience, allowing users to annotate content based on specific criteria using searchable hashtags. Both digital humanities and podcasts aim to expand their audiences and enhance accessibility through searchable text. Additionally, collaborations across disciplines are common to both the digital humanities and podcasts. Ultimately, podcasts offer digital humanities researchers another avenue to engage the public with historical content.