The First SCOTUSblog Podcast

By Tom Goldstein
on Jun 20, 2005 at 11:13 am

Many of you many have heard of “podcasting,” which in this context means posting an audio file to the web rather than the usual text file. We tried a form of podcasting when the blog was hosted on Blogger through their “audioblog” feature, but found it unreliable (although convenient because you could submit a post by telephone).

Today, I’m trying to put together a podcast of the Term’s decisions and cert. grants. I’ve done it on the Court steps after (a) coming out from hearing the Justices issue their opinions, and (b) getting a copy of the Orders List from the Clerk’s Office. (Actual reporters receive the decisions in the Press Office as each case is decided.) The post was actually ready at 10:45, but it has taken forever to find a stable wifi connection. Inevitably, the podcast will overlap with Lyle’s posts as we experiment with the technology. Hopefully, each will add something valuable.

The podcast is in “.wma” format, which will probably launch your Windows Media Player. If all you see is gibberish, you probably have to save the file to your desktop and then open it with Windows Media Player. (The file is large and may take a while to download — I’ve tried to balance sound clarity with compression of the file.)

I’d be grateful for your thoughts on whether this is useful. Thanks.

Here is the podcast.