9. The Podcast as an Intimate Bridging Medium

In this chapter, Swiatek argues that the podcast can be conceived as an intimate bridging medium: a means of communication that generates a sense of intimacy among listeners who are physically separate from each other, thus enabling boundaries of knowledge and context to be crossed. The chapter also suggests that while the technology of podcasting can be conceived in terms of its equalising potential, the digital public sphere in which it exists is unequal. Specifically, many of the hierarchies in other media systems are replicated in the realm of podcasting, which, in turn, prevents bridging from being as successful as it could be. These arguments are illustrated through an in-depth analysis of an episode from the podcast series Nobel Prize Talks.