# Where can I find podcasts for listening online (rather than transferring them to my MP3 player) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 23, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-podcasts-for-listening-online-rather-than-transferring-them-to-my-mp3-player/622780 "2012-05-23T01:57:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-podcasts-for-listening-online-rather-than-transferring-them-to-my-mp3-player/622780/1 "2012-05-23T01:57:14Z")
At my job some of my coworkers like to use pandora or last.fm while working so they have something to listen to. But I prefer podcasts instead of music. However I have been using itunes and my ipod touch to bring podcasts into work. What website has a searchable database of all the podcasts and lets you listen to them on the computer? I think Itunes would allow me to do that, but I don’t know if I want to use my private itunes account at work. Plus I don’t know if I can download itunes at work. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-podcasts-for-listening-online-rather-than-transferring-them-to-my-mp3-player/622780/2 "2012-05-23T02:07:10Z")
iTunes would be the obvious one. Why you could listen to pandora but not iTunes I can’t imagine, so try that first I’d say. You could always create a second account for use at work, using say your work email address. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-podcasts-for-listening-online-rather-than-transferring-them-to-my-mp3-player/622780/3 "2012-05-23T02:24:09Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > iTunes would be the obvious one. Why you could listen to pandora but not iTunes I can’t imagine, so try that first I’d say. You could always create a second account for use at work, using say your work email address. Can I do that w/o downloading itunes on my work computer? ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-podcasts-for-listening-online-rather-than-transferring-them-to-my-mp3-player/622780/4 "2012-05-23T03:58:07Z")
I think most podcasts are MP3 format. Just download them and listen using your favorite player. I recommend [http://podiobooks.com](http://podiobooks.com) if you like fiction. My novel (and many, many others) are up there. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-podcasts-for-listening-online-rather-than-transferring-them-to-my-mp3-player/622780/5 "2012-05-24T01:11:43Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Can I do that w/o downloading itunes on my work computer? No. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-podcasts-for-listening-online-rather-than-transferring-them-to-my-mp3-player/622780/6 "2012-05-24T01:45:01Z")
MP3 files should be able to play in your web browser. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-podcasts-for-listening-online-rather-than-transferring-them-to-my-mp3-player/622780/7 "2012-05-24T08:16:08Z")
> [@heathen\_earthling](#): > > MP3 files should be able to play in your web browser. That depends on which plugins you have set up. But one thing he can do, assuming his work computer has Windows Media Player on it, is right click and copy the URL of the MP3 file, and then open that in Media Player. And if they don’t have media player, but will let you run a program from a thumb drive, you can try [VLC Portable](http://portableapps.com/apps/music_video/vlc_portable). ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-podcasts-for-listening-online-rather-than-transferring-them-to-my-mp3-player/622780/8 "2012-05-24T13:21:14Z")
If you can get a wifi signal on your ipod Touch, you can download the Stitcher app. It allows you to stream podcasts. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-podcasts-for-listening-online-rather-than-transferring-them-to-my-mp3-player/622780/9 "2012-05-24T16:21:41Z")
A lot of the podcast sites have their audio files on their sites, so you wouldn’t have to use iTunes. For example [http://escapepod.org/](http://escapepod.org/). ---
**Author:** ![willia4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f19dbf/32.png) [@willia4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/willia4)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2012, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-podcasts-for-listening-online-rather-than-transferring-them-to-my-mp3-player/622780/10 "2012-05-27T01:23:03Z")
I thought “listening to podcasts from a webpage” was a cool idea that needed to exist. So I wrote it today: [noparse][http://ungroundedoutlet.com/podcaster/[/noparse]](http://ungroundedoutlet.com/podcaster/%5B/noparse%5D) . I’ve tested it on Chrome, Firefox, and Safari on my Mac and on my iPad. I make no promises for Windows, IE, or Android; but I don’t know of any reason why it shouldn’t work for those as well. The only podcasts I’ve found that won’t work with it so far are Escape Pod (mentioned by **Mama Zappa** below) and its sister podcast, Podcastle. I don’t know why those don’t work so I probably won’t be able to fix them. If you find other problems, please let me know. I apologize for the way it looks, but no one’s ever accused me of being a designer! I hope you find this useful. ---
**Author:** ![umkay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/43a26b/32.png) [@umkay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umkay)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2012, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-podcasts-for-listening-online-rather-than-transferring-them-to-my-mp3-player/622780/11 "2012-05-27T23:57:16Z")
Not a real solution, but [thisamericanlife.org](http://thisamericanlife.org) has a huge archive of their past stories, which you can stream on your PC or Mac.