How to Listen to Podcasts: A Simple Guide for Australian Seniors

A podcast is a bit like a radio show you can play whenever it suits you. Instead of waiting for a programme to come on at a set time, you tap it on your phone or tablet and it starts. You can pause it, come back to it tomorrow, and it picks up where you left off.

The good news is you almost certainly already have everything you need. If you have an iPhone or iPad, the app is built in. If you have an Android phone, you are one free download away. And plenty of the best listening is free, including a huge range of Australian podcasts from the ABC on everything from history and gardening to true crime.

This guide walks you through it slowly, on both an iPhone and an Android phone, and suggests a few Australian shows to try first.

What a podcast actually is

Think of a podcast as a series, like a weekly radio programme. Each new instalment is called an episode. When you find a show you enjoy, you follow it, and from then on the newest episodes turn up automatically. There is nothing to record and nothing to remember.

You listen through an app, which is just a program on your phone or tablet. On an iPhone or iPad that app is called Podcasts. On Android, the most popular choice is Spotify. Either way, you can listen with the phone speaker, with headphones, or through a Bluetooth speaker or your hearing aids.

Podcasts are close cousins of online radio. If you would rather listen to live stations and catch-up programmes, our guide on how to listen to the radio online in Australia covers that side of things.

Listening on an iPhone or iPad

Apple puts a Podcasts app on every iPhone and iPad, so there is nothing to buy or install. The icon is purple with a little white microphone. If you cannot see it, swipe down on the home screen and type “podcasts” in the search bar at the top.

1. Open the Podcasts app

Tap the purple icon. The first time you open it you may see a welcome screen. You can tap through it, or tap Skip. You do not need to pay for anything or sign up separately, since it uses the same Apple account you already use for the App Store.

2. Search for a show

Tap Search at the bottom of the screen, then type the name of a show or a topic. You could try “ABC”, “Conversations”, or something you enjoy like “gardening” or “history”. Tap a result to open the show and see its list of episodes.

3. Play an episode

Tap the name of any episode, or the play triangle beside it, and it starts. Controls appear along the bottom. Tap once to pause, tap again to carry on. The two little arrows with 15 or 30 in them skip back or forward, which is handy if you miss a sentence or want to jump past an ad.

4. Tap Follow to keep the show

On the show’s page, tap the Follow button. This is the important step. From now on the newest episodes appear by themselves, and you will find them under Library at the bottom, then Shows. Following is free. It simply saves you searching for the show again.

5. Download to listen without using data

If you want to listen where there is no wi-fi, such as in the car or out walking, download the episode first while you are at home. Tap the three dots beside an episode and choose Download Episode. A small tick or arrow shows when it is saved. Downloaded episodes play without using any mobile data.

If your Podcasts app has vanished or the text feels too small, our guide on how to make an iPad easier to use shows how to enlarge text and tidy the home screen.

Listening on an Android phone or tablet

Android phones, such as Samsung, do not come with a dedicated podcast app any more. Google closed its own Podcasts app a while back. The simplest replacement is Spotify, which is free and used by millions of people for both music and podcasts.

1. Install Spotify from the Play Store

Open the Play Store (the coloured triangle icon), tap the search bar, and type “Spotify”. Tap Install on the green Spotify app. If you are unsure about adding apps, our guide on downloading an app safely explains what to watch for. The steps are much the same on Android.

2. Set up a free account

Open Spotify and tap Sign up free. You can use your email address or an existing Google account. The free version plays podcasts in full at no cost. You do not need the paid Premium plan just to listen to podcasts.

3. Search, play and follow

Tap Search, type the name of a show, and tap it to open. Tap an episode to play, and tap Follow on the show so new episodes come to you. Your shows then sit together under Your Library. To listen offline, open an episode and tap Download.

YouTube Music is another option that comes on many Android phones, but for someone starting out, Spotify is the gentler place to begin.

Good Australian podcasts to start with

The ABC is the country’s biggest podcast maker, and its shows are all free. They are a warm, familiar place to start because you already know many of the voices from the radio. You can find them in the Podcasts app or Spotify, and the ABC also has its own free app called ABC listen. A few worth a try:

• Conversations with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski, for long, unhurried interviews with interesting people.
• Australia All Over with Ian “Macca” McNamara, the much-loved Sunday morning ramble around the country.
• ABC News Daily, a short catch-up on the day’s main stories.
• All In The Mind, gentle science about the brain, memory and how we think.

Beyond the ABC, the same apps carry podcasts on almost any interest you can name, from your favourite sport to family history, cooking, faith and travel. Search a topic you love and see what comes up. If nothing grabs you at first, that is normal. Try a couple of episodes from different shows and you will soon find a voice you enjoy.

Making it comfortable to listen

The phone speaker is fine for a quiet room, but a few small things make listening easier and clearer.

Turn the volume up or down with the buttons on the side of the phone while a podcast is playing. A cheap Bluetooth speaker fills a room with sound and is easy to hear from across the kitchen. If you wear hearing aids, many can play a podcast straight into your ears at just the right volume, which our guide on pairing hearing aids with a phone walks through step by step.

One more comfort setting. If a host talks too quickly, tap the speed control, often shown as “1x”, and choose a slower pace. And if you nod off, most apps have a sleep timer that stops the audio after a set time, so the phone does not play all night.