The process of looking up these shows made me think about the value of podcast transcripts. EconTalk appears to have an extensive archive of podcast transcripts while 99% Invisible does not. I'm not sure why any podcast doesn't have transcripts. Is there a single good reason?
To me, it seems like the podcasts with search-friendly texts of their shows will have an advantage in the future. Google proved search is the starting point for most internet sessions. Things will change over time, of course, but I suspect ensuring content is 'search friendly' will prove a lucrative rule of thumb for many years to come.
Nowhere is this reality more apparent than when I see people get frustrated over PDFs lacking search capability. So with these thoughts in mind, one of my goals as a podcast producer would be to get each episode into transcript form. (1)
Transcripts would also expand a podcast's audience by reaching a time-constrained listener. I remember how a new boss at work once wanted everyone to listen to a weekly TED Talk. This in itself was not a huge issue for me. But sometimes, the episode of the week was over thirty minutes long. Finding the transcripts in these cases were a huge boost for me. Instead of listening to some over-hyped speaker drone on and on for half an hour, I could just read the speech in five minutes.
Footnotes / imagined complaints
0. Proof, or not?
For those interested, here is a link to the EconTalk podcast episode. The section I cite comes at the 56:19 mark. At the bottom of the page is also a transcript of the podcast.
Here is a link to the 99% Invisible episode.
I could not find the episode featuring Lombardi's cash flow comments. However, here is a snippet of a 2010 NFL.com article where he explains a similar idea:
In any contract when a team guarantees future money in the form of skill (performance) and injury, they're required by league rules to fund the amount in an NFL escrow account at that time. Most teams with cash flow problems dance around this issue by using dated bonuses and only designate either a skill or injury guarantee -- but never both. That way a team can name a date in the future and keep the money on hand as opposed to putting it in an account. Remember, like most businesses, most NFL teams rely on cash flow.
That's why there's some confusion over the amount of the actual guarantee in D'Brickashaw Ferguson's new deal. The Jets want to give the money to Ferguson, but they cannot in the form of a large signing bonus -- which would hurt their cash flow -- so they use this creative measure.1. On the other hand...
The best argument for not bothering with transcripts is to assume a company or product will emerge with the capability of quickly transcribing voice to text. This is not unreasonable. People invent tools all the time to solve previously 'unsolvable' problems (and there are already many companies offering basic versions of this service).
On a side note, I think the 'wait for technology' approach is the unofficial strategy against global warming. It sure as shit isn't "make sacrifices today for the benefit of the future".
