Reviews. Are they still worth it?

Some other point of view that has bothered me for as long as I can rememmber....Reading a review (simple text) is the form I appreciate; you can easily browse through them, even when they are less interesting, looking for that one bit of information and revisit them when required. However, the podcast form, just like an interview or a discussion, is much more time consuming. I have listened to hour long interviews, valuing five minutes of information, or nothing at all.

Ouch (he said, being an occasional podcaster).

But yes, I get what you're saying. I don't listen to podcasts very often either, for the same reasons you both cite.

It's always great to illustrate the points you make with music clips. You can do that in an article too, with embedded YouTube videos and what-have-you, but everything becomes more fluid in a podcast. It's also easier to get the tone across (irony, for example).

I definitely prefer the free-form, unscripted episodes, but they are all in Norwegian. I need scripts for the English ones -- not because my English is bad, but it's more difficult to be free-form in a second language. At least for something that people are supposed to listen to; regular conversations is another thing.