Sep 14, 2007

Podcast Helps Spread Insect NewsSource: Michigan State University

They’re not just creepy crawlers.

A monthly podcast about people, insects and the environment, launched in July with the name InsectaPod Cast, aims to change people’s perceptions of insects as simply pests.

The podcast and its online home, www.insectapodcast.com, were created by Anna Fiedler, Michigan State University (MSU) graduate student, and Jacob McCarthy, an editor in the MSU Department of Animal Science. Fiedler writes and records the podcasts, and McCarthy lends his technical expertise to producing and posting the monthly 10-minute segments. A new edition of the podcast is released at the beginning of each month.

“Typically, people think of insects as pests,” Fiedler said. “My goal is to help people understand insects and spiders in a different way. We want to encourage listeners to see how insects connect with people and the environment.”

The informative, entertaining tone of the podcast separates it from other podcasts about insects, which tend to sound like classroom lectures, Fiedler said. “We are choosing unique, multifaceted topics with an entertaining aspect that is different and fun.”

All podcasts can be downloaded at the InsectaPod Cast Web site, www.insectapodcast.com, where visitors also will find links related to each topic and transcripts of each podcast. Listeners can also network with other listeners by posting links to the InsectaPod Cast Web site on Facebook, an online social network.

The project is funded by the Ray and Bernice Hutsen Memorial Entomology Endowment.

To listen to the podcast, visit www.insectapodcast.com.