Pod people

PodcastGO makes learning portable

PROFILE. Great moments of inspiration happen in all sorts of places: the riff for “Satisfaction” came to Keith Richards in a dream, J.K. Rowling dreamed up “Harry Potter” on a stalled commuter train, and Dr. Emmett Brown invented the flux capacitor after falling off a toilet. So it shouldn’t be surprising that Andrea Mitchell would build a 21st-century podcasting company based on an idea she had in a 12th-century temple.

“Almost three years ago I saw a monk sitting in a very remote part of Angkor Wat, in Cambodia, watching his cell phone like he was amazed by it. I couldn’t figure out what the hell this guy was watching,” says Mitchell, who worked as an assistant director and producer in movies and TV. “Being a typical American, I thought, ‘What, he’s never seen a cell phone before?’ And my rickshaw guy said, ‘Actually, no, he’s watching the news.’”

Based on that flash of an idea, Mitchell partnered with Steven Hearn, then a technology services executive, to found PodcastGO.com, a production house and database of podcasts that’s organized like cable TV.

“It’s interest-specific and channel specific,” Mitchell says. Since launching almost a year ago, the site has amassed 3.2 million subscribers, collected dozens of podcasts in 18 channels, including sports, cooking and travel, and partnered with Car & Driver magazine, Astor Wines and Spirits and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. Thirty-one more channels are in the works, including election topics, green living and weddings.

Mitchell’s main goal with PodcastGO is education; she struggled with learning disabilities as a child, and believes that the integration of video, sound and text appeals to people who learn in different ways.

The popular golf channel includes tutorials from pros Paul Casey, Betsy King and Jason Gore — but the main selling point is that you can take them with you to the gym. “You can practice what he’s saying and incorporate what he’s saying, and you can take it with you in your back pocket,” Mitchell says. “You just have to put the phone down [to hold a club].”

While all the podcasts are video, they work fine if you’re just listening, but you might want video for more complicated subjects like knitting, baking and the Style channel’s explanation of where to find fake designer bags. Remember, that Fendi looks real on a 1-by-1-inch screen.

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