Podcast Review: The Chaipod
Channel Title: The ChaiPod
Summary: Views on The Arts, Culture and Society from a Muslim perspective.
Creator/Host: Brother Dash - An American Muslim poet who is a personal favourite. Check out this video to see him in action.
Supplied Info:The ChaiPod™ is a free audio podcast… Presented in a conversational tone much like one would have with a friend over tea. The ChaiPod™ covers topics on The Arts, Culture and Society. New 30 minute episodes are released on the 1st of every month and each episode is available on demand by subscribing via rss and on iTunes [Note from iMuslim: I couldn’t find the podcast on iTunes - being a new channel, it may take a few days to appear on the directory]. The ChaiPod is hosted by Brother Dash and often includes dialogues with experts, scholars, entertainers and personalities.
Last Podcast (title, date, info):Culture, Identity, Islam (3rd May 2008) Did you know that Islam has no set culture? Is it possible that your very own Western culture that you grew up with is perfectly valid and not something to put aside in the corner somewhere but perhaps championed? Join us as we discuss culture and identity over hot tea with world renown scholar and hadith expert Sheikh Abdullah Adhami, director of Sakeenah, Inc.
Podcast of interest (title, date, info): The podcast was only launched last week, so ditto the above!
Overall Review: As I mentioned above, I am already a fan of Brother Dash - in fact, I came across this podcast via an update on his Facebook fanpage! It seems that his oratory skills came in handy for interviewing Sheikh Adhami, masha’Allah, contributing to an interesting and fluid discussion on the relationship between Shariah and culture - one that would be of special interest to Muslim artists in North America.
I am no expert on Shariah, nor am I familiar with the Sheikh in question, but I found the level of discussion to be general enough to be safe for the masses, insha’Allah. There were no direct lessons on offer in terms of fiqh, because as promised in the description, the interview was indeed a conversational airing of ideas, almost stream of consciousness in style. The sound quality, and overall flow, was good, masha’Allah, especially for a first attempt.
Recommended audience: Not for your hardcore student-of-knowledge types - but worth downloading if you’re into Arts & Culture, and want something to chill to, especially whilst travelling on a beautiful Spring day (well, those were my circumstances at the time of listening to the podcast).
Score: 8/10 (masha’Allah!)
A Salaamu Alaikum!
Hey I didn’t even know someone wrote a review! Cool…thanks so much. As fyi I released Episode 2 today. As for the iTunes thing if it isn’t showing up it may be due to the service I subscribe to that is SUPPOSED to include it in iTunes for me. I’ll look into it. I appreciate the feedback. It’s my first time trying the podcast thing and it’s really interesting. I’m open to any feedback on ways to improve it, best practices, etc. I’m a poet not a broadcaster but maybe I’ll be good enough to call myself both. Ma’a Salaama
Wa ‘alaykum salam wa rahmatullah
The podcast review series is quite new, so word hasn’t quite spread yet. We’d appreciate your help in that respect. Please feel free to link to the review on your site - I have written at least one negative review, so this isn’t a convenient link-exchange set up.
I just checked iTunes again, and it wasn’t coming up. Do you know your iTunes feed address?
I’ll have to come up with a better fix because searching for The ChaiPod doesn’t pull up the podcast. Not even searching under my name which just pulls up my album (well that’s cool but not the point). Anyway I had to go under the advanced tab in iTunes after I tried searching under podcasts and then subscribed with this feed url:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/thechaipod
It still doesn’t pull up both episodes but I’ll work on it. Podcast newbie growing pains.
-Brother Dash
Tell me about it.
There is a relatively simply way to podcast for free, without having to attach ads and other annoying stuff… I could e-mail you instructions if you’re interested. As you’re using feedburner, you wouldn’t have to set up a new podcast feed.
Sure send it. You should already have my email address if not it is my name at gmail.