In light of the current pandemic situation, I have been forced to expand my programming efforts to other platforms for disseminating information.  In the last 3 years, monthly podcast listeners have increased by 54% and 37% of Americans listen to podcasts on a monthly basis.  One statistic that specifically interested me is that half of Americans 12-34 listen to podcasts monthly. This age group demographic is very difficult to reach in typical extension programming.  This lead me to do some research on the major platforms of podcast distribution. I found there weren’t many research based agriculture information podcast out there.  With the information above, I felt like I had an opportunity to share extension information via podcast.

I created The Rock Ag Podcast in hopes of interviewing specialist and other extension employees to share the story of extension and research based information in their field of expertise.  At the time of writing this, there are 6 episodes published for download and streaming on the major podcast outlets.  These episodes typically last approximately 20 minutes and are focused on a single topic.   These topics include equine, garden sanitation practices, home invader insects, and beef or beef markets.  

By using several different outlets of publication, the first 6 episodes have reached over 1100 people.  Of those 1100 people reached, just under 300 have listened to the podcast with 41 downloads to devices.  One client that I know personally told me that the really enjoyed the equine podcast that have been available.  With these statistics, I will continue to do podcast with the hopes of ever increasing people that are listening and downloading new episodes.