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Dental Podcasts: What They Are and How They Work by Richard Low, Dentaltown Student Program Director

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I awoke to my wife nudging me and saying, "Are you going to get your phone? Don't you have an exam?" It had only been a few hours since I stopped studying for my 7 a.m. basic sciences exam and I had to drive back to school. As I got in my rusted '95 Honda Civic for my 30-minute commute, I realized that driving to and from school had cost me an hour of sleep or studying that I couldn't afford to waste. "Maybe we should have rented somewhere closer to campus," I thought to myself. "How do people survive working with an hour-plus commute each way?"

At that point in my first year of dental school we were still trudging through biochemistry, histology, neuroanatomy and all the other basic science courses that didn't feel particularly relevant. I just wanted to get to the dentistry. I wanted to know what it would be like to place implants, own a practice and treatment plan complex cases. I was filling my commute with audiobooks to pass the time, but I wished I could use that dead time to become a better dentist.

What Is a Podcast?

Fast-forward four years later and I can't keep up with the phenomenal amount of dental audio put out via podcasts. A podcast is like a free radio show distributed online. You can download podcasts to your computer, tablet or phone and listen to them wherever and whenever you want. Podcasts are updated via feeds (often weekly), so new content is automatically delivered to you. It's a lot like a blog, but in audio format. The host of these podcasts will often interview guests, but sometimes they record an episode alone. They range from 10 minutes to more than an hour in length.

Podcasts started becoming popular in the early 2000s with the advent of the iPod, but were inconvenient because users had to download the audio to their computer before loading it to their MP3 player. With the advent of smartphones and tablets, you can download or stream the content straight to your device from an app, making it much simpler. In the past year iTunes hit its 1 billionth podcast download and Saturday Night Live made fun of a popular podcast in a recent skit. Podcasts are officially "in" as a medium.



Why Should I Listen to a Dental Podcast?
There are few things that simultaneously improve us and allow us to regain lost time. Podcasts allow you to use the time in your life that otherwise slips by. If you ever commute to work, exercise, do housework, eat a meal by yourself or have to wait in line at the store, then you might benefit from listening to a podcast. Some people use them to fall asleep at night or listen to them during their morning shower. Ironically, I now enjoy my commute, go jogging more often, and don't mind running errands because the podcasts I listen to are entertaining and also educational.

As a "starving" student, I'm most grateful that these podcasts are free. I don't have money to travel across the country, pay thousands in tuition, and sit through a three-day course to pick up a few clinical pearls. I can listen to podcasts on my own time and as often as I'd like. I can rewind and re-listen to the parts that I didn't catch or that deserve special attention. Some podcasts even have transcripts of the whole show for later reference (Dentaltown's podcasts provide such transcripts).

How Do I Listen to a Podcast?
Podcasts are simply sound files organized into a feed. All you need is an app or program to find that feed. iTunes was the original "podcatcher" (a program that downloads and manages podcasts) and remains the main source of podcast feeds, even for Android and other devices. Any device can pick up a podcast feed. Here's how, based on your device and listening preferences.

Apple iOS Devices
iOS Podcast App
  • Free, comes pre-installed in iOS 8, great interface for searching and using iTunes, subscriptions download automatically according to your preferences, ability to speed up audio, ability to create stations with multiple podcasts, etc. This is a great place to start if you've never listened to a podcast!
How to use:
  • Find the Podcasts app on your device. If your device is older than iOS 8, you might have to search for it on the App Store. It looks like this: (Fig. 1)
  • Open the app and tap "Search" in the bottom right corner. (Fig. 2)
  • Search for your favorite podcast, you can then download either an individual episode or subscribe to the whole podcast. (Fig. 3)
  • Listen to your podcasts by clicking "My Podcasts" on the bottom left. (Fig. 4)
3rd Party iOS Apps
  • There are many 3rd party iOS apps that you can download from the iTunes store, some free and some not. They come with customizable features and power functions that aren't in the native Podcasts iOS app. Unless you're a podcast addict, try the Apple Podcasts app first.
Android/Amazon Devices
Stitcher (free)
  • In the Google Play/Amazon App Store, download Stitcher, a free podcast app that allows you to stream or download podcasts for later. There are ads, but it is one of the more reliable apps for Android/Amazon devices. (Fig. 5)
  • Search for your podcast of choice and subscribe/download! By default Stitcher likes to stream episodes rather than download them, but you can easily tell it to download them later.
3rd Party Android/Amazon/Windows/Other Apps
  • Android, Amazon, and Windows devices do not have a native podcast player, but many free and paid apps fill that void. You might have to try a few to see which will work best for your device and allow you to find the podcasts you're looking for. Regardless of the app or device you use, try listening to a podcast. It may become your favorite new thing.




Dentaltown Magazine
September 2025
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