What can a podcast be about? The topics of a podcast as a genre are limitless, and there is probably one podcast about anything that any person would want to hear. Maybe a limitation could be how well they delivered their message, but besides that, I can’t imagine any other. Now, can a podcast be considered a form of scholarly production? My answer is yes, of course! But also no. I think I need to elaborate more. 

If you haven’t visited my homepage yet, in 2021, my team and I launched “Te Leiste el Texto?” a podcast about political philosophy for broader audiences. In each episode, we teach one author and his/her/their book that is considered an introductory text for political philosophy.  As a result, by the end of season one, any listener could learn the same texts as a college student taking an introductory class on political philosophy. 

Would you call my work scholarly production?  Maybe I put you in a difficult position, so don’t answer that question. Truth be told, sometimes I don’t really care if my podcast ever gets that recognition.  I never do it thinking about that. I just wanted to do something useful with my knowledge and passion for others. Other times I want it to be recognized as a scholarly production, to know whether to put it on my CV so that I can stop myself from looking down on my work (to keep the impostor syndrome back in its cage). Also, I think it is difficult to answer because what does it mean for a podcast to be recognized as a scholarly production?

What are the conditions for something to be considered a scholarly production? The number of hours spent on the production or readings.? The academic diploma of the podcaster? To be peer-reviewed? Usually, when I think about scholarly production, the standards that I imagine are the same as for any paper or investigation, though these standards also come with a lot of gatekeeping based on gender, academic background, the necessity of a universal format, and so on.  Contrary to the scholarly “rules,” podcast rules are, basically, if you have a microphone and something to record, you are ready! There isn’t a second guess on your ability to do it; it is for the future listener to decide. So, coming back to the question, Can a podcast be a form of scholarly production? Yes, I think a podcast can be evaluated rigorously as any other form of scholarly production. Also, it would be fair for all those tenured professors, and students that need their work to be recognized. However, one part of me is afraid that by applying these rules, also toxic behavior will take over the podcast. I must admit that I’m torn, and I’m not able to give you a one hundred percent answer in this case. What do you think?