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A friend pointed me to a wonderful website documenting the work of an American independent radio production company. As the blurb says:

Told with care and dignity, the work depicts the lives of Americans living in communities often neglected or misunderstood. Sound Portraits frequently collaborates with people living in these hard-to-access corners of America, giving them tape recorders and microphones and helping them tell their own stories.

Isn't that what podcasting is meant to be all about too? If you listen to audio like this, listen to shows like Outlook on the World Service, and as a podcast from NPR you'll see that radio can be just about life itself. But why, given the ease and inexpense of podcasting, do we leave it to the professionals to tell these tales? Too many podcasts immitate radio, when, I think, the best radio immitates life itself.