One of the difficulties that podcasts face is simple lack of attention bandwidth. I can read (or scan) far many more blog postings than I can podcasts. This will always be the case, but there are quite a number of improvements in the technology that can be made to improve access. For example, many of the longer podcasts should be broken up into segments that can be easily skipped, one segment of a show to the next. Another idea: have meta-information about the podcast included in the audio itself at the beginning (topics, time, etc.).

Ed Bott has another suggestion (Tip of the Day: Listen to a Podcast at Warp Speed).

Windows Media Player has a well-hidden advanced playback control that allows you to vary the speed at which a media clip is played back. This feature, it turns out, is ideal for listening to broadcasts that emphasize the spoken word, such as podcasts and vlogs. This feature does much more than simply rewind or fast-forward a media clip; it performs time compression and expansion, speeding up or slowing down the pace of playback but maintaining audio and video fidelity—keeping a narrator or host's voice from sounding like a cartoon character when the audio or video clip is played at faster than normal speed.

Use this feature to “speed read” an instructional video or a podcast, for example, viewing or listening to the full program in a fraction of its normal running time while still being able to understand the audio.

Of course, such technology can't be some hidden trick, but must be readily accessed and adjustable, such as through a scroll wheel or some such.

Are the podcasting gods listening?