Two years ago, to the very month, I wrote about my frustration on trying to follow news and blogs via RSS feed. It wasn’t hard to find great content that I wanted to keep on top of but finding the best way to actually subscribe and follow was really difficult. I think that problem has continued, particularly with the more fragmented world of newsletter subscriptions and paid for content.

However, I’ve attempted to jump on the RSS bandwagon again and this time I think I’m doing a bit better. My weapon of choice is Reeder which does all the good stuff in terms of subscribing and marking as read and folders and syncing across devices. But the key thing for me is when adding a new subscription, it does an exceptional job of seeking out any available RSS or Atom feeds within a website, even if you only put the homepage in. It’s also handy for keeping up with YouTube channels and Twitter feeds.

Along with going back in time to revisit RSS, I’ve also suddenly found a hankering to listen to podcasts again. I used to be an avid podcast listener (and creator!) since the technology first arrived. But the last couple of years put paid to my enthusiasm for podcasts and I unsubscribed from everything and deleted the player apps.

Recently, I’ve downloaded my player of choice Overcast and subscribed to… well, to too many shows if we’re being honest. I can’t possibly ever keep up with them. But I’m really revelling in all the content again. For a while, during lockdown, it felt like everything was someone interviewing someone else and that was it. There’s still a lot of that around but there’s also a lot more, and something to suit everyone if you look hard enough.

With RSS and Podcasts back on my devices, I really feel like I’ve gone back in time. These things are always so cyclical with me, I wonder how long it will last this time!