Food for the ears and brain: Serial and The Golden Age of the Podcast

By November last year, the true crime weekly podcast, Serial, had turned into an Internet sensation. The podcast about the 1999 murder of a Baltimore high school student, supposedly by her former boyfriend, became one of the most popular in the history of iTunes with over five million downloads across the world including South Africa. What's the appeal of the podcast and are we entering a golden age for the medium? By MARIANNE THAMM.