The National Intitute of Health has very detailed show notes for their archived shows, though none for their present one. Their May 1, 2009 episode has the date, the episode number, the length of the show and the size of the MP3 file. They also have a complete transcript. However, there is nowhere to either play the podcast in the browser or to subscribe to the podcast. If you click on the Episode (which is blue to indicate a link), a box appears asking if you would like to download the mp3. It is only by going back a few pages to the NIH Podcasts page that the reader gets the subscribe option. However, on this page they have an FAQ section dedicated to podcasts, which is a nice touch. Overall, it seems to be a good example of show notes.

The Splendid Table is a decent example of show notes too. They include the date but not the episode number or length. However, the actual notes portion is very detailed, with links to relevant websites and recipes, addresses of restaurants discussed and musical credits.

At frst glance, I would say that KEXP’s Music that Matters podcast site is lacking. They list the host, the episode number and the songs played, but not the date or the length of the episode. However, there isn’t a whole lot more to the show than the songs, so this information is really all that the viewer/listener needs.

So that leaves a bad one, and my suspicion that Beer is Tasty would be lacking in show note quality proved correct. The boys give a brief (3 sentance) description of what they cover, as well as the episode number and when it was posted, but not much else. If they are going to be making cheese dip, they should give us the recipe!