Globalization and technological change pose a pressing challenge: local values and cultural knowledge can be difficult to transmit to younger generations. Podcasts offer a way to approach that problem in digital culture. A podcast is a digital audio program; its use of voice, narrative, and conversational closeness can echo the spoken character of oral tradition. Here, re-oralization means carrying culture through spoken storytelling again, while democratization means widening who can encounter knowledge. These qualities make podcasts relevant to cultural preservation, education, and community engagement—not as replacements for tradition, but as accessible spaces for its continuation and reinterpretation. The 2022 paper Contemporary Folklore and Podcast Culture links podcasting with knowledge democratization and cultural re-oralization, while Folklore & Fiction describes itself as where folklore scholarship meets storytelling craft [1].
At the center of this discussion is MacCath-Moran and Kobus’s 2022 paper, Contemporary Folklore and Podcast Culture: Towards Democratization of Knowledge and Re-Oralization of Culture. Its title presents podcast culture as a possible meeting point between folklore and wider public access to knowledge [1]. In this framing, democratization of knowledge means making ideas available beyond specialist or institutional settings, while re-oralization of culture means carrying cultural material through spoken, heard storytelling once again. The paper therefore provides a conceptual language for understanding why podcasts matter to folklore without treating digital audio as a simple replacement for older traditions [1].
Its distinctive contribution is the connection it draws between folkloristic scholarship—scholarship about folklore—and the practical craft of telling stories. That connection is reflected in Ceallaigh S. MacCath-Moran’s Folklore & Fiction podcast, described as “where folklore scholarship meets storytelling craft” [1]. The podcast offers a concrete illustration of the paper’s proposal: research and interpretation can be shaped into an audio storytelling format, allowing scholarly attention to folklore to travel through a form organized around voice and narrative [1].