Thanks to the "long tail" of fandom, Narnia and Harry Potter fans can satisfy their cravings for news, views, and theories all day long. Along with dozens of fan blogs, there are fan podcasts.

Perhaps the most well-known are the award-winning Harry Potter podcasts, Pottercast, hosted splendidly by The Leaky Cauldron, and Mugglecast, hosted by the boys at Mugglenet. Pottercast just won another fan award.

Lesser known (but not for long) is the Hog's Head Pubcast, hosted by Travis Prinzi of Sword of Gryffindor.

Yesterday I learned of another fan podcast, NarniaFansCast, hosted by ordinary Narnia fans like you and me.

What is a podcast? First, it helps to mention digital audio files. These files come in various formats, including MP3 and WAV files. You can download and save these to your hard drive, or download and listen with an audio player like iTunes, Windows Media, QuickTime, or your own MP3 player.

A podcast, like a broadcast, is the method by which digital audio file content is delivered. The content of this file is also referred to as a podcast. To receive new podcast "shows" or episodes automatically, you'll need to subscribe to that podcast's feed. In order to do that, you must download a "podcatcher." I use iPodder. See Podcast Alley's Downloading Podcasts page for more info.

I'm quite certain there are other Harry Potter and Narnia podcasts out there, so if you have time to listen to more than the four I mentioned (updated weekly), seek, and you shall find.