Podcasting as Research Practice

Podcasting as Research is a research practice developed through the Future Histories podcast. Rather than treating the podcast merely as a tool for communicating or disseminating finished research, the approach understands podcasting itself as a medium through which research takes place.

At its core Future Histories is a form of public thinking in conversation (“Denken im Gespräch”; Klenk, 2022). It is an open ended investigation that weaves together threads and follows promising research questions over the course of different episodes and in conversations with multiple interviewees. Here, the podcast is a form of shared knowledge production that takes place through dialogue in which the podcast medium itself can be understood as an “experimental system” (Rheinberger, 1994). The public nature of this practice creates a specific form of openness for further development, since it is not only those directly involved in the conversation who take part, but also the listeners who engage in processes of thinking with and thinking further. Listeners contribute ideas, references, criticism, and suggestions for further interlocutors, sometimes opening entirely new research trajectories. In this way, the podcast can help create epistemic communities across disciplinary and institutional boundaries.

Over time, Future Histories has developed into a growing research archive that can be revisited and recombined in further conversations, publications, collaborations, and research projects. The list of such collaborations and follow-up projects that have emerged over the years in the context of Future Histories is extensive and includes art and cultural institutions (e.g., Kunstverein Hannover, Literaturhaus Berlin), academic contexts (e.g., invitations to the Colegio de México or Goldsmiths College London), fellowships (e.g., at the Weizenbaum Institute or as a TEFE Fellow at NYU’s Remarque Institute), lecture series (University of Regensburg, University of Paderborn), teaching assignments (Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, University of Paderborn), edited volumes (Groos and Sorg, 2025; Sorg and Groos, 2025), and ongoing collaboration with various activist contexts (e.g., as part of the Socialization Conference, Attac/Climate Biennale, and many others).

Podcasting as Research thus describes not simply a particular way of producing audio, but an iterative and transdisciplinary research practice unfolding across different media, people, and publics.