It was a good month for 'Straight Talk' and the accompanying podcast. Google Analytics shows about 1,000 visitors stopped by the column, while PodoMatic stats show 4,000 downloads from the podcast episode list. Some downloads, of course, are not actually done by humans, but by the different podcatchers. So I have no way of knowing how many really heard the podcasts. About 20% of visitors to this column are from Newsvine. The remainder find it through Google links or referring sites. I highly recommend Google Analytics to track your own column.

The top three podcast episodes this month:

1) Beatles Live for Swedish Radio - Hands down, this was the most popular episode of the month. We posted up a five-song set by the Fab Four that was probably their best live performance ever recorded. It's loud. It rocks. And because it was done in front of a small audience, the crowd wasn't a factor. In most Beatle performances, you can hardly hear the songs because of all the screaming. In this one, the sound quality is unbelievable.

And it was a public-domain recording to boot.

2) 'Spy Versus Spy - How Everyone Checks You Out and What You Can Do About It' discussed how employers and others are now going beyond Google to find out everything about you.

3) 'John McCain Cartoon Campaign' was the text version of the Newsvine article with the cartoons. I urged listeners to drop by the column to see the cartoons, and judging from the emails, many of them did. Some of the emails came from Republicans and were well...a little negative. Most were positive, however. My thanks to everyone who mailed in their comments. You can see the full article and the cartoons HERE.