This is the archive of CPA Now blogs posted on the PICPA website through April 30, 2025. Want more recent blogs?
Listen Up! Podcasts for CPAs
CPAs who are looking for podcasts to stay current on professional and technical trends can now turn to the PICPA podcast series, CPA Conversations. The PICPA continually strives to give its members choices on how to get their information, and podcasts are an option that is growing in popularity.
By Maureen Renzi, vice president - communications
CPAs who are looking for podcasts to stay current on professional and technical trends can now turn to CPA Conversations. This podcast series, launched in early July 2016, features experts, including Pennsylvania CPA Journal authors and conference speakers, who provide insight and interesting stories addressing complex and emerging issues. The interviews are being conducted by Bill Hayes, managing editor of the Pennsylvania CPA Journal, and Jim DeLuccia, PICPA’s manager of communications. Check out a recent interview about the Pennsylvania budget and subsequent changes to the tax code.
Why offer podcasts when the PICPA already has a magazine, website, video, and e-mail newsletters? It’s because the PICPA continually strives to give its members choices on how to get their information, and podcasts are an option that is growing. The most recent numbers I could find listed more than 271,000 podcasts listed on iTunes. In 2014, 2.6 billion podcasts were downloaded. Still not convinced that you are missing out on something? Marketing Tech blog put together a great infographic about podcasts that tell the story.
Many credit the extremely popular Serial podcast series as the catalyst for a renewed interest in podcasts. Serial was a 12-part investigation of the 2000 murder of Hae Min Lee, an 18-year-old Baltimore high school student, which garnered more than 3.4 million downloads for each episode. Personally, I think it’s the ease of downloading podcasts to a mobile device and listening to them at your convenience that has served as a critical component of the renewal, and the buzz Serial brought to the mainstream discussion helped more individuals get hooked on podcasts.
For those who are not familiar with the concept of podcasts, think of it as a DVR for your favorite radio program hosts, whether it be politics, sports shows, or something else. A podcast is simply an audio file that many people download onto their phones and listen to on the go. If you listen to music while driving a car, working out, completing household chores, or gardening, podcasts can work for you. In my case, I sometimes like listening to a podcast on my way home on the train instead of reading. As a train commuter in Philadelphia dealing with reduced schedules and over-crowded cars while they fix 1/3 of their fleet, some podcasts helped me keep my sense of humor to ease the extended length of my commute. I’m sure some of my fellow commuters wonder why I’m smiling in crowded, hot trains.
You can listen to, or download, CPA Conversations directly from PICPA’s website, or you can subscribe directly through the iTunes store. If you are not an Apple user, find us on Google Play. To download the podcasts, you will need an app. If you search in the iTunes store for Podcasts, you will get a list of apps. I use this free one. There are also free apps for Android users.
If you are looking for more podcast recommendations, iTunes has this chart of the most popular podcasts, and if you’re looking for other accounting-related blogs, you may want to check out this list.
If you subscribe to our podcast and like us, we’d appreciate a review. It will help others find our great new service. If you have ideas for content, share your ideas in the comment box. Hope you enjoy listening!
