I’m using iTunes 8 on Windows for all of this. It is, of course, a free download for Mac and Windows. (Where is the Linux version, anyway?) If you don’t have any podcasts to listen to, this may not apply. You can find them in the iTunes store. They’re all free and many contain great content.

First, you need to start by creating a new smart playlist. You’ll be presented with a dialog to edit the playlist filter features.

Next, you’ll need to choose the “podcast” option and leave it at the default of “is true”. This is the most critical choice. You can’t use the genre option because not all podcasts are in the genre of podcast. In fact, many of mine aren’t. They’re usually something more specific like "Technology” or “Tech News” or “Entertainment”. However, using this option means anything in the podcast section of iTunes should show up.

That’s not all, though. Next you’ll want to set “play count” to 0. This isn’t the same as the “new” blue spot that shows next to podcasts, but it’s pretty close.

Then, the overall options for the playlist are important. Live updating should be on, so as new podcasts are downloaded they will appear right away. In addition, the podcasts will vanish as soon as you finish listening to them whether you play them through the smart playlist or directly. I also use the “Match only checked items” so I can easily just uncheck any that I don’t want to appear in the list. They’ll vanish instantly with this on. I can easily go back and play these or remove them later from the actual podcast list. Finally, the limit number isn’t important but I found having it sort to the most recently added podcasts keeps me more interested since I’m listening to the newest items. You might think it would be useful to start with the oldest and try to catch up to the newest. I’ve found, though, that this just doesn’t work for me. Old stuff is old stuff.

That’s really all there is to it. When you choose OK, you’ll then be prompted to change the name of the list and you can move it around in to folders or just leave it put.

My wife uses this to limit the length of the podcasts that appear. You can, for instance, use the “time” option to only have podcasts show up that are under 15 minutes. You can also use “kind” to filter out “video” and “movie” or make them just include “audio”. You’ll want to check the “kind” column to see what values work well here. I like having some passive video come up during playback, but this doesn’t work for all people. There are many other options, of course, but I find these are the most useful for podcasts.

This is fairly simple and straightforward. However, the last couple of times I tried to do something similar, I kept trying to use the genre and it just didn’t work. I don’t know if the “podcast” flag is new, but it’s the critical component. I hope this will help someone keep up better on their podcasts with less futzing around with what’s playing. Enjoy. :)