People's choice? 

Winners of the Podcast Awards were announced not long ago. Last week, maybe? Voting was allowed once a day per voter for a two- or three-week period.

I asked people a time or two to vote for my podcast at Podcast Alley, then decided it felt too much like begging, and was too self-aggrandizing, so I stopped. I'm not "casting" aspersions on podcasters who do ask their listeners to vote for them. I'm only saying that it made me feel uncomfortable doing it. Most people ask for what they want more than I do, just in general; it may be a better way to operate.

Adam Curry said he's been working on getting the Podcast Alley Top 10 in some newspapers including USA Today. It would be nice for the advancement of podcasting to have a weekly mention in the McPaper, but I hope they check out the methodology of those rankings. If there has to be something like a Billboard or Radio & Records chart, it needs to be administered by an independent agency (with some agreement first on measurement and reporting standards.)

But why not just propose to the papers and magazines that they do a regular feature on interesting podcasts, some popular and some not? I know; it's because we're a competitive... what? nation? society? species?