Sister, Daughter, Mother, Wife: How to Listen to Podcasts [Like Ours] on the Go

Living our Vocations, the SDMW venture into the world of podcasting, is now reality! Join us as we chat about books, being Lutheran, and serving the various neighbors God has placed in our lives. We’d love to keep you company while you clean the house or drive the car.

Want to listen to our "teaser" mini-episode? I must warn you that it is, in its entirety, nothing but bad Lutheran jokes.

For those who are unfamiliar with the various options for tuning in to their favorite podcasts on the go, we’ve prepared a handy-dandy illustrated guide. (Quick note: If you are at home and like to keep things simple, you can listen on your computer through iTunes, Libsyn, or episode-specific posts on the Sister, Daughter, Mother, Wife site).

1. Open your device’s podcast app.

On devices with iOS (iPhone, iPad, etc.), “Podcasts” is the app that is automatically installed (and cannot be deleted). On Android devices, Google Play Music supports podcasts. You can also search your device’s application “store” for other podcast apps. This guide focuses specifically on iOS Podcasts and Google Play Music, but the steps should be similar for other apps as well.

2. Navigate to the “search” section.

In iOS Podcasts, go to the “Search” tab at the bottom-right. In Android, open Play Music and tap the search bar at the top.

(Bonus option: Note that in iOS Podcasts, on the “My Podcasts” tab there is a “plus” button at the top-left that can be used to subscribe directly to this URL, which you can copy-paste on your device: http://livingourvocations.libsyn.com/rss).

3. Type “Living Our Vocations” into the search bar.

Searching “Sister Daughter Mother Wife” should also work when you search by “artist”.

4. Tap “search” to generate results, then tap the podcast titled “Living Our Vocations.”

In Google Play Music, scroll down to view the podcast search results, or simply tap the three vertical dots next to the name of the podcast. This reveals a drop-down where you can tap “Subscribe” (see the next step for more detail).

5. Tap “subscribe” to add the podcast to your “My Podcasts” area.

In Google Play Music, a pop-up emerges after tapping “Subscribe.” Here, you are given several additional options including “Auto-download” and “Notifications.” You can edit these settings later by tapping the three vertical dots next to the name of the podcast and then tapping “Manage subscription.”

6. Navigate to your “My Podcasts” area, and tap “Living Our Vocations.”

In iOS Podcasts or the “Your Podcasts” area in Google Play Music, tap “Living Our Vocations.” In Google Play Music, you can find this area by accessing the side menu and tapping “Podcasts.”

You should access the podcast from this area (not the search area) from now on.

7. If you would like to start listening to an episode right away, tap the title of the episode you want to listen to.

8. If you would like to listen later, download the episode.

If you want to avoid using your data plan, do this when your device is connected to WiFi. Now you can quickly access the podcast later through your “My Podcasts” section.

On the iOS Podcasts app, tap the three dots icon to the right of the episode, and select “download episode” in the menu that appears.

On Android, tap the “i” icon to the right of the episode title. Next press the “download” button (a circle with an arrow and bar inside it). If you chose to turn on “Auto-download” when you subscribed, the past three episodes will be automatically downloaded.

9. Use the “podcast controls” screen to pause, rewind, etc.

Access this by tapping the bar at the bottom of the screen that shows the name of the current episode.

If you get distracted while listening and want to go back several seconds, just click the “back arrow” button immediately to the left of the pause button. To hide this screen, click the arrow button in the top left. To access it again, click the bar at the bottom of the screen that shows the episode title.