In 2010, the Naked Scientists project entered its tenth year of operations, celebrating in the process more than 14 million downloads of its programmes internationally. From humble beginnings on a small-scale commercial radio station it now ranks amongst the world's most downloaded science shows with a loyal following in almost every country. This transition occurred through a communication revolution that swept across the Internet in the early ‘noughties’: the podcast. By making available to all, on demand, content that would previously have been accessible only to a small number of people, the Naked Scientists used the true power of the web – the ability to scale at very low cost.

Rather than lecture the reader on the pros, cons and general power of podcasting, I have chosen to chart the route that the Naked Scientists venture has taken. Hopefully our experiences as we have grown from what began as a spare-bedroom-based weekend hobby for one, into a unique university-based international multimedia multi-million-audience enterprise with five staff, two interns (currently) and a PhD student will help to encourage others to communicate science in even more imaginative ways of their own. . .