grass stains: The worst thing that's ever happened to me

If you don't know me well, you might think the worst thing that's ever happened to me is that I Instagrammed my hemorrhoids.

Or that I shat my pants in a Walgreen's.

NOPE.

It's that some people asked me to be a guest on their podcast and I felt compelled to say Yes.

AN INTROVERT'S NIGHTMARE, INTERNET.

But do you know what sometimes overrides my introverted soul? My people-pleaser mentality. In fact, the people-pleaser side of me is so strong, sometimes I find myself volunteering for extra work. Or in this case, extra mortification. And demoralization.

Have you ever listened to The Popcast? It's only the preeminent pop-culture podcast in existence. It happens to be hosted by my friends Jamie Golden and Knox McCoy, and when they release a new episode, it's the highlight of my podcast week. Unlike other, WEAKER podcasts, they aren't produced seasonally. They air year-round, and they are spectacular.

Wait. Let me back up for a second. I asked if you've ever listened to The Popcast. Perhaps what I should have asked is, have you ever listed to A PODCAST? If you haven't, please let my disaster of an episode of The Popcast be your first. You won't regret it. It's free, and I'm going to show you how. You don't even have to download a special app. If you have an iPhone -- and probably if you have a Droid -- a podcasting app is preloaded on it.

And if you're already a podcast-listening pro, come back later today, because Ima have a Popcast Rebuttal Post going up. BECAUSE HOW COULD I NOT. #teamgrass

Okay, for you podcast newbies, you can click here to stream the podcast now, or you can read on to learn how to download it.

I don't know where your stock podcast app is, but mine is in a folder I named Useless Stuff. Not because podcasts are useless to me, but because it's one of those preloaded Apple apps that I can't delete, but that I don't use. (I use Downcast.) Anyway, look for the purple "Podcasts" app on your phone.

When you open it up, you probably won't have any visible in the My Podcasts window unless Apple has subscribed to some for you. Which wouldn't surprise me.

So, click on the Search function at the bottom, the magnifying glass. You can search for Popcast, but then you'll have to scroll through the results to find it. Your best bet will be to search for Knox McCoy, and that will bring up The Popcast right away. (They don't know why, but searching for Know McCoy or Jamie Golden brings up much better results in the Search function.)

You're looking for this:

And while you're at it, I'll give you some other recommendations of entertainment/pop-culture podcasts to add to your subscription list (keep the Popcast up on your screen and just follow these instructions to add it as a subscription). One is Off Camera with Sam Jones:

Once it comes up in your search, select the podcast:

A description of the podcast, a list of recent episodes and a Subscribe button will appear:

Click the Subscribe button, and you're all signed up!

To download any individual episode, touch the little cloud/arrow symbol to the right of the episode title. Going forward, episodes will automatically download into your queue whenever the hosts post them.

Now, some people -- myself included -- don't love the Apple podcast app and choose to use something from the App Store. I like Downcast. You can see it below, the red icon with the D.

Functionally, it works about the same as the preloaded app. You tap Add to search for/add a podcast.

You type a podcast name into the Search field and hit Search:

It brings up the search results:

And you can read a full description of the podcast, then hit Subscribe at the top if you want to subscribe. You can also tap View Episodes at the bottom to get more information about individual episodes.

This is where you get the nitty-gritty ... the episode length, full episode descriptions including guest hosts, etc. And you can swipe to download individual episodes from here.