Not that Oprah needs OUR help in promoting what she’s up to, but it did not escape our notice that her podcast has hit number one on the iTunes charts. For those of you who didn’t know (and I count myself among them), here’s the skinny.

At the beginning of March, The Oprah Book Club began a 10-week online class with author Eckhart Tolle. If you miss it on Mondays, they’re available for download in iTunes the next day.

So since this is a blog about online media, let’s check the score:

Online class with over 500,000 viewers* logged in the first week- Check.
Effective use of Skype video- Check.
Effective use of the "long tail" via podcast- Check.

This whole effort has been somewhat under the radar. Or, as under the radar as Oprah Winfrey can be, given her place on the media scene. But she, more than almost anyone else I can think of, has the ability to bring podcasting into the mainstream of understanding and usage. And who knows? I’ll bet you the content ain’t all bad either…

While we’re on the topic of inspiration- this video is one of the more inspiring things I have seen in quite some time. I think it may be due in equal parts to the message as well as the messenger. Brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke about 7 years ago. She took note of everything that was happening to her as it was occurring. I don’t want to give anything away, but the last 2 minutes or so are both cathartic and revelatory. If you have some free time over the weekend, it’s worth a watch. (If it won’t play here on our page, here is the link back to the TED Talks website.)

*Breaking the previous record of 240,000 simultaneous download streams.