Podcasting Project

Podcasting and video are two elements of Web 2.0 that I haven't fully explored. With video, there are issues with student images and also equipment. I know that you can do video with a webcam (thanks to my email friends who reminded me of this!), and we can do video clips with our digital cameras. Of course, there is the old standby of digital still photographs in PhotoStory... And, I just learned today that you can take pictures that are in the Windows Photo Gallery (a Vista feature) and there is a "Make Movie" button on the screen. And so, I've decided to explore podcasting with my students.
My first step was to get the district policies, which also required assurance on my part that I knew how to use Audacity. My second step was to find a topic that might hook my students enough for them to get through the much more difficult pre-work and research before they get to put together the project. Since most of my students are teenage boys, and 3 of them are taking Gourmet Foods right now as an elective, I decided to have them explore food. My initial idea was exploring foods in different regions of the United States, but I'm worried that might be too broad. And then I remembered a wonderful project that the Family & Consumer Science teacher at a middle school I worked at did with the students (I helped my students with the project) on bread. Each culture, everywhere in the world has bread. Pita, white bread, matzoh, naan, pancakes, crackers, tortillas.
Now, I need to come up with how I want them to do the projects. As I looked at podcasting, I realized that the all of the poetry projects they completed could be considered 'screencasts' or 'videoblogs'. That really makes me want to come up with a way to have the students do this without the "picture" (screen, video etc). I'm just not sure how to make that happen.