What the fuck is a podcast?

I had to one one of these "Podcasts" today in school, and I have to say that its all a load of bullshit. I believe the proper term for these are "Audio Recordings" My school was retarded enough to pay for a full licensed "Podcast Studio" program that is in between windows sound recorder and audacity in terms of functionality, both being free. So why the fuck would they waste all that money on this bullshit audio recording software, just because it uses a retarded buzz-word invented by Apple?