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"This is our scenario," Dawn Miceli says. "It's fuckin' 10 at night, it's pitch-black, and our crazy-ass neighbor is mowing his lawn."

"Not our nice neighbors -- our other neighbors, who I get the impression think are too good for us," Miceli's husband, Drew Domkus, adds.

"They hate us," Miceli confirms.

Miceli and Domkus talk on about the hateful neighbors who spent nearly $100,000 fixing up their house and now look at the couple's less-than-fancy abode and ask, "How can they live in that place?"

"He's fucking crazy," Miceli says of the neighbor she has dubbed Lawn Mower Man. "You know what I think? I think he's drunk. … I'll tell you what, Mr. Neighbor: Stop fucking mowing your lawn! You're killing it."

In case you've ever wondered what passes for conversation in the living room of an 1895 Wisconsin farmhouse between a 28-year-old, magenta-haired artist and her 33-year-old Web designer husband -- and really, who hasn't? -- this is it. Yet what would seem to be of interest to only the couple and their feuding neighbors has caught the attention of the thousands of people around the world who log on weekly to The Dawn and Drew Show, which is but one of an increasing number of home-recorded, Web-distributed radio programs known as podcasts.

According to a recent survey by The Pew Internet and American Life Project, more than 6 million Americans have downloaded podcasts. Unlike traditional radio shows, podcasts can be heard at any time on a computer or downloaded to an iPod. The shows don't always consist of people just sitting around talking to each other, either. Podcasts about technology, wine, comedy, extreme sports, blogging and many other subjects flood the Internet.

One show, the Catholic Mormon Podcast, is devoted to the obstacles a Catholic man and a Mormon woman face trying to start a family. Another, The Nate and Di Show, features the adventures -- musical and otherwise -- of two 25-year-olds living in a storage facility in South Carolina.

"No matter what you like, somebody out there is podcasting about it," says Jason Evangelho, a 29-year-old part-time computer tech and butcher from Arroyo Grande, Calif., who hosts a podcast titled Insomnia Radio.. On his first show in October, Evangelho played a song and ranted about a trip to Disneyland. "That's all it was," he says with a laugh. "And I noticed that 10 people listened to it, and I got a couple of comments. Over the next few weeks, I started molding it into a music show."

Today, about 3,000 people download each episode of Insomnia Radio In January, Evangelho and several other podcasters formed the Association for Music Podcasting, which provides a venue for unsigned bands to grant permission for their music to be used by podcasters.

Since he started podcasting, Evangelho has stopped listening to radio and watching MTV. He listens only to podcasts or CDs he buys after hearing them on other podcasts. Although he doesn't want to broadcast the sort of slick advertising that he believes turns people away from conventional radio, Evangelho would like to attract sponsorship in order to podcast full-time.

So would Mark Hunter, a 33-year-old from Glasgow, Scotland. Hunter, who runs a small window and office cleaning business, started podcasting as a creative reprieve from his often-boring job. Having tried blogging and photoblogging, he now records Tartanpodcast three times a week in his living room. His mission is to play the best independent Scottish music he can find, from hard rock and punk to electronica.

"I had no way of knowing that it would turn out to be as popular as it turned out to be," he says. "Although, looking back, I probably should have foreseen that people around the world would be keen to hear the Scottish accent and to hear Scottish music."

Listeners, who recently voted his podcast into the Top 10 at Podcastalley.com, apparently share his taste, and several Scottish bands credit their first American CD sales to his show. "Tartanpodcast has been a great way for us to reach an audience we'd otherwise never find," Alastair Bishop of the Hotrod Cadets says. "We've also heard a lot of great Scottish music from other bands that we didn't know existed."

Robert Nelson, a 30-year-old, home-alarm-company manager from Boca Raton, hosts Are You a Geek? He sometimes plays local bands on his techie podcast, but he focuses on technology news, security issues and new gadgets.

About 250 people download each episode of Are You a Geek?, which Nelson began podcasting in April. He's overwhelmed by the feedback he has received and says that he drew 60 new listeners after his show was mentioned on The Daily Source Code, a popular podcast hosted by Adam Curry, the former MTV VJ some people call "The Podfather." Curry is a creator of iPodder, a program used to download audio files to an MP3 player. He has been podcasting since August 2004 from his home in Guildford, England.

It's not uncommon for podcasters to promote one another's shows, further swelling the ranks of podcatchers, the term often used to describe people who listen to podcasts. A confirmed podcast junkie, Nelson subscribes to 55 shows, which are automatically downloaded to his computer. "At this point, it's pretty much replaced my regular radio listening," he says. The Dawn and Drew Show is among his favorites. "The show they do is just plain fun," he says. "There have been times I have it on my iPod listening in my car, just laughing out loud. I listen as soon as they release a show and then cannot wait to hear more."

In turn, Miceli feels camaraderie with not only her fellow podcasters but also the thousands of people who download her show on a regular basis. "That's the thing about podcasting," she notes, "the friendships from all over the world that we've formed. I really like it when people write in and they say, 'We feel like we're friends and that we're hanging out in your living room.' There's a real kinship there."

Podcasting for beginners

To start podcasting, you'll need a computer, a microphone and an Internet connection. Programs such as Audacity, voice-recording software that can be downloaded for free online, allow you to record a podcast and save it as an MP3 file. Then you must upload that file to your Web site or blog and create an RSS feed on your site. (Instructions are provided at www.ipodder.org.)

If you'd rather listen to others than record yourself, podcast directories such as www.podcastalley.com, www.podcast.net, www.ipodder.org and www.podcatch.com can point you in the right direction. If you find a show you like, you can subscribe. Free programs such as iPodder, which allow podcatchers to subscribe to podcasts, periodically look for and download new podcasts, which become available when you dock your iPod.

Check out our favorite podcasts.