This is genuinely wild to me, I've been listening to audio content on the web since since early 00s I can't recall if it predates ipod (01) or not. There must have been another term prior?
There was earlier downloadable audio content but it was really early 2000s with RSS/Winer/Curry/etc. when 1st gen podcasting got its name and really took on something like it's current form. You can identify various other points like Serial/money flowing in/cellular connections/etc.