What’s the best way to discover RSS feeds?

My recommendation is to install a browser extension that indicates when a site has a feed. Then when you are reading an article you like you can consider subscribing. Eventually you will gather a list of good sources.

Personally I use https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/feed-preview/. But many other options are available.

If you are just getting started and want to build up a list quickly:

1. Err on the side of subscribing if you are not sure. After reading a few articles it than unsubscribing is free if you decide that the feed isn't for you (unlike email newsletters where you still somehow end up getting spam in the future). I think of adding a feed to my reader not as much as subscribing but starting a trial for that feed. If I like the content then I stay subscribed.
2. Just find new content how your normally would. Lemmy and social media are good for finding new things to follow. You can even use Google News. Once you find good content it usually has a feed.
3. You can find topic-based starter packs. Often in the form of OPML files. However I find that these often have far too much volume. But you can still start with them and then quickly unsubscribe from the feeds that don't interest you.

Once you have a good base then you can just let it self-manage more or less. A lot of the new feeds I find are from links in my subscriptions. But if I get through my news I still go on Lemmy and often find new sources there as well.

What "other parts of RSS"? I've only ever seen news, blogs and podcasts.

Depends on your RSS reader! I use “reeder” for Mac and iOS, it does an excellent job of sucking in RSS feeds just from a top-level URL (eg: theverge.com) and keeps everything synced via iCloud. Before that I used feedly in conjunction with a reader app (feedly would keep track of the RSS feeds and sync what was read/unread between clients) but honestly I just found syncing with iCloud faster/easier for me personally.

As for finding the feeds, it’s just a matter of curating from the news sites you personally enjoy the most. If you google a site + RSS you can usually find a link to their feed.

Side note: it drives me crazy if a site posts a ton of articles every day, so sometimes I’ll try a site out in my Reeder app, get a feel for it, and sometimes remove it if it becomes too much.

If you are looking for a way to find RSS/Atom feeds on sites you are interested in, but don't list an RSS/Atom feed:

Here is a Textise version and the original version of a Zapier article talking about how to get an RSS feed manually from (many) sites that don't list one.

I do this just because I like to and it takes but a few seconds to put through my QuiteRSS (GUI) or NewsReader (terminal based) feed reader apps.

Here's the basics from the article (the article itself lists more and more in depth).

A shocking number of websites are built using WordPress—over 40% of destinations on the web. This means there's a good chance that any website you visit is a WordPress site, and all of those sites offer RSS feeds that are easy to find.

To find a WordPress RSS feed, simply add /feed to the end of the URL; e.g., https://justinpot.com/feed. I do this any time I visit a website that I'd like an RSS feed for—it almost always works.

If it doesn't work, here are a few tricks for finding RSS feeds on other sites.

If a site is hosted on Tumblr, add /rss to the end of the URL. Like this: https://example.tumblr.com/rss

If a site is hosted on Blogger, add feeds/posts/default to the end of the URL. Like this: example.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

If a publication is hosted on Medium, add /feed/ before the publication's name. So medium.com/example-site becomes medium.com/feed/example-site

YouTube channel pages double as RSS feeds. Simply copy and paste the URL for the channel into your RSS reader. You can also find an OPML file for all of your subscriptions here.

Find an RSS feed for any site by checking the source code...

I go to news sites and add "/feed" or "/rss" to the URL.