Q&A for How to Use a Vanilla Bean

Add while coffee is hot to infuse the coffee with a vanilla taste; it may not completely dissolve if coffee is cooled.

You can use the whole vanilla bean, but it won't dissolve. The oils will infuse into the milk, but the bean will remain whole for you to pull out afterward. You can split it and use just the inside pulp. You just make a slit down the middle of the bean and scrape out the bean with the back of the knife.

You can, but you'd probably be best to just split it and scrape out the seed, which provide most of the flavor.

These are simply different terms for the same thing. The pod looks like a bean and when the bean is split open, it seems like a pod in the way it opens. Hence, people mix the terms up, although bean or pod may be the preferred term depending on where you live.