The podcast boom is only over if you consider the boom to be the money in podcasting. Of course investors aren’t too keen on podcasts seeing how many attempts have failed. Of course advertisers don’t want to pay to put their ads in podcasts when those ads are just skipped, and they can’t even reliably track downloads, listens, or anything of the sort.
But you know what’s not over? Podcasts themselves. There is still a huge audience of people that listen to podcasts. There is also still a tremendous amount of people who produce podcasts. Some of them keep it simple with just a Patreon or similar model. Many do it with no ads and no revenue whatsoever.
The fact that nobody has found a way to achieve wild business success with podcasts is actually what makes podcasts kind of great. They’re built with free, cheap and open technology. Proprietary platforms haven’t been able to compete with that. If you’re looking for the part of the Internet that isn’t tainted and enshittified, grab an RSS reader and try a podcast.