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We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

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Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#161

Post by rsanheim »

schnevets wrote: post #58

Creators may be entering a golden age, but the delivery methods and infrastructure have been stagnant for years now. We now have ongoing shows, evergreen episodic shows, "two amateurs in a basement" niche shows, 12-episode and it's done audiobooks, and various other designations of podcasts, and yet we still serve everything like it's a blog that needs to release content weekly. I also find it frustrating that we onl…

The infrastructure and delivery is just fine. You can start a podcast easier than ever now. The difficultly is in creating good content, not serving mp3s and RSS.

Discoverability is certainly a concern, but only because there is _so much_ good content out there. I find out about good podcasts via word of mouth much more than any directory or online source.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#162

Post by [deleted] »

ddebernardy wrote: post #78
chrisseaton wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you find them? I keep trying to get into podcasts (tech, computer science, military, history...) but I really struggle. A sea of ancient abandoned shows when I search on my iPhone, seems nothing still running? Where should I be looking?

For tech, Kara Swisher's Recode Decode is excellent. I've yet to find any good History podcasts that serves good to great episodes on a regular basis either. The BBC's history podcast stood out as vaguely better. But I was always left craving for something more in-depth, like some of the better History lectures you can find on YouTube. That being said, there are a few great shows from time to time, like Slate's Slow…

[deleted]

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#163

Post by Numberwang »

blang wrote: post #158
WhompingWindows wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I subscribe to the podcasts of: Sam Harris, Conan, The Energy Gang, Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and a couple other NPR shows. None of my podcasts, IMO, are decreasing in quality, nor would I expect any of these groups to sell-out as they are off-shoots of other things. The podcasts I listen to are intentionally hand-selected over time to be 1) informative, 2) have a decent cont…

Gimlet media was started by Alex Blumberg, who worked previously for "This American Life" and "Planet Money" (he may have started that one). These are both NPR shows as well as very popular podcasts One of it's show is "Reply All" is hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman. They used to host a podcast called "TLDR" on NPR (WNYC). These guys are all super talented and deserve to be paid very well for the content they produ…

[dead]

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#164

Post by wenbin »

slg wrote: post #116
blang wrote: post #88

I'm actually worried that podcasts are going the way of the web. What, for a while, was a weird world of enthusiasts talking about things that interests them seems to be morphing into a world of a few big corporate entities calling the shots. I have two reasons for these worries. 1) The purchase of Gimlet by Spotify mentioned in the article. 2) The purchase of Stuff Media by iHeart. The purchase of Gimlet is problema…

I agree, we might be leaving the golden age rather than entering it. The article mentions Spotify exclusive shows and we have already seen several other paywalled shows from companies like Audible and Stitcher. Meanwhile a number of podcasters are taking control of their own shows, not joining a podcast network or content company, and moving the show to platforms like Patreon. That is great for the content creators t…

It’s just a start. The podcast world will continue to be very fragmented.

There are some small consolidation here and there. There are a few podcasts becoming paid / subscription based business. But most podcasts will be niche , small , and free. More fun people will start their own podcasts :)

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#165

Post by 2arrs2ells »

intrasight wrote: post #131
jedberg wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always enjoy Science Vs. Also, Startup, which actually has featured a bunch of YC companies. Reply all has good stuff too most of the time.

"Startup" sounds cool. I found it. I don't understand why they don't have a link to the MP3 but instead make me use an app.

MP3 links are in the Startup RSS feed: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/startup

(I strongly recommend starting with Season 1. It's the most honest and vulnerable telling of early startup life that I've ever come across.)

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#166

Post by toasted »

blfr wrote: post #92

I remember listening to EconTalk back when you downloaded it to your mp3 player using a computer. And maybe I'm a hipster but the golden age seems to be over. It's all too mainstream now, too polished, too polite. Nowadays, I scroll through the multiple new episodes of many shows I used to enjoy to rarely find something I genuinely want to hear. Sure, you can probably dig to something like Cum Town but even then it d…

fellow econtalk/cumtown (well more red scare) listener here..

The latest feed refresh used to make me feel "Wow how will I have time to listen to all of these!" whereas now its "God do I really want to listen to any of these."

I guess previously we were all starved of interesting long form conversations (or socialist edgelords) but now we're reasonably satiated and like anything else it has to be good to hold our attention.

I still find a good econtalk pod is one of my greatest pleasures - russ & munger episodes particularly.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#167

Post by wenbin »

Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #24

Personally, I'm not a fan of podcasts at all. I've tried, and listened to some interesting ones, but in the end I'd much rather consume the same content by reading instead of listening. It's faster, it's easier to skim and skip around, you can have hyperlinks to other references, etc. Overall, text just works better for the kinds of content I'm interested in. There's a podcast related to a product I work with that I'…

Try searching podcasts by people or topics here https://www.listennotes.com

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#168

Post by baby_wipe »

wenbin wrote: post #143

Podcasts are ubiquitous. There are high quality productions like shows from gimlet media. But most podcasts are more like twitter / Instagram accounts. Podcast becomes a channel for marketing (companies) or self expression (individuals) or exploring some kind of long tailed interests. There’s strong demand of accessing podcast contents from listeners, pr agencies, ads agencies, app developers, teachers & students in…

I'm building an app on listennotes right now. It's a fantastic API and wenbin provides amazing support!

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#169

Post by nathias »

Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #24

Personally, I'm not a fan of podcasts at all. I've tried, and listened to some interesting ones, but in the end I'd much rather consume the same content by reading instead of listening. It's faster, it's easier to skim and skip around, you can have hyperlinks to other references, etc. Overall, text just works better for the kinds of content I'm interested in. There's a podcast related to a product I work with that I'…

Can you read while driving a car or a bike?

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#170

Post by baby_wipe »

wenbin wrote: post #153

If you want to explore what podcasts are out there, try Listen Notes, a podcast search engine I built https://www.listennotes.com You would be surprised how many unknown but interesting podcasts on the Internet :)

+1 for the ListenNotes API. Easily better than anything else out there.
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