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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

#21

Post by dzohrob »

spuz wrote: post #17

I am surprised that higher capacity storage on phones was not mentioned as a driver of podcast listenership. For me, when I upgraded to a phone that had 32GB of storage around 2014 I was finally able to store mp3s that would download automatically ready for me to listen to along with all the music and photos that we would otherwise fill up our phone storage with. Before this, it was actually pretty hard to be an avid…

This is a _really_ good point! I'm trying to find some data on this right now... might have to dig through e.g. Apple's previous phone releases to see trends over time.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#22

Post by jccalhoun »

DamnInteresting wrote: post #14

As a long-time podcast listener, I have been steadily reducing my intake of podcasts in recent months. For me, this is largely due to a few annoying trends, such as Podcast A airing an episode of Podcast B, a new offering from the same organization. These crossovers are becoming common, and they are basically very long ads. I am seldom interested, but it's difficult to get them out of the play queue, especially while…

Oh I HATE the trend of corporate podcasts shoving episodes of other shows into their feed. I look forward to a new episode of the show I like only to start it and hear some other show. A close second is some podcasts have started putting reruns into their feed. I guess someone told them that missing weeks is bad so they just put a rerun in. Ugh.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#23

Post by Kye »

spuz wrote: post #17

I am surprised that higher capacity storage on phones was not mentioned as a driver of podcast listenership. For me, when I upgraded to a phone that had 32GB of storage around 2014 I was finally able to store mp3s that would download automatically ready for me to listen to along with all the music and photos that we would otherwise fill up our phone storage with. Before this, it was actually pretty hard to be an avid…

This is it. I downloaded every episode of LeVar Burton Reads earlier this week. Over 2GB on top of the 400MB from the other handful I subscribe to. My last phone would complain about insufficient space long before now.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#24

Post by Mister_Snuggles »

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've tried a few times. The podcast is very well done, but each one is about an hour long. I'd much rather have it as a blog post where I can skim through to find the pieces that interest me. They've gotten a little better with their episode descriptions where they tell you what topics they are talking about and when they start, but it's only a minor improvement.

Podcasts are also completely inaccessible to search engines. If I want to find the podcast where they talked about an interesting thing that I want to revisit, and it's not in the episode description, it's basically lost forever.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#25

Post by dontbenebby »

chrisseaton wrote: post #10
dontbenebby wrote: post #2

If anything there's too many good podcasts - I usually set my device to keep the five most recent, and there are good shows I simply don't get to. (I never could "zone out" and program while a podcast is on like some people, I need ambient/classical/electronic music to do that)

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?

I don't actually listen to many tech podcasts - instead I use them to get news/politics to cut down on mindless browsing.

NYT The Daily and NPR's Up First podcast can get you up to speed while doing all your daily hygiene stuff. And NPR's weekly politics roundup is good.

If you like history "Futility Closet" has a lot of good esoteric history stuff.

Reply All is eclectic and fun. Radiolab has good hard science stuff. Hidden Brain is more social sciences oriented.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#26

Post by dgritsko »

chrisseaton wrote: post #10
dontbenebby wrote: post #2

If anything there's too many good podcasts - I usually set my device to keep the five most recent, and there are good shows I simply don't get to. (I never could "zone out" and program while a podcast is on like some people, I need ambient/classical/electronic music to do that)

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?

The Podcasts subreddit (https://reddit.com/r/podcasts) is full of recommendations. I also use PocketCasts, which has a "Discover" feature that I have used from time to time. Lastly, I've heard of several podcasts via word of mouth from other friends.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#27

Post by DamnInteresting »

jccalhoun wrote: post #22
DamnInteresting wrote: post #14

As a long-time podcast listener, I have been steadily reducing my intake of podcasts in recent months. For me, this is largely due to a few annoying trends, such as Podcast A airing an episode of Podcast B, a new offering from the same organization. These crossovers are becoming common, and they are basically very long ads. I am seldom interested, but it's difficult to get them out of the play queue, especially while…

Oh I HATE the trend of corporate podcasts shoving episodes of other shows into their feed. I look forward to a new episode of the show I like only to start it and hear some other show. A close second is some podcasts have started putting reruns into their feed. I guess someone told them that missing weeks is bad so they just put a rerun in. Ugh.

Agreed, re-runs are another annoyance that is driving me away from many podcasts. The concept is an obsolete relic of broadcasting.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#28

Post by chrisseaton »

Marsymars wrote: post #19
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?

Why is abandoned a problem? If you're looking for books to read or TV shows to watch, do you avoid "abandoned" series?

Well... yeah if they’re about current affairs like the military or the current state of tech.

I don’t want to listen about a new fitness test introduced in 2011 that they’ve already replaced, or how they’re asking for feedback on programming language design changes they already made half a decade ago.

Also if I get into a podcast and it only has three episodes and then forgotten about I then have to go looking for a new one immediately rather than subscribing and then always having something to listen to.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#29

Post by socrates1998 »

I love podcasts. As a self-employed person who needs some light distraction but can't walk to a water cooler and just kill some time, they are perfect.

I tried going back to the radio yesterday for a moment and almost threw up with the quality.

Not sure if a "Netflix for podcasts" would work. Unless ad money dries up because advertisers think people skip them too much, then I am not sure what the advantage would be.

I do skip some of the commercials, but I feel like enough get through to make worth their while. I have legitimately bought stuff because of them.

I saw an article about how much Joe Rogan's podcast makes and it was insane, over tens of millions of dollars per year.

The guy does zero advertising and probably has less than 5 people working on it. Fucking ridiculous.

Re: We're Entering a Golden Age of Podcasts

#30

Post by reificator »

Kye wrote: post #23
spuz wrote: post #17

I am surprised that higher capacity storage on phones was not mentioned as a driver of podcast listenership. For me, when I upgraded to a phone that had 32GB of storage around 2014 I was finally able to store mp3s that would download automatically ready for me to listen to along with all the music and photos that we would otherwise fill up our phone storage with. Before this, it was actually pretty hard to be an avid…

This is it. I downloaded every episode of LeVar Burton Reads earlier this week. Over 2GB on top of the 400MB from the other handful I subscribe to. My last phone would complain about insufficient space long before now.

> LeVar Burton Reads

I'll have to take a look at that one... Is it in a book? It seems like a new reading rainbow...

https://youtu.be/uPqpmSWwuGk

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