the state of podcasting

Von’s This Past Weekend is huge. It’s currently the eighth-most-popular podcast in America, sandwiched between This American Life and The Ben Shapiro Show . No. 1 is of course The Joe Rogan Experience , where the bros burble for hours on end. Where cigars are smoked and theories are floated. Von has been on Rogan’s show multiple times, and while Th... See more

‘Decoder Ring’

Willa Paskin’s deep-dive investigations into questions you never thought to ask (Is Parmesan cheese “authentic” Italian? What ever happened to slow dancing? What was the deal with hovercraft?) are more rigorous than they need to be, which is what makes them so fun. Paskin — a former television critic, and among the best writers worki... See more

Compare that to the first-time listener experience for fiction podcasts, which is quite bad, if I’m being brutally honest. Install a podcast-listening app—or choose the one that is already on your phone, possibly one you play music with or maybe watch videos in?—and choose a fiction podcast. No, not just any podcast. A fiction podcast. Yeah. You go... See more

The three are among a cohort of former child stars, many from Nickelodeon and Disney Channel shows from the 2000s, who have started podcasts as a way of connecting with a nostalgic Gen Z and millennial fan base. In doing so, they are embracing roles that they played as children and teenagers — characters that some had spent years trying to move bey... See more

The audience for podcasts continues to grow, with 42 percent of Americans 12 and older reporting last year that they had listened to one in the previous month, according to a report by Edison Research.

Betches is exploring a variety of strategies to grow, from sports and events to a splashy podcast deal with the TikTok news star V Spehar of Under the Desk News. It’s in talks for a partnership with the comedian Ilana Glazer (a gushy fan who described Betches as “if ‘Broad City’” — her cult hit TV show — “were a media company”).