When they travel, a lot of podcasters swear by complicated flight cases with foam inserts; portable audio recorders with SD cards and XLR adaptors, and some even take microphone stands with them.

Podnews records a podcast every weekday - the Podnews Daily - and a ninety-minute weekly podcast, the Podnews Weekly Review. I have to be able to record everywhere - in hotel rooms, on conference show floors, in airport lounges, on the banks of the River Thames, in all kinds of places. I need to record interviews in noisy coffee shops, or on the show floor. So I need a decent microphone to take with me.

When at home, I use the Shure MV7, plugged into a RØDEcaster Pro.

But I learnt quite early on to avoid packing a big microphone into our checked-in bag. My older microphone, wrapped carefully in t-shirts, was examined by the TSA - the just left on top of the clothes, and spent the remaining 27 hours being clattered from one side to the other of the bag. It didn’t work at all when we got it home. (RØDE repaired it - free - which was nice of them).

So instead, I use the Shure MV88+. And here’s why...

It’s a tiny, handheld microphone that comes with a squidgy travel case with enough protection to be thrown into a backpack. The travel case has separate slots for a USB cable, a headphone cable, and - for that one time when I forgot my headphones - a pair of cheap Sony earbuds that sound every bit as cheap as they look.

It can record in stereo if you want it to: something most unlike any typical microphone for podcasting, but great for immersive atmosphere.

It’s got built-in dynamic compression, limiting, and EQ. You can tell it to record in stereo or mono, and even tell it what kind of pickup pattern you want.

All its settings can be changed using Shure’s Motiv software on your PC or phone. (And for the avoidance of doubt, you don’t need to run this software at any other times if you don’t want to - it just changes the settings on the microphone).

To record with it, I either a) plug it in, using a USB-C to micro-USB cable, to a MacBook: and record directly in Hindenburg; or b) plug it in, using a USB-C to micro-USB cable, to an iPhone: and record directly onto the Shure Motiv software there. (By the way, that Motiv software even works without a microphone at all, just using your phone).

It comes with a little stand, but I don't use that (it's in a drawer at home). Instead, for a microphone arm, I use, um, my arm. After, at the time of writing, 780 flights (298 longhaul), I’ve never once forgotten my arm. Seriously, since the microphone is so light, it’s easy to hold in one hand; there’s no appreciable handling noise.

I’ve done countless podcasts with it, including many different guest spots; I’ve been live on the BBC with it (both Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live in one day); and conducted a number of ad-hoc interviews on show floors of podcast conferences. It’s never, once, let me down (although doubtless writing this, it now will do).

The only tips I can give you are: first, make sure you tell it to record in mono, and secondly, pack it in your carry-on (it goes in the bottom of my backpack). In airport security, take it out and lay it in the tray next to your bag - from some angles, it looks a little too much like a cigarette lighter in the X-ray machine, so you’ll save everyone time if you put it separately on the tray.

I use Bose QC35 headphones with it. These are noise-cancelling Bluetooth headphones, good for the plane ride; but have a line input cable as well. They charge using the same cable as the microphone uses; but when you use the the line input, you don’t need to turn the headphones on, or use noise cancelling. They’re on their fourth headset pads.

And that’s it. No flight case. No foam inserts. No complicated portable audio recorders. No SD card. Just one, US $250-ish, microphone. Sorry to disappoint.

• As a disclosure: I used to use the Shure MV5, a ball-shaped thing. When I excitedly pointed this out to a Shure representative on their stand at The Podcast Show one year, he gave me this ex-demo MV88+ to use “because it’s better”. It is; but at no point did they ever tell me to review it.

Published in the RadioDoc Review, this presentation, first given at the MeCCSA Radio and Audio Studies symposium, pays tribute to the narrative podcast as a vibrant audio art/journalism form, destined to survive and even benefit from the video podcast turn.

I want to start with a scene from about ten years ago.

We were in Barcelona, at a glitzy media summit called the Global Editors Network. Compared to academic conferences, this was hi-tech and shamelessy show-offy, from the cocktails and canapes at a castle straight out of Game of Thrones, to the expo hall filled with tech types flaunting their latest must-have gadgets and apps.

Cut to a panel about to address an audience that includes editors from the New York Times, Washington Post, El Pais, Le Monde, Financial Times, The Guardian, as well as executives from Buzzfeed, Slate and the like. Enter stage left, Francesco Baschieri (CEO of a podcast marketing research company), Dana Chivvis (producer of a certain podcast called Serial) and me (billed as Editor of a new journal of audio criticism, RadioDoc Review).

For an academic researching radio documentary, which is what I mostly was at the time, to say this was surreal is beyond understatement. We were used to being relegated to a small room at media/comms conferences, at which a mere handful of scholars might make it to your session. Now I was gazing at these high-powered media moguls, who – best of all compliments – had actually put away their phones.

They were there, of course, to hear about Serial. Just six months before, in December 2014, it had dropped the last of 12 episodes, setting records for the most downloaded narrative podcast that are STILL off the charts – five million downloads in the first month and hundreds of millions by now.

The media executives wanted to know what was Serial’s special sauce.

Over a decade on, we’ve had a good run at defining that. It was partly the cliffhanging suspense of a murder mystery, told week by week, as a ‘live’ investigation. It was helped by strong production values, from the experienced This American Life team, along with the lucky coincidence of launching just as Apple placed a bespoke podcast app on their iphone. And perhaps most of all, it had a host in Sarah Koenig who talked to you with the ease and intimacy of your new best friend.

None of these things – apart from the iphone app – were new. Serialisation goes back to at least Dickens. Audio storytelling craft started in the 1920s and ‘30s. And the intimacy of radio has been celebrated since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s so-called ‘fireside chats’ to the American nation in the 1930s.

But what Serial indisputably did, was make audio storytelling SEXY.

What Serial also did, that day in Barcelona, was get me an improbably large audience for a message I and others had been trying to convey to the media studies field:

• Audio Is NOT LESS THAN Film or TV
• Audio can create characters inside your head as powerfully as those in a great novel
• Audio can move you to tears, or make you laugh, or gasp, via sound alone
• Audio can free your imagination

All these points had been argued with insight and originality in the three issues of RadioDoc Review I’d published by then. I’d conceived RadioDoc Review because of a dearth of in-depth critical analysis of the crafted audio form. As both an audio MAKER as well as an academic, I wished the two sides could be in conversation. And so in a serendipitous moment, I sent out a clarion call for disparate lovers of the built audio form to come together, select pieces and write about works that moved or inspired or challenged us. This happened at a Radio Studies conference in Luton, UK, in 2013.

The very first article was by Seán Street, the first Professor of Radio in the UK, who wrote about the Danish poet and producer Pejk Malinowski’s feature, Poetry, Texas – the title is a pun on a place in that state. In parsing this gentle, luminous piece, Seán noted that we interpret feelings absorbed through sound in what he terms ‘a partnership between memory and imagination’ (Street 2014). This phrase has stuck with me over the years, as a key understanding of how as listeners we co-create the meaning of carefully choreographed sound.

When that review was published, Alan Hall, founder of the independent UK audio production company Falling Tree Productions, enthused on social media that this criticism was ‘invaluable’. Alan went on to write penetrating reviews for us, including of Jens Jarisch’s Prix Italia-winning Children of Sodom and Gomorrah, a piece that presciently explores the troubled path of young Africans seeking refuge in Europe.

I met Jens at the International Feature Conference shortly after we published Alan’s review, which while saluting his masterful production, had also queried the ethics of some of his creative juxtapositions. I wondered if Jens would be upset – but in fact he was elated. He longed to be challenged and stimulated, as Alan’s review had done. Because perhaps only a peer (Alan has himself won the Prix Italia and is still making glorious audio) could so fully appreciate how Jens had composed the work.

But back to Barcelona. Before this A-List non-audio-facing audience, I set out a very truncated idea of the built audio form and the perceptive and growing wisdom accruing around it in forums such as RadioDoc Review. Then I played them clips from esoteric works. Afterwards, prominent media people confided in me their secret or stifled love of audio, and the thrill they felt at the sudden boom in podcasting, and where it might go. There was an aura of allure and excitement around being licensed to like the humble medium of audio. The ears of these key media innovators were momentarily open, aware.

Fast forward three years, and podcasting’s cosy DIY world of chumcasts, chatcasts, narrative podcasts and hybrid formats (like the delicious My Dad Wrote a Porno) is too commercially appealing to be left to its own devices. The New York Times has had huge success with a narrative news format, The Daily, that will soon have more listeners than the paper has readers.

Into what one executive called this ‘sea of niches’ steps Spotify. It will introduce paywalls, in direct contradiction of the open garden system envisaged by Dave Winer when he co-created the RSS feed that allowed most of us to listen to podcasts absolutely free (McHugh 2022, 100). Joe Rogan was an early – and expensive – Spotify trophy.

Some folk will become celebrities because of their podcast – Lex Fridman, for instance, goes from being a novice academic at MIT writing about AI and EVs, to a guy with six million downloads of his show. That’s after he attracts the imprimatur of Elon Musk, but still.

Existing celebrities want their own podcast. Conan O’Brien, Mel Robbins, Michelle Obama … celebrities interrogate other celebrities about ‘the messiness of being human’ (here I’m talking Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard). In other words, celebrities now want to seem authentic. Because authenticity is one of the characteristics listeners value about podcasting, right? (For more on this, check out articles by Berry, Lindgren, McHugh, that I reference in the abstract).

Celebrities aren’t the only ones who’ve muscled in on the orphan cousin of radio that podcasting once seemed to be. A couple of years back, I started seeing industry newsletters about THE PIVOT TO VIDEO. They offered advice, not on which microphone delivered the best sound or value, but on which LOOKED the most impressive, the most Podcast-Hosty. Analysts had started pointing out the powerful parasocial relationship between podcast hosts and their fans, and advertisers were salivating.

The acme – or nadir – came when a social media post showed a grab of a ‘podcaster’ wearing headphones and speaking animatedly into a hefty microphone to sell some message. It turned out he didn’t actually have a podcast. He was just usurping the cachet of being A Podcaster.

YouTube soon spotted an opportunity. It made podcasts easy to upload for makers and easier for consumers to discover, and to connect as fans. Plus these shows could be more directly monetised. No wonder YouTube overtook the competition as the most popular platform for podcast users. And as a visual platform, to help a show stand out, use of imagery increased. 1

Soon media watchers started describing the new tranche of video podcast hosts with their chat/interview formats as reinvented late night TV talk show hosts.

‘To call podcasts even an audio medium would be selling it short, because “podcast” now refers to just about anything with recorded speech’ said an Esquire reporter last December (Menapace 2025). ‘The word “podcast” already has an archaic early-internet ring to it. Like referring to “the world wide web”’ says a recent piece in The Times (Marriott et al 2025).

What’s NOT in question is how important podcasts – however we define them – have become. Podcasts are now well and truly mainstream – they’re ‘as much a part of our culture as telly or TikTok’, says the Times again. This is affirmed by audio scholar David Dowling, who wrote recently that ‘podcasts are now a central component in global media ecosystems’ (2025). Dowling whittles down the distinctive characteristics of podcast journalism to three: Intimacy, Reflexivity and Democracy.

Intimacy, he says, refers to ‘production and narrative strategies (personal narrative, informal tone, cadence, and delivery), listening modalities (headphones, private or semi-private listening, asynchronous), and affective rationality (parasocial relations, trust.’

On reflexivity, Dowling explains: ‘Podcast journalism often makes its own process visible, particularly when hosts disclose reporting challenges, ethical trade-offs, source verification, and uncertain evidence.’

And

‘The concept of democracy encompasses both inclusion (of marginalized voices, diverse perspectives, low barriers to entry) and its counterforces (inequality in reach, ideological polarization, platform-mediated gatekeeping).’

This last aspect, democracy, brings to mind two scholarly articles I ran across: one theorises what they call ‘access intimacy’ in the context of Indian podcasts that canvass disability injustice (in press, Asian Studies Review). Audio podcasts, they argue, avoid the visual rhetorics of disability and their objectifying representations of disabled bodies. The other article (in press, Continuum) proposes that blind podcasters in China are transforming constraint into creative recoding, where accessibility is authored through voice, rhythm, and resonance to co-create sonic publics as resistance and innovation. Just two further examples of how liberating AUDIO is compared to video, a theme I’ve harped on about a lot. Audio, happily, frees us from judgement based on appearance.

But let’s think about NARRATIVE NONFICTION PODCASTS specifically.

To Dowling’s triad of podcast journalism traits, I’d add a fourth for this genre: AESTHETICS. Elegant writing, strong structure and well judged choreography of sound can elevate podcast journalism to an art form.

So where are narrative podcasts headed in this global media ecosystem? Last year, the Serial-induced bubble burst. Well regarded indie production companies went bust: Pineapple Street Studios (who made the cheeky Wind of Change) and Campside Media (who did the absorbing Wild Boys). Even slick corporate Wondery hived off its large narrative team, responsible for shows such as The Shrink Next Door, which had gone to commercial podcast heaven and been adapted as an Apple TV series.

So is it over?? Is finely honed audio storytelling finished? Must we embrace video as the new podcast form? Maybe not. A recent Guardian article pointing to how poorly video serves any kind of podcast format that is not just talking heads has had a lot of industry traction. In it, one of the UK’s most esteemed audio producers fearlessly proclaimed – at last – that the Video Podcast Emperor Had No Clothes. Eleanor McDowall, a co-director of Falling Tree Productions, told the paper:

The absence of images from radio and podcasting isn’t some failure of technology. These audio mediums have grown from a deep love of sound and its imaginative possibilities. When I hear people say the future of audio is essentially television, it makes me feel they never knew what was exciting about sound in the first place. (Sturges 2025b)

Brava Eleanor. Because that’s the nub of it.

Do we make podcasts that are essentially television, or do we pursue and deepen our relationship with sound and its imaginative possibilities, via the narrative podcast form unleashed so spectacularly by Serial, but also played and experimented with for about a century as a built audio storytelling mode.

I’m thinking of the extravaganzas DJ Bridson made for the BBC in the 1930s – panoramic audio used to tell epic stories such as the Battle of Culloden. Of the amazing Radio Ballads of Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and Charles Parker, that braided actuality and real workers’ voices and songs in a tightly layered format, whose precision is astonishing to contemplate as a pre-digital art form.

In the US, I’m thinking of Norman Corwin and Studs Terkel’s Born To Live and David Isay’s The Sunshine Hotel and Ghetto Life 101 and later experimenters like Nick van der Kolk, the understated genius of Jonathan Goldstein’s Heavyweight, Madeleine Baran’s In the Dark and Brian Reed and Julie Snyder’s S-Town.

In Australia, I’m thinking of the ABC’s Unravel and Bowraville’s Indigenous voices and some I’ve been lucky to work on like The Greatest Menace. And all the other imaginative narrative podcasts and audio stories and compositions that harness and celebrate all that is exciting about sound.

Because video can’t do multitracked, composed, choreographed audio. That form lives in our head, between our ears, a partnership between memory and imagination. A narrative podcast is a sonic journey that draws on texture, tone and temporality, evoking individualised sensory responses as it unfolds in real time. It can’t be reduced to a screen.

And while I love the Alchemy of the Mix as much as anyone, it’s not necessarily fancy sound design that can pierce the heart and mind – narrative podcasts are anchored and emotionally grounded in the affective power of the human voice. Which can bring us undone without any embellishment. Or an image. In fact the voice has MORE power when we’re not distracted by a visual.

Are there creative outliers in the Video Podcasts world?

Yes, a few. In Australia, Matt Bevan makes a show called If You’re Listening, which tackles a serious global topic in a playful way. He makes separate video and audio mixes for the same theme. This sensibly plays to the different strengths of each medium. For instance, as a backgrounder to the tensions in Venezuela, he made an episode on the US arrest of Panama leader Colonel Noriega for drug trafficking back in the day (Bevan 2026). A close-up shows Noriega’s pockmarked skin. This detail matters. Why? Next is an image of Panama’s opposition leader, Dr Hugo Spadafora. A reporter tells us that Noriega held a grudge against Spadafora because of his movie star good looks. Which likely explains why he had him decapitated, while alive. In this context, the image of Spadafora is a valuable, if gruesome, addition to the storytelling.

Others who appreciate audio are taking up the video challenge. The amazing team who make Have You Heard George’s Podcast (featured by the way in RadioDoc Review) are reprising episodes as video for YouTube. ‘We need to go where the audience is,’ Ben Benbrick, the producer and composer, explained. ‘Even if your strategy is audio-first, it’s insane to leave out [YouTube]’ (Sturges 2025a).

Maybe their reincarnation will win the new ‘outstanding visual podcasting’ gong at the British Podcasting Awards.

Coda

I wish such genuinely creative efforts well. But let’s just be clear that these are different creatures from how podcasting was conceived – as an AUDIO ARTEFACT. In one sense, I’m glad about the video push. Because it will slough off the people who see ‘podcasts’ as only about power, influence and reach. Or only about talk. Let them have their cheapskate TV-manqué ‘shows’ and their passive audiences, tethered to screens. I’ll be out walking my dog, earpods in, pictures forming in my mind from whatever wonders the audio true believers have created. And there’s plenty of optimism around.

Gretta Cohn, CEO of Pushkin Industries, a premium podcast network that has survived the narrative downturn, describes masterful audio storytelling well. She’s president of the Webby Awards this year, a competition known as the ‘Oscars of the Internet’. With podcast entrants, she’s looking for bold and deliberate structure, airtight research, sound design that elevates rather than decorates, and most of all, emotional impact (at which audio is unparalleled). On the future of audio podcasts, Cohn (2026) said recently:

After years of scale-at-all-costs, the industry is re-centering on craft: sharper editorial vision, more ambitious storytelling, and stories that take real time to earn trust. I’m also energized by the global expansion of narrative audio. We’re seeing formats evolve in ways that reflect LOCAL cultures and storytelling traditions, not just U.S. or U.K. models. And I’m excited by the maturity of the audience: listeners are more discerning, more interactive, and more willing to follow creators into deeper, more layered storytelling experiences.

That doesn’t sound like a dying art form to me. So, viva the narrative podcast and its passionate tribe of makers. As Cohn (2026) drily observes: ‘When creators speak in a voice that’s clearly their own […] you feel it immediately. Authentic work has stakes for the people making it; trend-chasing rarely does.’

Talking head video RESTRICTS our capacity to connect, keeps us separated by a screen. Whereas as the great soundscape scholar Raymond Murray Schafer tells us: ‘hearing is a way of touching at a distance’ (Schafer 2012:102). Jad Abumrad, who creatively illustrates Schafer’s theories in his own legendary podcasts such as Radiolab, Dolly Parton’s America and Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, puts it simply and poetically: crafted audio is ‘where the story and the sound are actually holding hands’. (Taylor 2026)

So, audio friends, I rest my case: may there always be space between our ears for evocative AUDIO storytelling and the imaginative possibilities of sound.

References

Apple (2026, February 16). Apple introduces a new video podcast experience on Apple Podcasts. https://www.apple.com/au/newsroom/2026/02/apple-introduces-a-new-video-podcast-experience-on-apple-podcasts/#:~:text=A%20new%20video%20podcast%20experience,download%20videos%20for%20offline%20viewing.

Berry, R. (2016). Podcasting: Considering the evolution of the medium and its association with the word ‘radio’. Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 14(1), 7- 22.

Bevan, M. (2026, January 5). Trump’s playbook for Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela. If You’re Listening. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptJpPoupiaI&list=PLDTPrMoGHssAfgMMS3L5LpLNFMNp1U_Nq&index=8

Cohn, G. (2026, January 12). What it Takes to Make an Award-Winning Podcast. The Webby Awards. https://www.webbyawards.com/jury-president-qa-gretta-cohn/

Cridland, J. (2026, February 17). Video in Apple Podcasts - all the details. Podnews. https://podnews.net/article/video-apple-podcasts-details

Dowling, D. O. (2025). Theorizing Podcast Journalism: Toward a Medium-Specific Framework for Audio Reporting. Journalism and Media, 7(1).

Lindgren, M. (2016). Personal narrative journalism and podcasting. Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 14 (1), 23-41.

Marriott, J. & Nicol, P. (2025, December 26). The best podcasts of 2025, from James Corden to Pride and Prejudice. The Times. https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/the-best-podcasts-of-2025-from-james-corden-to-nineties-nostalgia-x652658rk

McHugh, S. (2016). How podcasting is changing the audio storytelling genre. Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 14(1), 65-82. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/rjao.14.1.65_1

McHugh, S. (2022). The Power of Podcasting: telling stories through sound. Columbia University Press.

Menapace, B. (2025, December 22). The 20 Best Podcasts of 2025. Esquire. https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/g69837930/best-podcasts-2025/

Schafer, R. M. (2012). The Soundscape. In J. Sterne (Ed.), The Sound Studies Reader. Routledge.

Street, S., (2014). Poetry, Texas: Review One. RadioDoc Review 1(1). https://doi.org/10.14453/rdr.v1i1.3

Sturges, F. (2025a, May 23). Your favourite podcast is now a video – but are vodcasts the future, or just ‘crap telly’? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/may/23/podcasts-video-vodcasts-down-the-caff-have-you-heard-georges-podcast#:~:text=Successful%20podcasters%20are%20filming%20their,or%20reflect%20YouTube's%20increasing%20might%3F

Sturges, F. (2025b, December 27). ‘Painful to hear!’ How podcasts’ rush to video is turning them into dreadful listens. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/dec/27/podcasts-rush-to-video-turning-them-into-dreadful-listens?

Sullivan, J. L. (2019). The platforms of podcasting: Past and present. Social media+ society, 5(4).

Taylor, D. (2026, February). Jad Abumrad, creator of Radiolab, talks about creativity. [Post]. LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dallastaylor_jad-abumrad-creator-of-radiolab-talks-about-activity-7423032324461879297-HPlO?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAAQIqqsBfJlBj2fgasWJHmRfX4n19cy2Suk

In press:

Beyond Marginalisation: Disability Themed Podcasts and Collective Advocacy in India. Asian Studies Review.

Sounding Otherwise: Sensory Politics and Platform Resistance in Chinese Blind Podcasting. Continuum.

Note:

This paper was delivered as a keynote at a symposium for World Radio Day, 13 Feb 2026, for MeCCSA (Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association), UK. You can watch the address below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hVCxI5V-_w

Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence v4.0. DOI link.

Apple Podcasts has just launched a preview of what it calls "a transformative update" for the way Apple Podcasts handles video.

Until now, Apple Podcasts did support video; but in a half-hearted way. If you listened to This Week in Tech (Audio) then you were expected to find This Week in Tech (Video), a separate podcast feed. That feed contains (massive) MP4 video files; and as we discovered in our testing, Apple Podcasts played them, but initially only in a tiny, tiny window (less than a tenth of an inch high).

From the release of iOS 26.4 (in developer preview right now, and probably released in late March) Apple will support video in a very different way. And, many would say, better.

Podcasters who are using supported podcast hosting companies will be able to publish video versions of shows alongside the audio episodes - no more separate RSS feeds. The playback works properly - no more tiny windows. And, perhaps most importantly for the podcast ecosystem, the video remains hosted by your podcast host, which means you can do dynamic ads if you want.

The way it works - see below - means that it only works for podcasts hosted in four different podcast hosting providers for now: Acast, ART19, Simplecast and Omny Studio. These are all ad networks, too. We'll see why this is important in a minute.

Want to see it working?

We would make a video, but Stephen Robles has done it already and done a much better job than we would. Thanks to Transistor for sponsoring this video (ironically, a podcast hosting company that isn't, yet, partnered with Apple for video).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu_kFFv3y2s

Not visible in the video above is that shows are highlighted as having video in the home page within Apple Podcasts as well.

Which shows is it enabled in?

You need the iOS 26.4 developer beta to look at it right now. This is only available if you've paid Apple to be a developer on the platform.

We played with a few different shows. Mind If We Talk? is hosted on Acast; and Baby, This is Keke Palmer is hosted on ART19. The Zane Lowe Interview Series, from Apple Music, is also available in video.

How it works technically

Apple Podcasts is not doing video via RSS. You still need an RSS feed to publish a show (that's where your episode title and descriptions go), but once you've published the audio, your podcast hosting provider needs to separately send an HLS master playlist URL for that episode to Apple Podcasts, which it does using a special API that the podcast hosting provider has access to.

We’ve got lots of technical detail about the HLS master playlist over here.

There is no support for the alternateEnclosure. (You can use it, and you'd be sensible to do that since iHeart have announced forthcoming support for it; but Apple won't support it.)

You don't upload your video to Apple. Instead, your podcast hosting provider will host the video yourself, using HLS.

What is so special about HLS?

Apple's very excited about HLS. Here's why it's important.

Put simply, HLS breaks up a video into lots of short (ten second) long video files. An HLS playlist tells the app to "download this file" then "download this file", and so on. As you watch, the video player is downloading and playing those files one after another. It downloads just enough for you to keep watching.

As it downloads the files, it's keeping an eye on how long it takes to download them, and using HLS's dynamic playlists, the player can switch to lower-quality files if it needs to. Perhaps your signal is low, for example.

Every video app (Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, etc) uses a form of HLS (or MPEG DASH, which is a competing system). So why is Apple so excited about HLS?

First, Apple invented HLS.

Second, it means that podcast hosting companies will serve the video. Not Apple. Which means...

Podcast hosting companies can serve dynamic ads in the video. This means that it's up to creators, and their podcast hosting companies, how they want to monetise their shows - rather than just leaving it all to Spotify or YouTube.

And, since it downloads little slices of the video as you watch, it means that podcast hosting companies can see how much of each show is being watched. If you only watch the first ten minutes of a show, your podcast app will only download the first ten minutes of a show. Good news for everyone.

Apple's business model is different

Spotify lets anyone upload video podcasts for free; but they sit on Spotify's servers, and you're limited with what you might want to do with advertising. However, if you're big enough, you can get money from Spotify.

YouTube lets anyone upload video podcasts for free; but they sit on YouTube's servers, and you're limited with what you might want to do with advertising. However, if you're big enough, you can get money from YouTube.

Apple will only accept video podcasts from partnering podcast hosting companies - which are currently Acast, ART19, Omny Studio and Simplecast. They stay on the servers of those podcast hosting companies. And Apple will charge ad networks (Acast, ART19, Omny Studio/Triton and Simplecast/AdsWizz are also all ad networks) an impression-based fee for the delivery of dynamic ads. So, Apple earns from any dynamic ads your ad provider serves.

Some podcasts are already using HLS video. These will not work with Apple Podcasts, which requires participating podcast hosts to send HLS information separately, and have specific requirements.

Do Apple charge for baked-in ads? No, they don't. The charge is just for dynamic advertising: it doesn't include baked-in ads.

Will Apple give any targeting data in return? No, they won't. There's no change from how it works with MP3/RSS today. The only thing your ad provider will be able to use to target the advertising, as now, is the IP address (as well as time of day, etc).

Will Apple Private Relay be used? No. There's no change from how it works currently with MP3/RSS.

What does this mean for analytics?

Apple Podcasts Connect will continue to offer the same information it does today, and will include video playback.

We asked if video would be broken out separately within Apple Podcasts Connect. Apple replied to tell us that "Video will be included in podcast analytics" - they're eager not to disappoint, but we suggest that the answer is no. However, your podcast hosting platform will have more data - significantly so, since HLS helps them get data that's much more detailed.

Our impressions

Now, we need to tell you that this is a developer beta and things may change before launch. But:

Video podcasts are now nicely highlighted in the home screen with a "video" icon, top-right.

But, below, video podcasts aren't highlighted in search, oddly - though individual episodes are.

As to playback - the video works nicely, and automatically, with the usual iPhone controls. You can send the video via AirPlay to anything capable of playing it (including Apple TV, which oddly doesn't have video in the Apple Podcasts app). You can pop out the window into a little overlay while you doomscroll whatever social media you want to doomscroll.

We haven't seen any obvious dynamic ads in the shows we've tried.

You can play back video at 1.3x or other speeds if you want, just like audio podcasts. You can turn on Apple Podcasts' "Enhance dialog" feature, to make voices clearer in the video, just like audio podcasts. Everything works like you would expect it to within Apple Podcasts - but with video.

Apple Podcasts still has transcripts, but those transcripts no longer display with "as you listen" highlights. You can't tap a section you want to move forward/back to, to be able to hear/see it. I suspect that's because the transcripts are for the audio, but the video file might differ in some way. That's a bit messy. ("Time-synced Transcripts are not yet available for some video episodes", the transcript says right at the bottom, though we haven't seen a video episode with them available.)

More than that - Apple Podcasts also has captions/subtitles. But not for all shows. Baby, This is Keke Palmer has them, and you can turn them on. Mind If We Talk? does not have them. (iPhone does have on-device subtitles, which you can turn on; but not here in the Apple Podcasts app). Apple Podcasts does the same odd thing with full-screen video, if you've locked your auto-rotation, that makes full-screen video a small letterbox in the middle of the screen; and puts subtitles over the video, not underneath it.

Chapters don't seem to appear on the scrub bar (even when just listening to audio); and chapter titles don't appear in the player. We couldn't see any timed links appear; though we are told that they should appear if they're present (and these will work so much better with video).

There are auto-downloads for video - but this feature is not turned on by default. Apple's usual auto-downloading of shows you follow continues to be audio, unless you opt-in to tell it to be video.

Video streaming is also turned off by default for you if you're on mobile data. I'm told there will be plenty of tooltips to help us understand this.

You can "Turn Video Off", which switches to an audio-only experience (showing the episode artwork as you'd expect). This plays the audio track from the HLS file, as we detail in this article.

And all this video stuff also works just fine with MP4 files, like This Week In Tech, which play properly in full screen now. The user sees no appreciable difference between a video in MP4 and one delivered via HLS, excepting the need to find the special video feed.

The disappointing

It's not available on the Apple Podcasts app in Apple TV. At all. You can AirPlay to your Apple TV, but the experience isn't otherwise on Apple TV. Given the apparent use of video podcasts as a TV replacement, this is a strange omission.

Video in podcasts is available on the Apple Vision Pro. We'd say "why you'd want that is anyone's business", but we could say that about the Apple Vision Pro anyway. The specification allows podcasters to deliver immersive video for these devices though, so...

Apple doesn't support alternateEnclosure, even for big old MP4's. This is a bad choice - because MP4s are the only way to get video into the Apple Podcasts app from self-hosted shows.

In fact, this is the first time Apple Podcasts has ever announced a feature that forces you to be a customer of a few large companies to use it.

Up until now, transcripts, chapters, subscriptions - all these features have been available to anyone, in a truly open manner. Other launches have been enhancement: auto-submissions of new shows, for example. But now, there is no access to HLS video if you're self-hosting, or if you are using a small podcast hosting company. Apple Podcasts can't talk about being open when this feature is closed to all but four companies.

By keeping HLS video away from the RSS feed, this is a proprietary solution for Apple Podcasts. No other player will see these HLS video feeds (unlike creator-produced transcripts, for example, which are visible everywhere). This is a shame.

However - there's nothing to stop you from adding video to the alternateEnclosure for other companies to see: we'd suspect that the iHeartRadio app is likely to use HLS when iHeart launches open video support later this year. We know that Apple Podcasts happily ignores the alternateEnclosure from RSS feeds already, so it's absolutely safe to do. That's a tiny, incremental piece of work: so when turning on Apple Podcasts video, turn on the alternateEnclosure as well, and you'll get access in a bunch more apps, too.

In conclusion

Apple rarely does things first: but it does them properly.

Video in Apple Podcasts is thoughtfully produced and well-made; it offers the very best of what Apple does, and is a genuine addition to the app.

Whether it's truly "open" or not, it follows the ethos of podcasting - that creators should be responsible for distribution and for monetisation.

The Apple team are deep thinkers and want the best for the industry. This is a good move for the entire industry; and whatever we might think of the "per-impression" charge, it does mean that Apple also wants this to be a success.

Now, let's see how quickly podcast producers embrace it - and how fast the Apple team can onboard new podcast hosts.

What the industry says

At PAVE Studios, Max Cutler posted a long piece on LinkedIn, pointing out that while Spotify and YouTube have announced future plans for dynamic ad insertion, Apple seems to have delivered it.

Bryan Barletta, Founder of Sounds Profitable, told Podnews: "This is the first video solution on a major platform in the creator space that puts full dynamic video ad serving control into the hands of the hosting platforms and creators. This isn’t just serving your own ads over DAI or enabling the platform to sell ads for you, it’s the podcaster in control. A tech fee attached to ad serving compared is incredibly refreshing when compared to a percentage of ad spend. This is a big deal."

Podcast Discovery's Matt Deegan writes that this changes the economic architecture of podcasts - enabling dynamic podcasts is one thing; but Apple now becomes part of the monetary flow of podcasts, not just the distribution layer.

Former Sony Music Entertainment exec Steve Ackerman says: "Dynamic ad insertion is something that YouTube has said is coming this year to their platform for podcasts but is not currently possible. And this is not something that Spotify yet allows in video. Indeed, some podcasters are sacrificing ad money for the right to upload video to Spotify. This therefore puts both Spotify and YouTube on the back foot, whilst getting Apple Podcasts back in the game in a significant way. For the podcast industry this opens another big new revenue stream, and should drive audience numbers up on Apple Podcasts when they had been going down. Which further reinforces why podcasting, across audio and video will continue its aggressive revenue growth."

And, some in the industry are irritated at being excluded at launch. For many, the first they knew about this was the launch email direct from Apple. One podcast hosting company told us: "We didn't hear a word from our Apple "partners", and we're not alone." The four companies who are part of the launch are both podcast hosting companies and ad networks.

Apple Podcasts announced enhanced support for video, coming with iOS 26.4.

So, how does the Apple Podcasts HLS video feature technically work? Strap in...

Apple hasn’t published the specific requirements for HLS video within Apple Podcasts; it’s proprietary information, covered by an NDA (though we’re hopeful that it might be more public once it launches). But, here’s what we’ve learnt so far:

The basics

Apple Podcasts video uses Apple’s own HLS specification - RFC8216 - for on-demand streaming, and their authoring specification for Apple devices is the most important. The .m3u8 multivariant playlist file is delivered to Apple through the API that partner podcast hosts also use for Apple Podcasts subscriptions and show submission.

Partners deliver a multivariant playlist that defines different versions of the video and audio.

From launch partners, there appear only to be videos from ART19 and Acast inside Apple Podcasts at the moment (and one access-gated show that’s Apple’s own). Both of those are using AAC-LC for their audio (the base AAC format), and H.264 for their video.

The videos

Apple’s default bitrate specifications, for iOS, suggest 2000 kbps for wifi, 730kbps for cellular connections; but to also make available a version which is no more than 192kbps. These are the default specifications, however; we would expect that Apple Podcasts will have a more bespoke set of bitrate expectations.

According to analysis by John Spurlock, both ART19 and Acast are supplying video encoded in five sizes: 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p and 240p. ART19’s show is encoded to 30 frames per second. Acast’s uses 23.976fps. Both are US standards; Europe uses 25 or 50fps; Apple supports all of these.

I-frame playlists must be supplied (they are the things that add thumbnails as you scrub through a video). Both ART19 and Acast are supplying these.

Subtitles “may” be provided. The standard only uses WebVTT files. This is one of the standards in the transcript tag that Apple Podcasts already supports. Only ART19 is currently supplying subtitles.

The Apple specifications do offer “stereo video” and “immersive video", which is playable on an Apple Vision Pro unit. You should be able to produce 3D-like video, therefore, in your standard Apple Podcasts HLS stream, for those with Apple Vision. (Apparently around 400,000 people!)

The audio

The audio is a separate track, known as a “rendition”. That enables playback to continue uninterrupted when a user hits the “Turn Video Off” button; so your phone just continues to download the audio track and doesn’t bother downloading any video track any more. It also enables audio playback to be rock solid, even if the video isn’t. We’ve seen that first-hand: particularly when seeking through video, the audio starts almost immediately, but the video can take a few seconds to appear. This is good.

The presence of only one audio track suggests that there won't be any opportunity to offer a different audio mix to the one in the video. We also understand that the audio track from the HLS is the only audio that will be heard by users of Apple Podcasts. If you’re on a device that copes with HLS (like an iPhone running iOS 26.4), your phone will never download the MP3; just the audio rendition within the HLS. So enabling video for an episode means the MP3 won’t get played. (The MP3 is still needed for things that don’t do HLS yet, like the HomePod, earlier iOS devices, or, er, the Apple TV).

We’ve said “one” track above; actually, the spec allows you to have multiple bitrates for the audio track as well. Apple suggests anywhere from 32 up to 160 kbps for the audio component; but the requirement for something that works for cellular at a total of 192kbps suggests that there might need to be a lower-quality audio track to pair with a low-quality video one.

The ads

Neither of the test shows visible in the Apple Podcasts app appear to have any advertising in it. But, we understand that ads will use HLS interstitials, which may form the basis of Apple’s billing.

Interstitials (“ads") can, using an attribute called X-RESTRICT, be marked as not skippable, so if this is set, you can’t skip the ad once it starts playing - and not jumpable, so you can’t jump past an ad altogether on the scrub bar. You’ve probably already discovered this behaviour on numerous streaming TV services. We wondered if that meant that this would mean ads won't be skippable - but we've now been told that the Apple Podcasts app will prohibit this setting.

Things may change

This is all still in beta. Things may change between now and iOS 26.4 being released in, probably the end of March. There's plenty that we don't yet know - hidden by an NDA - and we hope Apple Podcasts will be open with their HLS documentation once they're able to.

Theoretically, though, this does mean that the same HLS feed should work if you were to put it into an alternateEnclosure for other podcast apps, and should also work just fine on Android or other devices. However, we don’t know whether the ads will work this way; interstitials may require those specific assets to be sent to Apple or something, we don’t know.

Other than the ads, certainly, there's nothing proprietary here - just a carefully constructed HLS multivariant playlist. And that's good news for all of us.

Below are the terms of service for Apple Podcasts Connect.

We're reproducing it here because we're reporting on it today, and these terms of service are not visible without an Apple ID.

Here is a link to the previous terms from 2025. The new terms from Feb 2026 are below.

The changes

• 1a) now talks about video as well as audio podcasts. This is the main change in these terms: acknowledging the existence of video.
• 8e) is a new clause, which allows Apple to use your content to help promote Apple Podcasts. In the past, companies like Apple have to specifically gain permission if they want to show a screenshot of your show on the Apple Podcasts website, for example; this now enables them to do so without asking. This doesn't let them use your content for anything else.
• In clause 15, we learn that Apple has moved part of this contract from California law to Delaware law.
• 18) is a new clause. It lets Apple change these terms of service. They've always been able to change terms of service anyway; so this changes nothing.

Terms of Service

Apple Podcasts Connect TERMS OF SERVICE

THESE TERMS OF SERVICE (“TERMS OF SERVICE”) CONSTITUTE A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND APPLE INC. ("APPLE") STATING THE TERMS THAT GOVERN YOUR USE OF APPLE PODCASTS CONNECT, INCLUDING THROUGH YOUR USE OF AN API INTEGRATION, AND THE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH IT (COLLECTIVELY, "PODCASTS CONNECT"). TO AGREE TO THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, CLICK "AGREE." BY CLICKING AGREE, YOU CERTIFY TO APPLE AND AGREE THAT YOU ARE THE LEGAL AGE OF MAJORITY IN THE JURISDICTION IN WHICH YOU RESIDE (AT LEAST 18 YEARS OF AGE IN MANY COUNTRIES OR REGIONS) AND HAVE THE RIGHT AND AUTHORITY TO ENTER INTO THIS AGREEMENT ON YOUR OWN BEHALF, OR IF YOU ARE ENTERING INTO THIS AGREEMENT ON BEHALF OF YOUR COMPANY, ORGANIZATION, EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION, OR AGENCY, INSTRUMENTALITY, OR DEPARTMENT OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, THAT YOU HAVE THE RIGHT AND AUTHORITY TO LEGALLY BIND SUCH ENTITY OR ORGANIZATION TO THE TERMS AND OBLIGATIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, DO NOT CLICK "AGREE," AND DO NOT USE PODCASTS CONNECT. YOU MUST ACCEPT AND ABIDE BY THESE TERMS OF SERVICE AS PRESENTED TO YOU; CHANGES, ADDITIONS, OR DELETIONS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE, AND APPLE MAY REFUSE ACCESS TO PODCASTS CONNECT FOR NONCOMPLIANCE WITH ANY PART OF THESE TERMS OF SERVICE.

1.Overview. (a)Access. Access to Podcasts Connect is provided solely as an accommodation and at Apple's sole discretion and is available to you to the extent you are, or are an authorized representative of, the person or an entity (a "Content Provider") that has submitted (i) one or more valid audio and/or video podcasts, (ii) any photos, images, graphics, video, or other artwork related to particular podcast content (“Artwork”) and/or (iii) audio, visual, text, comments, data, metadata and other digital content, including without limitation, advertising, sponsorship, and promotional content contained in or related to the podcasts (all such content, collectively or individually, as context requires, referred to herein as “Content”) to Apple or Apple affiliates for distribution on Apple’s digital podcast distribution service (“Apple Podcasts”) regardless of the device or platform on which Apple Podcasts is made available. (b)Restrictions. Your access to particular Podcasts Connect services may be further limited by the Podcasts Connect administrative user(s) for the Content Provider with which you are associated. As a condition to your access to Podcasts Connect and the distribution of your Content on Apple Podcasts, you must comply with Apple’s technical documentation, requirements, and content guidelines (including, without limitation, those currently available at https://podcasters.apple.com/support/891-content-and-subscription-guidelines) (collectively, “Apple Requirements”) that govern the use of Podcasts Connect and the Content, including without limitation, you shall not engage in any unlawful, unfair, misleading, fraudulent, improper, or dishonest acts or business practices relating to the Content or use of Podcasts Connect. Accordingly, subject to applicable law, Apple reserves the right to label or remove your Content and suspend your access to Podcasts Connect if you violate the Apple Requirements. The Apple Requirements may be updated from time to time and made available to you by Apple (e.g., on the Apple Podcasts for Creators website or by other digital means).

2.System Requirements. To use Podcasts Connect you need compatible hardware, software (latest version recommended or required), and Internet access (fees may apply). The performance of Podcasts Connect may be affected by these factors. You acknowledge and agree that such system requirements, which may be changed from time to time, are your responsibility.

3.Agreement. Your use of Podcasts Connect is, if applicable, subject to the terms of any agreement between yourself and Apple with regard to your Content (“Agreement”), including, without limitation, its confidentiality provisions. In the event of a direct conflict between these Terms of Service or any information provided on Podcasts Connect, on the one hand, and any applicable Agreement, on the other hand, the terms of such Agreement shall govern with respect to such conflict.

4.Confidentiality. You acknowledge that, in the course of your use of Podcasts Connect, you may have access to certain information and materials that are confidential and are of substantial value to Apple, including, but not limited to, any proposed Agreement you download from Podcasts Connect or you otherwise receive from Apple, which value would be impaired if such information were disclosed to third parties or used for purposes other than expressly permitted by such Agreement, or as set forth herein ("Apple Confidential Information"). You agree to maintain any Apple Confidential Information in confidence, and not disclose or otherwise make available Apple Confidential Information to any third party without the prior written consent of Apple. In the event either party chooses not to enter into an Agreement, you agree to destroy all copies of any Apple Confidential Information in your possession, including any proposed Agreement(s).

5.Your Information. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information required to register with Podcasts Connect and at other points as may be required in the course of using Podcasts Connect ("Podcaster Data"). You hereby confirm that any Podcaster Data you provide and already have provided to Apple (including, without limitation, in the Apple Podcasts application process or through prior use of Podcasts Connect) is accurate, current, and complete. You further agree to maintain and update your Podcaster Data as required to keep it accurate, current, and complete. At all times, Your personal data will be handled in accordance with Apple’s Privacy Policy, which can be viewed at https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/.

6.Account and Password. As a registered user of Podcasts Connect, you must establish an account ("Account"). You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your Account. You may not reveal your Account information to anyone else, allow anyone else to use your Account, or use anyone else’s Account. You are entirely responsible for all activities that occur on or through your Account, and you agree to immediately notify Apple of any unauthorized use of your Account or any other breach of security. Apple shall not be responsible for any losses arising out of the unauthorized or other improper use of your Account.

7.No Programmatic Access. You may not use any data mining, robots, scripting, or similar data gathering and extraction tools to access Podcasts Connect, including, without limitation, the Podcasts Analytics Service, and you shall not exploit Podcasts Connect, or any data therein, in any manner not expressly authorized by Apple.

8.License. (a)As necessary to provide and enhance the end user experience on Apple Podcasts (e.g., accessibility, search and recommendations), You grant Apple a non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid up, worldwide license to use, download, store, reproduce, publicly display and perform, and distribute your Content on Apple Podcasts. You further grant Apple a non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid up, worldwide license to use, reproduce, distribute and publicly display and perform, in any media, your Artwork (including, without limitation, delivering Artwork for display on end users’ devices where content featuring the Content is present, including, in any case, as an image or video associated with an episode, a podcast, channel, or a collection of podcasts) and/or any promotional materials you provide to Apple, and any derivatives thereof, for the purposes of promoting Apple Podcasts and your Content (e.g., promotion on Apple Podcasts, on social media and through directed marketing emails to end users). Apple may use the names and authorized likenesses of the hosts and guests of your podcasts in furtherance of promoting your Content, although Apple shall obtain further written approval from you if any such host or guest name, likeness, or identifying material is otherwise used as an endorsement of Apple, Apple Podcasts, or other Apple products or services. (b)You grant Apple the right to create transcripts of your Content (“Transcripts”) and to (i) publicly display such Transcripts on Apple Podcasts and (ii) use your Content and/or Transcripts to generate chapters of your Content for public display; provided that Apple shall provide you with the ability, within Podcasts Connect or by other digital means, to opt out of the public display of such Transcripts and chapters on Apple Podcasts, except where the display of such Transcripts is required by applicable law. (c)You grant Apple a nonexclusive, worldwide, and royalty-free license to use your Content for internal research and development to improve Apple’s products and services. (d)Apple may edit, resize, modify or crop Artwork to fit the design and layout of Apple Podcasts, the space allotted in promotional materials and/or the technical and formatting requirements in the Apple Requirements, which for clarity includes the right to modify metadata as reasonably necessary to correct errors therein. (e)Apple may create derivative works of your Content and/or Artwork, and use, reproduce, publicly display and perform, and distribute such derivative works for the limited purpose of promoting Apple Podcasts and/or the availability of your Content on Apple Podcasts; provided that the foregoing shall not include the right to exploit your Content, Artwork and/or derivatives thereof, through merchandise or other similar ancillary commercial activities. (f)Apple may in its sole discretion use all or some of the metadata you provide hereunder, or supplement or replace such metadata.

9.Rights Clearances and Royalties. With respect to the Content (including Artwork), you represent and warrant that: (a)you own or have otherwise obtained all rights, licenses, releases, and permissions to submit and make your Content available on Apple Podcasts and to grant the rights granted to Apple and its affiliates in these Terms of Service, including without limitation, applicable licenses respecting all sound recordings and, musical compositions, contained in any Content made available on Apple Podcasts; (b)your Content and its submission and use as authorized in these Terms of Service will not violate (1) any applicable law, (2) any third-party intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other rights, or (3) any agreements with, or policies of, a third party related to use of the Content as permitted in these Terms of Service; (c)you are responsible for making full and timely payments of all royalties, residuals, equitable remuneration, participation payments and/or other sums payable for any rights and/or waivers obtained pursuant to (a) above, and all payments that may be required under any collective bargaining, union or guild agreements related to the Content or its exploitation or other use hereunder, including any similar payments which are not now but hereafter become payable; (d)you have the authority to make the foregoing representations and warranties on behalf of yourself and any entity on behalf of which you are making available the Content on Apple Podcasts.

10.Analytics. To the extent that Apple provides an analytics service through Podcasts Connect for content distributed on Apple Podcasts excluding any applications or associated information distributed on the App Store (“Podcasts Analytics Service”), you acknowledge that the Podcasts Analytics Service is provided solely as a convenience to you and agree, unless otherwise authorized in writing by Apple, to use any data provided through such Podcasts Analytics Service solely for purposes of internal business analytics, including promotion and marketing purposes, and making data available to advertisers solely as necessary to monetize Content, and subject to the following conditions and restrictions: (a)You agree not to provide such information to any third parties or allow third parties to access your account in Podcasts Connect (b)You must not aggregate (or permit any third party to aggregate) analytics information provided to you by Apple as part of the Podcasts Analytics Service with other content providers’ analytics information, or contribute such information to a repository for cross-content provider analytics. (c)You must not use the Podcasts Analytics Service or any analytics data to attempt to identify or derive information about any particular end-user or device. (d)If you are receiving analytics data from an analytics service offered by the App Store for your applications (if any), this Section 10(d) does not apply to any such analytics data received from such analytics service and your use thereof shall be guided by any applicable Apple Developer Program License Agreement that governs your distribution of any such applications. (e)You agree that Apple may share anonymized aggregated listening data collected via referral links with certain third-party services who provide such links for the purposes of promoting your content on Apple Podcasts.

11.Intellectual Property. (a)Acknowledgement of Ownership. You agree that Podcasts Connect contains proprietary information and material that is owned by Apple and/or its licensors, and is protected by applicable intellectual property and other laws, including but not limited to copyright, and that you will not use such proprietary information or materials in any way whatsoever except for use of Podcasts Connect in compliance with these Terms of Service. No portion of Podcasts Connect may be reproduced in any form or by any means. (b)Copyrights. All copyrights in and to Podcasts Connect are owned by Apple and/or its licensors. (c)Trademarks. Apple, the Apple logo, iTunes, Podcasts Connect and other Apple trademarks, service marks, graphics, and logos used in connection with Podcasts Connect are trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. You are granted no right or license with respect to any of the aforesaid trademarks and any use of such trademarks.

12.Disclaimer of Warranties; Liability Limitations. To the extent permitted by applicable law: (a)APPLE DOES NOT GUARANTEE, REPRESENT, OR WARRANT THAT YOUR USE OF PODCASTS CONNECT WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, AND YOU AGREE THAT FROM TIME TO TIME APPLE MAY REMOVE PODCASTS CONNECT (OR PARTICULAR PRODUCTS OR SERVICES THEREIN) FOR INDEFINITE PERIODS OF TIME, OR CEASE TO OFFER PODCASTS CONNECT IN ITS ENTIRETY, AT ANY TIME, WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU. (b)YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, PODCASTS CONNECT IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. PODCASTS CONNECT AND ALL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES DELIVERED TO YOU THROUGH PODCASTS CONNECT ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" FOR YOUR USE, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NONINFRINGEMENT. (c)IN NO CASE SHALL APPLE, ITS DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AFFILIATES, AGENTS, CONTRACTORS, OR LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF PODCASTS CONNECT OR FOR ANY OTHER CLAIM RELATED IN ANY WAY TO YOUR USE OF PODCASTS CONNECT, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE, OR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE USE OF ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE, POSTED, TRANSMITTED, OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE VIA PODCASTS CONNECT, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THEIR POSSIBILITY. (d)APPLE DOES NOT REPRESENT OR GUARANTEE THAT PODCASTS CONNECT WILL BE FREE FROM LOSS, CORRUPTION, ATTACK, VIRUSES, INTERFERENCE, HACKING, OR OTHER SECURITY INTRUSION, AND APPLE DISCLAIMS ANY LIABILITY RELATING THERETO. (e)Nothing contained in this Section 12 is intended to exclude, restrict, or modify any rights held in Australia under the consumer guarantee provisions of the Australian Consumer Law (being Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010) if you are a 'consumer' (within the meaning of the Australian Consumer Law). If Apple is liable to you under that legislation, to the extent to which Apple is entitled to do so, Apple limits its liability in respect of any claim under those provisions to, at Apple's option, the supplying of the services again or the payment of the cost of having the services supplied again.

13.Indemnity. BY USING THE PODCASTS CONNECT SERVICE, YOU AGREE, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, TO INDEMNIFY AND HOLD APPLE, ITS DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AFFILIATES, AGENTS, CONTRACTORS, AND LICENSORS HARMLESS WITH RESPECT TO ANY CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF YOUR BREACH OF THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES MADE BY YOU HEREIN, OR YOUR OTHER IMPROPER, UNAUTHORIZED OR UNLAWFUL USE OF PODCASTS CONNECT.

14.Notices. Apple may send you notice with respect to Podcasts Connect by sending an email message to the email address listed in your Account contact information, by sending a letter via postal mail to the contact address listed in your Account contact information, or by a posting on Podcasts Connect. Notices shall become effective immediately.

15.Governing Law. You expressly agree that the laws of Delaware, excluding its conflicts of law rules, govern these Terms of Service and your use of Podcasts Connect and the distribution of your Content on Apple Podcasts, and that the exclusive jurisdiction for any proceeding relating in any way to your use of Podcasts Connect will be the Northern District of California. You hereby waive the right to object to the foregoing choice of law, personal jurisdiction or venue.

16.Termination. You agree to comply with the above at all times during your use of Podcasts Connect, and acknowledge and agree that subject to applicable law, Apple has the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate your account or take such other action as it sees fit if you breach any of the terms of these Terms of Service.

17.Miscellaneous. Subject to Section 3 above, these Terms of Service constitute the entire agreement between you and Apple and govern your use of Podcasts Connect, superseding any prior agreements between you and Apple. If any part of these Terms of Service is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion shall be construed in a manner consistent with applicable law to reflect, as nearly as possible, the original intentions of the parties, and the remaining portions shall remain in full force and effect. Apple's failure to enforce any right or provisions in these Terms of Service will not constitute a waiver of such provision, or any other provision of these Terms of Service. Apple will not be responsible for failures to fulfill any obligations due to causes beyond its control.

18.Modification. Apple reserves the right at any time to modify these Terms of Service and to add new or additional terms or conditions on your use of Podcasts Connect. In order to continue using Podcast Connect, You must accept and agree to the updated Terms of Service. If You do not agree to the updated Terms of Service, Your use of Podcasts Connect will be suspended or terminated by Apple. You agree that Your acceptance of the updated Terms of Service may be signified electronically, including without limitation, by Your checking a box or clicking on an “agree” or similar button. Your continued use of Podcasts Connect will be deemed acceptance thereof.

Last updated: February 18, 2026

Reproduced by Podnews for critical and educational purposes, as protected under international copyright law.

This is an opinion piece.

Podcasting works on an RSS feed: a format that was initially developed and released by Netscape in 1999, and amended by Dave Winer in 2000 to include ‘enclosures’, the audio files that make up a podcast.

A podcast RSS feed consists of, at its most basic, the title and description of a podcast and its episodes, and an address showing a computer to where to find the audio file.

A “podcast app” is better thought of as a search engine for podcasts. Like Google does for websites, it indexes your podcast and links to the audio, making it available for people to discover alongside 2.5m others. Like Google, it doesn’t alter it or charge for your podcast. And, like Google, you don’t normally sign a contract to be available in it.

For traditional media, it’s a very different syndication model to that which they’re used to and their legal people find the differences hard to comprehend: but there is also a certain element of trust implicit in the open podcast ecosystem which some lawyers find hard to cede.

However, in the years since the first podcast in 2003, an understanding has grown between podcast publishers and podcast apps: something you could almost call an unwritten contract. Here it is.

Open RSS feeds are intended for consumption in podcast apps. Just like how Google will index your website and make it discoverable by others, so podcast apps will use your RSS feeds to link to your content. A contract is not required between a podcast publisher and a podcast app to be listed: the publication of an open RSS feed is implicit approval.

• Private RSS feeds do exist, and podcast apps make strenuous efforts to ensure that these are not publicly indexed. Here’s a sample blocklist which many podcast apps use. If you don’t intend your RSS feed to be public, ensure it’s clear that it shouldn’t be ingested by podcast apps.

Podcast apps will not touch or alter the audio in any way. Audio remains on the podcast publisher’s hosting company, and any podcast app out there just links to it. This is important because it means you get the important analytics, like total downloads, from your podcast host. You don’t need to log into a myriad of different publishers to get analytics. (Some do offer additional analytics, but that’s fine).

Your audio won’t be edited. Ads won’t be added to your audio, nor will parts of your audio be edited out.

• Luminary was found to be running a proxy server, and retribution from the industry was swift. The company had a very rocky launch, mainly because it lacked the experience in the podcast industry. Some of the most popular shows were pulled, and Luminary’s brand was significantly harmed.
• Stitcher used to cache and re-encode audio so that, the company claimed, audiences on mobile could listen without chewing through their data bandwidth. The industry reacted by pulling their shows. The company stopped interfering with audio as a result.
• Spotify launched by caching audio, but quickly reached agreement with most large podcast hosts to offer “pass-through”. This allows Spotify to offer a reliable service for all podcasts, including those that self-host, but allows larger podcast hosts to offer the benefit of their reliability.

Podcast apps will not charge to listen to your podcast. While all podcast apps need to earn revenue somehow, none put podcast listening behind a paywall (without, of course, those podcasts being specifically comfortable with that idea). Nobody should get rich out of your podcast, except you.

• Some podcast apps offer paid exclusives, including Apple, Spotify and Amazon. They also offer the catalogue of 2.5m freely-available podcasts; and none make you pay for those free shows.
• Some podcast apps include display advertising, which may allow advertisers to target listeners based on the categories they listen to; or paid memberships for a “plus” service, allowing you to remove ads or unlock more features. This isn’t monetising a specific show.

Podcast apps will not touch or alter the accompanying metadata: the title, description or image. That data is taken directly from the RSS feed, and podcast apps don’t not alter or truncate this.

• There’s a default, defacto standard about what is supported in podcast descriptions and episode notes. There’s a technical limit for Apple Podcasts of 4,000 characters, and certain HTML tags that are accepted; but within these constraints, all podcast apps display titles, descriptions and images without any alteration.
• In 2026, Podcast Addict added a service that automatically added chapter images to podcasts, without telling creators. It quickly selected pornographic images as those chapter images.

These aren't signed agreements

There are hundreds of podcast apps out there, and it’s clearly impossible to sign specific agreements with each and every one.

Further: there are 2.5m podcasts out there. It’s unrealistic for a podcast app to sign agreements with each and every one of them. It’s also unnecessary, since the podcast is publicly available.

By publishing an open RSS feed, just like publishing an open website, you are inviting people to link to your content: without any contracts or agreements.

Is this a podcast app that will respect the unwritten contract, above? If it is, you should be in it.

Is this a podcast app that doesn’t respect the unwritten contract? Tell the world about it. Drop me a line at editor@podnews.net. As the above examples show, there’s nothing I like better than exposing bad behaviour.

There is no suggestion that appearing in the documents implies any wrongdoing: but, what so far do we know about Jeffrey Epstein's connections into podcasting? We know he listened - possibly from the unergonomic desk pictured above: but what else do we know?

Lawrence Krauss, a former astronomy professor and host of The Origins Podcast with Lawrence Krauss, spoke repeatedly with Epstein about his podcast in January 2019, asking for money, which Epstein was happy to give - until he seemed to withdraw, worried about conflict between the podcast and his foundation. At one point in 2017, Epstein asks him how to get onto the Joe Rogan show. "Can you introduce me, I think he's funny", he says. Rogan didn't reply; and in a news report Rogan says he declined.

At another point, Krauss is asking Epstein's staff for a room in one of Epstein's NY apartments to record a (video) podcast.

Epstein was subscribed to the newsletter of Peter Attia, the host of The Peter Attia Drive, a health and fitness podcast. Unsurprising - it appears Attia was his physician. He's reported to appear in the files more than 1,700 times.

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who hosts Masters of Scale, hosted a dinner with Epstein in attendance in 2015.

Deepak Chopra, a wellness guru and host of Deepak Chopra’s Infinite Potential, spoke with Epstein about having dinner together. He's reported to have at least a dozen meetings with Epstein.

The #1 way that people discover new podcasts is by a personal recommendation. Shows that were recommended to Epstein include The Dan Bongino Show (by Kathy Ruemmler, a Goldman Sachs lawyer who has since resigned); The Joe Rogan Experience (#1169, with Elon Musk, by Juleanna Glover, a former advisor to Elon Musk); Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast (an episode with Jackie Marling, from a redacted contact); an NPR podcast about technology, discussing brain technology (from "Anistasiya", presumed to be Anastasiya Siroochenko, a Ukrainian real-estate agent).

Epstein bought "Airfoil for Mac", from Rogue Amoeba, to stream audio round his house. He also used Spotify as a premium user, signing up in 2011. Emails from Spotify suggest that he listened to Michael Bublé and Pitbull; others shared music tracks with him. Spotify added podcasts in 2015.

Podcasts really do reach everyone; and while none of the above suggests any wrongdoing, the Epstein files clearly post more questions than answers.

Want to earn Bitcoin, automatically, as your listeners enjoy your podcast? How about getting tips or even messages from your audience, all paying you Bitcoin?

There are emerging podcast apps out there - like Fountain, Podcast Guru or Castamatic - that can be configured, by a listener, to send you small amounts of Bitcoin as they listen. It's free to set yourself up to receive them, too - and by doing it, you'll reward podcast app developers and the open podcast ecosystem.

Listeners can automatically send you a small amount of Bitcoin every minute they listen. They can give you a "boost" - a tip - if they like what they're hearing and want to reward you for the value they get from your podcast. Or they can send a "boostagram", a tip with a message attached, to give you great, positive feedback.

Here's how to get your podcast earning cryptocurrency. Now: it's still very early days, but it's much easier than it's been before.

Any questions about the below? Come and ask in the PodcastIndex Social group, a system that'll remind you of Twitter. That's full of people who can help you.

Before we begin: what will you earn?

With this system, you'll earn real Bitcoin, not some sort of strange coin or token that you've never heard of.

Because one Bitcoin is worth many thousands of dollars - in fact, $69,500 when we last updated this - you'll use satoshis, normally shortened to "sats".

Just like a cent is a small fraction of a dollar, so a satoshi is a small fraction of a Bitcoin. A very small fraction - one sat is 100 millionth of a Bitcoin.

You can transfer Bitcoins to your own local currency whenever you want (if you want): your local currency is called fiat money, in case you see that word somewhere. Or you can keep your earnings in Bitcoin, where it may increase in value (or, who knows, may not). But don't worry - this isn't a cryptocurrency scam.

1. Go get a Strike account

The Strike app is available in over 95 countries in the world, including every state of the USA except for New York. The link we've used here is an affiliate link that will give you (and us) $500 of free trades. Or, just search for Strike in your app store.

Your Strike account is, essentially, a bank account for Bitcoin. You can set it to automatically withdraw Bitcoin into your "normal" bank account when you reach 100,000 sats (that's about US $70). Or you can leave it there. Again, nobody is asking you to invest in cryptocurrency.

Once you've got a Strike account - which may be a bit of a torturous process requiring ID documents thanks to government rules around money laundering but should be free - you'll be given a "Lightning address". Mine is jamescridland@strike.me - which people can use to send money to you.

2. Add your payment details in your RSS feed

If you host your podcast with a podcast host, you may be able to ask support nicely to add this data to your feed (or tell you how).

This code lives in the main <channel> part of your RSS feed. Here, we're giving 1% of everything we earn to the Podcast Index, and keeping the rest.

<podcast:value type="lightning" method="keysend">
<podcast:valueRecipient name="James Cridland" type="lnaddress" address="jamescridland@strike.me" split="99" />
<podcast:valueRecipient name="Podcast Index" type="lnaddress" address="podcastindex@podcastindex.org" split="1"/>
</podcast:value>

3. You're done - and can now receive payments

Listeners enjoying your show on supported apps will now have the ability to: a) give you a small amount of sats for every minute they listen b) give you a larger amount of sats as a "boost", along with a message.

You will get a notification every time you receive money into your Strike account. You can turn that off if you want.

4. See who paid you and the messages they sent

Strike is just a "bank account", so all you'll see is this - a set of wierd things marked "payments::stream" which contain links to metadata about the payment...

That's not very helpful, is it?

Well, we thought we'd make it easier for you. So we have a thing called "Runway", which will pull that data from the individual podcast players, and give you something looking like this:

How much can you earn?

In the week ending November 14 2021, Podnews earnt 42,160 sats, which at the time of writing is US $29. That's the equivalent of $1,508 or so in a year, which might also be the equivalent of a plane ticket and a nice stay in a hotel, or dinner and food for you and all your mates.

Or, you might keep that Bitcoin, and assume it goes up in value. But, again, you don't have to.

Because Podnews is only a three minute podcast, we don't get as much automatically-streaming sats as others, either, and are rather more reliant on boosts and boostagrams: one reason why you'll see us mention boostagrams most Mondays.

Got a podcast app? Want to check what its user agent details are?

OP3 is a free and open-source podcast prefix analytics service committed to open data and listener privacy.

OP3 gives a nice API with almost real-time logfile statistics. And here's how to use it to see what user-agent this random new podcast app you've just discovered is using.

• Using wifi - play any show that is measured by OP3. (Podnews Daily is one).
• From the same device (or, at least, the same wifi connection) - visit this URL: https://op3.dev/api/1/hits?start=-1h&format=json&token=preview07ce&hashedIpAddress=current

Requests should appear within a few seconds.

OP3 doesn't store IP addresses, but this call uses the same one-way hash to show you requests from your own IP address.

(Just a quick note: if using iPhone, you'll want to remember not to be using Apple's Private Relay to check the URL, otherwise it'll look like a different IP address. Apple's Private Relay isn't used for podcast apps.)

An example

We thought we’d test the Pocket Casts desktop app, to see if it correctly adds Pocket Casts to the user-agent.

Below are the results: a HEAD and a GET call from the app, which marks itself as PocketCasts/2.0.8 in the userAgent, and also adds a referer. And you can see where we were at the time.

Get a proper token from OP3’s API if you’re going to do this in production, of course.

(If this isn’t another reason to join Podnews in supporting OP3 financially, we don’t know what is.)

{
    "rows": [
        {
            "time": "2025-01-06T23:26:10.212Z",
            "uuid": "3c68c38e43b54814a23a71e5534d7900",
            "hashedIpAddress": "cfb9f1a20014cc16f6c465436dbe37e1eac53449",
            "method": "HEAD",
            "url": "https://op3.dev/e,pg=9b024349-ccf0-5f69-a609-6b82873eab3c/podnews.net/audio/podnews241015.mp3",
            "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) PocketCasts/2.0.8 Chrome/126.0.6478.185 Electron/31.3.1 Safari/537.36",
            "referer": "https://play.pocketcasts.com/",
            "edgeColo": "BNE",
            "continent": "OC",
            "country": "AU",
            "timezone": "Australia/Brisbane",
            "regionCode": "QLD",
            "region": "Queensland"
        },
        {
            "time": "2025-01-06T23:26:10.238Z",
            "uuid": "63a7ae73b71f4bfdacf3f817487baa3e",
            "hashedIpAddress": "cfb9f1a20014cc16f6c465436dbe37e1eac53449",
            "method": "GET",
            "url": "https://op3.dev/e,pg=9b024349-ccf0-5f69-a609-6b82873eab3c/podnews.net/audio/podnews241015.mp3",
            "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) PocketCasts/2.0.8 Chrome/126.0.6478.185 Electron/31.3.1 Safari/537.36",
            "referer": "https://play.pocketcasts.com/",
            "range": "bytes=0-",
            "edgeColo": "BNE",
            "continent": "OC",
            "country": "AU",
            "timezone": "Australia/Brisbane",
            "regionCode": "QLD",
            "region": "Queensland"
        }
    ],
    "count": 2,
    "queryTime": 1163
}

A "301 redirect" is much like telling the Post Office that you've moved house, and asking them to redirect your mail to your new address. It allows podcasters to move a show from one podcast hosting company to another, and is a fundamental part of open RSS and portability. It keeps podcast hosting companies honest and competitive, knowing that it is relatively easy to switch companies.

Almost all podcast hosting companies offer 301 redirects for free. (Libsyn charged a $25 fee prior to 2020, but now operates like any other hosting company).

Unlike most podcast hosts, Libsyn doesn't use just one RSS feed for a podcast: it has a set of different feeds that it gives to podcast directories. Podnews does similar - we feed Spotify and YouTube slightly different feeds to the rest of the open RSS ecosystem, to enable us to serve slightly different content and help our analysis.

In Q4 2025, Libsyn made a number of changes to its RSS infrastructure, which stopped the company being able to offer 301 redirects for some of these feeds - technically, ones starting rss.libsyn. An email from the company's support team stated that these feeds are "meant for internal use only" and are "not redirectable".

We asked a Libsyn spokesperson why they'd stopped offering 301 redirects on these feeds. They replied that this was a temporary technical issue:

What has occurred is a technical edge case introduced late last year when we rolled out improvements to our RSS infrastructure to improve performance and reliability at scale. If you recall, we had a brief period of downtime and issues in October that you covered. As part of the work to address those issues, some feeds served via our CDN are using a temporary (302) redirect internally. In a limited number of cases, certain directories -- or manual submissions -- appear to have treated that temporary redirect as a source URL, which can complicate downstream redirects when a show later moves hosts.

The issue affects every Libsyn podcaster who wishes to move off the service. It's not a "limited number of cases" that directories have listed these URLs as the source URL - it's the majority, according to our research. In the Podnews podcast sample, which is populated by (mainly) Apple Podcasts and also the Podcast Index, we list more than 6,570 Libsyn podcasts using these "internal" feeds. (Only 5,900 Libsyn podcasts in our sample use the "correct" feeds, which start feeds.libsyn).

However, there's good news - contrary to the Libsyn support team telling customers that these feeds are "not redirectable" and offering no indication that this is a technical issue, Libsyn's spokesperson tells us:

The team is actively working on changes that will both prevent directories from adopting interim feed URLs and allow redirects to be applied consistently across all Libsyn feed variants. This work is a priority, and we anticipate getting something to market in the coming weeks.

Meantime, Libsyn creators who wish to leave the podcast host will find it difficult to ensure all platforms correctly see a redirected feed. Shows may disappear altogether from some platforms; others will show stale information and no new episodes.

In conversations with their customers, Podnews has evidence that the Libsyn support team are blaming other podcast hosting companies for Libsyn's technical issue. One communication to a customer said that "We have seen that (your new podcast host)’s redirect status tool they have custom built does not really work with Libsyn feeds and will state that the redirects are not functional because of how our RSS feeds are structured." This is false. When alerted to this behaviour, Libsyn agreed that blaming other companies "doesn't meet our bar for customer support / engagement." We would agree.

A Libsyn spokesperson told us:

Libsyn has not stopped supporting 301 redirects, nor do we have any intention of preventing creators from moving their shows if they choose to do so. Creator ownership and portability have been core to how we’ve operated for more than two decades and there is no intent to change that.

We remain deeply committed to building a creator-first hosting platform that prioritizes reliability, openness, and long-term growth for creators. Alongside core infrastructure investments like this one, we have exciting plans to innovate across distribution and monetization in a much more ambitious way in the future -- recent examples include the investments we’re making as part of our inclusion in the shortlist of Spotify Distribution API partners and Podroll, but those are truly just the start.

In the last four years, Libsyn's share of new episodes has dropped from 5.1% to 2.9%. Its popular The Feed podcast was abruptly cancelled without even offering a final episode, and Elsie Escobar, Mathew Passy and Rob Walch have left the company in recent months.

As the world's first podcast hosting company, Libsyn still has significant goodwill from the podcast community. We would hope that the company fixes this issue quickly.

At the expo hall in Podfest this year was one booth manned by "The International Podcast Awards".

This wasn't an award ceremony I'd heard of, so on the third day of the conference, I went to ask some questions of the guy who was sitting at the booth.

"Who does the judging?" was a good first question. The answer surprised me. "My dad". That wasn't the wide judges' committee that I was expecting. I paused.

"So, how do the awards work?" I was told that they are free to enter, and if you win, it's $300 to an awards ceremony in Phoenix AZ, where you get to pick up the award, you get filmed doing an interview, the whole red carpet treatment, but there are other packages available. There are two events a year: the next is scheduled for April 2026, in Arizona. "Who doesn't want to win an award, right?" he said.

"Do you have any more details?" I asked. "Yeah, you can photograph this," he said, holding up a sheet of letter-sized paper, which had been on the stand next to a metal microphone-shaped award and some lanyards. The right-hand side of the leaflet contained advantages you get from winning an award; the left-hand side claimed that they serve "entrepreneurs", "executives" and "every-day heroes".

I went to the website - to learn more about the every-day heroes who have won this award in the past.

The only winner I can find

When I looked, the website's "awards" gallery didn't contain any of the awards given out by the International Podcast Awards. Instead, it contains a picture of the award's "first winner", apparently from Australia. Despite it looking as though these link to more information, they don't.

The podcaster, wearing a tuxedo, holds an award plaque marked "International Podcast Awards", in front of a pull-up banner marked "Podcast Awards". His name wasn't mentioned at all on the site.

The podcaster is Kain Masters - who is Australian - and his podcast is Terminally Curious with Kain Masters, a show hosted on Spotify for Creators. His last episode, from August 2025, is Inside the World's Most DANGEROUS Security Job, where he interviews Atlas Aultman, a former special operations director in Afghanistan. The episode has 131 views on YouTube.

The person seen giving him the award in the picture is Joshua 'Atlas' Aultman.

The YouTube video, posted by Podcast Awards International, features Masters being interviewed by Clifford Starks, a pro UFC fighter. The video, which has 841 views, doesn't contain any mention of the award; but the video's description says the podcast "won for film work, editing and high-quality content to name just a few things that made his show amazing to consume."

By email, I asked the International Podcast Awards for a list of winners.

I got a response from... Joshua 'Atlas' Aultman, who runs the International Podcast Awards.

He told us: "We asked for/received podcasts and studio nominations through social media in 2025. We presented a show, studio, and 1-million+ view award at a red-carpet event last year. Awards were announced on social media but we haven’t created an awardee page yet - this website thing is new. Judges for last cycle were me and my team."

He tells me that Masters was "the main winner", and that they had other entries. He said that Bill Brassow was "recognized for his work in podcast production" (though his company, PodWorks, were the people filming and photographing it). He also suggested that Ian ‘Badger’ Asher received an award "for getting 1M views" - he's the CEO of a company called Gun TV Shows, and appeared on the TARGETED podcast, which is hosted by Atlas Aultman. I don't see evidence from the event's YouTube channel of these awards.

The "awards" gallery which wasn't

Apart from the winner Kain Masters, the awards page contained a number of other images.

Under "highlights", next to Masters is another picture, marked "US shows" featuring happy winners holding an award. The picture shows Ross Fyfe and Jimmy Bosco, winners of The West End Golf Day from 2017. West End Draught is a brand of Australian beer, and the West End Cup takes place every year in South Australia, at the Liquor Industry Golf Club in West Lakes, which is just to the west of Adelaide. Its relevance to a podcast awards is unclear.

Scroll further down to the "Gallery Highlights - Snapshots from our unforgettable 2025 red carpet event", and you could see seven images. An image of a red carpet in a cinema in Uzbekistan; an image of a classical music concert; an image of a child winning an award in Dubai; the original FIFA World Cup on display in the FIFA Museum; a video interview in front of a hand-drawn Cyrillic map; an image from India showing prizes being given for the New Business Launching Seminar run by Striking Online Service & Shopping Pvt Ltd of West Bengal; and finally, marked "red carpet buzz", an image from 2023 of an outdoor red carpet in Turkiye. All are accompanied by misleading ALT text, claiming they're taken at the awards. It's our opinion that they're not.

After Podnews contacted the company, all these images were removed, excepting the Turkish red carpet.

The images on the website's front page remain a mix of Kain Masters being interviewed by Clifford Starks; a black and white picture showing a man recording something in a pizza restaurant in São Paulo in Brazil; Aultman interviewing Starks; then, lower, Starks, Aultman and Masters with nine other unidentified people in front of a banner with podcast platform logos on it; Masters accepting the award from Aultman; an unrelated picture of a glass award to someone called Matt Seymour marked as being for the Unsplash Awards 2018 (the company used for all the free stock images on this website, and which has since been removed); Starks interviewing Masters; Starks interviewing an unidentified woman at the award; and finally Masters giving a speech to a ceremony with four visible tables for guests.

The submit page includes details of a "red carpet venue in Phoenix Arizona", and an embedded Google map for 697 Hilltop Street, Springfield MA, an address which appears to be used on websites for variety of businesses, including a Chinese food company, a roofing company, a phsychiatrist, a beef seller, a rental company for Perth in Australia, a Bangalore-based microgreens company, a plumbing company, a pizza restaurant, a printing company, and plenty more.

The others in the images weren't winners

The YouTube channel for the awards helps me understand who is pictured on the website.

The unidentified woman on the front page is Stephanie LaBorde Dreux, who is Head of Community Activation of the IDIA, an organisation helping people access technology. Osama Awadalla is a former fighter and actor. Others in the group image include the owners of a gym, and the owners of a martial arts company. (Kain Masters describes himself as a martial artist). The event was videoed by PodWorks Studios.

In short - I think there was only one winner - Kain Masters. Apart from being a podcaster, he's also an author of a well-reviewed book about how to become a toxic male. He's shared social posts on his Instagram of his win. I tried to get in touch, but the only way appears to be to send him a message on LinkedIn, and he only accepts messages from Premium members.

The "praise" from winners who didn't exist

The front page contained "praise" from two happy podcasters. One is Liam Fox from Sydney, who claims to be a winner; his same photograph is used on a Parisian alternative health website where he's called Jacques, a warehouse worker who was delighted at his treatment by the company. The other is Eva Chen from Phoenix, who oddly is illustrated by a picture of a business award given in Nottinghamshire, England in 2019. I can't find a podcaster called Eva Chen, excepting the New York-based fashion influencer.

I asked who these winners were. Aultman told us: "The names and quotes you referenced were the original placeholders that we had in draft. They got published instead of the reviews that were supposed to be in there - so we fixed that, thanks for pointing that out. That’s all my fault, I wanted it live prior to Podfest so we could use the website and then got caught up with work."

The replacement "praise" is from Kain Masters, and a non-committal quote from "Stephanie D" - who is presumably Stephanie LaBorde Dreux. She isn't a podcaster.

The business plan

I then noticed the "store" at the top of the page: and all becomes clear.

As with similar awards, there's a fee to attend the awards ceremony, of $300 each, or $500 "with your significant other, best friend, or someone you want to impress".

But, unusually, that's not all.

To get a "media package", which is a red-carpet video interview, is $500 "so (your audience) can celebrate your success".

Additionally, to "talk on our stage" is $500 - to "add to your speaker reel or boost your credibility". "We set up the stage, the lights, the sound the professionals, and gather an amazing crowd - you deliver value for up to 1 minute of microphone time." (This makes my recent talk at Podfest be valued at $22,500).

Aultman told us: "At this point, I’ve spent thousands of my own money trying to keep people who have amazing shows in the world of podcasting with this program. There was interest in the next red carpet event at Podfest, but I wasn’t trying to sell anyone and nobody committed to attending the event by purchasing a ticket. Low ticket sales = awards recognition online only. I’d love to keep doing this but it’s very quickly becoming a financial burden that I won’t be able to continue on red carpet events past April if there is no awards dinner, enough donations, or sponsors."

An evening of cosplay

Excepting the photos on the website, these people aren't doing anything wrong. They provide a nice service - it's an evening of cosplay, where for $300 you get to dress up in a nice suit and get treated like a fancy award-winner, so you get to claim you have won an award and charge your clients more. Pay $500, and you get to cosplay with a potential client. Pay $500 more, and you get to give a 60-second speech in front of them. And for another $500 more, a video interview with a UFC fighter.

If you don't care about the circumstances of it, it's a good investment that'll make you look more persuasive - you're a winner of the International Podcast Awards after all, which is almost as exciting as winning a real award.

Aultman disputes this. "To be perfectly clear - nobody has paid for an award. And no one has paid for recognition. This isn’t a buy-an-award program - it’s free to enter."

"At this point, I’ve had little interest in people at Podfest attending another event and appreciate your interest in telling people about us. I’m not sure the traditional / audio-only podcast community will be interested in this. It’s been the YouTubers that are expressing the most interest."

And perhaps, for people who care more about how things look, it would be the ideal purchase.

What began as a modest idea in France has grown into one of the largest coordinated podcast charity initiatives in the world. Podcasthon, founded by Jeremie Mani and his co-founders, invites podcasters to dedicate one episode of their show to a charity of their choice during a single, synchronized week in March.

This year, the initiative has surpassed 2,000 participating podcasts, up from roughly 1,500 the year before. That growth reflects not only increased awareness of the project, but also a growing appetite among podcasters to use their platforms for social good.

Speaking with Doug Downs of Stories and Strategies, Mani describes the moment as a meaningful validation of the idea. “We recently passed a major milestone with more than 2,000 podcasts registered,” he said. “Last year at the same time, we were at about 1,500, so the growth has been quite significant.”

Podcasthon’s expansion has been both geographic and linguistic. Originally launched in French-speaking countries, the initiative opened to English-language podcasts in 2025 and will now include Spanish- and German-language podcasts in 2026. In total, Podcasthon will operate in four languages this year, with participating shows spanning North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

A Coordinated Week with an Outsized Impact

The concept behind Podcasthon is deliberately simple. During one designated week in March, podcasters release an episode focused on a charity they care about, whether through an interview, a solo episode, or a special feature. Those episodes are published simultaneously, creating what Mani calls a “mass effect” across the podcasting ecosystem.

The goal is not direct fundraising, but awareness. “We are not trying to ask for donations,” Mani explained. “What we want is to help charities expand their circle of supporters, whether that means volunteers, donors, or simply people who now know they exist.”

That emphasis on storytelling is key. Podcasting’s long-form, intimate nature allows listeners to connect emotionally with causes in a way that other media often cannot. According to Mani, that emotional connection is where Podcasthon’s real value lies.

“Podcasting is probably the best medium ever to convey emotion,” he said. “It allows people to connect deeply with stories, and that’s exactly what charities need to reach new audiences.”

Podcasthon Week is typically mid-March, creating a recognizable annual moment when listeners may encounter multiple charity-focused episodes across different shows. The effect, Mani suggests, is cumulative: even if a listener switches between podcasts, they continue to hear stories centered on impact and altruism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Qb7IiHj40

Measuring Success Beyond Downloads and Donations

Like many nonprofit initiatives, Podcasthon faces challenges when it comes to measurement. There is no central tracking of donations or volunteer sign-ups tied directly to podcast episodes. Instead, feedback comes from charities themselves after the event.

Following each edition, the Podcasthon team surveys participating organizations to understand what impact, if any, the episodes had. The responses, Mani says, reveal a wide range of outcomes.

“We’ve collected hundreds of stories from charities,” he notes. “Some of them found volunteers for very specific events. Others gained media attention, secured public funding, or simply heard from people who didn’t know help was available to them.”

One example comes from Australia, where a charity struggling to recruit volunteers released a Podcasthon episode shortly before a major event. According to Mani, the episode led to a surge of local interest that exceeded expectations and helped staff the event successfully.

While none of these stories individually represent headline-grabbing fundraising totals, Mani believes their collective impact is significant. “If you multiply small successes by 2,000 podcasts, across dozens of countries, it creates something powerful,” he said.

The synchronized nature of Podcasthon also enables partnerships with major podcast platforms and hosting companies, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Acast, and regional players in Europe. Those partnerships help amplify participating episodes, further extending reach for both podcasters and charities.

As Podcasthon prepares for its fourth edition in March 2026, its continued growth suggests that podcasting’s role in social impact storytelling is far from niche. For thousands of creators, dedicating one episode a year has become a meaningful way to align content with cause and to remind listeners that podcasts can do more than entertain.

And if Podcasthon’s trajectory continues, that collective impact is only just beginning.

Exclusive: Podnews can report that the iHeartRadio app will be the first mainstream podcast app to support video via open RSS including using the alternateEnclosure feature of Podcasting 2.0.

This means that, for the first time, podcast creators can include the audio and video version of their show in the same RSS feed, making it easier to find, and easier for consumers to switch between audio and video versions of the same show.

Crucially, alternateEnclosure allows publishers to produce different edits of the same content, to make the best of the medium. Spotify or YouTube's solution forces podcast listeners to listen to the video soundtrack, rather than a bespoke edited audio version.

Unlike YouTube or Spotify, there's no logging into specific creator portals and extra steps in your podcast process. It just uses the power of open RSS.

We asked iHeartRadio for more information.

Q&A with iHeartRadio

Will the iHeartRadio app support video in RSS, in the same way Apple Podcasts does? 

We will support video in RSS the same way audio is supported in RSS, at no cost to creators. The two other major playback platforms for video are taking between 40 and 50 percent of the podcasters video revenue. We won’t be doing that. We will treat it like audio podcasting and will carry video podcasts for free.  RSS feeds can be submitted to iHeart at podcaster.com.

Will we have to upload video in some form of iHeart portal? 

No.

Video episodes will come through the RSS feed just like audio episodes. No additional effort is required from the podcast publisher. 

What video formats will you be supporting? MP4, MOV and M4V like Apple? 

MP4 is the most common video format found in RSS feeds that support video today, so iHeart will support MP4 for initial launch. As other formats become popular, iHeart will consider additional support.

(Podnews research in December 2025 showed that 94% of all video podcasts are using MP4).

Will you be rehosting the video or will the video be passthrough like the audio is? 

Videos will not be rehosted. Videos will be passthrough like audio so the podcasters keep all their revenue.

Will you be supporting the alternateEnclosure feature?

Yes, iHeart will follow the best practices and standards laid out by the Podcast Index as seen here. 

Will consumers be able to choose between video and audio?  

Yes, iHeart users will be able to easily choose between watching and listening, with audio being the primary option.

Anything else podcasters need to know to get video into the iHeart app? 

iHeart is excited to help podcasters grow their audience while keeping their hard-earned revenue in their pockets - we will not be taking any revenue share from these video podcasts distributed on the iHeart app.

If the podcast isn’t already available through iHeart, podcasters can submit it anytime at podcaster.com.

When video support becomes available, the video episodes with alternateEnclosure type=video will be accessible across iHeart’s mobile apps and websites in supported countries.

Support from podcast hosts

Triton Digital's Omny Studio's recently announced video support is rolling out, but will, we understand, support alternateEnclosures. Triton Digital is part of iHeart, so this gives a fully supported platform for podcasters - with monetisation built-in.

Omny Studio was also announced this week as a launch partner for Spotify's video publishing and monetisation. It's also been able to publish to YouTube, with an integration with Headliner since August 2024.

For video-first podcasters, Omny Studio appears, currently, to be the most feature-rich solution.

Other podcast hosts that already support alternateEnclosure include iono.fm, Sovereign Feeds, Fountain, Disctopia and PodToo. However, hosts need to support both alternateEnclosure and video.

Support from other podcast platforms

The iHeartRadio app will be the first major podcast app supporting video via open RSS. Podnews research from December 2025 suggests that it will join TrueFans, Fountain and Podcast Guru, which supports alternateEnclosure and video playback. More will surely follow.

Backwards support

For listeners/viewers on iHeartRadio, you just need one feed - your audio feed, with a video "alternateEnclosure". If your show is not already on iHeartRadio, just submit this feed to podcaster.com.

You can also publish a separate legacy video-only feed - like many openRSS video podcasts currently do. This will continue to be used by Apple Podcasts and others.

iHeart will, we think, accept legacy video-only RSS feeds, too. But this will halve your algorithmic power within the app, since you've now got two shows, and two feeds. It'll be harder to link to, and your audience won't be able to switch between video and audio as easily. That's the benefit of the new alternateEnclosure feature: one feed, multiple formats.

(We understand that Omny Studio will publish both types of feeds, incidentally.)

What does an alternateEnclosure look like?

Below - an audio podcast with an alternateEnclosure for a video version of the same episode.

It's entirely backwards-compatible with all existing podcast players; those that don't support it just won't show it. (Podnews Daily uses a number of alternateEnclosures, including video.)

<enclosure url="https://example.com/audio-episode-1.mp3" length="432000" type="audio/mpeg" />
<podcast:alternateEnclosure type="video/mp4" length="1056995" bitrate="650000" height="1080">
    <podcast:source uri="https://example.com/video-episode-1.mp3" />
</podcast:alternateEnclosure>

Open solutions win

iHeart gets a wide range of great video podcasts using open RSS - either the existing extra video feeds, or the enhanced alternateEnclosure feeds. iHeart gets these without adding additional workload on podcast producers.

Podcast producers have to do nothing other than produce great content. Publish once, distribute to many places, using the power of open RSS. And publishers keep all the revenue they already earn from their podcast video (including dynamic video advertising). And all the analytics, too.

Listeners get access to their favourite content, however they want to listen.

Dave Winer, one of the inventors of podcasting, calls this "interop".

We call this a great future for open video podcasting.

A website called PodcastAdBlock is using AI to copy podcasts and resell them without ads, in a service that could have cost the podcast industry almost a million dollars so far.

The company sells access to their own ad-free copies of shows from publishers like Spotify, NPR, the New York Times, Slate, iHeart, and New York Magazine without permission.

As one example, the tool claims to remove around ten minutes of ads from each episode of Pivot for $1.99 a month. Podnews took advantage of a trial offer to see if it worked. The resulting MP3 file indeed contains no ads, as well as an inserted message saying how many ads were cut out.

The company has been marketing its tool through advertising on Meta's Facebook and Instagram and on Reddit recently.

Are publishers losing out?

We see no evidence that publishers have knowingly opted-in to this service, or that they get any revenue from it. A company spokesman told Podnews that publishers did not opt-in to be included, and "there is no opt-out mechanism at this time". The company also clarified that they do not compensate publishers directly.

Some publishers promoted on the website offer their own ad-free versions through Apple Podcasts, SupportingCast or others. This tool could remove that revenue from publishers.

The list of publishers on the website is broad enough to include most large podcast publishers - from WNYC Studios to Audiochuck, Pushkin Industries to Global, Wondery to The Guardian. We're not convinced that such a large variety of publishers would give their agreement to a tool like this.

The homepage has a number fed by an API that appears to reflect activity within the tool. It claims "78,735 hours of ads removed" for its users so far (the actual number is converted from a total seconds saved figure). Using a conservative $10 CPM for a 30-second spot, that roughly equates to $944,000 of lost revenue for the industry in less than six months.

The company suggests that "this is an illustrative metric" and "does not directly map to listen time from PodcastAdBlock users".

How legal is this?

It's Podnews's opinion that stripping ads and reselling content is illegal under copyright law.

"We do temporarily process and host modified versions of episodes for individual users," admitted the company. "These are not publicly indexed or redistributed," they claim - but, of course, these modified versions are redistributed to paying customers.

The tool is based in the UK, where companies must list their registered address and other details on their website. PodcastAdBlock had not done this until we contacted them. It's now visible that it's owned by Freewheel Group Ltd, which has one employee, and assets of £323,000 (US $434,000).

Their "24/7 customer support" email address did not respond to our enquiries for three days.

The company says that the service is "similar in spirit to ad-blocking in the web browser space". We think this is a false equivalence: web browser ad-blockers like uBlock Origin do not make copies of content and republish them to its users; and nor do ad-blockers charge users to remove the ads.

PodcastAdBlock takes payment through Stripe, which prohibits "products and services that infringe on intellectual property rights". We asked Stripe's press office whether they considered the company's activities compliant with Stripe's TOS. Stripe did not respond to our request for comment.

Ethics and podcasting

Even though the website didn't say who built it, and their support email wasn't responding, we discovered the person behind this tool. He's Ben Bowler. Also a cycling YouTuber, he's a serial entrepreneur; and in 2025, he launched seven startups.

Bowler has posted a blog about how the service was built, and what tools he used along the way.

In September of this year, he launched another startup - Poison Pill, a tool that is built to protect music from unlicensed AI training. In a story in MusicAlly covering his new tool, Bowler says:

“Musicians’ and rights holders’ content has been scraped relentlessly by generative AI companies, using their music without permission to train and profit from models sold as replacements for working musicians.”

We agree with this.

We'd also suggest that scraping content by podcast publishers, and using their audio without permission on your AI tool to profit from it, is just as unethical.

We put that to him. He didn't comment.

APRA MCOS is the music collection agency for Australia and New Zealand, helping creators get paid for their work.

They have an online mini-licence for music use, which covers podcasts - either minimal clips or even "featured music".

It can be used for any podcast (that is no more than 80% music).

And it starts at only AUD$275 a year (USD$183), including GST.

Too good to be true?

Afraid so.

You typically need two kinds of licences to use music:

• APRA AMCOS covers the songwriters, composers and publishers. (In the UK, this is what PRS for Music does).
• PPCA covers the recording, and represents the record labels and recording artists. (In the UK, this is what PPL does). Sometimes this is called "synchronisation".

The APRA AMCOS online mini-licence is great; but it only covers the bits APRA AMCOS covers. If you want to play a recording of a bloke you found in the pub singing an INXS song, this licence is great for you. But if you want to play INXS themselves, then you also need a licence from the PPCA. APRA AMCOS point this out quite clearly (at the bottom of page 3):

As you may have already worked out, the PPCA don't offer a podcast licence. They do offer a specific licence for broadcast licence holders who may also wish to offer "catch-up" listening, but your plans to use commercial music in your podcast is, sadly, not going to happen.

Here is more detail about using commercial music in podcasts if you want to read another article telling you you can't do things.

Sorry.

Updated pricing and eligibility for 2026

Video files have been supported since the beginning of podcasting; even by Apple Podcasts, which once used to have a video section in the app (see a button for a video chart in a screenshot from 2015).

And, video files haven't gone away. The Podcast Index currently (as of Dec 2025) contains 113,597 open RSS video podcasts - 94% of which use .mp4 files. (We tested that using the newestEnclosureUrl - the filename of the latest episode posted). That's 2.3% of all the podcasts in the index.

But - where can you play these video podcasts? What apps truly support them?

What we tested

There are lots of apps out there, so to avoid testing hundreds of the things, we went through the top apps visible in OP3 for the Podnews Weekly Review. The percentages shown in the list below are December's download numbers for this podcast. We tested all apps with more than 0.5% of playback. (Spotify always does poorly for "podcasts about podcasts", but it's there.)

We tested using This Week in Tech (Video) - which has a 1.36 GB downloadable video file in it, using .mp4. The video is 30fps 1920x1080 H264, with AAC audio. It's a big file: worth noting that all the apps that supported video appeared to start playing before the full file had downloaded. We tested the majority of apps on iPhone, some Android-only apps on Android, and TrueFans on web.

What we found

✅❓ Apple Podcasts (iPhone) (43%)

You can find This Week in Tech (Video) in the Apple Podcasts directory.

All episodes are marked as "video" in the epsiode list.

When you hit "play", the video plays: but in place of the thumbnail in the player at the bottom of the screen, making it almost impossible to recognise that you have found a video podcast. Here's the size of the video. You have to open the player up to see video playing larger than a pinhead.

Once you've opened the player, you can turn your iPhone on its side to watch fullscreen.

Is this full video support? Undoubtedly, Apple Podcasts plays video: but you have to really know what you're doing, because the player doesn't open automatically. That results in a video window that in our tests (using an iPhone 16 Pro Max) was less than a tenth of an inch high. Keeping the video essentially hidden, with a further click-away from playback, isn't a great user experience in our view.

❌ Overcast (iPhone) (35%)

You can find This Week in Tech (Video) in the Overcast directory.

All episodes appear greyed-out, and when you choose an episode to watch, there is no play button.

Update: An earlier version of this article didn't realise you have to add episodes manually (uniquely for a podcast app) - so once we did that, you can hit play. For us, it played one second of the audio track, then sat with a "spinner" on the screen. We're told it should play the audio track (only), but it didn't even do that for us. Even when the file had loaded completely, it wouldn't play further.

✅ Pocket Casts (iPhone) (5.9%)

You can find This Week in Tech (Video) in the Pocket Casts directory.

All episodes have a blue video button next to them, indicating that this is a video podcast.

Pressing "play" opens the player window and plays the video.

Tapping on the video makes it full-screen, from where you can turn your iPhone on its side to fill the screen with the video. The player also lets you fill the screen entirely. There's a Chromecast icon, but touching it doesn't do anything.

❌ iHeartRadio (iPhone) (3.4%)

Note: we have the Australian version v10.59.0, which is roughly the same as the version available in the US, we believe.

You can find This Week in Tech (Video) in the iHeartRadio directory.

Apart from its title, there is nothing to indicate that this is a video podcast.

Pressing "play" opens the player window and plays the audio only, accompanied by a cropped thumbnail. There appears to be no way of playing the video.

✅ 😕 Spotify (iPhone) (2.5%)

You can find This Week in Tech (Video) in the Spotify directory. It appears separate to the audio feed - this is presumably to allow the regular audio version to correctly pass-through for monetisation purposes.

Apart from its title, there's nothing to indicate that this is a video podcast.

Pressing "play" opens the player window and plays the video.

Note: this video is not from the RSS feed - the video has to be uploaded separately. The average user doesn't really care about that, so for the purposes of this test, we give it a green tick, but we don't feel great about it.

❌ Fountain (iPhone) (1.3%)

You can find This Week in Tech (Video) in the Fountain directory.

Apart from its title, there's nothing to indicate that this is a video podcast.

Pressing "play" starts only playing the audio of the podcast, accompanied by a cropped thumbnail. You can open the player fully, but it still only plays the audio. There appears to be no way of playing the video.

Fountain supports HLS video streaming using the alternateEnclosure; but doesn't appear to support standard video playback.

✅ TrueFans (web/Safari) (1.2%)

You can find This Week in Tech (Video) in the TrueFans directory.

Episodes are marked with a video icon.

Pressing "play" starts the playback of the video in a playback overlay on the website. You can make it full-screen or pop-out the video.

❌ Castamatic (iPhone) (0.99%)

You can find This Week in Tech (Video) in the Castamatic directory.

No episodes appear in the episodes list. There appears to be no way of playing the show at all.

❌ Podcast Guru (iPhone) (0.99%)

You can find This Week in Tech (Video) in the Podcast Guru directory.

Apart from its title, there's nothing to indicate that this is a video podcast.

Pressing "play" starts only playing the audio of the podcast, accompanied by a 16:9 thumbnail. There appears to be no way of playing the video.

✅ Podcast Addict (Android) (0.76%)

You can find This Week in Tech (Video) in the Podcast Addict directory.

Apart from its title, there's nothing to indicate that this is a video podcast.

Pressing "play" starts playing the video of the podcast, in full-screen (albeit stretched to fill the screen rather than in 16:9 aspect ratio).

✅ AntennaPod (Android) (0.52%)

You can find This Week in Tech (Video) in the AntennaPod directory.

Apart from its title, there's nothing to indicate that this is a video podcast.

Pressing "play" starts playing the video of the podcast in a playback window.

Additionally...

YouTube Music plays RSS feeds, so following the link in our directory we thought we'd give it a go. Amusingly, or perhaps on purpose, YouTube Music does not play RSS video podcasts. So, er, no. Though, of course, YouTube and YouTube Music itself plays video separately from RSS.

In conclusion

Only for 9% of downloads would someone get the video visible on the screen when they hit 'play'. Just 9%.

For 46% of downloads, video isn't playable at all.

And while 45.5% of downloads will play the video, those apps either aren't playing it from RSS, or don't put the video front and centre of the experience.

Podcast app developers have a choice - to support video podcasting as a first-class citizen, or, lose those that prefer video to proprietary solutions like Spotify or YouTube.

What's next for video podcasting?

Spotify and YouTube allow podcasters to upload their shows, in video, to their servers. That's not using open RSS - so, specifically, what might change here for people using RSS for their video podcast?

One feed is better than two

All the way through the test above we had to choose between "This Week In Tech (Audio)" and "This Week In Tech (Video)". The audio version is published in a different feed to the video version.

Two feeds for the same content isn't good for anyone - it's a poor user experience, but it's also bad for algorithms. Anyone choosing This Week In Tech (video) is not choosing This Week In Tech (audio), and therefore both suffer in an apparent loss of popularity when compared to other shows that only have one feed.

The solution for this is the alternateEnclosure tag, which would let podcasters put both audio and video files in the same RSS feed. That would allow a default of the audio version (which would work for everyone); but also allow people to use a "switch to video" button to show the video version. All in the same feed.

More than one video file is better than one

With one downloadable file, you're stuck with whatever the creator has given you. That's great for audio - but less good for video.

Apple Podcasts accepts up to 4K files, but it's pointless playing back a 4K file on an iPhone - the screen isn't good enough for that, and it would be a massive file to keep on your phone. Ideally, we'd have a 1080p file - but if there's only one to choose, tough.

This video podcast for example (it's not listed in Apple Podcasts) is just a 576p ("SD") video file. No access here to a 1080p version, or any better - so if there's only one to choose, it'll just look a bit smeary on your 4K telly.

No - better to offer a few different files, so your device can choose the right one. The solution for this is, once more, the alternateEnclosure tag, which allows multiple formats and filesizes.

Not downloading a massive file is good too

1.36 GB for one episode is a lot for your phone to deal with, and most of us don't have the space. But, given most podcasts are consumed while at home or within wifi range, why not - instead of downloading the whole lot - just stream?

That's what HLS is built for: allowing podcasters to stream video without a massive download. It's an Apple invention; but Apple Podcasts doesn't use it - yet.

However, HLS playlists - which can also automatically deliver different bitrates and formats - also fit into the alternateEnclosure tag, allowing a capable podcast app to choose a stream rather than a download if it makes more sense.

Who supports the alternateEnclosure tag?

A few apps already do, after the Podcast Standard Project did some work on HLS video. They're not, yet, mainstream; but the more that supports this, the better.

Now, all we need is for Apple Podcasts to support the alternateEnclosure tag.

And, to be fair, for Overcast to support video at all.

How did audio referenced by an enclosure tag in an RSS feed get named? This is a full timeline, showing when, and where, it was used - and who invented the term.

A new medium emerges

As Eric Nuzum discusses elsewhere here, the first audio referenced by an enclosure tag in an RSS feed was published on Jan 20, 2001; with Dave Winer placing one song by the Grateful Dead into a post, as a test.

While the actor and comedian Robin Williams may hold a claim to being the first podcaster, Christopher Lydon is generally held to have the published the first ever original piece of audio referenced by an enclosure tag in an RSS feed on Jul 9, 2003. Here's the first 60 seconds, via Dave Winer's website:

However, Dave Winer suggests others were involved: but it was his daily show Morning Coffee Notes that really got people thinking.

It's fair to say that Chris's podcast - it was certainly one of the first podcasts... it was probably not the first. There were people doing what Chris was doing at the same time. There was Doug Kay, and Steve Gilmore was also doing it. None of us had the effect that I was looking for, and that didn't come until the summer of 2004 - my amateurish podcast. One guy called it a soliloquy, like what I'm doing right now. It's just one person talking into a microphone. Random little things, one paragraph per idea, things that had occurred to me the previous day or overnight or whatever. And I called those Morning Coffee Notes. Chris's were absolutely wonderful. I don't want to take anything away from them, in fact they were beautifully produced. But that was the problem. The problem was if an average person hears Chris Lydon doing an NPR-like thing, they're not going to get the idea that they can do it. That was a really important point that I didn't see. When I did it, nobody could miss that I didn't know what I was doing. - Dave Winer, A Podcast About Podcasting, 2015

But these audio shows did not have a name. Yet.

A suggestion in a mailing list

On Sep 15 2004, Dannie J Gregoire wrote on the ipodder-dev mailing list:

I can see there being the desire of users in some instances to be able to easily subscribe and get older posts/episodes/shows (what are we calling these things anyway? How about pode or sode for short?) that no longer appear on the rss feed. Right now if for example someone wanted to listen to all the Daily Source Codes back to sode #1, they would have to manually go through the archives and download any sodes not automagically received, somewhat defeating the purpose of an ipodder. Not too much of a problem now but...

...adding...

I guess one could argue that this is simply an rss/server side issue, and that the "podcaster" (yes, I like making up new words) should be responsible enough to offer a page of seperate feeds of old sodes by month/year/season/etc.

Gregoire is credited by Dave Winer, speaking in Guy Kawasaki's podcast Remarkable People:

Adam had the initial idea for why this made sense at that particular point in time. This was the first meeting that we had, and this goes back to 2000.

He saw me do it, and then he started doing it. And then, I don’t know, by September of 2004, there were twenty or thirty people doing [it], and we needed a name. And so we had a mail list and I asked people, “What should we call this?” And a guy named Dannie Gregoire said, just call it “podcasting.”

And Adam and I were doing a podcast called Trade Secrets, and on that we discussed it. So let’s just go with podcasting, and that’s it.

Guy Kawasaki: That’s how podcasting got named?!

Dave Winer: What did you think? We hired some kind of a market research firm and they did a focus groups and shit? Come on! That wasn’t how it worked!

and by Adam Curry, in Joe Rogan #1436 in March 2020:

And this just kept building and building, and other people started doing these and we call them soliloquies, and little bundles of joy, and all kinds of really dumb names. And Dannie Gregoire, a guy who was just listening, said "Oh, this is a podcast", and the name stuck.

Now - Ben Hammersley from The Guardian years earlier had actually use the term 'podcast' somewhere in an article which - there was no podcasting at the time, but he envisioned that, and called it 'podcasts', so...

Joe Rogan: Oh, wow, so he's the guy - he's the guy who named it.

Curry: (sigh) He used the term, but I would say Dannie Gregoire really named what we were doing at the time.

The "podcasting" name was enthusiastically adopted by the medium's inventors, Dave Winer and Adam Curry.

Gregoire, a blogger, was registering a number of domain names, and registered podcaster.net. According to the WHOIS history of that domain name, he created it, via GoDaddy using his nameservers, on Sep 16 2004.

"domainName": "podcaster.net",
"domainType": "added",
"createdDateRaw": "2004-09-16 15:58:58 UTC",
"nameServers": [
    "NS1.DGREGOIRE.COM",
    "NS2.DGREGOIRE.COM"
],
"registrarName": "GoDaddy.com, LLC"

Ben Hammersley

As above, Adam Curry notes Ben Hammersley used the term a little earlier.

Hammersley, a British author and journalist, had been researching RSS and audio for some time, writing Content Syndication with RSS for O'Reilly Media, published in March 2003. In chapter 4.2 of this book, he discussed enclosures in RSS 0.92, and gave an example of an RSS feed with a number of linked audio MP3s.

He was interviewed on Rob and Dana Greenlee's syndicated Web Talk Radio show on Dec 20, 2003, including a chat about RSS:

In The Guardian, Hammersley turned his attention to the growing use of RSS for the use of audio and radio content, and wrote on Feb 12, 2004:

What to call it? Audioblogging? Podcasting? GuerillaMedia?

He spoke about this piece in a BBC documentary ("Podcasting - The First Ten Years", Trevor Dann for BBC Radio 4):

That was the first time the word 'podcasting' had been seen in print, alongside two other potential words for the medium. In the same piece, Hammersley interviewed Christopher Lydon, who, with Dave Winer, had been producing audio referenced by an enclosure tag in an RSS feed.

Hammersley told Podnews in an email: "It’s a dumb thing I made up in about 5 seconds while trying to pad that article out to make it fit the page, very close to deadline"; but it was the first time 'podcasting' had been seen in print: in a national British newspaper with a circulation of 383,000, and one that, later that year, was claimed to be reaching 2.5m US readers alone.

However, after Hammersley's initial article, the "podcasting", or any derivative of it, was not mentioned anywhere else in the media or in blogs for five months.

The first use of 'podcast' in a podcast

On Sep 18 2004, Dave Slusher is said to have been the first to have used the word "podcast" in a podcast, Evil Genius Chronicles, and credited (un-named) Gregoire:

Somebody has registered podcasting.net, and I saw podcaster, or podcaster.net and I saw podcaster hitting as a user agent hitting my RSS feed and I went and looked at it and right now it's just a coming soon page but I'm going to pay attention to that. I want to see who's got that and what they're doing but that term, I think they've coined the term. So "iPod platform" just doesn't spring from the tongue but what I'm doing right here, and what Adam [Curry]'s doing, and what Dave Winer's doing, and what IT Conversations are doing, that's podcasting. I think that is the term. I am using that from here on out. Y'know, so I am a podcaster, and they are podcasters, and I am podcasting right now, and you listen to my podcast. Fuckin' A! I'd like to know who this is, because you are one brilliant bastard! Goddamn that's a good term!

In an episode of Trade Secrets on Sep 22nd 2004, Dave Winer refers to a previous episode of Adam Curry's Daily Source Code, and, giving the credit to Ben Hammersley, says:

Dave W: I was listening to your daily source code thing. I'm one of my walks where... by the way, I love the term podcasting.

Adam C: Isn't that great? Isn't that fantastic?

Dave W: Yeah, [it's a] good term. I did a Google on it, and Ben Hammersley seems to have the first use of it, so...

Adam C: Okay.

Dave W: Ben Hammersley has appropriated almost everything, so I'm glad to be able to return the favor to you! Hey, Ben, if you can hear this, thanks a lot!

In a piece on his website, Dave Winer suggests that this was the conversation between him and Adam Curry that was the agreement to use the word.

The word catches on

The term was quickly taken up. Adam Curry mentioned podcasting on his blog for the first time on Sep 21 2004; Dave Winer blogged 'what is podcasting?' on Sep 24 2004, by Doc Searls, who blogged about podcasts on Sep 28 2004, and Dan Gillmor on Sep 28 2004.

A number of podcast-related websites began to go live in early October, including PodcastAlley.com, live on Oct 7 2004, and the original podcaster.net seems to forward through to podcast.net, which was already live on Oct 9 2004.

As an example that the term was already well-embedded, Todd Cochrane posted the first "Geek News Central Podcast" on Oct 9 2004; and, on the same day, Rob Greenlee posted a comment announcing the new name on the Web Talk Radio Show website. Evo Terra followed on Oct 13, 2004.

The first time the word "podcast" appeared in print (alongside "podcasting") was on Oct 14 2004 in The Los Angeles Times, and taken up by The New York Times, on Oct 28 2004.

The first time "podcasting" appears to have appeared on the radio was October 30 2004, on the Australian ABC, at the end of Buzz, a technology program. It was a trail for Music of the Blogospheres, a thirty-minute documentary about podcasting on October 31 2004, including interviews with Adam Curry and Dave Winer. The ABC has since restored the audio for all of us to listen to.

Matt Webb, then working at the BBC as a software developer, used the word "podcast" in an informal announcement on Nov 11 2004; Newsweek used "podcasts" on Dec 2 2004; The UK's Independent newspaper on Dec 8 2004; Dublin's Sunday Tribune on Dec 12 2004 (p39, "Radio Head"); and the BBC on Dec 30 2004.

As for Hammersley, on Nov 14, 2004 he released "RadioPod", a piece of software that recorded radio streams, converted the audio into MP3, and produced an RSS feed for a... podcast.

So, who invented the term?

Ben Hammersley was the first to use the term in print, in a widely-read publication.

But Dannie J Gregoire was the person who suggested the term to Dave Winer and Adam Curry. Gregoire may have come up with the word independently; or may have been influenced (knowingly or not) by reading Hammersley's article five months previously. We'll never really know.

Regardless, without Gregoire's suggestion of the term in Sep 2004 - and its enthusiastic use by Adam Curry and Dave Winer - we'd be calling audio referenced by an enclosure tag in an RSS feed something quite different.

Extra: who invented the word "podfade"?

Scott Fletcher of Podcheck Review coined the word in February 2005, when he gave up on two of his podcasts. He's credited in an article in WIRED magazine. Podcheck Review itself "podfaded" just a year later.

For much of its history, podcasting was all about the numbers. As the medium grew, success was all about more: more episodes, more downloads, more chart appearances. Those metrics helped establish podcasting as a viable channel, but they also narrowed how success was defined. Volume became a proxy for effectiveness, even though it said little about whether listeners actually stayed engaged, returned regularly, or built any lasting relationship with a show.

Those conditions no longer apply. Podcasting is now established, crowded, and directly competing with newsletters, streaming video, social platforms, and traditional journalism for the same finite attention. As a result, the criteria for success have shifted. Brands and creators are increasingly evaluating podcasts the way they evaluate other editorial investments: not by how much they publish or how fast they grow, but by whether a show has a clear audience, a consistent identity, and demonstrable staying power.

This year, the Golden Globe Awards introduced a podcast category. That move isn’t so much a guarantee of quality or a new benchmark to chase, but it does signal that podcasts have fully entered the mainstream media landscape, recognized. For creators and brands, this is a natural moment to reassess why a podcast exists and how they should define success. In a crowded, mature environment, standing out depends less on scale and more on focus, consistency, and purpose.

Editorial discipline

As podcasts move from growth to maturity, the central challenge shifts from getting heard to giving listeners a reason to return. Many shows don’t struggle because they lack promotion, but because listeners aren’t sure who the podcast is for or why they should come back next week.

The podcasts that cut through tend to behave like established publications. They have a clearly defined audience, a format that listeners recognize immediately, and a consistent point of view. You don’t have to listen long to understand what the show is, who it’s for, and what kind of value it delivers.

That kind of discipline is surprisingly rare. Too many podcasts try to appeal to “anyone interested in the topic,” which usually means no one in particular. Others shift tone, length, or focus so often that the show never develops an identity. Standing out can be as simple as achieving clarity. Can you describe the show in one sentence? Does a listener understand what kind of experience they’re signing up for each week? Does the podcast answer a recurring question or serve a clear purpose?

Fewer, better shows

Launching a corporate podcast has become relatively easy. Stopping one, however, is rarely simple. Podcasts often carry internal ownership, executive sponsorship, or perceived brand value that makes them harder to cut based solely on performance. As a result, brands continue to run multiple shows out of obligation or caution rather than because those shows are delivering clear returns.

In a saturated environment, that can be a liability. Each additional show competes not only with the wider market but with internal attention, budgets, and creative energy. When resources are spread too thin, quality drops. And audiences notice.

A more effective approach starts with a proactive audit. What are you hoping that this podcast will achieve? Who is it for, and how clearly can you define that audience? What role do you see the show playing going forward within the organization’s broader content strategy? If you can’t answer those questions clearly, you need to step back and think some more.

Once a podcast is up and running, it’s easy to feel pressure to expand – to spin up additional shows, experiment with side formats, or chase new audiences. A more disciplined approach focuses instead on sustaining a clearly defined show. Concentrating energy on doing one thing well makes it easier to maintain quality, consistency, and a listening experience audiences recognize and return to.

Tracking progress

As your podcast becomes more established, outside indicators such as rankings, awards, and high-profile mentions may give you an inflated sense of the podcast’s impact. Those elements can certainly highlight that your show is gaining attention, but they offer an incomplete picture. They measure reach and momentum, but not editorial strength or long-term value.

That’s not to say that ranking and awards are irrelevant, but they function best as checkpoints rather than objectives. External recognition can help guide renewal decisions, support conversations with sponsors, or prompt internal reviews of what’s resonating and why.

The problem arises when those signals begin to dictate direction. Chasing recognition without a clear editorial foundation often leads to short-term spikes followed by drift. Defining success internally keeps external markers in their proper role – as useful indicators of performance rather than drivers of the podcast’s purpose.

Clarity versus growth

Podcasting is no longer defined by growth for its own sake. As the medium has matured and competition has increased, success is less about volume and visibility and more about clarity, consistency, and purpose. Throughout this shift, the same principles keep resurfacing.

Podcasts that stand out have a clearly defined audience, a recognizable format, and a reason for listeners to return. Those podcasts avoid expanding without clear justification, make deliberate choices about how to allocate resources, and treat external signals as feedback rather than direction.

Chapters are one of the most useful things to help listeners find their way round longer podcasts; and with iOS 26.2 (and iPadOS 26.2), almost every podcast will have chapters.

Here’s what you need to know:

Apple Podcasts will automatically generate chapters for podcasts that don’t have them.

Apple Podcasts won’t make chapters for trailers, and won’t make chapters for short shows less than ten minutes long - but otherwise will make them for every episode.

Chapters are identified in the app as being automatically created.

As a creator, you can easily opt out of Apple making automated chapters - by making your own instead. And they’ve made it easy to do so, by now supporting three different formats - one of which is supported by every single podcast host.

(You can also opt out altogether in Apple Podcasts Connect).

Using chapters in Apple Podcasts

When playing a podcast, drag your finger along the progress bar and you’ll see the chapters appear, and a nice piece of haptic feedback when you move over a chapter point.

The big image on your iPhone screen when playing a podcast back changes to the chapter image, if one has been set by the podcaster.

If you hit the “list” icon, bottom-right, when listening to an episode, you’ll notice that you get a drop-down list of chapters on-screen. Click on any of those to go straight there.

(If you’re wanting to see a podcast with chapter images, naturally we recommend the Podnews Weekly Review).

Chapters are also supported in Spotify (no chapter images though); in YouTube; and in many other apps - as long as you supply them.

Making your own chapters

Apple Podcasts now supports three chapter formats:

• It continues to support ID3 tags. These are chapter codes hidden in your MP3 or AAC file, made when you export a piece of audio.
• It also supports “Episode Notes”, a list of chapter points normally placed at the bottom of individual episode notes. These are also supported by Spotify and by YouTube, and is a simple way to add chapter support.
• Finally, Apple supports “Chapters JSON”, the Podcasting 2.0 standard. This is a separate file for your show, which can contain (some) links and images. They appear to be ingested when your episode is published.

ID3 tags work well with some podcast hosting companies who don’t change your audio file when you upload it. However, they can be stripped by others, so they don’t always work. They’re most often produced by your audio editor. (In Hindenburg, use Shift+CMD+Enter to make a chapter point. It supports images, links and names.)

Anyone can write “Episode Notes” chapters, and they are supported for creators on any podcast host. Look at the bottom of the episode notes on this show and see how the chapter marks are written. Ensure there’s always a 00:00 one. No links here though.

The most flexible is “Chapters JSON”, supported by some podcast hosting companies already, like Buzzsprout, RSS.com or Transistor. Unlike “Episode Notes” chapters, Chapters JSON also supports links and full-resolution images.

There are special chapter-producing programs out there.

• Forecast is a free app, written by Overcast’s Marco Arment, but it only supports ID3 chapters.
• PodChapters is a web-app which can automatically add chapters for you.
• ChapterTool is a bare-bones web app, which comes recommended by some of our readers.

“Timed links” to content

Apple Podcasts also announced “timed links”, which can link to media elsewhere in the Apple ecosystem.

These can be automatically-generated based on the transcript, though again you can add these in chapters directly.

The most helpful opportunity for podcasters here is if you are interviewing a guest that has another podcast. When they mention that they have a podcast, a link can appear on the screen linking to that podcast in Apple Podcasts directly.

You can also link to books in Apple Books, tracks in Apple Music, news stories in Apple News, tv shows in Apple TV, and a few others.

Links are checked for availability (a book might be available in Apple Books in one country but not in another) and only appear if the piece of content is available in your own storefront.

If you link from a chapter (using ID3 or Chapters JSON) then you can expect these to appear as “timed links”.

We understand that these links support Apple’s affiliate codes, if you’re using those.

You can’t link to apps in the Apple App Store (which seems surprising); nor can you link to anywhere else, so you can’t use them for advertising - just to other pieces of content within the Apple ecosystem.

You can also opt-out completely if you want: the setting is in Apple Podcasts Connect right now.

How many people use chapters?

Historically, chapters haven’t been very well used by podcast listeners: but that’s mainly because they’ve not been produced by creators very often, so most people don’t know they’re there if they even are.

By creating podcast chapters automatically for every podcast, Apple Podcasts will ensure that chapters are universally and consistently available, and you’d have to expect that usage of chapters will increase dramatically.

You’ll be able to see how many people use chapters in the episode analytics in Apple Podcasts Connect for your show - which should show you where people skip in the middle of a chapter to the next one.

“Is Apple making it easier to skip the ads?” - well, maybe. But you can always make your own chapters, and you’ll be more in control with where you put your ads and where you put your chapter markers. (Alternatively, your Editor would prefer you made your ads better so people won’t skip them).

As part of Amazon Music 2025 Delivered, the company released data about the top podcasts on the service. Here are a selection of countries. Click through to learn more and listen - whatever podcast player you use.

Podcasts are “curated through a combination of editorial insights and performance metrics.” Podnews specifically asked for India and Japan, since Amazon Music has significant market share in these markets.

Podcasts Detail

Top podcasts: UK

• 1: RedHanded
• 2: MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
• 3: Sh**ged Married Annoyed
• 4: The Rest Is Politics
• 5: The Rest Is History

Top podcasts: Germany

• 1: Dick & Doof
• 2: Die Nervigen
• 3: Äffchen mit Käffchen
• 4: Die Drei Rabauken
• 5: Kottbruder - GermanLetsPlay & Paluten

Top podcasts: Italy

• 1: La Zanzara
• 2: Lo Zoo di 105
• 3: Elisa True Crime
• 4: Indagini
• 5: Il podcast di Alessandro Barbero: Lezioni e Conferenze di Storia

Top podcasts: France

• 1: Legend
• 2: Hondelatte Raconte
• 3: Chroniques Criminelles
• 4: Novi
• 5: Ça commence aujourd’hui

Top podcasts: Mexico

• 1: La Corneta
• 2: La Corneta Extendida
• 3: Relatos de la Noche
• 4: Panda Show - Picante
• 5: La Cotorrisa

Top podcasts: Brazil

• 1: Não Inviabilize
• 2: Não Inviabilize apresenta: Histórias da Firma
• 3: Inteligência Ltda.
• 4: Modus Operandi
• 5: Caso Bizarro

Top podcasts: Japan

• 1: Azumi Shinichiro`s Sunday Heaven (安住紳一郎の日曜天国)
• 2: Okubo Kayoko`s Lovey-dovey Love (大久保佳代子とらぶぶらLOVE)
• 3: Easy Linguistics Radio (ゆる言語学ラジオ)
• 4: Mayurika`s Unagerorin!! (マユリカのうなげろりん！！)
• 5: Over the Sun (TBSラジオ『ジェーン・スーと堀井美香の「OVER THE SUN」』)

Top podcasts: India

• 1: The Desi Crime Podcast
• 2: The Stories of Mahabharata
• 3: Raj Shamani’s Figuring out
• 4: Teen Taal
• 5: The Horror show by Khooni Monday

As part of Spotify 2025 Wrapped, the company released data about the top podcasts on the service. Here’s the ones we know about. Click through to learn more and listen - whatever podcast player you use.

A post about methodology suggests that podcasts in this list are ranked by total minutes listened.

Here’s the list for 2024.

Podcasts Detail

Global Top Podcasts of 2025

• 1: The Joe Rogan Experience
• 2: The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
• 3: The Mel Robbins Podcast
• 4: Call Her Daddy
• 5: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
• 6: Huberman Lab
• 7: Crime Junkie
• 8: Modern Wisdom
• 9: On Purpose with Jay Shetty
• 10: The Tucker Carlson Show

Top Podcasts of 2025: UK

• 1: The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
• 2: The Joe Rogan Experience
• 3: The Louis Theroux Podcast
• 4: The Rest Is Politics
• 5: The Mel Robbins Podcast
• 6: The Rest Is History
• 7: We Need To Talk with Paul C. Brunson
• 8: Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster
• 9: The Rest Is Football
• 10: The Rest Is Entertainment

Top Podcasts of 2025: Spain

• 1: La Ruina
• 2: Nadie Sabe Nada
• 3: El Podcast de Marian Rojas Estapé
• 4: The Wild Project
• 5: Tengo un Plan
• 6: Poco se Habla! Briten y Xuso Jones
• 7: WORLDCAST
• 8: ROCA PROJECT
• 9: La Fórmula Del Éxito con Uri Sabat
• 10: La Pija y la Quinqui

AI is no longer the stuff of science fiction.   The technology has arrived, and it's making waves in the podcasting world. Creators are routinely using these tools to write show notes, edit interviews, mix and sweeten audio, create  artwork, and even generate synthetic voices. For busy podcasters, these tools feel like magic—doing in seconds what once took hours. 

But here’s the catch: with every new innovation come new legal questions, and AI is creating more of them than any tool we’ve seen before. The same technology that makes your production workflow smoother, if used carelessly, can expose you to copyright claims, privacy violations, or even lawsuits from guests, collaborators, sponsors, and members of the public.

In this article, we'll unpack some major legal issues podcasters need to understand before allowing the machines to  take over.

Copyright and Ownership: Who Really Owns AI-Generated Content?

Long before AI became a reality, in cases involving animal-created artwork, U.S. copyright regulators and Courts have held that only humans can hold copyright.  An important recent case, Thaler v. Perlmutter, confirmed that works without meaningful human authorship aren’t eligible for copyright registration. In other words: the machine can’t be the author.

As legal precedent, what this means is that if an image, voice track, or text is created entirely by AI, no one truly “owns” it. You might have input the prompts.  You might have paid for it.  Yet,  in the eyes of the law, it isn't going to be considered yours.

That could be a problem if you rely on AI for things like:

• Your podcast’s logo or cover art
• Theme music or voice-overs
• Episode scripts, intros, or social-media copy

If that work is purely AI-generated, it may not be protected—and worse, it could infringe on someone else’s copyrighted material.

What this means for you: Use AI as a tool, not as a substitute for your own creative efforts. The more you direct, revise, and humanize the output, the stronger your ownership claim. Add your creative input—rewrite, re-record, or remix—and document that contribution.

Infringement and the Hidden Risks in AI Training Data

Most AI tools are trained on enormous datasets scraped from across the internet. Some of that material is public domain… but much of it is not. This issue is front and center in lawsuits like Getty Images v. Stability AI, where artists and rights-holders allege that AI companies trained their models on copyrighted works without permission.  In one prominent case, AI company Anthropic settled claims for $1.5bn.

What this means is that when you use an AI system to generate art, music, or text, you can’t always know where its “inspiration” came from. If the tool you're using spits out something too similar to an existing copyrighted work, you could find wind up publishing an infringing derivative work.  And in the crosshairs of a costly, time-consuming and embarrassing lawsuit.

The takeaway: Choose tools with transparent licensing policies. If a company can’t clearly tell you what rights you have to the AI output—or where its training data came from—treat that as a red flag.

And remember:  if your AI-generated content looks suspiciously familiar, don’t use it. The time saved isn’t worth the risk.

Voice Cloning and the Right of Publicity

One of the most exciting (and dangerous) uses of AI in podcasting is synthetic voice cloning. All it takes is a short sample to train on, and an AI can mimic anyone’s voice—your own, your co-host’s, even a celebrity’s.

If you’re thinking, “Wow, that’s cool,” you’re not wrong. But if you’re thinking, “Could I make Morgan Freeman introduce my show?”  Stop.  Just don't. 

Using someone else’s voice or likeness (especially a celebrity's) without consent can violate the right of publicity; a state-law protection that gives individuals control over how their image, name, and voice are used commercially.  In the US, 37 states, including California, New York, and Tennessee (through the new “ELVIS Act”) have such laws in place and  treat this especially seriously.

Even using AI to “enhance” or “clean up” a guest’s voice can raise issues if it alters their tone or meaning without their permission.

Best practice: Get explicit written consent from anyone whose voice you use—real or synthetic. Update your Podcast Guest Release to include language authorizing limited use of AI tools for editing or enhancement, provided it doesn’t misrepresent what the person said.

Your reputation depends on authenticity, accuracy and transparency. Don’t let an AI voiceover create doubt about what’s real. And, when you do use AI, disclose that fact to your audience, so there's no claim that you're misleading or deceiving them.

Defamation, Disinformation, and the Duty of Care

AI is powerful, yes.  But it’s not reliable.  These tools can “hallucinate”,  inventing details, fabricating facts, and presenting everything with utmost confidence.

When creators rely on AI to generate content, show notes, research talking points, or summaries of news stories, they risk accidentally publishing false or misleading information. And if those statements inflict harm on someone’s reputation, that’s defamation, plain and simple.

As a podcaster, you’re a publisher. “The AI made me do it” isn’t a legal defense.

Protect yourself by:

• Reviewing and fact-checking every AI-generated script or summary before publication.
• Avoiding speculative or accusatory language about real people or companies. 
• Keeping an editorial chain of custody: note where your research came from, what tools were used, and who verified the content.

Bottom line:  Fact check the heck out of everything.   If something's not corroborated by multiple credible sources, it's too risky.  Just. Don't. Publish.

The credibility of your show is your brand’s most valuable asset. Guard it carefully.

Privacy and Data Protection

If you're relying on AI tools for transcription, editing, or analysis, you're  going to be uploading audio or video content to them.   That means you’re sending your guests’ voices (often containing personal data) to third-party servers.

If you don’t have  the proper permission, that could violate privacy laws like California’s CCPA or Europe’s GDPR, which regulate how personal data (including biometric voice data) is processed.

Simple fix: disclose and obtain consent. Your guest release should clearly authorize use of AI-based editing or transcription tools. Specify that their voice will not be altered to change meaning or intent.

If you’re using AI to analyze listener data or generate marketing insights, make sure the tools comply with applicable privacy regulations and don’t retain identifiable information without consent.

Transparency, Ethics, and Disclosure

Even if you’re on solid legal ground, there’s an ethical component to AI use in creative work. Audiences value authenticity. If they learn that large portions of your show were written, voiced, or mixed by AI without disclosure, trust can erode fast.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has already indicated that failing to disclose AI involvement—especially in advertising or influencer content—could be considered deceptive.

Best practice:

• Be transparent when using AI, particularly when it contributes significantly to your content.
• Don’t use synthetic voices or “deepfakes” that could mislead listeners.  At very least, a conspicuous disclaimer like "celebrity voice impersonated" should accompany the use of these materials.
• Maintain editorial oversight and take responsibility for all published material. 

You don’t have to make your show  an entirely AI-free zone, but you must be transparent about its use.

Contracts and Terms of Service: Read the Fine Print

Most podcasters never read the Terms of Service of their AI tools—and that’s dangerous.

When you upload your audio or text to an AI system, you may be granting the company broad rights to use that material for training future models. Some even allow reuse of your data for commercial purposes.

That means your guest’s interview—or your unreleased material—could theoretically end up inside the next iteration of the tool, accessible to others.

Tips:

• Review the tool’s data-use and retention policies.
• Avoid uploading anything sensitive, confidential, or subject to third-party rights (like licensed music or private client material).
• Choose platforms that offer “no-train” or enterprise options that exclude your content from model training.

Protecting your IP starts with reading the terms tow which you’re agreeing.

Practical Legal Strategies for Podcasters Using AI

If you’re going to use AI in your production process — and let’s face it, you probably are — do it smartly.

Here’s a short checklist for staying on the right side of the law:

1. Document your human input. Keep precise and detailed notes on what parts of the process were your creative decisions. The more, the better.
2. Register copyrights for the human-authored portions of your episodes, show notes, or artwork. (and, when registering, it's important to* disclaim* the non-original components, such as those generated by AI.)
3. Use contracts that address AI usage:
   • Add AI clauses to your production and editing agreements.
   • Update guest releases to reflect AI-assisted editing and post-production.
   • Include ownership and authorship terms that clarify human contribution.
4. Keep your tool list current. Track which AI services you use and how they handle data.
5. Stay educated. This area of law is evolving quickly; what’s legal today may look different tomorrow.

The smartest creators aren’t afraid of AI—they’re strategic about how they use it.

The Future: Opportunity Meets Accountability

Creators are at a fascinating crossroads. AI can empower us to produce more content, faster, with higher production value. It can help small creators compete with the big players. But it also amplifies the consequences of getting things wrong.

Courts, legislators, and regulators are still catching up, and the rules are far from settled. But one thing is clear: podcasters who take care to protect their work, and respect the rights of others, will be the ones who thrive in this new era.

Treat AI like any other production partner: helpful, powerful, and capable of making big mistakes if you’re not paying attention.

“Throughout the year, Apple Podcasts editors hand-curate and feature the absolute best programming on our platform. 2025 was an incredible year for podcasting, and to celebrate, we’ve assembled 10 unforgettable listens that truly represent the best of the best. From captivating storytelling to hilarious conversations and inspiring insights—these are the shows that will have you sharing, laughing, reflecting and on the edge of your seat. Dive in and explore the Best of 2025.”

To compile this list, we called each Apple Podcasts storefront, and found each show that the editorial team at Apple Podcasts recommended. Some stores share recommendations with others; some aren't lists of 10.

We found 29 storefronts with “Best of” lists.

Podcasts Detail

Algeria

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Think With Hessa
• 8: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 9: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

Australia

• 1: Just The Gist
• 2: Wisecrack
• 3: No One Saw It Coming
• 4: Big Design Adventure
• 5: Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island
• 6: Good Hang with Amy Poehler
• 7: Sea of Lies
• 8: SCAMMERLAND
• 9: Fwends
• 10: Gina

Austria

• 1: PLOT HOUSE
• 2: Die Peter Thiel Story
• 3: Was bisher geschah - Geschichtspodcast
• 4: Cashing Feelings – KI-Chatbots und das Geschäft mit Gefühlen
• 5: DIE LEUTE LIEBEN DAS
• 6: Stars unserer Kindheit: Peter Lustig & Elfie Donnelly
• 7: Firewall: Jedes System hat eine Schwachstelle
• 8: Godcode: Macht. KI. Drama.
• 9: Sherlock Holmes Kurzgeschichten
• 10: Wie geht's? mit Robin Gosens

Bahrain

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Think With Hessa
• 8: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 9: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

Brazil

• 1: As Cunhãs
• 2: Segue o Som
• 3: Potter Entrevista
• 4: Prato Cheio
• 5: Alô, Ciência?
• 6: Só no Brasil
• 7: A Estratégia do Dia
• 8: Marília: O outro lado da sofrência
• 9: Mesacast BBB
• 10: Dando as Cartas

Canada

• 1: Sea of Lies
• 2: Gloves Off
• 3: Tubby
• 4: See You in Court
• 5: Go-Boy!
• 6: Pipeline
• 7: Left To Their Own Devices
• 8: Your Weekly Breakdown
• 9: The Mel Robbins Podcast
• 10: Wisecrack

Egypt

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Think With Hessa
• 8: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 9: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

France

• 1: Renverser la table
• 2: À bientôt de te revoir
• 3: Clément Viktorovitch podcast
• 4: Women Stories - Récits de vie
• 5: Le Fil Mental - Fabien Olicard
• 6: Liste de lecture
• 7: Polissons : le podcast jeunesse
• 8: Alice Underground
• 9: Injustices
• 10: Skills

Germany

• 1: PLOT HOUSE
• 2: Die Peter Thiel Story
• 3: Was bisher geschah - Geschichtspodcast
• 4: Cashing Feelings – KI-Chatbots und das Geschäft mit Gefühlen
• 5: DIE LEUTE LIEBEN DAS
• 6: Stars unserer Kindheit: Peter Lustig & Elfie Donnelly
• 7: Firewall: Jedes System hat eine Schwachstelle
• 8: Godcode: Macht. KI. Drama.
• 9: Sherlock Holmes Kurzgeschichten
• 10: Wie geht's? mit Robin Gosens

India

• 1: The Desi Crime Podcast
• 2: Woice with Warikoo Podcast
• 3: Horror Nights With Amit Deondi : Hindi Horror Stories every Friday
• 4: Corner Office Conversation
• 5: First Principles
• 6: The Masoom Minawala Show
• 7: Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee
• 8: Raj Shamani's Figuring Out
• 9: People by WTF
• 10: Cyrus Says

Iraq

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Think With Hessa
• 8: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 9: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

Ireland

• 1: Stolen Sister
• 2: DIVERTED
• 3: A Few Scoops with Aoife Moore and Colm O’Regan
• 4: The Laughs Of Your Life with Doireann Garrihy
• 5: Titanic: Ship of Dreams
• 6: Ireland Said Yes
• 7: Sea of Lies
• 8: The David McWilliams Podcast
• 9: Keep It Tight
• 10: Lucky Boy

Japan

• 1: 原宿の今じゃない企画室
• 2: 聞くだけでごはんができるラジオ
• 3: 報談 【HOU-DAN】
• 4: 視点倉庫
• 5: カメとキリギリス
• 6: 聞く図鑑
• 7: 聞く健康習慣　Hana博士の体調最高ラジオ
• 8: 考えすぎフラグメンツ
• 9: Beyond K-point
• 10: がっちゃんこ（金）20世紀×バッテリィズ

Jordan

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Think With Hessa
• 8: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 9: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

Kuwait

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Think With Hessa
• 8: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 9: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

Lebanon

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Think With Hessa
• 8: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 9: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

Libya

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 3: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 4: Think With Hessa
• 5: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 6: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

Mauritania

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Think With Hessa
• 8: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 9: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

Morocco

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Think With Hessa
• 8: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 9: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

New Zealand

• 1: Just The Gist
• 2: Wisecrack
• 3: No One Saw It Coming
• 4: Big Design Adventure
• 5: Fallout: Spies on Norfolk Island
• 6: Good Hang with Amy Poehler
• 7: Sea of Lies
• 8: SCAMMERLAND
• 9: Fwends
• 10: Gina

Oman

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Think With Hessa
• 8: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 9: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

Qatar

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Think With Hessa
• 8: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 9: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

Saudi Arabia

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Think With Hessa
• 8: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 9: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

South Africa

• 1: Because We Said So
• 2: Wisdom & Wellness with Mpoomy Ledwaba
• 3: True Crime South Africa
• 4: Ideas That Matter Podcast by Vusi Thembekwayo
• 5: History of South Africa podcast
• 6: The Money Show
• 7: What Now? with Trevor Noah
• 8: After School Is After School With Sis G.U
• 9: Short History Of...
• 10: The Motherhood Network

Taiwan

• 1: 禎甄要chat內
• 2: 時間的女兒：八卦歷史
• 3: 姐妹悄悄話｜SistersTalkTalkShow
• 4: 曼報 Manny's Newsletter
• 5: 天下學習
• 6: 心身難路上的身心科
• 7: 博音
• 8: 法客電台 BY 法律白話文運動 Plain Law Movement
• 9: 只能喝酒的圖書館
• 10: 一起說故事

Tunisia

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Think With Hessa
• 8: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 9: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

United Arab Emirates

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Tarab
• 8: Think With Hessa
• 9: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 10: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

United Kingdom

• 1: Mad, Sad and Bad with Paloma Faith
• 2: Sea of Lies
• 3: Titanic: Ship of Dreams
• 4: Flesh and Code
• 5: Single Ladies In Your Area
• 6: Mo Gilligan: Beginning, Middle & End
• 7: Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball
• 8: UNTAPPED
• 9: Wolf & Owl with Romesh Ranganathan and Tom Davis
• 10: Lucky Boy

United States

• 1: Blink | Jake Haendel's Story
• 2: Good Hang with Amy Poehler
• 3: Heavyweight
• 4: Bone Valley
• 5: NO SUCH THING
• 6: Wisecrack
• 7: No Easy Fix
• 8: Pablo Torre Finds Out
• 9: The Nature Of with Willow Defebaugh
• 10: The Mel Robbins Podcast

Yemen

• 1: مسيّان
• 2: ABtalks
• 3: LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• 4: G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers
• 5: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 6: The Mo Show
• 7: Think With Hessa
• 8: عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• 9: The Gstaad Guy Podcast

These shows are described by Apple as “the most popular podcasts of the year based on listenership.”

“Top Shows” lists all shows in Apple Podcasts; “Top New Shows” lists shows that were first released in 2025.

To compile this list, we called each Apple Podcasts storefront, and found each list of shows. We found 60 storefronts with “Top Shows” lists. They’re all listed below, in order of country. Some countries inherit regional lists.

Podcasts Detail

Algeria

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 3: هدوء
• 4: بدون ورق
• 5: وعي
• 6: كنبة السبت
• 7: بودكاست طمئن
• 8: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 9: #ABtalks
• 10: Dupamicaffeine Podcast بودكاست دوباميكافين

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 2: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 3: تعليم الإنجليزية
• 4: قصص الأنبياء
• 5: أنا عايش ؟
• 6: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 7: Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• 8: بودكاست الهنوف
• 9: كلام وعي
• 10: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast

Argentina

Top Shows

• 1: Palabra Plena, con Gabriel Rolón
• 2: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 3: Seminario Fenix | Brian Tracy
• 4: Historia en Podcast
• 5: Durmiendo
• 6: Estoicismo Filosofia
• 7: Inglés desde cero
• 8: La Venganza Será Terrible (oficial)
• 9: En terapia con Roberto Rocha
• 10: Las Alucines

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: IQ POTENCIADO
• 3: Psicología y Vínculos
• 4: De la columna a la cabeza
• 5: La Toma
• 6: La Segunda Muerte del Dios Punk
• 7: The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
• 8: Skyvan: Los vuelos de la muerte
• 9: ¿cómo carajo me relaciono?
• 10: Good Hang with Amy Poehler

Australia

Top Shows

• 1: Conversations
• 2: The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
• 3: The Mel Robbins Podcast
• 4: The Imperfects
• 5: Casefile True Crime
• 6: Mamamia Out Loud
• 7: The Joe Rogan Experience
• 8: No Filter
• 9: The Rest Is History
• 10: The Case Of

Top New Shows

• 1: Dear Rachelle
• 2: No One Saw It Coming
• 3: Good Hang with Amy Poehler
• 4: The Rest Is Classified
• 5: Stalked
• 6: Julie's Gone
• 7: Deadly Mirage
• 8: The Unthinkable
• 9: Blink | Jake Haendel's Story
• 10: The Mushroom Trial: Say Grace

Austria

Top Shows

• 1: Thema des Tages
• 2: FALTER Radio
• 3: Inside Austria
• 4: Ö1 Journale
• 5: Geschichten aus der Geschichte
• 6: LANZ & PRECHT
• 7: Klenk + Reiter
• 8: Der Professor und der Wolf
• 9: Frühstück bei mir
• 10: Die Dunkelkammer – Der Investigativ-Podcast

Top New Shows

• 1: Die Peter Thiel Story
• 2: Einschlafen mit Biografien
• 3: Ö1 Journale - gehört vertieft
• 4: CEO
• 5: Die Jägerin
• 6: Plus Ultra - Der Weg in den Dreißigjährigen Krieg
• 7: DIE GRUABERIN
• 8: Hangweyrer & Palfrader
• 9: Sherlock Holmes Kurzgeschichten
• 10: Rohrer bei Budgen

Bahrain

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 3: هدوء
• 4: بدون ورق
• 5: وعي
• 6: كنبة السبت
• 7: بودكاست طمئن
• 8: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 9: #ABtalks
• 10: Dupamicaffeine Podcast بودكاست دوباميكافين

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 2: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 3: تعليم الإنجليزية
• 4: قصص الأنبياء
• 5: أنا عايش ؟
• 6: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 7: Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• 8: بودكاست الهنوف
• 9: كلام وعي
• 10: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast

Bolivia

Top Shows

• 1: Seminario Fenix | Brian Tracy
• 2: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 3: Estoicismo Filosofia
• 4: Durmiendo
• 5: Escuela de Nada
• 6: Despertando
• 7: Dante Gebel Live
• 8: Inglés desde cero
• 9: Se Regalan Dudas
• 10: Las Alucines

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: IQ POTENCIADO
• 3: La Toma
• 4: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 5: De la columna a la cabeza
• 6: Sorbito de Opinión
• 7: El Retake
• 8: Teorías de Conspiración
• 9: La Segunda Muerte del Dios Punk
• 10: Irrevementes Podcast

Brazil

Top Shows

• 1: Café Com Deus Pai | Podcast oficial
• 2: O Assunto
• 3: Psicologia na Prática
• 4: Inteligência Ltda.
• 5: Jota Jota Podcast
• 6: Não Inviabilize
• 7: Os Sócios Podcast
• 8: Autoconsciente Podcast | Vida interior
• 9: Flow Podcast
• 10: NerdCast

Top New Shows

• 1: Aprenda Filosofia
• 2: O Síndico
• 3: gostosas também choram
• 4: De Saída - A Vida Fora da Internet
• 5: Mano a Mano
• 6: Neymar (UOL Prime)
• 7: NÃO IMPORTA
• 8: Isso não é uma sessão de análise, com Vera Iaconelli
• 9: Vou Te Mandar um Áudio
• 10: Escute as Mais Velhas

Canada

Top Shows

• 1: The Mel Robbins Podcast
• 2: The Joe Rogan Experience
• 3: The Daily
• 4: SmartLess
• 5: Dateline NBC
• 6: Call Her Daddy
• 7: Huberman Lab
• 8: The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
• 9: On Purpose with Jay Shetty
• 10: Good Hang with Amy Poehler

Top New Shows

• 1: Good Hang with Amy Poehler
• 2: Deadly Mirage
• 3: Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce
• 4: The Oprah Podcast
• 5: Murder in the Moonlight
• 6: Blink | Jake Haendel's Story
• 7: Khloé in Wonder Land
• 8: Devil in the Desert
• 9: Cold Blooded: Mystery in Alaska
• 10: Sea of Lies

Chile

Top Shows

• 1: Seminario Fenix | Brian Tracy
• 2: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 3: Estoicismo Filosofia
• 4: Durmiendo
• 5: Escuela de Nada
• 6: Despertando
• 7: Dante Gebel Live
• 8: Inglés desde cero
• 9: Se Regalan Dudas
• 10: Las Alucines

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: IQ POTENCIADO
• 3: La Toma
• 4: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 5: De la columna a la cabeza
• 6: Sorbito de Opinión
• 7: El Retake
• 8: Teorías de Conspiración
• 9: La Segunda Muerte del Dios Punk
• 10: Irrevementes Podcast

Colombia

Top Shows

• 1: Seminario Fenix | Brian Tracy
• 2: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 3: Estoicismo Filosofia
• 4: Durmiendo
• 5: Escuela de Nada
• 6: Despertando
• 7: Dante Gebel Live
• 8: Inglés desde cero
• 9: Se Regalan Dudas
• 10: Las Alucines

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: IQ POTENCIADO
• 3: La Toma
• 4: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 5: De la columna a la cabeza
• 6: Sorbito de Opinión
• 7: El Retake
• 8: Teorías de Conspiración
• 9: La Segunda Muerte del Dios Punk
• 10: Irrevementes Podcast

Costa Rica

Top Shows

• 1: Dante Gebel Live
• 2: LA DOSIS DIARIA ROKA
• 3: Inglés desde cero
• 4: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 5: Las Alucines
• 6: Despertando
• 7: Cuéntale Al Podcast
• 8: Se Regalan Dudas
• 9: En terapia con Roberto Rocha
• 10: La cuarta es la vencida

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 3: IQ POTENCIADO
• 4: La Toma
• 5: Hábitos atómicos | Desarrolla buenos hábitos
• 6: Privando En Jefe
• 7: Cosa Nuestra Radio con Rauw Alejandro
• 8: De la columna a la cabeza
• 9: Night Talks | El Podcast
• 10: Sepa la Madre

Czechia

Top Shows

• 1: Opravdové zločiny
• 2: Čestmír Strakatý
• 3: Vinohradská 12
• 4: Kriminálka
• 5: BROCAST
• 6: 5:59
• 7: U Kulatého stolu
• 8: Hype-Cast Podcast
• 9: Kecy a politika
• 10: HLASY ZLOČINU

Top New Shows

• 1: Lepší už to nebude
• 2: Longevity podcast
• 3: POLICIE
• 4: Fantastic Future
• 5: Klasické pohádky
• 6: Kellner
• 7: Holky říkaly
• 8: Pohádky pana Donutila
• 9: Sirény
• 10: Další už se nevejde.

Denmark

Top Shows

• 1: Genstart
• 2: Mørkeland
• 3: Afhørt
• 4: Third Ear
• 5: Tyran
• 6: Danske Drabssager
• 7: HjerneRO
• 8: True Story
• 9: Millionærklubben
• 10: Historien om alt

Top New Shows

• 1: Historien om alt
• 2: Bedraget - løgnens anatomi
• 3: Sagen Genåbnet
• 4: Magtfuld
• 5: Det sidste måltid
• 6: Lang Levetid Podcast
• 7: BorgenUdenFilter
• 8: I selskab med Q
• 9: Forbrydelsens Ansigter
• 10: JP fortæller

Dominican Republic

Top Shows

• 1: Dante Gebel Live
• 2: LA DOSIS DIARIA ROKA
• 3: Inglés desde cero
• 4: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 5: Las Alucines
• 6: Despertando
• 7: Cuéntale Al Podcast
• 8: Se Regalan Dudas
• 9: En terapia con Roberto Rocha
• 10: La cuarta es la vencida

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 3: IQ POTENCIADO
• 4: La Toma
• 5: Hábitos atómicos | Desarrolla buenos hábitos
• 6: Privando En Jefe
• 7: Cosa Nuestra Radio con Rauw Alejandro
• 8: De la columna a la cabeza
• 9: Night Talks | El Podcast
• 10: Sepa la Madre

Ecuador

Top Shows

• 1: Seminario Fenix | Brian Tracy
• 2: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 3: Estoicismo Filosofia
• 4: Durmiendo
• 5: Escuela de Nada
• 6: Despertando
• 7: Dante Gebel Live
• 8: Inglés desde cero
• 9: Se Regalan Dudas
• 10: Las Alucines

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: IQ POTENCIADO
• 3: La Toma
• 4: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 5: De la columna a la cabeza
• 6: Sorbito de Opinión
• 7: El Retake
• 8: Teorías de Conspiración
• 9: La Segunda Muerte del Dios Punk
• 10: Irrevementes Podcast

Egypt

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 3: هدوء
• 4: بدون ورق
• 5: وعي
• 6: كنبة السبت
• 7: بودكاست طمئن
• 8: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 9: #ABtalks
• 10: Dupamicaffeine Podcast بودكاست دوباميكافين

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 2: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 3: تعليم الإنجليزية
• 4: قصص الأنبياء
• 5: أنا عايش ؟
• 6: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 7: Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• 8: بودكاست الهنوف
• 9: كلام وعي
• 10: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast

El Salvador

Top Shows

• 1: Dante Gebel Live
• 2: LA DOSIS DIARIA ROKA
• 3: Inglés desde cero
• 4: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 5: Las Alucines
• 6: Despertando
• 7: Cuéntale Al Podcast
• 8: Se Regalan Dudas
• 9: En terapia con Roberto Rocha
• 10: La cuarta es la vencida

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 3: IQ POTENCIADO
• 4: La Toma
• 5: Hábitos atómicos | Desarrolla buenos hábitos
• 6: Privando En Jefe
• 7: Cosa Nuestra Radio con Rauw Alejandro
• 8: De la columna a la cabeza
• 9: Night Talks | El Podcast
• 10: Sepa la Madre

Finland

Top Shows

• 1: Jäljillä
• 2: Uutisraportti podcast
• 3: Futucast
• 4: Sijoituskästi
• 5: HS Visio -podcast
• 6: Puheenaihe
• 7: Rahapodi
• 8: The Rest Is History
• 9: Antin koulumatka
• 10: Politiikan puskaradio

Top New Shows

• 1: Keskiyön kaninkolo
• 2: Kuuntelija-podcast
• 3: Good Hang with Amy Poehler
• 4: Kuka minä olen
• 5: Eurooppa-podi
• 6: #paasipodi
• 7: The Rest Is Classified
• 8: Helppoa suomea – Learn Finnish Through Comprehensible Input
• 9: Raha, talous ja politiikka
• 10: Inderes

France

Top Shows

• 1: LEGEND
• 2: Affaires sensibles
• 3: Hondelatte Raconte - Christophe Hondelatte
• 4: Les Pieds sur terre
• 5: Les Grosses Têtes
• 6: HugoDécrypte - Actus et interviews
• 7: CHRONIQUES CRIMINELLES
• 8: Entrez dans l'Histoire
• 9: Émotions
• 10: Transfert

Top New Shows

• 1: Ton Quotidien avec Pablo Mira
• 2: Women Stories - Récits de vie
• 3: La fabrique du mensonge
• 4: TED en Français
• 5: SAFE PACE - Le podcast des sports d'endurance, présenté par Hugo Clément
• 6: Le piège : dans les coulisses du développement personnel
• 7: Adulescence
• 8: Le Fil Mental - Fabien Olicard
• 9: Alice Underground
• 10: Une philosophie, le podcast de Charles Pépin

Germany

Top Shows

• 1: LANZ & PRECHT
• 2: Hotel Matze
• 3: Mordlust
• 4: MORD AUF EX
• 5: Verbrechen
• 6: Kaulitz Hills - Senf aus Hollywood
• 7: Gemischtes Hack
• 8: RONZHEIMER.
• 9: Lage der Nation - der Politik-Podcast aus Berlin
• 10: Baywatch Berlin

Top New Shows

• 1: Die Peter Thiel Story
• 2: Die Jägerin
• 3: Einschlafen mit Biografien
• 4: Make Economy Great Again
• 5: Sherlock Holmes Kurzgeschichten
• 6: Plus Ultra - Der Weg in den Dreißigjährigen Krieg
• 7: Der Sophie Passmann Podcast
• 8: Hateland
• 9: Der Germanwings-Absturz – Zehn Jahre ohne euch | WDR
• 10: Berlin Code – mit Linda Zervakis

Guatemala

Top Shows

• 1: Dante Gebel Live
• 2: LA DOSIS DIARIA ROKA
• 3: Inglés desde cero
• 4: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 5: Las Alucines
• 6: Despertando
• 7: Cuéntale Al Podcast
• 8: Se Regalan Dudas
• 9: En terapia con Roberto Rocha
• 10: La cuarta es la vencida

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 3: IQ POTENCIADO
• 4: La Toma
• 5: Hábitos atómicos | Desarrolla buenos hábitos
• 6: Privando En Jefe
• 7: Cosa Nuestra Radio con Rauw Alejandro
• 8: De la columna a la cabeza
• 9: Night Talks | El Podcast
• 10: Sepa la Madre

Honduras

Top Shows

• 1: Dante Gebel Live
• 2: LA DOSIS DIARIA ROKA
• 3: Inglés desde cero
• 4: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 5: Las Alucines
• 6: Despertando
• 7: Cuéntale Al Podcast
• 8: Se Regalan Dudas
• 9: En terapia con Roberto Rocha
• 10: La cuarta es la vencida

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 3: IQ POTENCIADO
• 4: La Toma
• 5: Hábitos atómicos | Desarrolla buenos hábitos
• 6: Privando En Jefe
• 7: Cosa Nuestra Radio con Rauw Alejandro
• 8: De la columna a la cabeza
• 9: Night Talks | El Podcast
• 10: Sepa la Madre

India

Top Shows

• 1: The Stories of Mahabharata
• 2: Raj Shamani's Figuring Out
• 3: 20 Minute Books
• 4: The Daily Brief
• 5: Finshots Daily
• 6: The Desi Crime Podcast
• 7: The Ranveer Show
• 8: Chanakya Neeti (Sutra Sahit)
• 9: On Purpose with Jay Shetty
• 10: The Morning Brief

Top New Shows

• 1: The Stories of the Ramayana
• 2: The Masoom Minawala Show
• 3: Osho Ashtavakra Maha Geeta
• 4: Atomic Habits
• 5: The Psychology Of Money: Timeless Lessons On Wealth, Greed, And Happiness, Book Summary, Podcast
• 6: Easy Money: The Charles Ponzi Story
• 7: People by WTF
• 8: The Rest Is Classified
• 9: Man Vs Scam

Iraq

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 3: هدوء
• 4: بدون ورق
• 5: وعي
• 6: كنبة السبت
• 7: بودكاست طمئن
• 8: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 9: #ABtalks
• 10: Dupamicaffeine Podcast بودكاست دوباميكافين

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 2: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 3: تعليم الإنجليزية
• 4: قصص الأنبياء
• 5: أنا عايش ؟
• 6: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 7: Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• 8: بودكاست الهنوف
• 9: كلام وعي
• 10: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast

Ireland

Top Shows

• 1: Crime World
• 2: My Therapist Ghosted Me
• 3: The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
• 4: First Conviction
• 5: The Rest Is Politics
• 6: The David McWilliams Podcast
• 7: The Louis Theroux Podcast
• 8: The Rest Is History
• 9: The Indo Daily
• 10: The Mel Robbins Podcast

Top New Shows

• 1: The Gambler
• 2: The Rest Is Classified
• 3: Stalked
• 4: Wanging On with Graham Norton and Maria McErlane
• 5: What's My Age Again?
• 6: They F**k You Up
• 7: Good Hang with Amy Poehler
• 8: Unicorn Girl
• 9: Behind the Story
• 10: Fame Under Fire

Italy

Top Shows

• 1: Elisa True Crime
• 2: La Zanzara
• 3: Il podcast di Alessandro Barbero: Lezioni e Conferenze di Storia
• 4: Indagini
• 5: Alessandro Barbero Podcast - La Storia
• 6: ONE MORE TIME di Luca Casadei
• 7: Passa dal BSMT
• 8: Chiedilo alla Storia - Intesa Sanpaolo On Air
• 9: Geopop - Le Scienze nella vita di tutti i giorni
• 10: Stories

Top New Shows

• 1: Il cono d'ombra - La storia di Denis Bergamini
• 2: PULP PODCAST
• 3: Il Banchiere di Dio
• 4: Dentro il caso
• 5: Nera
• 6: SEIETRENTA - La rassegna stampa di Chora Media
• 7: Narciso - Il femminicidio di Giulia Ballestri
• 8: PARLARNE TRA AMICI - Il podcast di libri di Daria Bignardi
• 9: Fentanyl. La molecola del diavolo
• 10: Il cielo sopra Ustica

Japan

Top Shows

• 1: 安住紳一郎の日曜天国
• 2: 大久保佳代子とらぶぶらLOVE
• 3: マユリカのうなげろりん！！
• 4: 令和ロマンのご様子
• 5: 6 Minute English
• 6: 歴史を面白く学ぶコテンラジオ （COTEN RADIO）
• 7: 英語で雑談！Kevin’s English Room Podcast
• 8: TBSラジオ『ジェーン・スーと堀井美香の「OVER THE SUN」』
• 9: 英語聞き流し | Sakura English
• 10: Global News Podcast

Top New Shows

• 1: 真誠presents　大久保佳代子・森本晋太郎のどうぞご自由に
• 2: 日経ビジネス　モーニングニュース
• 3: 永野はミスターTBS
• 4: 原宿の今じゃない企画室
• 5: 【最新回のみ】中川家 ザ・ラジオショー
• 6: エルフのとりま集合ラジオ！
• 7: みうら五郎
• 8: 味な副音声 ～voice of food～
• 9: 深井・けんすうのまぼろし会議
• 10: 芹ゆう子　お気づきかしら（仮）

Jordan

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 3: هدوء
• 4: بدون ورق
• 5: وعي
• 6: كنبة السبت
• 7: بودكاست طمئن
• 8: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 9: #ABtalks
• 10: Dupamicaffeine Podcast بودكاست دوباميكافين

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 2: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 3: تعليم الإنجليزية
• 4: قصص الأنبياء
• 5: أنا عايش ؟
• 6: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 7: Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• 8: بودكاست الهنوف
• 9: كلام وعي
• 10: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast

Korea

Top Shows

• 1: 송은이 김숙의 비밀보장
• 2: 손에 잡히는 경제
• 3: 6 Minute English
• 4: 슈카월드
• 5: Listening Time: English Practice
• 6: TED Talks Daily
• 7: 여둘톡
• 8: 컬투쇼 레전드 사연
• 9: 김혜리의 필름클럽
• 10: Culips Everyday English Podcast

Top New Shows

• 1: 말줄임표
• 2: [KBS] 작은 서점
• 3: 완벽한 하루 이상순입니다
• 4: 책잡힌 사이 : 독서모임장들
• 5: 와우산라디오
• 6: 어예진의 방과후 목돈연구소
• 7: on your MARK Radio
• 8: 나라영어
• 9: 고전맛집
• 10: 정희원의 라디오 쉼표

Kuwait

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 3: هدوء
• 4: بدون ورق
• 5: وعي
• 6: كنبة السبت
• 7: بودكاست طمئن
• 8: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 9: #ABtalks
• 10: Dupamicaffeine Podcast بودكاست دوباميكافين

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 2: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 3: تعليم الإنجليزية
• 4: قصص الأنبياء
• 5: أنا عايش ؟
• 6: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 7: Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• 8: بودكاست الهنوف
• 9: كلام وعي
• 10: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast

Lebanon

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 3: هدوء
• 4: بدون ورق
• 5: وعي
• 6: كنبة السبت
• 7: بودكاست طمئن
• 8: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 9: #ABtalks
• 10: Dupamicaffeine Podcast بودكاست دوباميكافين

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 2: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 3: تعليم الإنجليزية
• 4: قصص الأنبياء
• 5: أنا عايش ؟
• 6: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 7: Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• 8: بودكاست الهنوف
• 9: كلام وعي
• 10: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast

Libya

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 3: هدوء
• 4: وعي
• 5: كنبة السبت
• 6: بودكاست طمئن
• 7: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 8: Dupamicaffeine Podcast بودكاست دوباميكافين

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 2: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 3: تعليم الإنجليزية
• 4: قصص الأنبياء
• 5: أنا عايش ؟
• 6: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 7: Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• 8: بودكاست الهنوف
• 9: كلام وعي
• 10: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast

Mauritania

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 3: هدوء
• 4: بدون ورق
• 5: وعي
• 6: كنبة السبت
• 7: بودكاست طمئن
• 8: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 9: #ABtalks
• 10: Dupamicaffeine Podcast بودكاست دوباميكافين

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 2: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 3: تعليم الإنجليزية
• 4: قصص الأنبياء
• 5: أنا عايش ؟
• 6: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 7: Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• 8: بودكاست الهنوف
• 9: كلام وعي
• 10: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast

Mexico

Top Shows

• 1: La Cotorrisa
• 2: Las Alucines
• 3: Relatos de la Noche
• 4: La Corneta
• 5: Leyendas Legendarias
• 6: Cracks Podcast con Oso Trava
• 7: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 8: Penitencia
• 9: Se Regalan Dudas
• 10: Gusgri Podcast

Top New Shows

• 1: Teorías de Conspiración
• 2: Caso 63
• 3: Operación Viuda Negra
• 4: Aprendemos Juntos México
• 5: Hágale como quiera
• 6: Más Allá del Pasado
• 7: Hermanos de Leche
• 8: En Buen Pedo
• 9: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 10: De Todas las Flores, El Podcast

Morocco

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 3: هدوء
• 4: بدون ورق
• 5: وعي
• 6: كنبة السبت
• 7: بودكاست طمئن
• 8: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 9: #ABtalks
• 10: Dupamicaffeine Podcast بودكاست دوباميكافين

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 2: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 3: تعليم الإنجليزية
• 4: قصص الأنبياء
• 5: أنا عايش ؟
• 6: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 7: Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• 8: بودكاست الهنوف
• 9: كلام وعي
• 10: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast

Netherlands (the)

Top Shows

• 1: Maarten van Rossem en Tom Jessen
• 2: Boekestijn en De Wijk
• 3: Geschiedenis Inside
• 4: NRC Vandaag
• 5: Napleiten
• 6: De Jortcast
• 7: Aaf en Lies lossen het wel weer op
• 8: De Stemming van Vullings en De Rooy
• 9: De Dag
• 10: de Volkskrant Elke Dag

Top New Shows

• 1: Jacob, dood in Qatar
• 2: De Nederlandse bewaaksters van Auschwitz
• 3: FD De zaak Frits van Eerd
• 4: Het Verhaal van de Schaal
• 5: De Snapchatmoord
• 6: Fred en Ries
• 7: Onaantastbaar
• 8: Het Fortuin Carlier
• 9: Rust in je hoofd
• 10: Bingomaffia

New Zealand

Top Shows

• 1: The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
• 2: The Mel Robbins Podcast
• 3: Between Two Beers Podcast
• 4: The Rest Is History
• 5: The Joe Rogan Experience
• 6: The Dom Harvey Podcast
• 7: The Rest Is Politics
• 8: Huberman Lab
• 9: The Daily
• 10: Casefile True Crime

Top New Shows

• 1: Kim Hill Wants To Know
• 2: The Rest Is Classified
• 3: Dear Rachelle
• 4: The Lodge
• 5: Good Hang with Amy Poehler
• 6: Stalked
• 7: Titanic: Ship of Dreams
• 8: Blink | Jake Haendel's Story
• 9: The Oprah Podcast
• 10: Deadly Mirage

Nicaragua

Top Shows

• 1: Dante Gebel Live
• 2: LA DOSIS DIARIA ROKA
• 3: Inglés desde cero
• 4: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 5: Las Alucines
• 6: Despertando
• 7: Cuéntale Al Podcast
• 8: Se Regalan Dudas
• 9: En terapia con Roberto Rocha
• 10: La cuarta es la vencida

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 3: IQ POTENCIADO
• 4: La Toma
• 5: Hábitos atómicos | Desarrolla buenos hábitos
• 6: Privando En Jefe
• 7: Cosa Nuestra Radio con Rauw Alejandro
• 8: De la columna a la cabeza
• 9: Night Talks | El Podcast
• 10: Sepa la Madre

Norway

Top Shows

• 1: Forklart
• 2: Krimpodden
• 3: Wolfgang Wee Uncut
• 4: AVHØRT
• 5: Leger om livet
• 6: Nesten hele uka med Lepperød
• 7: Spårtsklubben
• 8: Misjonen med Antonsen og Golden
• 9: Synnøve og Vanessa
• 10: Svarttrost

Top New Shows

• 1: Nesten hele uka med Lepperød
• 2: Spårtsklubben
• 3: Lev vel
• 4: Who's Your Daddy
• 5: Sunn Økonomi
• 6: Vår første kaffe
• 7: Gutta
• 8: Nysgjerrige Norge
• 9: Gukild & Johaug
• 10: Off Record - Med Liva og Elisabeth

Oman

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 3: هدوء
• 4: بدون ورق
• 5: وعي
• 6: كنبة السبت
• 7: بودكاست طمئن
• 8: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 9: #ABtalks
• 10: Dupamicaffeine Podcast بودكاست دوباميكافين

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 2: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 3: تعليم الإنجليزية
• 4: قصص الأنبياء
• 5: أنا عايش ؟
• 6: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 7: Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• 8: بودكاست الهنوف
• 9: كلام وعي
• 10: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast

Panama

Top Shows

• 1: Dante Gebel Live
• 2: LA DOSIS DIARIA ROKA
• 3: Inglés desde cero
• 4: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 5: Las Alucines
• 6: Despertando
• 7: Cuéntale Al Podcast
• 8: Se Regalan Dudas
• 9: En terapia con Roberto Rocha
• 10: La cuarta es la vencida

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 3: IQ POTENCIADO
• 4: La Toma
• 5: Hábitos atómicos | Desarrolla buenos hábitos
• 6: Privando En Jefe
• 7: Cosa Nuestra Radio con Rauw Alejandro
• 8: De la columna a la cabeza
• 9: Night Talks | El Podcast
• 10: Sepa la Madre

Paraguay

Top Shows

• 1: Seminario Fenix | Brian Tracy
• 2: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 3: Estoicismo Filosofia
• 4: Durmiendo
• 5: Escuela de Nada
• 6: Despertando
• 7: Dante Gebel Live
• 8: Inglés desde cero
• 9: Se Regalan Dudas
• 10: Las Alucines

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: IQ POTENCIADO
• 3: La Toma
• 4: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 5: De la columna a la cabeza
• 6: Sorbito de Opinión
• 7: El Retake
• 8: Teorías de Conspiración
• 9: La Segunda Muerte del Dios Punk
• 10: Irrevementes Podcast

Peru

Top Shows

• 1: Seminario Fenix | Brian Tracy
• 2: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 3: Estoicismo Filosofia
• 4: Durmiendo
• 5: Escuela de Nada
• 6: Despertando
• 7: Dante Gebel Live
• 8: Inglés desde cero
• 9: Se Regalan Dudas
• 10: Las Alucines

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: IQ POTENCIADO
• 3: La Toma
• 4: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 5: De la columna a la cabeza
• 6: Sorbito de Opinión
• 7: El Retake
• 8: Teorías de Conspiración
• 9: La Segunda Muerte del Dios Punk
• 10: Irrevementes Podcast

Poland

Top Shows

• 1: Kryminatorium
• 2: Żurnalista - Rozmowy bez kompromisów
• 3: Raport o stanie świata Dariusza Rosiaka
• 4: Przemek Górczyk Podcast
• 5: WojewódzkiKędzierski
• 6: Piąte: Nie zabijaj
• 7: Podcast Historyczny
• 8: Imponderabilia - Karol Paciorek
• 9: Radio Naukowe
• 10: Dział Zagraniczny

Top New Shows

• 1: Rezultaty
• 2: Wojsiat Ogólnie w newonce
• 3: DŻIN Z KOMIKIEM
• 4: Casefile Polska: Prawdziwe Zbrodnie
• 5: ZA MOICH CZASÓW
• 6: Lekki Stan - Oddech, Mindset, Medytacja
• 7: Stan skupienia.
• 8: Podcast Forbes
• 9: Laboratorium zbrodni. Podcast Crazy Nauka
• 10: Prof. Antoni Dudek: Rzeczypospolite

Qatar

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 3: هدوء
• 4: بدون ورق
• 5: وعي
• 6: كنبة السبت
• 7: بودكاست طمئن
• 8: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 9: #ABtalks
• 10: Dupamicaffeine Podcast بودكاست دوباميكافين

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 2: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 3: تعليم الإنجليزية
• 4: قصص الأنبياء
• 5: أنا عايش ؟
• 6: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 7: Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• 8: بودكاست الهنوف
• 9: كلام وعي
• 10: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast

Saudi Arabia

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: جناية
• 3: كنبة السبت
• 4: بودكاست صحب
• 5: بودكاست أبجورة
• 6: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 7: بودكاست طمئن
• 8: هدوء
• 9: بدون ورق
• 10: بودكاست رذاذ

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام وعي
• 2: ذا قال
• 3: أنا عايش ؟
• 4: بودكاست الهنوف
• 5: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 6: مع عائض القرني
• 7: أرباح
• 8: قصص الأنبياء
• 9: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 10: مسيّان

South Africa

Top Shows

• 1: The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
• 2: The Mel Robbins Podcast
• 3: Podcast and Chill with MacG
• 4: On Purpose with Jay Shetty
• 5: The Joe Rogan Experience
• 6: Huberman Lab
• 7: What Now? with Trevor Noah
• 8: Wisdom & Wellness with Mpoomy Ledwaba
• 9: True Crime South Africa
• 10: Modern Wisdom

Top New Shows

• 1: Because We Said So
• 2: The Oprah Podcast
• 3: Atomic Habits
• 4: Khloé in Wonder Land
• 5: 2819 Church
• 6: Sherlock Holmes Short Stories
• 7: Toni Told Me with Toni Tone
• 8: Mindful Mondays with Shudu
• 9: Aspire with Emma Grede
• 10: The Rest Is Classified

Spain

Top Shows

• 1: Nadie Sabe Nada
• 2: La Ruina
• 3: El Partidazo de COPE
• 4: Criminopatía
• 5: Tengo un Plan
• 6: The Wild Project
• 7: LO QUE TÚ DIGAS con Alex Fidalgo
• 8: Todo Concostrina
• 9: La escóbula de la brújula
• 10: El podcast de Cristina Mitre

Top New Shows

• 1: Operación Viuda Negra
• 2: Relatos de la Historia
• 3: Operación Moon
• 4: WORLDCAST
• 5: El perfilador
• 6: Noches de Historia
• 7: Vida Corriente en la Edad Media
• 8: True Crime en Español, Historias de Crimen, Historias Reales, True Crime Español
• 9: Jules y Ren
• 10: True Crime Español

Sweden

Top Shows

• 1: P3 Dokumentär
• 2: Rättegångspodden
• 3: Alex & Sigges podcast
• 4: ursäkta
• 5: Fallen jag aldrig glömmer
• 6: Framgångspodden
• 7: Svenska brott
• 8: P3 Krim
• 9: Svenska fall podcast
• 10: P1 Dokumentär

Top New Shows

• 1: Svårkränkt med Mirabell och Perla
• 2: Blodspår
• 3: Podme True Crime
• 4: VAFALLS
• 5: Historien Om
• 6: Experimentet
• 7: Felaktigt Dömd
• 8: Hela Sanningen
• 9: Håll Käften Podcast
• 10: Sportens Fall

Taiwan

Top Shows

• 1: Gooaye 股癌
• 2: 唐陽雞酒屋
• 3: 好味小姐開束縛我還你原形
• 4: 百靈果 News
• 5: 從前從前
• 6: 博音
• 7: 豬探長推理故事集
• 8: 蔡阿嘎543
• 9: 瘋女人聊天室
• 10: 呱吉

Top New Shows

• 1: 禎甄要chat內
• 2: 薔栗膠
• 3: Pleasure Talks－A Podcast by JOLIN
• 4: HOT 基礎英文新聞 Hot English News
• 5: 人生五分熟 Life Medium Rare
• 6: 阿Q們
• 7: 《遠距抱抱》抱緊處理
• 8: 陪我走一段
• 9: 喂Meg你在幹嘛
• 10: 罪癖 Crimophilia

Thailand

Top Shows

• 1: คำนี้ดี
• 2: Mission To The Moon
• 3: People You May Know
• 4: 5 Minutes Good Time
• 5: Midnight Diary
• 6: The Library
• 7: The Secret Sauce
• 8: 8 Minute History
• 9: 6 Minute English
• 10: พี่อ้อยพี่ฉอด พอดแคสต์

Top New Shows

• 1: ฝรั่งอั่งม้อ
• 2: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 3: คืนเผาผี Ghost Night
• 4: อวกาศคาดไม่ถึง
• 5: HAHA Podcast
• 6: Loodloop Podcasts
• 7: 8 Minutes Rescue
• 8: on your MARK Radio
• 9: Sai_MoneyMonster Podcast
• 10: Sherlock Holmes

Tunisia

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 3: هدوء
• 4: بدون ورق
• 5: وعي
• 6: كنبة السبت
• 7: بودكاست طمئن
• 8: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 9: #ABtalks
• 10: Dupamicaffeine Podcast بودكاست دوباميكافين

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 2: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 3: تعليم الإنجليزية
• 4: قصص الأنبياء
• 5: أنا عايش ؟
• 6: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 7: Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• 8: بودكاست الهنوف
• 9: كلام وعي
• 10: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast

Turkey

Top Shows

• 1: Ortamlarda Satılacak Bilgi
• 2: Dr. Gulec Radio
• 3: Kendine İyi Davran
• 4: Meksika Açmazı
• 5: Merdiven Altı Terapi
• 6: Haddini Aşan Yaşam Rehberi
• 7: 6 Minute English
• 8: Terapist Koltuğu
• 9: Barış Özcan ile 111 Hz
• 10: Hikayeden Adamlar

Top New Shows

• 1: Sinan Canan'la İnsanın Fabrika Ayarları
• 2: Öykülerle İngilizce
• 3: Derinden Sesler
• 4: Bakıcaz
• 5: Tarihte Acaib ve Garaib
• 6: bunları sadece günlüğüm biliyordu
• 7: Psikolog Gökhan Çınar’la Psikolojik Dayanıklılık Serisi
• 8: Kız Muhabbeti
• 9: mecbur muyum?
• 10: İngilizcesi Neydi?

United Arab Emirates (the)

Top Shows

• 1: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 2: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 3: The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
• 4: The Mel Robbins Podcast
• 5: بدون ورق
• 6: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 7: On Purpose with Jay Shetty
• 8: كنبة السبت
• 9: Learning English Conversations
• 10: هدوء

Top New Shows

• 1: Atomic Habits
• 2: قصص الأنبياء
• 3: أنا عايش ؟
• 4: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 5: كلام وعي
• 6: The Rest Is Classified
• 7: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 8: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 9: The Oprah Podcast
• 10: بودكاست آن

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)

Top Shows

• 1: The Rest Is Politics
• 2: The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
• 3: The Rest Is History
• 4: The Rest Is Entertainment
• 5: The Louis Theroux Podcast
• 6: The News Agents
• 7: Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster
• 8: The Mel Robbins Podcast
• 9: The Rest Is Politics: US
• 10: Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Top New Shows

• 1: The Rest Is Classified
• 2: What's Up Docs?
• 3: Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball
• 4: Stalked
• 5: What's My Age Again?
• 6: Mad, Sad and Bad with Paloma Faith
• 7: Journey Through Time
• 8: Wanging On with Graham Norton and Maria McErlane
• 9: Titanic: Ship of Dreams
• 10: Good Hang with Amy Poehler

United States

Top Shows

• 1: The Joe Rogan Experience
• 2: The Daily
• 3: The Mel Robbins Podcast
• 4: Crime Junkie
• 5: Dateline NBC
• 6: SmartLess
• 7: Call Her Daddy
• 8: This American Life
• 9: Huberman Lab
• 10: The Ezra Klein Show

Top New Shows

• 1: Good Hang with Amy Poehler
• 2: Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce
• 3: Deadly Mirage
• 4: Blink | Jake Haendel's Story
• 5: Murder in the Moonlight
• 6: Devil in the Desert
• 7: What Happened to Holly Bobo?
• 8: Cold Blooded: Mystery in Alaska
• 9: Unicorn Girl
• 10: The Best People with Nicolle Wallace

Uruguay

Top Shows

• 1: Palabra Plena, con Gabriel Rolón
• 2: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 3: Seminario Fenix | Brian Tracy
• 4: Historia en Podcast
• 5: Durmiendo
• 6: Estoicismo Filosofia
• 7: Inglés desde cero
• 8: La Venganza Será Terrible (oficial)
• 9: En terapia con Roberto Rocha
• 10: Las Alucines

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: IQ POTENCIADO
• 3: Psicología y Vínculos
• 4: De la columna a la cabeza
• 5: La Toma
• 6: La Segunda Muerte del Dios Punk
• 7: The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
• 8: Skyvan: Los vuelos de la muerte
• 9: ¿cómo carajo me relaciono?
• 10: Good Hang with Amy Poehler

Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)

Top Shows

• 1: Seminario Fenix | Brian Tracy
• 2: Psicologia Al Desnudo | @psi.mammoliti
• 3: Estoicismo Filosofia
• 4: Durmiendo
• 5: Escuela de Nada
• 6: Despertando
• 7: Dante Gebel Live
• 8: Inglés desde cero
• 9: Se Regalan Dudas
• 10: Las Alucines

Top New Shows

• 1: SINIESTRO
• 2: IQ POTENCIADO
• 3: La Toma
• 4: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 5: De la columna a la cabeza
• 6: Sorbito de Opinión
• 7: El Retake
• 8: Teorías de Conspiración
• 9: La Segunda Muerte del Dios Punk
• 10: Irrevementes Podcast

Viet Nam

Top Shows

• 1: Tri Kỷ Cảm Xúc
• 2: Thuần Podcast
• 3: Vì sao thế nhỉ!
• 4: Better Version
• 5: Nguyễn Hữu Trí Podcast
• 6: Sunhuyn Podcast
• 7: Minh Niệm
• 8: Viết Chữa Lành
• 9: Have A Sip
• 10: 6 Minute English

Top New Shows

• 1: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast
• 2: The Inner Child
• 3: Truyện cổ tích cho Bé
• 4: Chuyện kể cho bé _ Cô Ủn Ỉn
• 5: Chill Guys Podcast
• 6: The Zoe Space Podcast
• 7: Thiền & Thương Yêu
• 8: HAHA Podcast
• 9: 🩵 Diệp Tít Thủ Thỉ Cùng Con 🩵
• 10: Pháp Thoại Thích Pháp Hòa

Yemen

Top Shows

• 1: فنجان مع عبدالرحمن أبومالح
• 2: كنوز السيرة للشيخ عثمان الخميس
• 3: هدوء
• 4: بدون ورق
• 5: وعي
• 6: كنبة السبت
• 7: بودكاست طمئن
• 8: سوالف طريق - ابو طلال الحمراني
• 9: #ABtalks
• 10: Dupamicaffeine Podcast بودكاست دوباميكافين

Top New Shows

• 1: كلام بالعقل مع د.باسم سليمان
• 2: Nefoos - Mustafa Hosny - نفوس - مصطفى حسني
• 3: تعليم الإنجليزية
• 4: قصص الأنبياء
• 5: أنا عايش ؟
• 6: El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• 7: Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• 8: بودكاست الهنوف
• 9: كلام وعي
• 10: Miss Honey: Slow English Podcast

OP3 is a free, privacy-aware and open-source podcast analytics service (which Podnews is a corporate sponsor of).

Once you’ve set up your podcast, you get public stats pages like this, and you get a ton of useful stats that you can compare alongside your podcast host’s stats.

But - at the bottom of the page, OP3 has an “export” function, which allows you to download monthly files containing the full details of every podcast download you’ve had. Which allows you to answer questions that you’ve never been able to answer just using your podcast host.

Get set up

You’ve access to the last two calendar months of stats in OP3. Find the box marked “Export download details” at the bottom of the page.

Because we’re writing this in November 2025, we’ll grab the stats for October 2025 for the Podnews Weekly Review, from the show’s open OP3 page by hitting “Oct 2025”. The system will prepare a TSV file for you and download it.

Next, let’s open a spreadsheet program. We’ll use Google Sheets, because everyone has access to that.

• Hit the button marked “Start a new spreadsheet”
• Choose “File > Import” and upload the TSV file you just downloaded
• Leave the defaults and hit “Import Data”

You should end up with something looking like this:

There’s one line for every single download our podcast got in October.

And with this... we can have some fun.

What are the top apps by download different countries?

OP3 tells you the apps that all your listeners are using. In our case, Apple Podcasts is #1 with 64%. But - 3.1% of our plays are from Japan. What is the most popular app in Japan for our podcast?

We’re going to use a pivot table to help us here.

• Choose “Insert > Pivot Table”
• Leave the default for a new sheet
• Hit “Create”

OK, you should now have a screen looking like this.

In OP3, the name of an app is called an agentName. We’d quite like to see the total number of downloads for each agentName. In the middle column, choose “Count of agentName for each agentName”.

The result will be a list showing you a total number of downloads for each agentName, or app name.

In “Rows”, you’ll see it says “agentName Order Ascending, Sort by agentName”. Let’s change those two dropdowns to “Descending”, “COUNTA of agentName”.

Now, you’ll have something that looks like this. It’s the total downloads for this podcast, by app name.

This is great: but this is nothing that you can’t get with your podcast host stats anyway.

But we want to just see whether Japan follows the same pattern - Apple Podcasts at #1, Overcast at #2, and Chrome at #3. Let’s filter this list, just for listeners in Japan.

So, scroll down the middle column to where it says “Filters”, and hit the “add” button. Choose “countryCode”, and change the dropdown from “show all items” to just “JP”.

We’re given total downloads, by app, in Japan only.

Overcast isn’t used much - by our Japanese listeners at least - and it’s really only Firefox, Overcast and Chrome. Try getting that from your podcast host!

Listeners vs downloads - by app

OP3 has a thing called an audienceID, which is calculated like the IAB calculates a “listener” - it’s a hash of a users’ IP address and their useragent. These hashes change monthly for privacy; but for many listeners, that data won’t change throughout the month.

“COUNTA” will just count them, and since every download has an audienceID, it’ll show the total downloads.

But, “COUNTUNIQUE” will count unique ones - every individual “listener”.

A little fiddling with the pivot table allows us to see all apps, and how many unique audienceIDs they have as a percentage of all downloads.

Here’s what we can see - Apple Podcasts users are, likely, mostly subscribed to the show and download each episode automatically: each listener is downloading about five episodes each. (Auto-downloading normally happens overnight while your phone charges, connected to wifi)

Pocket Casts figures are quite different: listeners using that are only consuming one or two episodes. It might be because Pocket Casts “streams” on demand, rather than download, so listening is more likely to be away from home. Or it might be because we have fewer people subscribed.

(In reality, even if the IAB calls these figures “listeners” or “audience”, it’s really “device”.)

What time do people in California download our show?

You can see overall times of downloads in many podcast apps - but that’s not really very helpful.

Let’s pretend we’re aimed at California, and we want to work out when people are downloading our show in that state.

For this we’re going to go back to the main sheet. We’ll insert a new column in column B, type hour into B1, click into B2 and put in the formula =MID(A2,12,2) so it just pulls out the hour from the time next to it. Then fill that formula down the rest of the data (select the cell with the formula, copy it, then hold down the SHIFT + CTRL keys then hit the down arrow key, to select the remaining cells in the column, then paste.) Now we have an hour column.

Then, insert a new pivot table again. We want the rows to be hour (which is GMT); we want the values to be COUNTUNIQUE of audienceID (so we’re looking at people not downloads); and we’ll filter by regionName to “Texas”.

Finally, the “hour” column is in GMT, not California time, which is eight hours behind. You can write your own formula to add another column if you like, outside the pivot table.

We end up with this:

You can see here that there’s a jump in California at about 4pm-7pm (1600-1900 if you don’t read 24 hour clocks), and then another peak at about 7am-10am.

(We normally publish between 4pm-7pm Los Angeles time, incidentally.)

Downloads per listener

While OP3 does a pretty good job of spotting the bots, some bots pretend to be other things, and there’s a limit to any type of bot detection.

Total number of downloads per audienceID is an interesting thing. We’ve done 262 episodes so far, so... how many people downloaded EVERY episode in October? It turns out seven listeners did. But also that there’s one very dedicated listener who has downloaded (apparently using Apple Podcasts) each episode six times. Assuming they listen to each of the episodes in full each time, that’s 99 days of content they’ve just downloaded there.

You can also see that “Apple Podcasts” seems to be the user-agent that most of these bots use. (I’ve hidden some columns to help this screenshot be visible).

We can’t block these from downloading - OP3 doesn’t keep the IP address for privacy reasons - but it’s always helpful to understand quite what’s going on.

Get your show onto OP3

OP3 is free. Many, many different shows have added themselves to OP3, and it’s pretty easy to add your own show. But once you do, you’ll have access to all this data, and much more.

Below are the terms of service for Apple Podcasts Connect.

We're reproducing it here because we're reporting on it today, and these terms of service are not visible without an Apple ID.

Here is a link to the previous terms from 2024. The new terms from Nov 2025 are below.

The changes

• The preamble now requires you're legally allowed to agree these terms (either that you're an adult, or you have authority from your company).
• ¶1 now specifies "graphics or other artwork". Apple has added a number of graphical requirements, and this probably is to cover those. Realistically, there's no change here.
• ¶8c has added the ability for Apple to create and display chapters from your work. This is new. (A reminder that you can opt out of these in Apple Podcasts Connect).
• ¶8d and ¶8e used to be $para;9b. The content hasn't changed.
• ¶9a has disappeared. It has been incorporated into ¶8a, which talks more about allowing Apple to actually show the images you've sent them. There's no change.

Terms of Service

Apple Podcasts Connect TERMS OF SERVICE

THESE TERMS OF SERVICE (“TERMS OF SERVICE”) CONSTITUTE A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND APPLE INC. ("APPLE") STATING THE TERMS THAT GOVERN YOUR USE OF APPLE PODCASTS CONNECT, INCLUDING THROUGH YOUR USE OF AN API INTEGRATION, AND THE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH IT (COLLECTIVELY, "PODCASTS CONNECT"). TO AGREE TO THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, CLICK "AGREE." BY CLICKING AGREE, YOU CERTIFY TO APPLE AND AGREE THAT YOU ARE THE LEGAL AGE OF MAJORITY IN THE JURISDICTION IN WHICH YOU RESIDE (AT LEAST 18 YEARS OF AGE IN MANY COUNTRIES OR REGIONS) AND HAVE THE RIGHT AND AUTHORITY TO ENTER INTO THIS AGREEMENT ON YOUR OWN BEHALF, OR IF YOU ARE ENTERING INTO THIS AGREEMENT ON BEHALF OF YOUR COMPANY, ORGANIZATION, EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION, OR AGENCY, INSTRUMENTALITY, OR DEPARTMENT OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, THAT YOU HAVE THE RIGHT AND AUTHORITY TO LEGALLY BIND SUCH ENTITY OR ORGANIZATION TO THE TERMS AND OBLIGATIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, DO NOT CLICK "AGREE," AND DO NOT USE PODCASTS CONNECT. YOU MUST ACCEPT AND ABIDE BY THESE TERMS OF SERVICE AS PRESENTED TO YOU; CHANGES, ADDITIONS, OR DELETIONS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE, AND APPLE MAY REFUSE ACCESS TO PODCASTS CONNECT FOR NONCOMPLIANCE WITH ANY PART OF THESE TERMS OF SERVICE.

1.Access. Access to Podcasts Connect is provided solely as an accommodation and at Apple's sole discretion and is available to you to the extent you are, or are an authorized representative of, the person or an entity (a "Content Provider") that has submitted one or more valid podcasts and any related photos, images, graphics or other artwork related to particular podcast content (“Content Images”) and/or audio, text, comments, data, metadata and other materials (all such content, collectively, or individually, as context requires, referred to herein as “Content”) to Apple or Apple affiliates for distribution on Apple’s digital podcast distribution service (“Apple Podcasts”) regardless of the device or platform on which Apple Podcasts is made available. Your access to particular Podcasts Connect services may be further limited by the Podcasts Connect administrative user(s) for the Content Provider with which you are associated. As a condition to your access to Podcasts Connect and the distribution of your Content on Apple Podcasts, you must comply with Apple’s technical documentation, requirements, and content guidelines (collectively, “Apple Requirements”) that govern the use of Podcasts Connect and the Content, including without limitation, you shall not engage in any unlawful, unfair, misleading, fraudulent, improper, or dishonest acts or business practices relating to the Content or use of Podcasts Connect. Accordingly, subject to applicable law, Apple reserves the right to label or remove your Content and suspend your access to Podcasts Connect if you violate the Apple Requirements. The Apple Requirements may be updated from time to time and made available to you by Apple (e.g., on the Apple Podcasts for Creators website or by other digital means).

2.System Requirements. To use Podcasts Connect you need compatible hardware, software (latest version recommended or required), and Internet access (fees may apply). The performance of Podcasts Connect may be affected by these factors. You acknowledge and agree that such system requirements, which may be changed from time to time, are your responsibility.

3.Agreement. Your use of Podcasts Connect is, if applicable, subject to the terms of any agreement between yourself and Apple with regard to your Content (“Agreement”), including, without limitation, its confidentiality provisions. In the event of a direct conflict between these Terms of Service or any information provided on Podcasts Connect, on the one hand, and any applicable Agreement, on the other hand, the terms of such Agreement shall govern with respect to such conflict.

4.Confidentiality. You acknowledge that, in the course of your use of Podcasts Connect, you may have access to certain information and materials that are confidential and are of substantial value to Apple, including, but not limited to, any proposed Agreement you download from Podcasts Connect or you otherwise receive from Apple, which value would be impaired if such information were disclosed to third parties or used for purposes other than expressly permitted by such Agreement, or as set forth herein ("Apple Confidential Information"). You agree to maintain any Apple Confidential Information in confidence, and not disclose or otherwise make available Apple Confidential Information to any third party without the prior written consent of Apple. In the event either party chooses not to enter into an Agreement, you agree to destroy all copies of any Apple Confidential Information in your possession, including any proposed Agreement(s).

5.Your Information. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information required to register with Podcasts Connect and at other points as may be required in the course of using Podcasts Connect ("Podcaster Data"). You hereby confirm that any Podcaster Data you provide and already have provided to Apple (including, without limitation, in the Apple Podcasts application process or through prior use of Podcasts Connect) is accurate, current, and complete. You further agree to maintain and update your Podcaster Data as required to keep it accurate, current, and complete.

6.Account and Password. As a registered user of Podcasts Connect, you must establish an account ("Account"). You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your Account. You may not reveal your Account information to anyone else, allow anyone else to use your Account, or use anyone else’s Account. You are entirely responsible for all activities that occur on or through your Account, and you agree to immediately notify Apple of any unauthorized use of your Account or any other breach of security. Apple shall not be responsible for any losses arising out of the unauthorized or other improper use of your Account.

7.No Programmatic Access. You may not use any data mining, robots, scripting, or similar data gathering and extraction tools to access Podcasts Connect, including, without limitation, the Podcasts Analytics Service, and you shall not exploit Podcasts Connect, or any data therein, in any manner not expressly authorized by Apple.

8.License. (a)As necessary to provide and enhance the end user experience on Apple Podcasts (e.g., accessibility, search and recommendations), you grant Apple a non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid up, worldwide license to use, download, store, reproduce, publicly display and perform, and distribute your Content on Apple Podcasts. You further grant Apple a non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid up, worldwide license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of (solely for formatting and sizing), and publicly display and perform, in any media, your Content Images (including, without limitation, delivering Content Images for display on end users’ devices where content featuring the Content is present, including, in any case, as an image associated with an episode, a podcast, channel, or a collection of podcasts), other promotional materials you provide to Apple, and any derivatives thereof, for the purposes of promoting Apple Podcasts and your Content (e.g., promotion on Apple Podcasts, on social media and through directed marketing emails to end users). Apple may use the names and authorized likenesses of the hosts and guests of your podcasts in furtherance of promoting your Content, although Apple shall obtain further written approval from you if any such host or guest name, likeness, or identifying material is otherwise used as an endorsement of Apple, Apple Podcasts, or other Apple products or services. (b)You grant Apple the right to create transcripts of your Content (“Transcripts”) and to (i) publicly display such Transcripts on Apple Podcasts and (ii) use your Content and/or Transcripts to generate chapters of your Content for public display; provided that Apple shall provide you with the ability, within Podcasts Connect or by other digital means, to opt out of the public display of such Transcripts and chapters on Apple Podcasts, except where the display of such Transcripts is required by applicable law. (c)You grant Apple a nonexclusive, worldwide, and royalty-free license to use your Content for internal research and development to improve Apple’s products and services. (d)Apple may edit, resize or crop Content Images to fit the design and layout of Apple Podcasts or the space allotted in promotional materials, or modify the Content to make it consistent with technical and formatting requirements in the Apple Requirements, which for clarity includes the right to modify metadata as reasonably necessary to correct errors therein. (e)Apple may in its sole discretion use all or some of the metadata you provide hereunder, or supplement or replace such metadata.

9.Rights Clearances and Royalties. With respect to the Content (including Content Images), you represent and warrant that: (a)you own or have otherwise obtained all rights, licenses, releases, and permissions to submit and make your Content available on Apple Podcasts and to grant the rights granted to Apple and its affiliates in these Terms of Service, including without limitation, applicable licenses respecting all sound recordings and musical compositions contained in any Content made available on Apple Podcasts; (b)your Content and its submission and use as authorized in these Terms of Service will not violate (1) any applicable law, (2) any third-party intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other rights, or (3) any agreements with, or policies of, a third party related to use of the Content as permitted in these Terms of Service; (c)you are responsible for making full and timely payments of all royalties, residuals, equitable remuneration, participation payments and/or other sums payable for any rights and/or waivers obtained pursuant to (i) above, and all payments that may be required under any collective bargaining, union or guild agreements related to the Content or its exploitation or other use hereunder, including any similar payments which are not now but hereafter become payable; (d)you have the authority to make the foregoing representations and warranties on behalf of yourself and any entity on behalf of which you are making available the Content on Apple Podcasts.

10.Analytics. To the extent that Apple provides an analytics service through Podcasts Connect for content distributed on Apple Podcasts excluding any applications or associated information distributed on the App Store (“Podcasts Analytics Service”), you acknowledge that the Podcasts Analytics Service is provided solely as a convenience to you and agree, unless otherwise authorized in writing by Apple, to use any data provided through such Podcasts Analytics Service solely for purposes of internal business analytics, including promotion and marketing purposes, and making data available to advertisers solely as necessary to monetize Content, and subject to the following conditions and restrictions: (a)You agree not to provide such information to any third parties or allow third parties to access your account in Podcasts Connect (b)You must not aggregate (or permit any third party to aggregate) analytics information provided to you by Apple as part of the Podcasts Analytics Service with other content providers’ analytics information, or contribute such information to a repository for cross-content provider analytics. (c)You must not use the Podcasts Analytics Service or any analytics data to attempt to identify or derive information about any particular end-user or device. (d)If you are receiving analytics data from an analytics service offered by the App Store for your applications (if any), this Section 10(d) does not apply to any such analytics data received from such analytics service and your use thereof shall be guided by any applicable Apple Developer Program License Agreement that governs your distribution of any such applications. (e)You agree that Apple may share anonymized aggregated listening data collected via referral links with certain third-party services who provide such links for the purposes of promoting your content on Apple Podcasts.

11.Intellectual Property. (a)Acknowledgement of Ownership. You agree that Podcasts Connect contains proprietary information and material that is owned by Apple and/or its licensors, and is protected by applicable intellectual property and other laws, including but not limited to copyright, and that you will not use such proprietary information or materials in any way whatsoever except for use of Podcasts Connect in compliance with these Terms of Service. No portion of Podcasts Connect may be reproduced in any form or by any means. (b)Copyrights. All copyrights in and to Podcasts Connect are owned by Apple and/or its licensors. (c)Trademarks. Apple, the Apple logo, iTunes, Podcasts Connect and other Apple trademarks, service marks, graphics, and logos used in connection with Podcasts Connect are trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. You are granted no right or license with respect to any of the aforesaid trademarks and any use of such trademarks.

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17.Miscellaneous. Subject to Section 3 above, these Terms of Service constitute the entire agreement between you and Apple and govern your use of Podcasts Connect, superseding any prior agreements between you and Apple. If any part of these Terms of Service is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion shall be construed in a manner consistent with applicable law to reflect, as nearly as possible, the original intentions of the parties, and the remaining portions shall remain in full force and effect. Apple's failure to enforce any right or provisions in these Terms of Service will not constitute a waiver of such provision, or any other provision of these Terms of Service. Apple will not be responsible for failures to fulfill any obligations due to causes beyond its control.

Last updated: November 4, 2025

Reproduced by Podnews for critical and educational purposes, as protected under international copyright law.

On Mar 5 2024, Apple Podcasts launched one of the biggest innovations in podcasting for some time - full transcripts for almost every podcast out there. Here’s a comprehensive article to answer any questions you might have.

Does Apple Podcasts have a fancy page showing this off?

Yes. Here it is.

Which podcasts get transcripts?

All new episodes in thirteen supported languages.

Apple has now completed producing transcripts for all older episodes, too. There’s more than 125 million of them!

How quickly are transcripts added?

They appear a while after the publication of a new episode. The website says: “For new episodes, make sure it’s been at least 24 hours since your episode was published.”

In our experience, automated transcripts appear at the same time as a new show appears. If you’re supplying an accompanying transcript via your RSS feed, that can take a little longer to be ingested.

Next...

Where do these transcripts appear?

You’ll see them in iOS 17.4 (and greater) on iPhone, and iPadOS 17.4 (and greater) on iPad.

Here’s how to update to the latest version of iOS or iPadOS.

There are two views of transcripts within Apple Podcasts on mobile: a simple one in the episode view, and when hitting the transcript button in the player, which highlights word-by-word and lets you touch the paragraph you’d like to hear.

And, as of October 2025, they also appear in the Podcasts app on your Mac, using iOS 26. This is what they look like there.

Are they highlighting word-by-word?

Yes - well, sentence by sentence in most cases. Apple matches up the transcript to the audio.

(We’d presume that this additional step will allow them to spot any podcaster who throws lots of spam in their transcription).

It also shows the existence of musical interludes as you listen, with the use of a little three-dot pause symbol. As you might expect, it’s a very similar experience to Apple Music’s lyrics, and Apple Books.

Can you see chapter titles in the transcript view?

Yes, you can.

Can you see images from chapter titles in the transcript view?

Yes, as you listen. They appear at the top of the screen. Here’s the Podnews Weekly Review inside a chapter with an image.

Does it show speaker names?

Not for Apple’s auto-transcripts (because they don’t know who’s speaking).

But, if you supply your own transcripts - see below - and mark them up correctly, then it does show speaker names - both for VTT and SRT transcripts. Again, here’s the Podnews Weekly Review.

Can I use the transcripts to find parts of podcasts I'm interested in?

Absolutely you can. There's a search button in both views on iPhone, allowing you to search the full transcript. On MacOS it's a little harder - use the ellipsis button next to the episode title to "View transcript", where you'll see the older view with a search button.

You can also touch a part of the transcript to get the player to go to that part of the podcast. Hold it, or right-click it on desktop, for more options including the possibility of sharing from that point.

Can I copy/paste the transcripts?

You can highlight a short paragraph to send to someone else, yes. While the app will let you highlight the entire script, it won’t let you copy more than a few paragraphs, though.

Do I have to download the podcast’s audio to read the transcript?

No.

How does this work with dynamically-inserted ads?

We listened to an episode of The Daily from the New York Times. Our version had an ad for the Queensland Government at the start, telling us to wear sunscreen. This portion of the podcast did not have a transcript at all: but we also didn’t see a transcript of what listeners in the US got either.

Apple says: “If portions of your episode change with dynamically inserted audio, Apple Podcasts will not display the segments of the audio that have changed since the original transcription.”

As a creator, do I have to use Apple’s auto-transcripts?

No. You can opt-in to a feature that lets you use your own transcripts. They use the standard podcast:transcript tag from the Podcasting 2.0 project.

First, opt-in to using your own transcripts in Apple Podcasts Connect; then, ensure you’re linking to either VTT (or an SRT fallback) in your RSS feed.

Can I turn transcripts off altogether for my podcast?

You can. It's a super-hidden setting, but you'd go in Apple Podcasts to your podcast, go to the episode, choose "Free RSS" under Audio & Transcripts, hit the "EDIT" button at the bottom of the dialog box, choose "use a custom setting", and in the drop-down box, choose "Do not display transcripts for this episode".

It's bad to do this because you're communicating that you don't care about accessibility; it might be illegal in your country; and listeners can just turn auto-captions on using their mobile phone anyway. We'd suggest you didn't do that.

Which podcast hosting companies support transcripts?

Apple has a list, though there are more.

Can I edit Apple's auto-transcripts?

No. But you can download the auto-transcript, and use that to edit a corrected version if your podcast host supports the transcript feature; or edit it directly on your podcast host.

What’s the typeface they’re using?

What a geeky question. It’s one of the fonts designed for Apple Books: we think it’s New York. Well done you.

More seriously, we understand that the podcasts team spent considerable time with the accessibility specialists at Apple, ensuring that everything from the font choice to the colour contrast works properly.

Can I download Apple’s auto-transcripts?

As a content creator? Yes, as a VTT file. You can do this from Apple Podcasts Connect - go to an episode, look at “Audio and Transcripts”, and click the Free RSS box. That will then give you a dialog box to let you view the auto-generated transcript and allow you to download it.

As a listener? Not as a VTT file, but you can highlight the transcript in the Apple Podcasts app, and copy/paste portions over (but not the whole thing).

Automatically? The URL has one opaque v4 RFC4122-type GUID, and one v5 GUID that is related to the episode, as well as Apple’s proprietary episode ID, and uses an account token, so no, you’re not automatically downloading this file as far as we can tell.

Where is the Apple’s specification for the VTT file or the tag?

They really don’t say much, but it’s here.

An Apple-generated VTT file for one of our daily podcasts is here for you to download. There are a few different voices in here.

Why VTT?

VTT also works with HTML’s AUDIO tag.

Is there a VTT validator?

Sure - here’s one. Apple’s downloadable file validates correctly.

The WebVTT specification is here on the W3C website.

How can I make a VTT file?

If your podcast host wants a VTT file, then you can make one using an audio editor like Hindenburg Pro (right-click in manuscript view, and export as VTT).

Or you can use something like Whisper on your Mac to make one. Here are lots of instructions to install it.

There are also VTT file editors available online. We quite like Spreaker’s free podcast transcription website, which is also available as a desktop app.

You can even open a VTT file in a text editor to make simple edits (like correcting spelling of names).

I upload my podcast to YouTube. Can I get a VTT file from YouTube?

Absolutely, you can. Here's how:

• Go to https://studio.youtube.com
• Click “subtitles” in the left-hand menu
• Click the episode you want the subtitles for
• You’ll see an entry for “English (automated captions)”. Hold your mouse over the “Published” text and you’ll see three icons - an edit icon, a trashbin icon, and a three-dot menu.
• Click the three-dot menu and choose “Download”
• …and finally, choose .vtt

Does Apple make auto-transcripts for private podcasts?

No, they don’t. But Jason Snell says that if you produce transcripts in the RSS feed, those will show.

Can we show transcripts using WebVTT in a web player?

Sure you can. It’s a standard, too.

Our Editor has much too much time on his hands and has written this. There’s a gotcha with Safari desktop, which he thinks he’s got past.

Where is more information about the podcast:transcript feature and its support?

We'd recommend a look at this page on the Podcasting 2.0 website, and these notes on implementation.

If you're looking for newsletters containing new podcasts to listen to, here are some of our favourites.

• Our own newpodcasts.net claims it has a weekly newsletter. It will, when enough people want it! But until then, get the podcast for new podcast trailers, delivered into your podcast app (and links to listen).
• Love NPR podcasts? Join the club - no, literally, the NPR Pod Club, a weekly podcast recommendation newsletter which shares highlights from across the NPR network. The curated picks are a mix of NPR's well-known programs like This American Life and newer shows too.
• The End is for fiction podcasts that have reached the end - i.e., shows where you can hear the whole story, perfect for binge-listening.
• Hurt Your Brain — Erik Jones links to specific episodes of podcasts he's listened to, and a few other fun links of interest. (example)
• EarBods Podcast Collective gives you five podcast episodes according to a theme; and does it every week. (example)
• Podcast Review has a newsletter and full reviews, from the LA Review of Books.
• PodcastBrunchClub - like book club, but for podcasts. This newsletter gives a set of episodes on a theme every month, and some music to go with it too. (example)
• Podcast The Newsletter calls itself “your weekly love letter to podcasts and the people who make them”. (example)
• Podcast Delivery gives you one new podcast recommendation every Monday.
• Podyssey·fm "rounds up some great podcasts episodes to help you get through the week with the weird, interesting, and newsworthy." - at the bottom of their website. (example)

If you know of others, please let us know. We’re editor@podnews.net

Back in September 2019, Apple Podcasts sent an email to all podcasters reminding them not to put episode numbers in titles.

Read on, and discover what you need (or don't need) to do.

What you need to know

• Apple Podcasts does not want episode numbers in podcast episode titles on its platform
• This doesn't mean you can't put episode numbers in podcast episode titles elsewhere
• Apple will not throw you out of Apple Podcasts for this anyway

Tell me more

I've just heard that Apple don't want episode numbers in podcast episode titles!

Yes, though this advice is actually from mid 2017. Apple said that it wanted Apple Podcasts to be a good-looking, consistent experience; and it really doesn't want episode numbers cluttering up a podcast episode title.

So, for Serial, for example:
Good: Some Time When Everything Has Changed
Bad: S03 Episode 09: Some Time When Everything Has Changed

So what happens to the episode numbers?

Apple Podcasts has a special place you can put them: a "season" and "episode" tag. Your podcast host will probably support those additional fields. So your listeners will still see the episode numbers; just not within the title.

What's the point of that?

Episode numbers in titles are ugly, but they're also impossible for computers to accurately read since few people do it the same way.

Using a proper episode tag means that a computer can understand what the episode number is, and that's good news for accessibility, voice-control, and all kinds of other things.

And it lets computers sort the episodes (and the seasons) in the right order.

But I've just looked. Serial has got it wrong! They ARE titling their podcasts with episode numbers! Look!

That's right, on other platforms. Here's what's going on in Serial's RSS feed.

<title>S03 Episode 09: Some Time When Everything Has Changed</title>
<itunes:title>Some Time When Everything Has Changed</itunes:title> <itunes:season>3</itunes:season>
<itunes:episode>9</itunes:episode>
<itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType>

See the tags that say "iTunes" at the start? Those are specifically used by iTunes, if they exist. So, iTunes will use the title without an episode number. And other apps might use the title with an episode number.

Say that again?

As long as the <itunes:title> does not have the episode number in it, then Apple is good with that: no matter what is in the <title>.

So I can have more than one title for each episode - one for Apple, and one not?

You bet. Your host can help here. Libsyn, for example, lets you enter these titles separately when you upload an episode. Your own podcast host might also be able to do the same.

So I have to go back and remove my episode numbers?

Ideally, Apple would like you to put episode numbers in the proper place, which is the episode tag, and use the 'title' field for its proper use, which is just to put the title in, yes.

But I have hundreds of episodes!

Your host might help here. Libsyn has a bulk title editor, as one example.

Will Apple remove me from Apple Podcasts? I don't want to be removed from Apple Podcasts.

Apple confirmed to Podnews at the time that your show won't be removed for having episode numbers in episode titles.

But if the data for your podcast is correctly formatted, and Apple's systems can get the episode number from the episode tag, that's good for your podcast because it'll help more people find it and play it.

But my host doesn't support the iTunes Title, or episode numbers!

These tags have been around since June 2017. If your podcast host hasn't updated their platform since then, our best advice to you would be to leave them, and find one that does.

Bloody Apple! How dare they?

Apple's still responsible for about 50% of all podcast plays: and Apple's podcast directory is used by most other apps. Almost 90% of the industry uses Apple's data. And were it not for Apple, podcasting wouldn't be anywhere as large as it is today.

And this is the right thing to do, in our opinion: good for accessibility and for organising podcasts.

How many apps support episode numbers anyway?

Doesn't really matter: if episode numbers are important to you, you can still use them for other apps.

But to directly answer your question: in March 2019, we did an audit and not very many apps supported them.

Now, in 2025, not much has changed. Apple Podcasts and Pocket Casts supports them nicely; so does Truefans.

Apps that don’t: Spotify, Overcast, YouTube Music, Fountain, Alora, AntennaPod, etc.

It’s a shame and a little perplexing, since sorting shows by seasons and episode numbers - only possible when you’re correctly using the right tags - makes a podcast app looks much better.

On Sep 3 2025, the New York Times ran a headline, “Behind the Numbers: How Hollywood Missed Its Mark This Summer”, on how an expected return to pre-COVID spending failed to happen. At the top of the article was this graph (I’ve added a blue trend line).

I believe that consumption patterns for traditional entertainment will not return to pre-COVID levels. And while COVID had a drastic impact on the industry, it was not the cause of the ongoing decline. The most positive interpretation of this chart is that the curve may be starting to flatten, but there is no sign of a rebound from a trend that began in 2014.

What we are seeing is instead a massive disruption in how we consume entertainment content — and how publishers distribute the same.

The IAB Brand Disruption Report, highlighting data from 2022, showed that North American consumers spend more time with creator-based media than all traditional entertainment media.

And let’s not forget that digital video ad spend surpassed traditional TV spend in 2024 and is expected to reach 58% of spend this year.

And yet, time and again, I run into the same misbelief that “these creators are just kids in their bedroom” and nothing for traditional media to worry about.

Sure, there are plenty of creators who started with a camera in their bedroom, but a growing number of these “kids” have full-fledged and staffed businesses that are generating significant revenue while building brands that their audiences are willing to pay to watch.

Spotify made a notable move into video recently and has already seen significant growth, with “more than 350 million users” watching a video podcast on Spotify.

YouTube is likely the best known platform for longer-form video, and recently announced that next year they will be launching Digital Ad Insertion tech for YouTube creators to deliver sponsorships: a move that will transform advertising in social video, just as it did in podcast audio.

• Mr. Beast runs an entertainment brand with a net worth of over $1 billion.
• College Humour made a name for itself on YouTube before rebranding as Dropout TV, with a paid subscription app on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Android TV, and select smart TVs. CEO Sam Reich went on the record to say that they are within spitting distance of a million monthly paid subscribers, giving them an estimated monthly recurring revenue of over $6 million.
• Rhett and Link met in elementary school and launched a comedy channel on YouTube. Their company, Mythical Entertainment, has a staff of over 100 people, 34 million subscribers, and partial annual earnings of $36 million.
• The list goes on and on with hundreds of thousands of creators generating significant monthly revenue on these platforms.

Many in traditional media continue to wave these away as outliers, but this is dangerously short-sighted. I believe we are now living through the disruption that is forming the future of entertainment and we don’t have to look too deep to see the issues at play in traditional media.

Paramount and Skydance’s $8bn merger is resulting in more than 2,000 layoffs. It’s not alone, with Deadline reporting thousands of job losses in the media business throughout the year.

Disruption is never a clean line in the sand, but rather a series of forces that slowly undermine the ground an industry is built upon, with many false starts and stops, requiring and selecting for more nimble organizations (and in this case, content creators) that can adapt and leverage these changes. But the end result is a seismic transformation of the landscape.

I wanted to end with a trend we are watching in South Asia where broadcasters, production companies, and creators appear to be hedging on, or even bypassing traditional distribution — and launching their shows directly on platforms like YouTube, both ad supported and pay-per-view. Some sources claim that over 90% of all online video consumption in the region happens on YouTube.

YouTube reach in India alone is 491 million people, making it not just a viable distribution platform, but a behemoth. We expect it is only a matter of time before this is copied by producers in North America, with high likelihood this is already in play. YouTube is already the largest TV company in the US, say Nielsen.

Media and entertainment are being disrupted by both platforms and creators.

These creators are not kids in a bedroom, they are business owners building new empires.

They require tools built for this environment from pioneering firms in audience targeting, brand safety, data analysis, order management, and more – new solutions for a new era.

I am probably one of the few people in this community with an actual AI research background - I have several research papers, patents (one issued, one pending), I was the head of AI for Streamyard and I’m now running my 2nd AI startup.

Considering articles like this one decrying AI slop, you might expect me to defend AI or make a rebuttal.

Here’s the thing, what I understand by the term “AI” and what most people understand by that term is very different, and my main opinion about AI is that most people don’t really understand it.

AI isn’t monolithic

People talk about AI as if it were a monolithic thing, and when I hear people blame “AI” for the flood of slop on social media, it sounds as ridiculous as blaming “math” for inflation.

What you are really complaining about are people misusing tools from companies like Midjourney, who have incorporated a specific kind of AI into their software. These companies involve AI in their software as much as the US federal reserve uses math in its forecasts.

Much like there are many kinds of math used for many different things, there are many kinds of AI used for many different things.

How they work

When people talk about AI these days, they are usually talking about AI generated images/video or Large Language Models like ChatGPT.

For most people, ChatGPT is like a helpful assistant, and you don’t need to know about the details, but sometimes the details do matter.

Large Language Models are so named because they are statistical models used to predict language - like the next word in a sentence. You may have heard that LLMs are basically fancy auto-complete and that’s absolutely true.

LLMs first start by taking words in a sentence, and converting each word into a list of numbers, and then do a number of math operations, and the output is a list of 50,000 numbers, one number for each word in the dictionary.

Training involves taking text, randomly hiding a portion of it, and adjusting the model weights (numbers used in the math operations) until it maximizes the number corresponding to the correct next word.

To generate a full chat response, these models start with a blank sentence, and predict the next word one word at a time. It’s as if you opened a new message on an iPhone and just kept choosing the auto-complete suggestions until you’ve written a paragraph.

The effect of this is to optimize for outputs that look like coherent sentences, even if they aren’t factually correct. Large Language Models have been trained on such large quantities of data that they actually do learn real facts, so when you write “The capital of France is ___”, these models learn to predict “Paris” as the next word.

But when an LLM “doesn’t know” something, it still predicts the next token, and will eventually make up something that sounds correct even if it isn’t - this is called “hallucination”.

You could try “The capital of armadillo is ___”. There is no word that makes sense to complete that sentence, but a standard LLM will still pick the most probable word (“the” in the case of GPT2) and it’ll go on to finish a nonsensical sentence.

If this isn’t apparent in your conversations with LLMs, it is because AI labs have hired tens of thousands of people to provide feedback to the models so that they can write good emails or working code and otherwise actually sound like a helpful human assistant.

This creates the illusion that you’re talking to someone super smart and helpful, and most people mistake this for general competence, whereas many LLMs often just make stuff up.

These AI tools are terrible

I say this because when you use AI tools like Opus Clips to find clips, all they are doing is feeding the transcript to ChatGPT and asking it to find \~30 clips, many of which just aren’t very good.

Because ChatGPT wasn’t trained on editing tasks, it will often create responses that look right on paper but are actually terrible in practice. If you ask a model to find 30 clips in a 5 minute dialog, of course it will generate nonsense.

Developers (who know as much about AI as you do) then build wrappers around these models, which are expensive and hallucinate, and everyone concludes that “well, AI isn’t perfect”

This all seems incredibly stupid and dystopian to me.

It’s not like you couldn’t build an AI system, trained by actual editors, that came up with reliably good edits. It's entirely possible to build models that can listen to, or watch full podcast episodes, and make cuts or choose shots for artistic effect.

But that would require actual AI research and it’s a lot easier to use to build a wrapper around ChatGPT and slap “AI video editor” onto some marketing copy, so that’s what most companies in this space do.

It’s as lazy as the slop now flooding the internet, and when I read about stories like this, I don’t see an AI company, I see some idiots who hooked up to an API from Eleven Labs and are wasting everyone’s time and money.

A better way

Okay, I’ve been overly critical, so let’s talk about good uses of AI in podcasting, and I’ll focus on editing because that’s what I know best.

There are some tasks for which generative AI can do a good job like generating a podcast “intro” music or animation that might have otherwise taken days, or asking an LLM to remove a specific section of a conversation with a prompt.

At its best, AI (in the broadest sense) can either help

• Speed up the work you do
• Enable you to do things you couldn’t do before

You’re likely familiar with AI tools to remove filler or create clips but this space is still evolving and as “Agent based editing” (asking an AI model to do edits for you) gets more popular, I predict (a) you’ll see editing times go down further, and (b) people without editing experience putting out high production-value content.

AI coding tools have made it possible for small teams or even individual programmers to do what previously only large companies could do, and I suspect that in the world of podcasting, talented individual creators will now be making content at a level of production quality that would have previously required a full team.

While many AI editing tools aren’t great right now, market dynamics dictate they will either improve or perish, and I’m certainly improving mine.

Despite the rise of video podcasting, I know a lot of audio podcasters have been hesitant to go into video. The primary hesitation I hear though is around the added complexity of video editing, but, as editing gets easier I’d guess you’d see more podcasters going into video. In the past, creating a separate audio edit that respects audio as a medium, and a separate video edit that takes advantage of video as a medium, would have been too much editing effort, but if automation can reduce editing effort, I don’t see why more podcasts wouldn’t be able to embrace multiple formats.

With AI to help you edit, it doesn’t have to be “Audio” or “Video” - it can be “Yes and”?

Apple Podcasts is promoting that shows in its “Series Essentials” are ad-free this month - but publishers aren’t being compensated for the loss of revenue.

One publisher confirmed to Podnews that, in order to be promoted in the app as part of the feature, it was required by Apple to offer the show ad-free. “After the promotional month, we could turn on ads again,” the publisher told us.

Apple Podcasts did not confirm to Podnews that it is offering publishers any payment for offering their shows ad-free for this feature.

Podnews has heard from some in the industry who are unhappy about the loss of revenue when taking part in a promotion like this. Some publishers sell paid subscriptions through Apple Podcasts, and while this promotion may lead to increased take-up of those paid subscriptions, this is seen as a gamble for publishers. Apple, however, gains to benefit both ways: unaffected by any lack of ad revenue, Apple also takes a 30% commission on any paid subscription through the service.

This is in stark contrast to Amazon Music, which offers ad-free podcasts to Prime members and Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers. In order to do this, Amazon purchases ad inventory across a wide range of shows. “Amazon is buying out all ad slots on these shows on their app, so think of it as a regular ad buy,” Acast says to publishers, while the public announcement underlined that “Ad-free listening to Acast podcasts on Amazon Music will result in revenue for Acast podcasters.”

No promotion outside the app

An ad for Amazon Music in London’s Waterloo Station in 2022

Amazon Music, too, has promoted shows across European cities and regularly promotes podcasts on its Times Square billboard.

Yet, unlike TV ads promoting the Apple app store in 2015, the 30% commission for Apple Podcasts premium subscriptions has not appeared to lead to any ad campaigns for shows by Apple Podcasts.

Specifically, this “Series Essentials” feature this October was mentioned in The Hollywood Reporter, in Podnews, and some Apple tech publications, but we can’t find any coverage about the feature in any public-facing title.

“Working for nothing”

In 2015, Taylor Swift criticised Apple publicly for not paying artists during Apple Music free trials:

I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company ... Three months is a long time to go unpaid, and it is unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing.

After Swift’s blog post, it took less than 24 hours for Apple to amend their policies and pay creators for their work.

There have been significant financial constraints on podcasting in the last twelve months. Hundreds of layoffs have been made across public radio. There have also been layoffs at SiriusXM’s Earwolf; closures and 110 layoffs at Amazon’s Wondery; and the closure of Pineapple Street Studios, and other signs of financial pressure.

The “Series Essentials” feature include three shows from US public radio companies, which have been significantly affected by funding cuts over the past six months. Even those companies - while some are forced into making mass layoffs - have been asked to ensure that their work is ad-free to take part in the promotion.

Above: "Ad-free in October" is the claim: but publishers must foot the bill

Afraid to speak up

Apple Podcasts remains the #1 podcast app for consumption in the US, and therefore wields considerable power - causing many publishers to be eager not to upset the company. As Taylor Swift said back in 2015, many “are afraid to speak up publicly because we admire and respect Apple so much.”

We have seen this first-hand. Of the publishers we contacted, some responded with an official “no-comment”; while most simply ignored our request for comment. Nobody wants to risk going without an Apple Podcasts promotion for their new show, after all.

Apple has a market cap of $5.8 trillion, and made $190bn in profit this year - yet doesn’t recompense creators for offering an “ad-free” version of shows within Apple Podcasts, to help promote the platform.

We’re told by Apple that publishers are excited to be part of the campaign, since it offers additional visibility of their shows. We suspect they’d be more excited if they were also getting paid for their work.

Podcast guesting should be a business growth strategy. You show up, share your expertise, and watch the leads roll in... right?

I see this every day with smart, experienced experts. They’re guesting on podcasts to boost visibility, authority and leads on a regular basis, giving tons of value, and showing up with the best intentions—but they’re not getting the results they were hoping.

The problem? Visibility doesn’t equal conversions.

And you can’t necessarily blame the podcast or host. In fact, you have more control than you think!

You CAN lead the conversation with strategy, align your message AND guide listeners to your offer.

These three guesting mistakes could be the reason your inbox is quiet—let’s change that.

Mistake #1: Thinking “Having a Topic” Is Enough

Most podcast guests start with a few decent topics. They sound relevant. They might get them booked. But getting booked isn’t the same as getting results.

If your topic is vague, generic, or disconnected from your offer, you’re missing a major opportunity.

A strong topic does more than get you on the mic. It positions you as the expert, signals the problem you solve, and sparks curiosity around your offer. It’s the first step in guiding your audience toward wanting more from you—not just listening and moving on.

SHIFT: Your topic is more than a headline. It’s your hook, positioner and billboard!

A ‘Billboard-Ready Topic’ does 3 things:

1. Entices the host – So that they understand the value you bring, can picture the interview, and feel confident you’ll serve their audience. That’s how you get booked—especially on premium shows.
2. Hooks the listener – Your topic is often used as the episode title. When a listener decides to listen or keep scrolling, it’s the title that grabs their attention, so they know it’s relevant for them and will bring them value.
3. Signals your authority – It makes you sound like a pro, not a placeholder. It sets you apart and showcases your expertise.

It needs to stop the scroll, spark curiosity, and position you as the expert from the very beginning.

Mistake #2: Thinking “I just need to teach and share what I know.”

This one sounds helpful—generous, even. “Just give value,” they say. But teaching alone doesn’t create demand, and it doesn’t lead a conversation that converts.

You might think you already know how to talk about what you do, but if your messaging isn’t crystal clear, strategic, and compelling, you’re leaving opportunities on the table.

Rambling, using generic language, or failing to differentiate yourself makes it easy for listeners to forget you—and even harder to understand why they need your offer.

On the flip side, some guests firehose too much information, leaving the audience full or overwhelmed. They walk away with notes, not next steps.

Without structured, high-impact talking points, you blend in instead of standing out—and miss your chance to turn curiosity into conversions.

SHIFT: Your talking points should lead the listener to your offer

Think of the conversation as a ‘Bridge to Profits’ that connects the audience (and their problem or pain) and leads them down this path, to where they see YOU as the solution.

First, you want to talk about the problem, what the audience struggles with (some guests skim over that and jump to sharing tips). The audience wants to self identify, think ‘yes that’s me’, so they naturally want to listen to more of what you have to say.

You can lead listeners toward your bigger solution by telling stories, showcasing results, mentioning your programs, your formula’s, processes or frameworks. These set you apart and differentiate you over competitors.

Give them enough to spark curiosity, understand what you do and how you can serve them—but not so much they think they can DIY their way out of the problem.

Mistake #3: Going With The Flow For An ‘Organic Conversation’

But “I don’t want to sound scripted” - I get it. No one wants to sound robotic. You want flow, connection, authenticity.

But here’s the danger: When you aim for “organic” without any structure, you’re leaving your message—and your results—up to chance. Especially when the host goes rogue and the conversation starts bouncing all over the place.

Most hosts rely heavily on your one sheet to guide the interview. But if your one sheet is just a generic mix of 3 broad topics and 7–10 questions, the conversation often becomes a grab bag. They’ll pull from different sections, jump between ideas, and the result? A scattered interview that doesn’t fully showcase your expertise or lead listeners anywhere meaningful.

SHIFT: Organic doesn’t mean unprepared. Create an Interview GPS.

Structure is your secret weapon. You need a ‘compass’ to create a strategic conversation—so you can guide it naturally while still hitting the messaging that matters.

It means you’re clear enough to be conversational—and strategic enough to stay focused.

Your Interview GPS is the interview questions that you give the host. That’s how you guide the interview without sounding salesy or pushy.

Hosts will thank you. Listeners will follow you. And you will finally feel in control.

These three shifts aren’t about being rigid, scripted or sounding rehearsed. They’re about being intentional and strategic.

When you know what role your interview plays in your business (and how to show up accordingly), you stop creating content that gets applause—and start creating conversations that get clients.

If you want to stop leaving success to chance and start leading every interview with strategy - and turn your message into results, check out all 5 shifts in this free resource.

From Crickets to Clients: 5 Shifts to Turn Podcast Interviews Into Real Results

Shift from hopeful exposure to purpose-driven results and grab your copy here: www.LeverageYourPodcast.com/clients

Last week, as reported in Podnews, The Hollywood Reporter published an article about a new podcasting company. It’s safe to say that this caught people’s attention. While a few notes of congratulation flickered here and there around the podcast community, the vast majority of responses to the announcement of this new enterprise – called Inception Point AI and co-founded by Jeanine Wright, the former COO of Wondery – were somewhere on the spectrum of disbelief, shock, revulsion, and horror.

The many LinkedIn posts that flew through my feed about it said things like “deranged and despicable”, “just horrifying”, and “so bad, and so triggering, that it’s taken me a day to process it”. I must confess, dear reader, that immediately upon reading the article I shot off a late-night screed where I called the founders “monsters” who “should be ashamed of themselves”. This is not the kind of language I usually use in professional situations, but at least I was not alone in my hot-blooded reaction.

To summarize, for those of you who may have missed it, this new venture promises to revolutionize podcast production by almost completely removing human beings from the process. They propose to generate hundreds of different AI avatars who will create and release their own podcasts, without any human editing or oversight. By eliminating such obstacles as “people thinking and doing things”, they claim to be ready to unleash these totally machine-made series at an enormous scale – thousands and thousands every week – and at the cost of only around $1 per episode. Because of this shockingly low overhead, these shows need very little actual listenership in order to be economically viable. Even if only a handful of people consume each episode, so long as they can find someone willing to pay $10 to advertise to that handful they’ve made a net profit of 900%. Do that thousands of times per week, and you have a multi-million dollar company with profit margins that would make any banker do a spit take.

Of course, this is the ultimate volume play, absolute quantity over quality. Who cares if any single show is any good? Who cares if dozens or even hundreds of them are complete gibberish? There’s always another and another and another and another. As Nick Quah said in his article in Vulture about the announcement, this is “the voice of pure capital… only concerned with the crudest metrics of value.”

I’ll add that it is also the voice of a bizarre strain of apocalyptic technofuturism, with Wright attempting to ethically justify the scheme by saying “We believe that in the near future half the people on the planet will be AI, and we are the company that’s bringing those people to life”, as if she were giving voice to an oppressed minority rather than building computer programs intended to replace the jobs of human hosts, producers, writers, and engineers. To add insult to injury, Wright also breezily dismissed any of those creators who don’t immediately care to hand over their vocations to her software as “probably lazy luddites”.

Unsurprisingly, this last statement made the largest impression on the field. Aside from the absolute bizzaro assertion that taking the time to write and record things is somehow more lazy than just pushing a button and having it done automatically... “luddites”? Really? We’re in digital media here, not tallow candlemaking. As for myself, I’ll see your “lazy luddites” and raise you a “‘misguided moneygrubber”. Misguided because your model cannot be sustained, no matter how small your COGS and how vast your margins. You are bound to fail because you don’t understand the needs of your customers.

People don’t listen to podcasts because they need to fill a block of time with sound, and any sound will do. They listen because they want to be educated, entertained, or inspired in a way that can only come from the connection of human minds at a distance. This is the ultimate purpose of all media, and all art. Someone thinks a thought, then expresses that thought as well and beautifully as they are able, then someone else in a different place, in a different time, can experience that thought, and let it create new thoughts inside of them that they in turn can work to express.

Even when an advertisement is attached, or when they know that they are consuming branded content, people tolerate the promotion because they crave the connection. Your phone, in the end, is what the radio and the television are – a remedy for loneliness. They are ways to bring new people – interesting people that you enjoy spending time with – into your life and your home. Nothing is lonelier than realizing those people were not people after all, or even worse, just more pieces of software that exist only to feed you advertising. Without being driven by human expression, anything produced is a medium without a message, an empty pizza box in place of a meal. You have successfully delivered something of the correct size and shape, but no nourishment can be taken from it.

And what happens to a medium when people have a hard time finding value in it? The audience vanishes. Despite the best assurances of every AI content creation startup, people will not continue to consume any pieces of media you shove at them. You can score some very short-term wins by flooding the market with garbage — people will watch or listen to low-quality things once or twice because they stumble upon them, but they will not keep returning. To build an audience and hold it you must consider their needs and provide them with something truly worthwhile. The joy of a podcast is in listening to a human voice, and hearing what it has to say. Remove that, and there’s nothing left.

When podcasters talk about marketing, the same platforms dominate the conversation: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram. The advice is always the same. Cut clips, chase trends, hope for virality.

But LinkedIn? Almost nobody mentions it.

That is a mistake. LinkedIn has quietly become one of the most powerful discovery channels for podcasts, especially those aimed at founders, professionals, and creators. My own show, Produced By, now reaches thousands of weekly listeners on Spotify. Alongside partnerships and distribution tools, LinkedIn has been the most consistent driver of long-term growth and community around the podcast.

So how does a platform best known for CVs and recruiters end up driving podcast growth?

Why LinkedIn Works for Podcasts

The first reason is the audience. LinkedIn has more than 1 billion members worldwide and is filled with high-intent professionals, entrepreneurs, and creators. They are not looking for quick entertainment. They want ideas, tools, and stories that improve their work and life. That is exactly what many podcasts aim to deliver.

Second, the algorithm. While other social platforms increasingly prioritise paid promotion, LinkedIn still gives strong organic reach. A thoughtful post can reach thousands of people without ad spend. Hootsuite’s 2025 LinkedIn algorithm guide shows how engagement and consistency still drive visibility. When a post points to a podcast, the impact compounds.

Finally, the context. On TikTok or Instagram your podcast competes with memes and music videos. On LinkedIn, it sits next to your professional identity. That positioning adds credibility and trust, making someone more likely to listen.

For podcasters interested in podcast discovery, this mix of reach, trust, and intent is rare.

What I’ve Tried (and What Worked)

Growing Produced By through LinkedIn meant going beyond link-dropping. I treated LinkedIn as a first-class content platform, not just a noticeboard.

Some of the strategies that worked:

• Story-driven posts: Instead of announcing “new episode out now”, I shared a personal hook or lesson from the guest. People clicked because of the story, not the link.
• Carousels and text posts: Visual posts highlighting key takeaways consistently outperformed audio clips. They also travelled further because people reshared them.
• Before and after strategy: Creating anticipation before an episode, then posting highlights afterwards, doubled engagement compared with one-off promotion.

One carousel post highlighting guest insights spread widely on LinkedIn, and directly translated into new newsletter sign-ups for the Produced Newsletter and new podcast listeners.

Over time, those impressions compound. That is how an audience grows.

A Case in Point

A recent example is working with Ionut Spataru, with whom I am co-building FenPost, an AI-powered tool for LinkedIn creators. By sharing our process and lessons on the platform, posts about FenPost consistently spark conversations and attract new users.

It proved to me again that LinkedIn is not just a place to promote, but a place to build openly with your audience. The same principle applies to podcasts: sharing the journey creates loyalty far more effectively than one-off announcements.

Three Lessons for Other Podcasters

From these experiments, three takeaways stand out:

1. Think LinkedIn-first. Do not recycle content. Translate your episode into LinkedIn-native stories, lessons, or conversation starters.
2. Consistency compounds. Posting occasionally will not move the needle. As with podcast publishing, the schedule matters.
3. Engage, do not just broadcast. Many of my most loyal listeners began as LinkedIn connections who replied to a post. Engagement creates loyalty.

This is not about gaming the algorithm. It is about showing up where your potential listeners already spend time and proving the value of your ideas.

Why This Matters for Podcasting

Podcast discovery is still broken. Millions of shows compete for attention, and new listeners often do not know where to begin. Edison Research’s Infinite Dial 2025 has shown that discoverability remains one of the biggest barriers to podcast growth. LinkedIn is not a complete fix, but it is a bridge, a space where podcast conversations meet professional curiosity.

Unlike YouTube or TikTok, LinkedIn is not yet saturated with podcasters. That means there is an early mover advantage for shows that serve professional or niche communities. The audience is hungry, the competition is lighter, and the trust factor is higher.

As Spotify’s creator resources note, sustainable growth is about loyalty rather than one-off downloads. Their guidance on retaining a loyal audience focuses on engagement and community, the very things LinkedIn does well.

For podcasters who want more than a temporary spike in numbers, LinkedIn offers something rare: long-term, loyal listeners who come for the content and stay for the conversation.

Brazil is one of those countries that outsiders tend to shrink down to clichés — Carnival, soccer, the Amazon. But the numbers tell a different story. At 8.5 million square kilometers, Brazil is only slightly smaller than all of Europe. It’s the fifth-largest country in the world by area and home to 203 million people — a market so vast it finished 2024 as the world’s 10th largest economy. In short: Brazil is not a sideshow. It’s a stage of its own.

And yet, in the global podcasting industry, Brazil is still treated like a footnote. That’s not just an oversight; it’s a strategic miscalculation.

A nation that lives online

If there’s one thing Brazilians do better than almost anyone, it’s showing up online. The Global Digital Report 2024 ranks Brazil second worldwide for time spent on the internet: nine hours and thirteen minutes a day. That’s not usage — that’s residency.

On social media, the numbers are equally staggering. Brazilians average three hours and thirty-seven minutes a day on platforms, making the country the third heaviest user base globally. With 131.5 million mobile internet users, Brazil is the digital powerhouse of Latin America.

Instagram? Fifth-largest audience in the world. YouTube? Essential daily entertainment. TikTok? Adopted by every generation. Streaming music? Second globally. Influencer culture? Third. If there’s a metric for online engagement, Brazil is in the top five.

And this isn’t passive scrolling. Brazilians mobilize online with a fervor that is both admired and feared. During the last Oscars, actress Fernanda Torres, star of I'm Still Here, generated social engagement nearly seven times greater than all her fellow nominees combined. When French newspaper Le Monde panned the film, Brazilian users delivered 22,000 comments in a single day. The Academy’s Instagram eventually blocked Brazilian comments during the live ceremony — proof that underestimating Brazilian fans comes at your peril.

International artists have learned to count on Brazil’s digital muscle. Katy Perry leaned on Brazilian fans during a difficult stretch in her career. Bruno Mars went viral with a video shot here that racked up more than 60 million views. Madonna and The Weeknd have also tapped into the country’s hyper-engaged audiences.

The joke online is that Brazil is the “emergency bailout fund for international artists.” Careers may slump elsewhere, but in Brazil, fan culture can revive them overnight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQxjmrjwq_I

Even politics isn’t immune. The infamous “Vampetaço” — a mass protest using a decades-old nude photo of soccer player Vampeta — once forced Donald Trump to shut down comments on posts about trade tariff policies imposed on Brazil. It’s hard to find a better case study in digital activism mixed with irreverent humor.

Beyond memes: a leader in podcast consumption

Beyond memes, Brazil has quietly become one of the world’s most voracious podcast markets. More than half of Brazilians listen to podcasts, averaging 11 hours a week — far ahead of the U.S., where the figure is 7.5.

YouTube is the country’s primary discovery platform, used by 81% of weekly podcast listeners. Video podcasts are especially popular, with nearly two-thirds of listeners in their 30s calling video a must-have. And while English may dominate globally, Brazil is fiercely loyal to local creators: 82% prefer podcasts in Portuguese, and 77% choose Brazilian productions. The top categories? News, technology, and politics.

The paradox is that despite this appetite, global platforms offer Brazil little more than copy-paste versions of tools built for the U.S. or Europe. Monetization systems for independent creators — standard in other markets — barely exist here. Hosting platforms rarely adapt to local pricing. Even startups that want to expand into Brazil struggle with the language barrier (no, Portuguese is not Spanish) and the challenge of recalibrating services for the Brazilian real.

The result? Billions in potential revenue left on the table.

Time to Wake Up

Brazil isn’t waiting to be “discovered.” It’s already a digital giant with a podcasting culture that rivals the biggest markets in the world. What it lacks is recognition — and infrastructure. Tools in Portuguese. Monetization systems that work in a local economy. Software designed for how Brazilians actually consume media.

In my own work with Bicho de Goiaba, I had to personally convince Justin Jackson, founder of Transistor, to build a viable solution for a Brazilian client. That shouldn’t be the exception; it should be the rule.

For global platforms, the choice is clear. Keep clinging to a U.S.–Europe axis and leave Brazil untapped — or recognize that one of the most passionate, engaged, and opportunity-rich audiences on the planet is already here, waiting.

The digital era is about real connection. And ignoring Brazil isn’t just shortsighted — it’s bad business.

This article was translated from Portuguese with some help from AI.

Podcasting, like everything else in life, needs a complicated web of online accounts and passwords. But what happens if you’re suddenly unable to do your work yourself? Who else has access to your podcast account, your website and your computer?

If you’re suddenly taken seriously ill, or worse, you can make life much easier for others if you make it easy for them to access your accounts - rather than lose access to your life’s work.

Things are stressful enough for people trying to look after your stuff, without them struggling to gain access to it in the first place.

Here’s what we’d recommend.

Invite someone you trust as a team member

Most podcast hosting companies allow you to invite “team members” to also administer your show. For every one of the shows you do, make sure that you’ve chosen someone and invite them to be part of your project. Here’s advice on that at Apple Podcasts Connect, Spotify, Buzzsprout, RSS.com, Transistor and Captivate. Do this today.

If you also have other accounts to do with your podcast, like Podpage, Github or Wordpress, do the same with these, too.

This is the easiest way to, at least, ensure that your contributors or friends aren’t instantly locked out of publishing your podcast if you’re suddenly unable to maintain it.

But it isn’t the only thing to do.

Get a password manager

There are plenty of good password managers out there. Get one.

We’d recommend Bitwarden, which is free for most things (and is $10 a year for everything). It’s open, works on everything, and you can access everything on apps and through a web browser - so they’ll not need to access your devices to get access to your passwords. (This isn’t an affiliate link - it’s just a tool we’ve used for a number of years.)

Use it

Set your main password manager to be this one: and use it. Make sure all your passwords are in there; set up the keyboard shortcuts to fill in your passwords.

A password manager is only useful if you use it all the time.

List all the passwords clearly

Make sure it’s got your main podcast accounts, banking details, and other important things in it, and that they’re easy to find.

Don’t store your Buzzsprout password under “Buzzsprout” - store it under “Podcast host: Buzzsprout”, for example, so it’s easy to search for. While you know who hosts your podcast, whoever gets access to your password manager won’t - so make it as easy as you can for them.

Help people access it

First, if you’re using Bitwarden as we suggested, set up Bitwarden Emergency Access, so your emergency contact can access your passwords.

But, even if you’ve done that - write a little document that helps someone access your password manager. (Remember that whoever reads it might not be very tech literate, so make it as easy as possible).

The way we’d do this is to write the document on your computer, but hand-write the master password. That means that even if someone hacks into your computer and finds this file, they still won’t be able to discover your master password.

Many password managers can be set to require a physical key to log in on a new machine for the first time. This is great for security, since it means you need to have something physical in order to get in. If that’s the case for you (and we’d recommend it), write down where to find your spare physical key. (“It’s on my keyring” is of no help if your keyring was in your pocket when you were on that submarine, you billionaire, you - so make sure you have a spare that works, perhaps stored in the cutlery drawer of your butler’s quarters in your third home).

You might also want to write down the PIN code that gets into your phone; and the password that gets into your laptop.

When you’ve written the document, print it out, write the passwords on it, and make sure that you can access your password manager with only the information you’ve put on the document. Then, we’d suggest putting it in a sealed, clearly marked envelope, and tell people where you’re putting it - in an obvious place where people will find it. (With your will?)

Add a “legacy contact” for your accounts

Apple has a “legacy contact” so you can share with them the data in your Apple Account after death. Your Legacy Contact can be anyone you choose, and you can designate more than one. They don’t even need an Apple Account or an Apple device. They will, though, need your death certificate.

Google has an Inactive Account Manager, which will automatically give the keys to your account to whoever you nominate (up to ten people) after at least three months of inactivity. This is no good for keeping your podcast going: but it will be very helpful for many other things.

Get a will

Making a will is the only way you can ensure that when you die, your estate will be distributed according to your wishes. And that includes your podcast business, and everything that goes with it. In most countries, if you don’t have a will then the government gets involved, and while we’re sure that at that point you won’t care, your loved ones certainly will.

The law around what makes a legal will differs by state and by country. In most cases it’s very cheap if not free to do.

Other things to read

Gordon Firemark is a US-based lawyer who has covered this in some detail (for folks in the US) in this episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pos5yAjUts8

For folks in the US and Canada, there’s an app called Empathy that can help with the nuts and bolts of dealing with loss. It comes recommended from those who have used it.

Todd Cochrane was born in Quincy, Michigan. Given a strong work ethic by his parents and grandparents, he graduated from a small, country high school in a class of less than a hundred.

In vocational tech school Todd took two years of electronics, and then joined the Navy in 1983. His official title at that time was aviation electronics technician, and he worked in electronic warfare, synthetic aperture radar and intelligence collection on P-3 Orion anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft.

After serving 21 years in the United States Navy on active duty, Todd retired in 2007 as a senior chief. In 2011, Todd attained a bachelor’s degree in professional aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Always interested in technology, Todd started to tinker with things like bulletin boards and downloading shareware while stationed in Guam. He launched his own Wildcat dial-up bulletin board in the late 1990s. As the world of the BBS began to fade, he launched a personal weblog in 2001, and in 2002 he developed a popular technology news website, Geek News Central.

In June 2004, Todd was badly hurt in a swimming accident during a deployment in Bahrain - described as a “life-changing injury” - which grounded him from flying. In recovery, he spent time in Waco TX doing contract enforcement, and during that time, he spent the evenings on his laptop surfing the internet where he stumbled upon Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code, one of the early podcasts.

Bitten by the podcasting bug, he returned home to Hawaii and told his wife. “I got the look,” he said. “She figured it out pretty quick. ‘You got two years to figure out how to make money with this thing’, she said”.

For Geek News Central, he was one of the first to podcast, in October 2004 - from “a little desk in a hotel room in Waco, Texas, and with a $14.95 microphone from the Walmart across the street”. Go Daddy became a sponsor of the show in 2005, and, after his show gave Go Daddy 370 customers in the first month, the company remained the sponsor for twenty years: the longest known podcast sponsorship. Todd began running one of the first podcast networks, the Tech Podcast Network (TPN), with twelve shows.

People listened to Geek News Central. Once, he posted feedback on a few issues he was having with his Mac. His phone rang: it was Steve Jobs, keen to learn more about the issues he was having. In the end, he was sent a new Mac for his trouble.

He wrote Podcasting, the do-it-yourself guide for Wiley Publishing in 2005, which was one of the first books written about podcasting. “Podcasting represents a new way for individuals to communicate about things they love,” he wrote: “They can broadcast content that comes from their hearts and are able to communicate with other people in a new and exciting way.”

While still working for the Navy in 2005 - “burning the candle at both ends” - Todd launched RawVoice, a media agency and the parent company of podcast hosting company Blubrry (“fresh organic media”). Never taking funding, the company was built with small investments from each business partner. He also started the Podcast Awards that year. He continued to work with naval personnel as a civilian until 2019.

He was inducted into the Podcast Hall of Fame as part of the inaugural 2015 ceremony. “Todd is a fierce advocate for podcasting and the principles it was built on,” said Podcast Movement’s Dan Franks at the time, who organised the event, “and he makes sure to stand up for the independent podcaster.”

A fierce proponent of open RSS and building your podcast on your own website using his PowerPress podcasting plugin for WordPress, Todd started streaming his Geek News Central podcast show live in 2009, and was a keen advocate of podcasting free speech, accurate podcast metrics as a strong advocate of the IAB podcast measurement guidelines and “Podcasting 2.0”. Ever willing to help progress the industry, Todd was always interested to learn and make friends with anyone in podcasting. A regular fixture at podcast events - particularly at the bar in the evening - Todd shared his expertise, and his gossip, with as many people as he could.

Todd’s weekly 13 year running New Media Show, co-hosted by Rob Greenlee, was a must-listen for those in podcasting - often described as the show where you’ll “get a PhD in podcasting”. The show was a mainstay live on main stages at Podcast Movement and Podfest Expo for many years.

Todd was one of the first financial supporters of Podnews, and the first advertiser in the classifieds section - spending more than $500 in the first 24 hours of the service going live. He did this even though Blubrry runs Podcaster News, a long-running podcast news website. He was as kind and generous to us as he was to others.

When at a conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, he not only took part in panels on stage, but also made himself available for one-on-one meetings. Most people saw the public Todd - brash, confident, no-nonsense; but I walked past him having a quiet chat with a hijab-wearing Saudi woman. Half an hour later, he was still quietly talking. “She wanted advice,” he said, later. “She wanted to do a podcast about domestic abuse, and wondered how she could remain anonymous.”

“I'm not a Joe Rogan, nor will I ever be. But what I am is a guy that grew up in the country with humble beginnings, high school education, followed by a bachelor's degree late in life in a field that I'm not even working in right now. And by God, if I can do this and succeed and grind and put out a show - anyone can.”

A proud grandfather, he died suddenly on Sep 8, 2025 while travelling back from seeing family on the West Coast. He was 61.

Todd is survived by his mother Cherie, sister Chantal, his wife Shoko, and his four children Ray, Natalie, Chris and Anna.

YouTube’s audio app, YouTube Music, is one of those apps which is installed in almost every Android phone: part of the deal that Google has with Android phone manufacturers to allow them access to the Google Play store.

YouTube Music has great playback functions designed for audio listening - like variable playback speed, a sleep timer, auto downloads, Chromecast support and everything else.

Like the main YouTube app, YouTube Music can play podcasts from the YouTube catalogue - which involves podcasters having to get YouTube to ingest their podcast.

Upsides to “having your podcasts on YouTube” are that podcasts appear in the YouTube catalogue, are suggested to people using YouTube’s algorithm, and you get stats in YouTube Studio. Downsides are that this hosts your podcast on YouTube - so you can’t use dynamic content, like ads.

YouTube Music plays RSS feeds too

Unlike the main YouTube app, YouTube Music can also play podcasts using RSS feeds, just like any other podcast app.

This works just like a normal podcast app. It supports passthrough, so a play on YouTube Music will appear as a play on your podcast host. And, it also supports dynamic advertising, too.

And, most importantly, the podcaster has to do nothing - because it just uses the standard RSS feed that they’re already producing. So, that means you can listen to any podcast in YouTube Music - regardless of whether the creators have uploaded it there.

Some hosts, like Acast, don’t let their creators upload their shows to YouTube without special permission. But, with YouTube Music, you can still listen to your favourite Acast shows - using the RSS feed instead.

Here’s an Acast show, for example, in YouTube Music. You’ll see we’re listening via RSS, because there’s a little RSS icon there. It’s still hosted by Acast, it’s still an “official” download, and it still carries the ads that help pay for the show.

It’s good news for listeners, because they can get all their favourite shows in one place - and good news for podcasters, because they still get to benefit from your listen with advertising and stats in their podcast host.

These links even work on desktop - since YouTube Music also exists as a web app.

How to add a show via RSS

This used to be quite involved: you had to go to YouTube Music, click “Library”, choose “Podcasts”, then press “Add Podcast”, and then copy and paste in an RSS feed address. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

In the last week, the company has enabled a method for a direct “play on YouTube Music” link - a way to directly let listeners add a podcast to their app via an RSS feed.

Listener? Want to add your favourite show?

• Search for the podcast on Podnews, and go to the page (like the Podnews Weekly Review for example)
• Scroll down for the “Listen and Follow” links, and hit the YouTube Music button.

Podcaster? Want a link for your show on YouTube Music?

• Search for the podcast on Podnews, and go to the page (like the Podnews Daily for example)
• Scroll down for the “Listen and Follow” links, right-click the YouTube Music button, and choose “Copy Link”.

Podcast host or directory? Want to make these links programmatically?

This is the link to use:

https://music.youtube.com/library/podcasts?addrssfeed=(a base64URL of the full RSS feed address)

This uses Base64URL encoding. It’s the same way Google Podcasts worked, so if you’ve still got your code from that, use it again here. Scroll down for more info.

We’d recommend using the official “Listen on YouTube Music” buttons, available here. (Or, perhaps, this consistent set). Don’t use YouTube branding, because this works on YouTube Music only.

This link could live on podcast pages wherever you have links to Apple Podcasts, Spotify or other apps: and because they’re programmatically based on the RSS feed, you can make them automatically for every show.

Benefits for listeners

Now you can get all your podcasts, all in one place. And your favourite podcasters earn the same way as they do from any other podcast app. Result!

Drawbacks for podcasters

If you’re a podcaster, this has a lot of benefits - you can monetise your normal way, your stats appear all in one place, and you don’t even need a YouTube account.

It just lets your listener enjoy your podcast using the YouTube Music app.

But - you won’t be listed on YouTube, you won’t be visible in search, and you won’t pop up in the algorithm for others to discover you. We would probably recommend you either connect your RSS feed to YouTube properly, use Headliner, or start producing video for the platform yourself in other ways.

(It only plays the audio track from video podcasts, incidentally. Yes, we tried.)

The Tech Stuff: Base64URL encoding?

This is how Google Podcasts linked to podcasts, so it’s probably relatively familiar to people reading this paragraph.

Base64URL encoding is defined in RFC 4648 section 5. It’s almost the same as standard base64 encoding, except for a few characters. Here is a simple PHP function to encode any string, so you see what needs changing.

function base64_encode_url($data) {return rtrim(strtr(base64_encode($data), '+/', '-_'), '=');}

There y'go!

From badges to user agents, there are a lot of regularly updated community Github repos and data feeds out there. Here are just some of them.

Podcast Platform Links

Ideally, each podcast platform would make it easy to link to a specific show (or episode). But, they don’t. This contains documentation on how to link to individual shows, and episodes, on podcast apps and players across the web.

Podcast Badges by Podlink

Vector icons and badges for major podcast platforms. The icons are styled similarly as a ‘squircle’; the badges look similar to Apple’s iconic design.

opawg/podcast-hosts

A JSON list of podcast hosting companies, with patterns and URL links. This data is used, for example, on Podnews’s podcast pages to highlight the podcast host; and by Livewire to measure overall episode share.

opawg/podcast-prefixes

A JSON list of podcast prefixes, used by analytics companies. This data is used, for example, on Podnews’s podcast pages to highlight who tracks individual podcasts; and by Livewire to measure overall share.

opawg/user-agents-v2

A comprehensive open-source collection of broadly-compatible regular expression patterns to identify and analyze podcast player user agents. This is used by different podcast hosting companies for platform analytics.

opawg/podcast-rss-useragents

User agents for RSS scrapers. Podnews uses this to dynamically alter our RSS feed for certain podcast platforms.

Podcast Index

The Podcast Index contains a full API for developers wishing to make their own podcast app. It has a full set of helpful API endpoints. Sign up for an API key here.

• The Podcast Index also has daily stats in JSON here.

Podnews-LLC/boostagram-numerology

Numerology lists for value4value boosts - for example, 2112 is a “Rush Boost”, after the album title.

Podcastindex-org/private-feed-blocklist

A list of regex patterns for common private and member-only podcast feed urls. This list is meant for publishers of those feeds to be able to list their patterns so that public directories and aggregators can test against them when accepting new feeds for listing.

Podcast Taxonomy

A JSON version of the Podcast Taxonomy, data standardising creative titles for podcast work. Also available in French and German (by changing -en to -fr and -de respectively).

Service slugs

Service slugs for consistently referring to podcast players.

modern podcast services

A JSON list of modern podcast services (those that support at least one Podcasting 2.0 feature).

I'm often asked how I make Podnews every day, including the podcast. Here's the deal, in case you're interested. And up there is the office in 2017 (I've replaced every piece of equipment visible in this shot, excepting the cheap anglepoise light, which has rusted a bit).

The Newsletter

Story research is done using an RSS reader, FreshRSS (which I host myself), and lots of groups in Facebook, Discord, Slack, Mastodon and the rest of the web. I use a Macbook and iPhone, and more than twenty years experience.

Writing is done using iA Writer, a Markdown writing tool. I don't use AI for anything.

Email is hosted on Gmail, but I use the excellent Mimestream macOS client and you should too.

Website is bespoke PHP code, coded by me. I code using Visual Studio Code. Some new content is added in an SQL editor, though after eight years, I’ve built input forms for most things.

Newsletter software is Sendy, which is hosted on our server. I use Amazon SES to send mail.

Hosted I use Lightsail, Amazon RDS and Amazon CloudFront.

Domain management is via Porkbun. (Gandi got too expensive).

Hero and thumbnail images are generated from Keynote, and exported using some Applescript. Images on the websites are resized automatically and dynamically by a set of scripts. (The resizing only ever happens once.)

Artwork: the Podnews logo was done for us by someone on Fiverr who isn't there any more. I only knew their username there. This is a shame: I'd have used them more.

The Podcast

Microphone: A Lewitt Audio Ray dynamic microphone, a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface, and Bose QC35 II wired headphones. I turned the laser off on the Lewitt Audio Ray microphone, so it acts just like normal.

Recording/Mixing: I record directly onto the MacBook Pro, and edit using Hindenburg Pro v2.

Host: I self-host for a variety of reasons (some sensible, some less so).

Music: all components are custom composed for Podnews by TM Studios.

Madness publishing technique: I run a script that publishes the podcast in a variety of different versions and uploads it after adding the metadata to it. I thought I’d written about how I do this, but seemingly not.

While travelling: I don't take a nice microphone on flights with me after The Incident. Instead, I stuff this Shure MV88+ USB microphone in my backpack instead.

Libraries, components and tools

• I use Asap for headlines and images: that's designed by Omnibus-Type.
• Icons are from Google's Material Icons, The Podcast Font, and Podlink’s podcast badges.
• getid3 helps me produce the RSS feed. It checks how long the podcast is.
• PHPMailer is used for transactional emails from Podnews's server
• stripe-php is used for Stripe payments
• Parsedown is used to make the text look nice.
• Squoosh for manual image optimisation.
• My home network is protected with NextDNS, which encrypts DNS requests and allows me to block individual domains.

Some links on this page are affiliate links, from which I could earn money

Podcast Movement took place in mid August in Dallas TX. Missed it? Here’s a feel of the event from the catch-up video!

We got a ton of pictures - here are some of our favourites - above, Arielle Nissenblatt really likes her Podnews sticker...

Riverside’s Stephen Robles, who has probably just discovered a new shortcut for something

Allyson Marino and Mark, Podcast Movement’s MC

The team from True Native Media

Ana Xavier and Lauren Passell

Podcasters having food. It’s a hungry life at Podcast Movement.

James Cridland, Podnews’s Editor, and Adam Curry, the co-inventor of podcasting

Podcasters on a bus!

The Yea Media team

Alecia Sanfilippo and Jordan Blair play podcast pickle ball

The Buzzsprout team

A podcaster gets a big telling off by the Libsyn team for something, by the looks of things

Todd Cochrane from Blubrry twists the arm of his competitor Justin Jackson from Transistor, watched by a concerned Sharon Taylor from Triton Digital, and a Podnews Editor who thinks it’s terribly funny for some reason

It’s Irene Picco and Ausha’s Odile Beniflah, y’all - and (below) with new friends

The speakers on an AI panel: Neil Mody, Headliner; Christoph Grasser, Auphonic; Sharon Taylor, Triton Digital; Jon Savage - Africa Podcast Network; and James Cridland, Podnews

Can’t wait to do it all again!

Let’s say you're a lawyer, and not only a lawyer, but a former federal prosecutor. Or let's say you were a political consultant on the very highest level — the guy in the room when presidential candidates, or even presidents, made decisions. Or maybe you're a journalist, with connections wide and deep.

These days, chances are you have a podcast, and you're talking with some pretty heavy-duty people about some heavy-duty issues.

So why, on your podcast, when you invite listeners to send in questions via email, do you suddenly sound like a mom praising her two-year-old for his first independent poop?

"We, we always love it when people send us letters and" — carefully enunciated — "if we can, we might actually" — rising excitement — "read your letter on the podcast! So we have an" — more excitement — "email address and if you send us a note we'll check it out, and maybe we can answer it" — ecstasy, even orgasm — "on the podcast!"

A short time later, inevitably, comes this: "Well we have lots and lots of great letters this week! Thank you so much for the letters you sent us! I think we can answer one or two ..." And then: "... and we got this other great letter as well…"

You know what, we're listening to a podcast about complex legal debates potentially involving the future of democracy. Guess what? We understand what a letter is. We understand how email works. We understand that since you are on the show right then, answering letters, that we're able to send in a question as well. And we also understand that you might not get to it, that you might have too many, or that there are others on the same topic, or that you might not have enough time to get to it, or perhaps that you can get to it, but that you might be rushed and only have just a minute or two to discuss it, or that, gee, maybe you'll just get to it next week, to name just a few of the extraordinarily banal slate of potentialities involving emailed questions I have heard so many podcast hosts articulate, with just that same excruciating detail, in just the past week or so.

Podcasting is an awe-inspiring step in the evolution of digital journalism. If there's some subject you really care about, chances are there are one or two or more people who can talk about it on just the level you want, and that they have a podcast to do just that.

A lot of big companies have sprung up, cobbling together rosters of talents. The production values are often decent. But the sad truth is, however charming and disarming, these people aren't broadcasters. There doesn't seem to be an infrastructure to help podcasts hosts learn how to be good at what they are doing.

I'm here to help. Here's why I hate your podcast.

1.

You need to envision your audience, and set the tone of the podcast at their level, and maintain it there. This is why it's so jarring to hear you explain something like how emailed letters work.

I think this originates in some dated ideas about drawing listeners in in an era of mass communication. Podcasts are different. They are specialized. For the vast majority if not all serious podcasts, there are exactly two types of people listening. Those who are your regular listeners, and those who are coming to you for the first time. The way to keep the second isn't to talk to them like they are poodles.

Here's what's important, and it's surprisingly missing from a lot of otherwise serious operations: Introduce the show properly, and explain who the hosts are. Give your new listeners the information they need at the top of the show:

"This is Widget Central, where we go in-depth, every week, on widget production in America and the world beyond. I'm the longtime executive editor of Widgets World dot com, and my cohost, Jane Doe, here, is the former CEO of International Widget Solutions and author of the book, "Everything You Were Afraid To Ask About Widgets ... But Wanted To Know."

Then move on. Your listeners are smart. They have either fortuitously tuned it to a world that will delight them, or made a wrong turn into a show they are never going to come back to again. They are either interested or not. Explaining what email is as if it's still 1996 isn't going to earn you a single listener.

And for your current listeners, they just don't need to hear, week after week, your little riff on email. Just give your social media handles and your email address, in passing but carefully enunciated, at the beginning of the show, and again at the end, and otherwise shut up about email.

2.

We don't need a one-minute-, or even thirty-second-long, intro. Give us a burst of music and then say hi and tell us the name of your podcast and what it's about, to orient new listeners. Get this essential, but limited, job done and get down to business. I'm sure you're proud of your little sound collage, but the thing is, your old listeners have heard it and may end up driving off the road or walking into traffic as they try to punch the jump-ahead button. And the new ones aren't going to stay or go just based on your clever news or movie samples.

3.

Please don't tell us that you "have a lot to get to this week." Just … don't.

4.

And once the show starts, please don't tell us you're excited to be there, excited about the news, excited about your guests, excited to get going, or excited about anything. "Excited" is by far the most frequently uttered word in the medium. Listening to podcasts these days, it seems like the hosts are in a constant and unalleviated state of excitement. You're really not excited. You're nervous is what you are, you haven't done the necessary preparation, and you don't know what else to say.

5.

Podcasting is a performative medium, whether you like it or not. You have to prepare for that performance.

Most podcasts begin with a few minutes of painful-to-listen-to impromptu banter amongst the hosts. I wish that they had a "skip intro" button a la Netflix so folks could just get to the substance of the show.

The solution to this is to think up something better to give listeners. This involves a thing called preparation. We don't care what you did this weekend, particularly when it's something along the lines of "I, um, gotta lot of things, ah, done, but, uh, yeah, really excited to be here."

Instead, before the show, take 45 seconds — literally 45 seconds — to organize something interesting and original to say to start with your co-host. Like this: "OK, I'm going to mention your provocative piece in Widget World. Talk about it for 30 seconds and then tell me you thought my big Bluesky thread on A.I.-driven widget design was off base. I'll defend it for 30 seconds and then let's get into the show."

That makes both of you look cool — without having to trumpet your own work.

Or how about this:

"OK, I'm going to ask you what you did this weekend, you say, 'OMG I binge-watched the new season of The Last of Us and was not prepared for the whole widget subplot.' I'll say, 'Yeah I saw it as well'; let's tell folks we'll talk about it at the end of the show.'"

Those are both simple show beginnings that in various ways work to underscore your authority and the value of the show, rather than undermine it.

6.

In the meantime, don't talk about the details of the quotidian happenstances of your current existence. We don't care what time it is for you, or where you are, or, generally, "What's happening." We don't care if you started recording your podcast, and then someone had technical difficulties, so you had to start over, or that you were going to do it at a certain time, but then changed your mind. As god is my witness, I've heard hosts dozens of times tell listeners that the show had been recorded at a different time that week, the difference sometimes being a matter of hours. Newsflash: No one cares!

We don't care that you or any of your guests "just got in," or "only have so much time." We don't care that you are at a hotel with bad wifi. Indeed, we don't care where you are recording from generally, or where you are sitting. I was listening to a podcast recently where three or four really smart lawyers spent five minutes talking about how one of them was in a hotel room and had to hold her own microphone, or something, but she had a dog she often carried, so she had the strength to do it. We also don't care about your observations about the other guests' Zoom backgrounds or anything else. None of these things matter to your audience. Now, if you have something that is actually interesting about yourself you want to share — you have a new job, whatever — that's a different thing. If you are talking about breaking news, sure: Let us know, briefly, when you are recording. The important thing is to just be professional and talk about substantive things.

7.

And by the way: You know that high-larious riff you've got going, about how you record your podcast at a certain time, but then news just always breaks right after you record the show, or maybe the next day, and then your partner says, chuckling, "Yeah, you cursed it!," and then you say, "Well, what about that time you went on vacation and the news broke about this or that!," and then someone says merrily, "Well, at least we know that such-and-such is going to happen next week right while we are recording!" and both of you just go on and on, giggling about how the universe has all these wackadoodle things going on just to make the life of a podcaster difficult?

Before you do that, consider how perhaps 75, or perhaps 10,075, other podcasters have done that already. This week.

8.

We also don't care that you "were just talking about this before the show." When you say that, you are in effect talking solely to the other person on your podcast. And the thing is, they already know that you were talking about this just before the show. The rest of us don't care.

Remember you are talking to your listeners. Never forget the piece of knowledge that every great radio producer knows. Radio, or any aural media, is intimate. Your listeners are, as a rule, alone, and you are talking to them. Why disrupt that connection? On a podcast, you are still broadcasting. It's a professional position with an audience (one that you hope will shell out money for your work). So focus on them and their reality, not yours.

Again, if you have something substantive and meaningful to say about yourself, go right ahead. But you're not there to talk about banalities or trivialities. And by the way: If you do keep the level of your subject matter professional, the times when you do need to talk about yourself will have a lot more impact. (But I have to add: When you do talk about yourself, don't say, "I generally don't talk about myself, but …." Don't talk about talking!)

9.

It's not an emergency, and it's not an emergency podcast.

I realize at this point there's a bit of irony in the mix when podcasters say this, but it's still dumb, and everyone says it. Right behind the "emergency podcast" is the "special podcast." It's not special, either. The thing is, you and your team have this super consciousness about how and when you record your podcast. Podcast hosts use the word "podcast" incessantly. The rest of us just have a feed and get to it when we get to it. There's a lot of podcasts I really really like, and some of them I pay for, and I still couldn't tell you what day they do or don't come or whether they come out one or twice or three times a week. I really, really like them, but I just wish they would understand that I just don't care if it's special or not, and wish even more that they would stop talking about themselves and their fucking podcast. If you're doing a podcast about some breaking development, your listeners will find it. They don't need to be told you think it's an emergency or that you just breathlessly got to the studio.

And here's the other reason I wish you would stop talking about "emergency podcasts" right now. At some point, every podcaster is going to realize how stupid saying "emergency podcast" is … and then will tell us, over and over again, how they used to say "emergency podcast" but don't any more and ….

10.

There are few things in the world bleaker than forced laughter on the radio. When your partner makes a joke, just let it go. Snicker appreciatively, and move on. Don't do that amateur radio think of chortling loudly into the mike so listeners know a hilarious joke has just been uttered.

And, please: You don't have to seize on it and, burbling, basically repeat the joke with your own lame spin on it, which then allows the original joke-maker to chime in again with a different (and inevitably even lamer) twist, with everything descending into inaudible comments and laughter. This of course gets much worse when there are more than two people talking at the time. Let me tell you, when someone makes a joke, the diminishing returns when others chime in quickly becomes apparent.

11.

What makes this worse is when someone is about to make a point, and they make a little joke or aside to introduce it. This is a good thing, and an important rhetorical device. You need to let the person speaking have the space to make the aside and go back to their main point.

If you break in to seize on the little joke yourself, you are doing two things: One of them is bad, and one of them is worse. The bad thing is interrupting someone when they are trying to communicate. It's poor manners and undercuts the whole point of your operation's existence. The worse thing is that you're talking over another person and your audience isn't going to hear anything from either of you. You're just hurting their ears. And again — a third person in the mix doing the same damn thing takes everything down into chaos. Don't interrupt or talk over other people when they are speaking. You aren't that funny and you aren't that clever; we don't need you to riff every five seconds.

12.

Don't say "no pun intended." Also, having said, "no pun intended," don't say, "Or should i say, pun very much intended, har dee har har." It's … been … done.

13.

It sure is fun being a podcaster. You have your own show! But: You can't let the listeners know you are feeling that way. To them, you are super cool and in command of the situation. You don't want to betray insecurity or self-consciousness.

So: As I said, don't talk about talking, and don't talk about the podcast. So many hosts just seem obsessed with talking about how they are hosting a podcast, and all the different guests they've had on the podcast, and how many episodes they've done of their podcast (paired with mock wonderment of how many they have done).

Imagine a professor at the front of the class talking constantly about how she's a professor, and you're the students, and she's just up there being a professor, and how many classes she's taught, and since she's a professor blah blah blah. Professors don't do that because they know it undercuts their authority by displaying insecurity and self-consciousness.

14.

Similarly, don't say, "Well, I don't mean to go off on a tangent, but…", or "Well, we certainly like to go down rabbit holes on this show, don't we, heh heh heh," or "Well, I don't mean to be geeky but…."

Just go ahead and do those things. Don't apologize. Just do it. Go off on a fucking tangent. But for god's sake don't talk about going off on a fucking tangent.

You are either making an important point or you aren't. If you aren't, just don't do it. If you are, don't apologize for it.

And don't get all nervous and make references to your partner's having gone off on a fucking tangent if he or she is doing that. If you don't want to do that on your show, let it go, exchange notes after, and work on staying on point next time. We are listening to your podcast because you have interesting things to say about a particular topic; why introduce tension and self-consciousness about it all into the mix?

15.

A corollary: If you disagree with a guest or your cohost, just articulate your opinion. Your audience is listening and can handle it. I can't believe how many podcasts I listen to where any hint of disagreement is treated as a crisis or, worse, another occasion for forced merriment. '"Oh oh — here it comes!" And then, inevitably, comes talk about how you often agree, but sometimes you disagree, but then there was that time you disagreed but it turned out it wasn't a disagreement after all …. It happens because you're nervous and just babbling, but to listeners it comes across as being full of yourself and your on-air antics. These are all the marks of amateurishness. The entire zen of podcasting is that it's genuine and unfiltered. Just be genuine and unfiltered.

Every show, of course, has its own texture; in some you can just state your opinion. In others you might say, "You know, I'm going to disagree with you on that point." But, again, don't go down the rabbit hole of talking about talking.

I don't generally talk about myself, but — just joking. I created the radio show Sound Opinions with my buddy Jim DeRogatis back in Chicago. We were fast friends, but were genuinely appalled at each other's taste in music and pop culture generally. We were capable of arguing for two hours straight. I'm sure we made some amateur mistakes. But we always left room for different opinions, from each other and from listeners, and we let all of this speak for itself. People liked it; we were an independent show that ranked third in our time slot — not bad in the very competitive third-largest media market in the U.S.

16.

Don't say, jocularly, "friend of the pod." It's stupid, and no one cares. And then we have to listen to you guys discuss how many times this friend of the pod has been on, and when was the last time and was it around that time or was it around this other time? Again no one cares. Just talk to the person.

17.

You can tell when someone hasn't prepared an intro for a guest. They say things like, "Our guest today, we are just so happy to have her, she's a, um, 'friend of the pod,' and we are so excited to have her on…" And spare your listeners some clumsy back-and-forth that will, inevitably, feature both of you talking about how exciting the moment is for you.

As with your co-host, take 30 seconds to prepare the guest. "I'm going to introduce you and then toss you a question about your new book. Give us a quick take on it and then I'll ask you a question about how serious the current widget downturn is. In the second half of the show we'll go in depth on your book…" That strokes your guest's ego, gives your listeners some insight into her bona fides, and overall gets the show off to an engaging start.

Another thing: If your guest has a big c.v., don't exhaust us by reciting it in its entirety, and then make some tired joke about being out of breath. Get them on, ask them a question, and then work in the other parts of their resume later: "Joe, I know that when you were defending the landmark United States vs. Widgets Unlimited case you wrote that…"

That's how to move your podcast along, with value to listeners at every step

18.

Don't talk about the time. No one cares how long your podcast is. It's a podcast, not a broadcast-era evening news show lasting 22 minutes and fifteen seconds. If you're working for the man, and they want a sixty-minute show, fine — do it. But for the love of god stop talking about the time. Podcasters are incessantly saying, "We're running out of time," or "I'm not sure if we have enough time to discuss this," or "...In the short time we have left…." or "I know you have to go but…" Then you have your guests saying things like, "I don't know if I have enough time to mention this but …"

Why insert that sort of tension? It just puts your listeners on edge.

The end of your show should be a nice cadence. If one of your guests has a hard stop time, be professional and end the show on time without fussing about it. If you want to signal closure to listeners, fine, Say. "Joyce, I've got one last question for you…." But don't add the element of being rushed or having limited time. Your listeners don't care or notice, one way or the other, trust me.

19.

After you do a big interview for your podcast and send it on out, go into a room alone, turn the thing on, and listen to your chat. I know from personal experience that this is one of the most painful things any interviewer can do. You're going to hear yourself start to ask a question … and then go off on a tangent. You're going to hear a lot of "ums." You're going to hear yourself interrupting, and then entirely missing some key point your guest is making because you want to go off on some story about yourself. You're going to hear your guest talking and you punctuating every half sentence with, "Yeah … Yeah …. Yeah …. Yeah." If you're like me, you'll want to stab yourself in the eye with a pencil as you hear how tone deaf you are to your guest's answers, and how irritating for listeners your tics are. But you have to do it, and keep doing it, until you learn how to ask a simple question and then shut up and let your guest answer it.

20.

Ask real questions. Cable news has degraded to the point where hosts will begin every other purported question with the phrase, "Talk about …." Sometimes a guest will have known or have worked with a famous person. I hear hosts say things like, "Do you have any stories about XXXXX?" That's not a question: It suddenly puts your guest on the spot to come up with a good story. You need to open a door for them, even if it's as simple as "Was XXXXX pleasant to work with? Is it true that she once XXXXX?" Those are much more effective prompts. If you literally can't even compose a coherent question for a guest you are in the wrong medium.

21.

Have a wrap up for the show prepared. "Joan, your first book on widgets, Widget Nation, really helped shape my thinking about this vital sector, and it was such a treat to be able to talk to the person behind it. Thank you for being with us today!"

22.

When you do get to question time, just read a question. Take time at some point to clearly read out your email address. Other than that, listeners can figure out the complex dynamics about how to use that information to convey a question to you.

23.

And remember that at the end of any podcast, your regulars will immediately tune out — but your new listeners might still be listening. Here's where to hit them with your social media tags, your web site, and of course that email address again. Reintroduce your hosts to help get them straight in their minds.

And that’s why I hate your podcast.

Not everyone uses iPhones: in fact, across the world, only 20% of people do. But many podcasters only link to Apple Podcasts pages - which, while they play, aren't ideal for Android phones or for most laptops.

Instead, there are a number of tools that you can use for your own podcast that, when clicked, sense what your listener is using and opens the right app, or take you to apps that your listener might have.

So, it's as easy as just putting a link like https://podnews.net/listen on your social media, for example - which should open Apple Podcasts automatically for iPhones, but will show a page with choices for Android.

Universal links

Podfollow gives everyone a link like http://podfollow.com/1325018583, and lets you claim your podcast to get customisable links like https://podfollow.com/podnews which point wherever you'd like it to. You can also link to specific episodes. It has a web player if you need one; and it has full stats, in beta. It's free.

Podlink gives a list of apps, and remembers what app a user clicks on (so next time it'll take you straight to the app of your choice). It also lets you link direct to episodes as well. It's free.

Linkfire looks a bit like a Linktree-type page, but it offers one specific tool: a way for you to measure how many actual Apple Podcasts listeners it's sent your way. It's a paid service.

OnlyPod offers a customiseable Linkedtree-like experience, with analytics and links to your latest episode.

Pod1 is very customisable, letting you link to apps, give a clear call-to-action, and plays the audio then and there, too. We're at https://pod1.co/podnews if you want to take a look.

Podkite's Kitelinks let you claim your podcast to give you a link like https://kite.link/podnews, and you can also link to episodes. Paid users also get a method for their users to submit reviews directly to Apple Podcasts and Podchaser. It's free to start.

Plink gives everyone a link like https://plinkhq.com/i/1325018583 and a page like https://plinkhq.com/i/1325018583?to=page with more options. It's free; you can upgrade to get custom links like http://plnk.to/podnews with additional features.

Podnews is - wait, it's this site. But it gives everyone a link like https://podnews.net/podcast/i5hv2/listen which opens Apple or a web player depending on what device your listeners are using.

All these universal links work really well with a QR code, too - so you can just scan and click with any phone. Podnews has a QR code on every podcast page, pointing to our own universal link; but you can use sites like QR Code Monkey to generate a QR code for whatever universal link you'd like to use. (Just be careful to ensure it points to YOUR website, not to someone else's).

QR codes are great for use in business cards, or on exhibition table stands, too - and could be the fastest way to get new subscribers to your podcast.

If you're a developer using QR codes, use style="image-rendering: pixelated;" in the image code to ensure the QR code remains perfectly crisp, whatever size it is resized to become.

Your own podcast host

Your own podcast host's page may well offer a simple, clear method of listening on any device - whether it's just a set of links, or some more clever services. Pros: it's what you pay for; cons: if you ever change podcast host, all these old links will stop working.

Your own website

This is by far the best solution, as long as your website is clear and simple for listeners to see how to listen on their own device.

Your own website is also a great choice. We recommend it displays the official Apple and Spotify badges above the fold, so people instantly know what to click on.

Don't have a website? No problem.

Podpage is a well-designed website for your podcast, taking all the hassle away from running your own website. It updates automatically, too.

Podcastpage charges a small monthly fee including a custom domain.

We'd highly recommend using a custom domain with these services: it means you remain in control, and can switch to a different provider at any time.

Spotted any other great ways to link to your podcast? Drop us a mail to let us know.

Today, Apple Podcasts released its first “Best So Far” list: it’s a new bi-annual list that recognizes some of the best podcast shows and seasons since the beginning of the year.

Curated by the Apple Podcasts editorial team, the “Best So Far” list is a collection of compelling new shows and seasons Apple Podcasts editors believe should not be missed.

The Best So Far list is the latest editorial collection from the Apple Podcasts editorial team, who listens to thousands of hours of podcasts every year to select shows to spotlight in the Apple Podcasts app through features and collections across a range of genres and topics throughout the year

There are different lists of ten shows for many parts of the world: you’ll find your country lists in the Apple Podcasts “Browse” tab (or, if you’re running the public beta, the “New” tab).

For Podnews readers, here are the lists from many places around the world. Interestingly, all of mainland Europe is without its own list; non-English podcasts are listed in Brazilian-Portuguese, Arabic and some Hindi, but most notably, no Spanish podcasts make the list.

United States

Podcasts Detail

• Bone Valley
• No Such Thing
• The Nature Of with Willow Defebaugh
• Blink | Jake Haendel's Story
• Good Hang with Amy Poehler
• Scratch & Win
• Sabotage
• This Guy Sucked
• Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy
• Debt Heads

United Kingdom

Podcasts Detail

• Mad, Sad and Bad with Paloma Faith
• The Pitcairn Trials
• Stalked
• Titanic: Ship of Dreams
• Lucky Boy
• Where There's A Will, There's A Wake
• The Teen Commandments
• Uncover (Apple recommends “Sea of Lies”, in this feed)
• Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World
• The Rest Is Classified

Australia and New Zealand

Podcasts Detail

• Uncover (Apple recommends “Sea of Lies”, in this feed)
• Fwends
• Good Hang with Amy Poehler
• SCAMMERLAND
• Big Small Talk
• Witness: William Tyrrell
• Titanic: Ship of Dreams
• Gina
• No Such Thing
• Lucky Boy

Canada

Podcasts Detail

• Uncover (Apple recommends “Sea of Lies”, in this feed)
• Bone Valley
• No Such Thing
• Pipeline
• Go-Boy!
• Adam Wylde and Jax Show
• The Hatchet
• Your Weekly Breakdown
• The Rest Is Classified
• The Oath

Ireland

Podcasts Detail

• Stolen Sister
• Titanic: Ship of Dreams
• Ireland Said Yes
• Lucky Boy
• Stalked
• Where is Jón?
• Unsolved - An Indo Daily Series
• Uncover (Apple recommends “Sea of Lies”, in this feed)
• DIVERTED
• Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World

Brazil

Podcasts Detail

• Alô, Ciência?
• É nóia minha?
• vibes em análise
• O Fim do Futuro
• Fio da Meada
• As Cunhãs
• Comida sem Filtro
• Rádio Escafandro

Saudi Arabia

• The Mo Show
• The Gstaad Guy Podcast
• LIT- Luca's Insight Track
• El Mal El Halal - المال الحلال
• بودكاست يصير خير
• عندي سؤال | Aandi Soual
• Omam Podcast - أُمم مع ميرنا الزيني
• G.Talks - The Podcast for Dreamers

أ. ياسر الحزيمي and جحا للأطفال - also in this list - do not load for us.

South Africa

Podcasts Detail

• Because we said so
• Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee
• History of South Africa podcast
• Meet me in my corner with Dr K
• Slay Girl Slay
• The Motherhood Network
• ARC
• After School Is After School With Sis G.U
• I Said What I Said
• Tea With Tay Podcast