Hot Pod

Pocket Casts has been my podcast app of choice for years now, mostly because of how well it works across different platforms. Its mobile apps opened up access for free a few years ago, and on Tuesday morning the company announced that now applies to its (previously paying customer only) web and desktop apps (Mac, Windows PC) as well.

Serial podcast subject Adnan Syed was freed in 2022 after prosecutors questioned evidence presented during the trial over the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, but then in 2023, it was reinstated.

Its “Medcast” bit from over the weekend imagines Amazon’s One Medical trying a new approach to get men in for their annual checkups: structuring medical appointments like a bro-y podcast.

Last year, Joseph Inzerillo announced SiriusXM’s new logo (below) and plan to conquer new audiences. Now he’s out, as the company cuts spending on marketing to “high-churn” streaming audiences with plans to cut an additional $200 million in annual costs.

Anthropic co-founder Darius Amodei said on Lex Fridman’s podcast yesterday that, “if you believe the straight-line extrapolation,” we’ll have artificial general intelligence “in 2026 or 2027.” He also indicates that’s a big if, listing reasons why (which don’t include that LLMs might not be the way to AGI).

Here’s an idea for a Sunday afternoon project: A Reddit user managed to generate a podcast using NotebookLM — Google’s generative AI notes software — in which the fake hosts’ cheerful “banter” is about learning they’re not real and are being shut off, apparently using a prompt like the one from this thread.

The iconic Mexican singer Juan Gabriel is the subject of a new eight-episode podcast series from Apple, hosted by journalist Maria Garcia, who also created Anything for Selena.

Julie McNamara, head of podcast studios, announced her departure on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. The company has seen a steady stream of exits as it pulls back on its podcast business.

Spotify just announced a new integration with Substack, which will allow Substack creators to distribute free and paywalled podcast episodes on the platform. For listeners, this means they can link their Substack and Spotify accounts. Last year, Spotify made a similar move with Patreon.

A month after Warner Bros. Discovery shut down Rooster Teeth, the company has sold the outlet’s most valuable asset — its podcast network. The Roost, which is home to podcasts like The H3 Podcast and Rooster Teeth Podcast, has been acquired by influencer talent agency Night. The two organization’s have an established connection — Night’s President, Ezra Cooperstein, served as the President of Rooster Teeth from 2018 to 2019.

Deadline reports that the company has been acquired as part of Sony Music’s global podcast division.

It’s only shutting down for those of us in the US. Globally, the app won’t live in Google’s graveyard until after June 24th, according to a March 18th Google community forum post from company employee Cory Peter.

According to Semafor, Apple is telling podcast publishers that a way to get featured in its browse page carousel is to offer paid subscriptions. The report found that five of the first seven podcasts in that prime spot are part of Apple Podcasts Subscriptions. When podcasts offer subscriptions through Apple Podcasts, Apple takes up to 30 percent of the revenue.

If you’re obsessed with deck-building roguelike Balatro (as we are), you’ll dig this deep interview with the game’s anonymous designer LocalThunk on the podcast Eggplant: The Secret Lives of Games.

After April 2nd, Google will flip the lights off for its podcasts app sending it to the graveyard. Here are Google’s instructions for switching to YouTube Music or some other podcast app.

As promised, LeBron and JJ Redick’s new podcast Mind the Game, has launched, The first episode is available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts (Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, RSS).

As athletes increasingly cut out the media middleman, basketball stars LeBron James and JJ Redick are launching a podcast, reports The Athletic. But unlike so many other celebrity podcast deals, they are doing so independently and with no official sponsor. To be fair, it doesn’t seem like James or Redick need the money.

It appears Google is further optimizing YouTube Music for podcasts as it prepares to sunset Google Podcasts at the end of this month.

The artist pulled his catalog in early 2022 over its then-exclusive Joe Rogan deal, which Young said had resulted in Spotify spreading vaccine misinformation. Now, with the exclusivity deal over, Rogan’s podcast is also available on Apple and Amazon, and Young can’t keep his music off all of them.