On Engagement Party, Cornish and Shapiro will share the culture and ideas they’re engaging with – and why they’re obsessed. The show will take a savvy look at the moments and trends driving conversations online and beyond. Engagement Party will premiere on Friday, May 22 and will be available on CNN’s streaming service and wherever you get your podcasts.

Shapiro is an award-winning journalist who spent 25 years at NPR, including a decade as host of the evening news program All Things Considered and the podcast Consider This. Before becoming a host in 2015, he was NPR’s international correspondent based in London. Shapiro took on that role after four years as White House Correspondent during the Obama presidency. He also embedded with the presidential campaign of Republican Mitt Romney in 2012, and served as NPR’s Justice Correspondent for five years during the George W. Bush administration. Shapiro also hosted the reality competition The Mole on Netflix, and his debut memoir The Best Strangers in the World was an instant New York Times bestseller.

Shapiro has won three national Edward R. Murrow awards; one for a global series that connected the dots between climate change, migration, and far-right political leaders; another for his reporting on the life and death of Breonna Taylor; and the third for his coverage of the Trump Administration’s asylum policies on the US-Mexico border. He was named “Journalist of the Year” in 2023 by NLGJA, the association of LGBTQ+ journalists, and the Columbia Journalism Review honored him with a laurel for his investigation into disability benefits for injured American veterans. At age 25, Shapiro also won the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize for an investigation of methamphetamine use and HIV transmission. Shapiro holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University.

Today, Vox Media announced that Prof G Markets, hosted by NYU Professor and entrepreneur Scott Galloway and writer and analyst Ed Elson, will go on tour for the first time this spring. Kicking off on Wednesday, May 27th in San Francisco, with additional stops in Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, and New York City, Galloway and Elson will bring their sharp market insights–and special guests–to live audiences across the country. 

The tour’s dates and locations include:

• Wednesday, May 27

San Francisco, CA at The Castro Theater

• Thursday, May 28 

Los Angeles, CA at The Wiltern

• Saturday, May 30

Miami, FL at The Fillmore 

• Monday, June 1 

Chicago, IL at The Vic 

• Tuesday, June 2 

New York City, NY at The Town Hall 

“Markets are loud, messy, and often irrational, so it felt right to bring the show out of the studio and into a room full of people,” said Elson. “We’re very excited to go live.”

When asked about the tour alongside Elson, Galloway said: “I taught that bitch everything he knows. I can't wait to see everybody!”

Since its launch in 2022, Prof G Markets has grown exponentially, becoming a go-to series for younger audiences looking to connect with financial experts. As the #1 Business Podcast on Apple Podcasts (Q4 2025),  Prof G Markets serves as a daily briefing on the news moving markets - from earnings and geopolitics, to Big Tech and AI. 

“Scott and Ed have built the preeminent daily business news show, reaching millions across audio, video, and social platforms,” said Ray Chao, Vox Media’s senior vice president and general manager of podcasts. “We’re excited to bring sharp insights and bad jokes to live audiences nationwide on Prof G Markets’ first-ever live tour.”

This is the second tour for Galloway. Last year, Pivot, hosted by Galloway and Kara Swisher, sold out shows across the country with over 11,000 attendees. 

Tickets for the Prof G Markets Tour are available now.

Multi-platinum, Emmy Award-winning singer-songwriter Andy Grammer built Showing Up with Andy Grammer. This podcast is a funny, raw, and deeply human exploration of what it means to show up: for ourselves, for each other, and for the world.

Through intimate musical offerings by Andy and unscripted longform conversations with a wide array of guests - grounded in the belief that people, at their core, are good and deeply connected - it surfaces extraordinary moments of kindness, service, and self-reckoning, sparking joy, honest reflection and real discourse - all to get to the core of how to show up, even just a little.

Each episode is a long-form conversation with a guest who models “showing up” - whether that be in their work, relationships, creativity or beyond. Grammer then listens to a voicemail nominating someone who showed up when it mattered, then writes and performs a bespoke song in honor of them live on set. The result is deeply human: part conversation, part songwriting session, all heart.

The series is co-produced with Companion Arts, the newly launched, creator-first studio, and is distributed through its brand network, Companion, a home built to elevate the cultural conversation through curiosity, humor, vulnerability, and depth.

“We’re proud to be collaborating with Andy — he has a rare ability to make things that are sincere and intentional, while still widely resonant and entertaining,” said Ford Bowers, President, Companion. “That’s been true of his music, and it’s true here as well. This show creates space for honest, human conversation that people are really craving right now.”

The weekly series kicks off with guest Hospice Nurse Julie, the best-selling author of ‘Nothing to Fear’ and online educator, whose work centers on showing up at the end of life, last conversations and what it means to accompany someone through that journey.

Crooked Media, the company behind Pod Save America, has tapped Intelligence Squared to co-produce Pod Save the UK, their hit weekly political podcast hosted by Nish Kumar and Coco Khan.

Since its launch, Pod Save the UK has become a sharp, irreverent and influential voice in British politics, combining incisive analysis with wit, urgency and a progressive perspective on the biggest stories shaping the UK. It has built up a sizable, active listener base and as such is currently the winner of the prestigious Podcast Champion award from the British Podcast Awards in recognition of its groundbreaking approach to political podcasting.

Award-winning producer Bea Duncan will take the lead as Editorial Executive Producer of Pod Save The UK on behalf of Intelligence Squared, with Jasmine Davies [formerly The Today Programme] as Assistant Producer. Under Intelligence Squared’s production, the show will continue to bring listeners the agenda-setting political conversation they know and love, while opening up new opportunities for growth and development.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Crooked Media, Coco Khan and Nish Kumar on Pod Save the UK, ” said Matt McAllester, CEO of Intelligence Squared. “Intelligence Squared has always been about big ideas, strong opinions and what’s coming next – and we’ve got lots of exciting plans to help bring those core principles to such a show whose success long predates our involvement”

Since launching Pod Save The UK in 2023, we’ve been proud to be the definitive source for expert analysis, humor and hope in the UK’s progressive media ecosystem” , said Adriene Hill, Sr. Vice President, News & Politics at Crooked Media. Now more than ever, delivering fact-based, action driven coverage and commentary to international audiences feels critical. Intelligence Squared is the perfect partner to continue to bring the show to life, and we couldn’t be more excited to have them on the team.

The first Intelligence Squared-produced episode of Pod Save The UK will be released on May 7th 2026.

Headliner gets it. And starting today, we've made our video tools free. Really. No credit card. No confusing credit system. Just free podcast videos.

What’s Free, Starting Today

Headliner’s video podcasting tools are free for a limited time. Here are just a few of the awesome features podcasters will get access to under the release:

• No Watermarks - Create and export unlimited podcast videos with no ‘made by’ watermarks. Just your face, captions, and design.
• Video Templates - Use one of Headliner’s pre-made video templates for quick and easy video styling.
• Caption Video - Add captions to video clips and full-length videos. Video Clipping Tool - Automatically clip up to 10 moments from full-length videos.
• Schedule, caption, and share video clips on social media or YouTube to grow your podcast’s reach.

To try new, free video tools by Headliner, visit make.headliner.app.

Our Gift to Podcasters

This announcement comes just in time for Headliner’s 8th birthday, but this decision is bigger than a celebration. Going free is about giving back to the community that has given so much to us. It’s about making sure the rising cost of creating doesn’t hold podcasters back from sharing their stories and growing their shows, whether they are audio or video.

“With podcasting embracing video and estimates making it 3.6x more for audio/video shows than audio-only, we’ve decided to get our new video podcasting tools out for free, ” said Neil Mody, CEO of Headliner.

“Creators already are being stretched thin; we hope this helps take one more worry off their plate. ” Podcasting remains one of the most exciting and welcoming communities to be part of. With more ears and now eyes on podcasters than ever before, this is our small way of helping drive podcasting forward.

Kaleidoscope, the New York-based media company redefining science and technology storytelling, today announced a partnership with What Could Go Right?, hosted by author and founder of The Progress Network Zachary Karabell and executive director of The Progress Network Emma Varvaloucas.

As part of the partnership, Kaleidoscope will lead production and marketing for the series, further expanding its portfolio of rigorous, accessible, and culturally resonant programming alongside standout titles and partnerships such as On Musk: with Walter Isaacson, Levittown, a co-production with Bloomberg News, and The Most Interesting Thing in AI hosted by Nicholas Thompson, from The Atlantic Studios.

Returning for a new season beginning Wednesday, April 15, What Could Go Right? challenges the prevailing narrative of negativity in news and public discourse by exploring stories of progress, possibility, and solutions shaping the future. Through conversations with leading thinkers, policymakers, scientists, and cultural voices, the show reframes the question not just as what is going wrong, but what is going right, and why it matters.

“What Could Go Right? exemplifies the kind of thoughtful, evidence-based storytelling that is a perfect fit with Kaleidoscope’s mission,” said Oz Woloshyn, co-founder of Kaleidoscope. “Zach and The Progress Network have built a show that cuts through noise and pessimism to surface meaningful insights about where the world is headed. We’re excited to help bring that perspective to an even broader audience.”

“From the beginning, What Could Go Right? has been about challenging the reflex toward pessimism and asking a more useful question: yes, there are dire problems in the world, but where are we actually making progress, and what can we learn from it,” said Zachary Karabell, the Founder of the Progress Network and host of the longer form podcast episodes. “Partnering with Kaleidoscope allows us to bring that mission to a broader audience through richer storytelling and conversations.

Across the podcast’s content, from interviews to The Progress Report hosted by Emma Varvaloucas, we are spotlighting meaningful progress around the world and why these stories deserve as much attention as the more unsettling narratives that often dominate the global conversations. At a time when people are inundated with negative news, these stories are essential for restoring perspective and a sense of possibility.”

The upcoming season will feature a diverse lineup of prominent guests and timely discussions, including conversations with president and CEO of New America Anne-Marie Slaughter on America at 250, author and The Washington Post contributing columnist Sebastian Mallaby on the future of AI, founder and president of Eurasia Group Ian Bremmer on Iran and global geopolitics, and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci on the future of American government. Episodes will continue to explore complex global topics through a solutions-oriented lens, offering listeners a more balanced and constructive view of the world.

Originally launched by The Progress Network, What Could Go Right? has built a dedicated audience through its companion weekly newsletter, which operates in addition to the podcast to highlight positive underreported stories of progress and innovation.

Under Kaleidoscope, the show will continue to follow a seasonal format, with its previous season concluding in October 2025. New episodes will be available on Wednesday, April 15, across all major podcast platforms, with video episodes published on the What Could Go Right? podcast YouTube channel.

For more information on Kaleidoscope, please visit www.k-scope.com.

True Crime is the genre that started the podcasting boom with Serial. Historically, it also has the second-highest ad spend out of all podcast genres. But while Oxford’s data shows that True Crime is in the top 20% of genres for ad efficiency, these impressive top-line numbers hide a fact: True Crime isn’t a monolith. Formats vary, attracting different audiences with parasocial and paranormal content. 

To get the most out of a hard-working genre, brands need to untangle the averages and get to the insights. Oxford’s latest ranking shows that, despite its success, the True Crime genre is still being underestimated.

The top findings:

• Performance at Scale: Across more than 65 podcast genres analyzed, True Crime is second only to Comedy in spend. But while Comedy performance covers the spectrum, True Crime as a whole ranks in the top 20% for efficiency. The real issue isn't that brands aren't spending here; it's that they're not going wide enough. Most advertisers test a handful of shows, see results, and either grow or stop based on a limited test. The nuance of this genre rewards those who explore it.
• Mind the Brand Safety Pricing Gap: True Crime has a reputation that raises brand safety flags for some advertisers. That caution doubles for high-performing shows with paranormal or horror-adjacent tones. The irony: that same genre stigma suppresses competition and keeps rates down, despite highly engaged audiences.
• Start with Trusted IP:  Legacy TV Broadcast IP (Cold Case Files, 20/20, I Survived) tops the chart and offers a natural entry point for brands still warming up to the True Crime ecosystem. These shows carry name recognition that lowers the internal sell and raises audience trust. If this is "True Crime basecamp," it might not stay affordable for long.
• Plan for Companionship: A full third of the top-performing True Crime shows use a companion format, where the host-audience connection is close, personal, and personality-driven. The biggest mistake advertisers make here is treating these like any other True Crime show in their buy. Give hosts more creative latitude in their reads, review those reads separately, and set rate expectations accordingly. The payoff is better performance and more cost-efficient creative.
• True Crime isn’t a Monolith: True Crime might be one genre, but it’s comprised of many sub-formats. Companion, Investigative, Broadcast IP, and Dark Crossover all have a place in the top 15 list. 

"As a true crime listener, I don't think of it as one genre; I think of it as multiple different listening experiences. I go to Rotten Mango for deep investigative journalism. I go to Crime, Conspiracy, Cults, and Murder for a fresh take I haven't heard before. The shows I love aren't interchangeable, and neither are the audiences. ORBIT finally gives advertisers a framework that reflects how listeners actually behave — and that changes everything about how you should be buying," said Olivia Gerving, Oxford Road Strategic Operation Specialist. 

Oxford’s Measurement Advantage

Findings were surfaced using ORBIT (Oxford Road Benchmark Intelligence Tool) – built on the industry's largest index of podcast advertising performance data. The system measures actual customer acquisition costs, return on ad spend, and sales results from real campaigns. Oxford Road has processed more podcast advertising performance data than any other agency, creating an index that normalizes results across different advertiser goals and verticals.

For performance marketers, the tool enables advertisers to de-risk initial buys, optimize faster, and find high-performing shows before they become expensive. 

Oxford Road will continue to release new ORBIT rankings monthly, covering categories including genre-specific performance, international markets, emerging shows, and vertical-specific results. Each ranking draws from Oxford Road's proprietary database of campaign outcomes across podcasting, streaming audio, terrestrial radio, and creator-based video.

The full “ORBIT's Top Performing True Crime Podcasts” list and methodology details are available here.

Noiser today announced the coming launch of The Hound of the Baskervilles, a nine-part podcast series with original sound design that presents the gripping Sherlock Holmes story as narrated by celebrated actor Hugh Bonneville. The first episode premieres April 27.

This latest production from Noiser presents Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles as it was created: nine serialized episodes, each ending on a cliffhanger, mirroring the original instalments in which readers first encountered the story in The Strand magazine at the turn of the century. In the 125 years since it was published, the novel has been adapted for film, television, stage, and more in countless forms. Noiser’s new production restores the story’s original nine-part structure for a podcast audience for the first time.

Hugh Bonneville, host of Sherlock Holmes Short Stories and narrator of The Hound of the Baskervilles, said: "There's a reason this story has never left us, and Arthur Conan Doyle knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote it to land in nine parts. Getting to bring that structure back, to let listeners feel those cliffhangers the way Victorian readers felt them, is a rare opportunity. I wanted to honour the material and make it feel alive for new audiences today."

The production brings to Noiser’s catalogue a fully realised audio series developed with creative ambition and rooted in one of the most beloved works of English literature. It features an original score, special artwork, and immersive sound design that brings the fog-shrouded moors of Dartmoor to life.

Katrina Hughes, Executive Producer at Noiser, said: "125 years on, this story still has the power to stop you cold, which tells you everything about why it’s a classic. We wanted to mark the anniversary of The Hound of the Baskervilles with a production that truly rose to the occasion. Hugh and the whole team have made something that feels genuinely alive, and we can’t wait for you to hear it."

Available free on all podcast platforms including Apple and Spotify, and ad-free on BBC Sounds, The Hound of the Baskervilles launches on the Sherlock Holmes Short Stories podcast feed beginning April 27 and releases twice weekly. Noiser+ subscribers will receive early access to episodes ahead of the general public release, including access to Episode 1 on April 23.

Financial and operating highlights

• Q1 revenue of US$22.5 million, up 30% on Q1 2025 (US$17.3 million)
• Continuing outperformance of Showcase – our higher gross margin, tech based global advertising marketplace – with Q1 revenue up 63% year-on-year driven by inventory growth and higher demand
• Q1 gross profit of US$4.8 million, up 41% on Q1 2025 (US$3.4 million) and representing a gross margin of 21.3% (Q1 2025: 19.7%), as a result of our continued focus on higher quality revenue and improved creator contracts
• Q1 adjusted EBITDA(1) profit of US$1.4 million, up 118% on Q1 2025 (US$0.6 million), highlighting the continued strong performance of the business model and representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of 6.2% (Q1 2025: 3.7%)
• Opex has remained stable at a monthly average cost of US$1.1 million, with the Company now benefiting from high operational gearing ensuring that marginal revenue converts to marginal adjusted EBITDA at a rate in excess of 20%
• Q1 average monthly distribution of 170 million downloads and video views, up 79% on Q1 2025 (94.8 million views) following the acquisition of Adelicious in July 2025, the fast-paced growth of Audioboom’s video podcasts, and the recently announced signings of Crooked Media and RedHanded to the Audioboom Creator Network
• Q1 RPM (average revenue per 1,000 downloads and views) of US$45.10, lower than the prior year (Q1 2025: US$60.83), as expected, due to the increase in lower-yield video views and UK downloads. This represents significant upside opportunity through medium-term value creation in video podcast monetisation and the expansion of the UK podcast market
• Group cash at 31 March 2026 of US$5.5 million (31 December 2025: US$4.2 million), with a further US$3.4 million available via an overdraft facility

Commercial highlights

• Launch of partnerships with Spotify and Apple, which will support the development of Audioboom’s video monetisation engine through expanded advertising and subscription opportunities
• Hosted the inaugural UK Audioboom Upfronts in London, showcasing top UK podcast talent to brands, agencies and advertisers
• New signings in the quarter have expanded the Audioboom Creator Network with the addition of tier one content partnerships including Crooked Media, RedHanded and Hear Me Out. These shows are contributing more than 20 million downloads and YouTube views per month to the Audioboom Creator Network in 2026, and more than 200 million monthly available impressions to the Showcase marketplace
• Renewal in the quarter of key contracts with leading podcasts in our creator network, including F1: Beyond the Grid, Soder, Zane and Heath: Unfiltered, The Sabrina Zohar Show and Monsters Among Us

Stuart Last, CEO of Audioboom, commented: “2026 is off to a flying start for Audioboom with new major podcast signings, the launch of commercial partnerships in video, and excellent financial performance by all metrics.

Our business model continues to go from strength to strength, and our results highlight the scalability in our global platform business. Revenue is up 30%, driven by record inventory levels and an uptick in advertising prices. Our focus on high quality revenue delivered gross profit 41% up on Q1 2025, and our stable cost-base ensured we maximised profitability with adjusted EBITDA growth of 118%.

In February we signed Crooked Media to the Audioboom Creator Network. Crooked is a leader in political podcasting, and will be part of our network through this year’s US midterm election and the 2028 Presidential election. Together with other newly signed top tier podcasts like RedHanded and Hear Me Out, more than 20 million new downloads and video views have been added to the platform as we achieved record monthly distribution of 170 million during the quarter – up 79% on the same period last year.

Optimising the yield from those new downloads and video views will be key to our future growth. Our new partnerships with Spotify and Apple provide us with enhanced monetisation options for our video creators, ensuring we are the go-to platform for podcasters whether in audio or video form.

I am excited about 2026. We will have record inventory levels, new commercial opportunities, and a continued focus on growing our platform model. I would like to express my appreciation to the Audioboom team and to thank shareholders for their continued support and belief in the future of the Company.”

Chris joins from Global Media & Entertainment, where he served as Commercial DAX Gaming Lead, most recently building and commercialising an audio-first gaming proposition within the DAX Portfolio.

With experience spanning media, outdoor, digital, and audio, Chris brings a proven track record in commercial strategy and performance. Over the past 13 years, this focus has been on audio across both traditional and digital channels, working cross-functionally with data, insights, supply, and marketing teams to shape sustainable growth.

Chris comes on board at a defining moment; two years on from its founding, the business has grown from a two-person startup to a team of eleven with its own technology, alongside the recent launch of HARK Collective, an initiative from audioadpro to bring the digital audio advertising industry together.

Commenting on his appointment, Chris said:

“I’m genuinely excited to be joining AAP at such an exciting stage of its journey. For me, the people you surround yourself with are everything - they shape how you grow, learn, and push forward - and it’s clear AAP has built a team with that mindset at its core.

“What’s equally compelling is the product itself: the pace at which the business has evolved, combined with the ambition behind where the technology is heading, makes this a hugely exciting opportunity to be part of.”

audioadpro Co-Founder, Roger Cutsforth, added:

“We are absolutely delighted to welcome Chris to AAP as we continue our investment in the best people alongside the best technology. As soon as Chris and I spoke, I sensed a kindred spirit, and I know he'll be an instant hit with colleagues and clients. We can't wait for him to start.”

Welcoming Chris to the team marks a further step in audioadpro's growth, as it continues to champion a unified, audience-first approach to digital audio advertising - making it more accessible and measurable for agencies and advertisers.

Hitting 500,000 YouTube subscribers is a major milestone for any podcast, but doing it in just 603 days is a masterclass in audience growth.

Paul C Brunson's podcast, We Need To Talk (WNTT), has just crossed half-a-million subscribers on YouTube mark. By leveraging the invaluable lessons learned while growing The Diary Of A CEO to its first 500K over 1,276 days, the team was able to rapidly replicate and accelerate that success, bringing WNTT to the same milestone in just a fraction of the time.

The secret to this rapid scale? Consistency, obsessing over 1% improvements, and the “FlightStory blueprint,” the exact same strategic playbook used to propel The Diary Of A CEO to become the second biggest podcast in the world within three years. By executing this strategy, the team achieved incredible growth metrics.

• 0 to 2 million+ combined social followers in less than two years.
• 865K followers on Facebook, making it the fastest-growing UK podcast on the platform. This was achieved by posting an average of 5.4 times a day across socials.
• 40 million total YouTube views, currently averaging ~4.7 million views per month (the equivalent of two people watching the show every second).
• 855 million combined views on social media, driven by standout, deeply-researched episodes with guests like Jo Frost (1.6M views), Blake Fielder (1.1M views), and Rose McGowan (986K views). The team dedicates over 2,000 hours to research and never misses a week, recently upping their output to two episodes weekly.​

Beyond the numbers, WNTT is successfully scaling its footprint globally. The US audience now accounts for 19.5% of views and is growing every month following recent LA recordings, with the team heading back to the US soon.

They are also proving that massive scale can drive real-world impact, integrating links for charity partners like Tommy’s (pregnancy loss) and the NHS Organ Donation directly into the campaigns of relevant episodes.

Today, audio is consumed at home, at work, and on-the-go using a multitude of devices, apps, channels and platforms. Audio on the Move will chart this dynamic landscape to provide a clear picture of how audio accompanies and complements daily life. A key objective is to stay ahead of the trends driving audio consumption, to help the audio industry and its advertisers know where consumers are directing their attention, and why.

Pattison Media and Spotify have signed on as inaugural subscribers of Audio on the Move. The study findings will be released in late spring 2026.

“We see the growing importance of digital audio consumption in our own business,” said Andrew Snook, Chief Innovation Officer of Pattison Media. “The holistic multi-channel perspective of Audio on the Move will provide us with crucial insights for our digital initiatives, such as Validate audio attribution, and to map our overall strategy for the future. We’re pleased to strengthen our productive partnership with Signal Hill Insights with this innovative new research study.”

Audio on the Move is the latest step in Signal Hill Insights’ legacy of providing innovative audio insights to the Canadian media industry. In December 2010, Signal Hill Insights founder Jeff Vidler created North America’s initial share-of-audio listening study, Radio on the Move, trending listening to radio and audio in general for the past 15 years, most recently under the Signal Hill Insights banner. The Canadian Podcast Listener, launched in 2017 in partnership with Ulster Media, continues to provide a detailed picture of the Canadian podcast audience’s composition, listening and preferences.

“With Radio on the Move and The Canadian Podcast Listener, our team has been closely tracking both radio and podcasting,” said Signal Hill Insights’ Vice President of Research Matt Hird. “But the overall growth in digital audio revealed a gap in the marketplace, with clients and advertisers asking for a more holistic view of where and how time is being spent with audio. Audio on the Move recognizes Canadian consumers live in a multi-channel and multi-platform world, seeking to understand their preferences and real-world behaviours. It does not replace The Canadian Podcast Listener, but rather enhances it with additional context and colour.”

“The audio marketplace has changed and grown significantly since we first launched Radio on the Move,” said Signal Hill Insights founder and Strategic Advisor, Jeff Vidler. “Most importantly, the silos have been coming down between different audio channels. While radio continues to deliver unparalleled reach among Canadians, virtually all Canadian broadcasters have now also planted their stake in digital audio. That’s why I’m pleased to advise the Signal Hill team in the launch of this research study that reflects that new reality.”

Audio on the Move is only available by subscription, and subscriptions are now available. For more information visit signalhillinsights.com/aotm or contact Joanne Van der Burgt at joanne@signalhillinsights.com.

GRAMMY® and Golden Globe Award-winning, Oscar-nominated singer/songwriter, activist, and acclaimed actress Andra Day will also perform and be honored with the Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award for using her public voice and artistry to advocate for a more just, equitable world.

Jad Abumrad is the creative force behind Radiolab and acclaimed podcasts like Dolly Parton's America and Peabody Award-winning Fela Kuti: Fear No Man – work that has been downloaded over one billion times and is deeply rooted in amplifying the stories of marginalized communities, shining a light on the injustice and systemic issues that drive hunger. Dubbed a "master of the radio craft," he’s known for his ability to make complex ideas feel personal and accessible. His honors include four Peabody Awards, two DuPont Awards, and the 2011 MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of Research at Vanderbilt University.

Andra Day is a powerful singer and artful songwriter whose roots in gospel, jazz and the blues translate to the present with ease and finesse. Featuring the quadruple platinum single “Rise Up,” her auspicious debut album Cheers to the Fall (2015) cracked the Top 10 of the R&B/Hip-Hop charts and paved the way for a handful of Grammy nominations & win, plus an Academy Award nomination for "Stand Up for Something" (2017) from the Marshall soundtrack. Following her Golden Globe-winning portrayal of Billie Holiday in The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021), Day's second album of original material CASSANDRA (cherith) in 2024 moves smoothly across traditional and progressive R&B, orchestral pop, and bossa nova. Day’s participation in the 2020 PlayOn televised benefit concert helped raise over $7 million to support WhyHunger and the NAACP LDF. Beyond hunger, Day’s charitable work has championed social and racial justice, gender equality, girls’ and women’s rights, Elton John AIDS Foundation, and advocating for juvenile justice system reform.

“‘Rise Up’ began as a personal reminder to keep going when the world feels heavy, and I never imagined it would become an anthem for resilience and justice,” Andra Day shares. “To me, justice isn’t abstract — it means no one goes hungry, every child has nourishment, and every community has hope. If this song has helped even one person have more compassion or be healed, I’m grateful.”

The Chapin Awards Gala will bring together artists, activists, and supporters for a cocktail reception, dinner, and live music, all in support of WhyHunger’s mission to end hunger and its root causes. Previous event honorees have included Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Barbra Streisand, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Grace Potter, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Harry Belafonte, Jackson Browne, Jason Mraz, John Mellencamp, Jon Batiste, Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, and Tom Morello. The 2026 Chapin Awards is sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Collection 18 and theSecunda Family Foundation.

In 2025, WhyHunger celebrated 50 years of impact and raised $1.4 million from its 40th Annual Hungerthon fundraiser involving Bruce Springsteen, Chef Marcus Samuelsson, SAINt JHN, Yola, Young the Giant & more. In the last five years, WhyHunger has connected 6.6 million people to food and invested $9.6 million in community-led solutions globally. The nonprofit works in the United States and 24 countries around the globe to end hunger and advance the human right to nutritious food for all.

To learn more about WhyHunger and how you can support the movement to end hunger, visit www.whyhunger.org, and follow on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.

Renowned Sirius XM host and content creator Denise Salcedo is set to bring her dynamic voice and engaging storytelling to a live audience with a special live podcast event at the Hotel Circa in Las Vegas on Friday, April 17, at 12 p.m. Pacific. The event can be seen on Denise Salcedo’s YouTube page after its conclusion, as it takes place on the eve of Wrestlemania 42, wrestling’s most awaited weekend of the year.

This highly anticipated episode will feature in-depth conversations with an inspiring lineup of powerful women, such as WWE Legend CJ Perry, wrestling’s punk rocker Shotzi, and renowned broadcaster McKenzie Mitchell, as Denise shines a light on influential voices and meaningful stories.

This showcase also marks an exciting continuation of the momentum and success of her 2026 live podcast series, which kicked off last March 14 at the historic Hollywood Improv, offering fans a unique opportunity to connect with Denise in person.

“I’m incredibly excited for this live podcast and truly grateful for the opportunity to connect with fans in such a personal and meaningful way,” said Denise Salcedo. “It’s a privilege and a joy to not only share this space with them, but also to sit down and interview such powerful and inspiring women live. It’s going to be a very special day.”

Perry and Mitchell both expressed their enthusiasm about being part of the event.

“It’s always an honor to connect with fans in a live setting—there’s nothing like that energy,” said Perry. “Being part of this event and sharing stories alongside such powerful women is incredibly special, and I’m truly excited for what we’re going to create together.”

“It’s such a pleasure to be joining Denise for her live podcast,” said McKenzie Mitchell. “She’s created something really special with her platform, and I’m excited to be a part of this experience and connect with everyone in attendance.”

Fans attending the live podcast can expect an afternoon filled with engaging conversations, behind-the-scenes insights, a VIP meet-and-greet with Denise, and memorable moments in an intimate, energetic setting at Hotel Circa.

CBC, the #1 Canadian podcaster, is launching a new spring/summer slate of original podcasts, including in-depth investigations, candid personal revelations, and lighthearted comedy. CBC’s entire podcast collection can be found on CBC Listen and everywhere podcasts are available. Select titles can also be streamed on YouTube.

New Podcasts

• The Big Five (April 20)
  • A 10-episode comedy podcast hosted by musician Donovan Woods and Tom Power of CBC's Q. Each episode features lighthearted debates on “the big 5” in different categories—objectively the Big 5, not the best, top, or favorite. Topics include farm animals, types of hats, slang terms for “butt,” ways to cook a potato, and guys named Paul. Guests include Vivek Shraya, Jordan Canning, William Prince, Lindsay Ell, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, and more.
  • Listen to the trailer
• Uncover: The Expert Witness (May 11)
  • A 9-episode investigative series hosted by Sam Mullins (Sea of Lies). The season explores a mysterious AI tool called Cybercheck, used in Akron, Ohio, to solve cold murder cases by placing suspects at crime scenes using open-source data—without witnesses. Defense attorney Don Malarcik teams up with lawyers, investigators, and journalists to uncover how the secretive Canadian-founded technology works, who benefits, and who is accountable if AI gets it wrong.
• Understood: Artificial Intimacy (May 19)
  • A 4-episode season hosted by Victoria Hetherington (The Friend Machine). The series examines intimate human relationships with chatbots, including people who have married their bots or used AI to grieve lost loved ones. It explores what we gain and lose—our intimacy, resilience, and grasp on reality—when digital avatars enter the most personal parts of our lives.
• Personally: Discount Dave (and The Fix) (June 9)
  • A 5-episode first-person storytelling series hosted by Rebecca Auerbach. The harrowing and humorous memoir-autofiction blend recounts Becca’s wild youth in Vancouver circa 2005, her obsession with a man claiming to be Van Halen’s David Lee Roth, and how that night led to personal reckoning, healing, and truth.
• Uncover: The Mile Zero Murders (August 10)
  • A 7-episode investigative series hosted by Timothy Sawa. The season investigates a chilling pattern of disappearances and murders in Dawson Creek, B.C. Building on The Fifth Estate’s earlier reporting, Sawa follows leads from grieving families, guarded authorities, and insiders to uncover what’s happening in the community and why no one is being held accountable.

Ongoing CBC Podcasts

CBC’s ongoing podcast lineup includes:

• Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud
• The Dose
• Front Burner
• Q with Tom Power
• Sickboy
• And more

CBC offers a richly diverse collection of award-winning podcasts that engage, enlighten, and entertain. As the #1 Canadian podcaster, CBC reaches more Canadians than any other podcast publisher, with millions of downloads each month and over 45 series across genres like true crime, comedy, human interest, and audio fiction.

The Podcast Guys, a leading event-specialist podcast agency working with global brands, announces the appointment of Anne Claessen as Chief Operating Officer (COO), effective April 13, 2026.

With deep experience across podcast production, marketing and agency leadership, Claessen brings an impressive track record of building high-performing teams, scalable systems and client-focused operations. Claessen joins The Podcast Guys from Cashflow Podcasting, where she most recently served as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Her career spans the full spectrum of podcasting, from freelance Podcast Manager editing and writing show notes, to building her own agency and progressing through roles including Podcast Launch Strategist, Marketing Director and ultimately CEO. She holds a master's degree in Strategic Management and is known for leading with empathy, clarity and a strong operational mindset.

“Bringing Anne into the business is one of the most exciting decisions we’ve made as a leadership team - and a defining moment for The Podcast Guys,” said The Podcast Guys’ Founder and Podcaster-in-Chief, Dan Cottrell. “We’ve grown every single year, adapted to our clients and the market, and built something we’re genuinely proud of. But growth at this level demands more. Anne is an exceptional operator who thrives on the detail, builds systems that give teams clarity, and brings the experience of leading a podcast agency at the highest level."

As COO, Claessen will take ownership of the agency’s operational infrastructure. "I'm thrilled to be part of The Podcast Guys,” said Claessen. “What drew me in was the creative quality this team generates, and what drives me is making sure they have the space, support and structure to keep creating it for a growing roster of clients and building an even stronger team.”

The appointment comes at a pivotal stage in The Podcast Guys’ growth - already a seven-figure agency with a global footprint and a rapidly expanding client portfolio, the business is now entering its next phase of scale.

Shanda, an AI-powered podcast creation platform, has launched Version 3 of its platform, a significant rebuild designed to remove the technical and creative barriers that prevent independent creators from making professional-quality audio.

Founded by Dumi Mabhena, originally from Zimbabwe, and Paul Kassar, originally from France, Shanda was built out of Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, where the two co-founders were recognized in Poets & Quants' Most Disruptive MBA Startups of 2024. The company is based in Washington, D.C.

The platform brings together recording, templates, transcription-based editing, AI audio enhancement, publishing, distribution, and AI-generated metadata (show notes, titles, episode descriptions, pull quotes, and timestamps) into a single workspace. The founding thesis is straightforward: audio is among the most human ways to share an idea, but the tools built around it have historically been designed for studios and engineers, not for independent creators.

Version 3 is the most complete expression of that thesis to date. Key features include:

• A rebuilt browser-based recording studio with automatic background noise removal, supporting 12 languages including Spanish, French, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, and Chinese
• A multitrack, text-based audio editor built natively in the browser
• An intent-based home screen with templates organized by creator use case -- from solo thought leadership to guided meditation to fireside conversations -- with demo content so users can see what's possible before recording a single word
• Instant or scheduled publishing, with AI-generated written metadata produced automatically from the episode transcript
• Vinyl, a clean shareable episode page for each published episode
• An expanded media library with intro and outro music, ambient sounds, and sound effects
• Built-in analytics to track episode performance

"When we started Shanda, the thesis was simple," said Dumi Mabhena, co-founder and CEO. "Podcasting is one of the most human ways to share an idea. But the tools around it were built for studios and engineers, not for the consultant who wants to extend their thought leadership, or the meditation teacher who records from their spare room, or the student using audio as part of their coursework. The friction was everywhere. We wanted to remove it."

Shanda V3 is live now. The platform offers a Free tier, a Pro plan at $19/month, and a Business plan at $49/month, with a 7-day free trial on paid plans.

About Shanda

Shanda is an AI-powered podcast creation and publishing platform based in Washington, D.C. Founded by Georgetown MBA alumni Dumi Mabhena (Zimbabwe) and Paul Kassar (France), the company is headquartered at Georgetown's Venture Lab, recognized as one of Poets & Quants' Most Disruptive MBA Startups of 2024, and named to Technical.ly's RealLIST Startups 2025 as one of DC's hottest early-stage companies. Shanda's mission is to make professional-quality audio accessible to any creator, regardless of technical skill or budget.

Forget everything you think you know about revolution. It wasn’t just fought in parliaments, battlefields, or declarations. It happened in bedrooms, in shops, in museums, in art studios - and in the quiet, everyday decisions that still shape how we live now.

On 14 April 2026, cultural strategist and storyteller Sarah Dowd returns with Season 2 of History For F’s Sake (HISTORYFFS) - the podcast that redefines history as something lived, felt, and fiercely relevant.

Following a bold debut season that challenged the way audiences engage with the past, Season 2 dives into the period 1776–1848 - but not as you’ve heard it before.

This isn’t a story about revolutions of state.

It’s a story about revolutions of identity, culture, power, and everyday life.

The Past, Reframed for Now

Across ten new episodes, Dowd explores the hidden forces that shaped the modern world - from the politics of the body and the rise of consumer culture to the invention of national heroes, screen-fuelled tourism, and the uncomfortable truths behind medicine, empire, and inheritance.

Each episode uses a sharp pop culture entry point - from Bridgerton and Indiana Jones to Blackadder, Independence Day and Marie Kondo to reveal the deeper forces shaping how we see the world. Because the stories we watch, love, and share aren’t just entertainment - they’re how we understand the past, and ourselves.

Because history didn’t just change governments.

It changed how we see ourselves, what we value, and how we live.

Season 2 Highlights

Season 2 features a powerful and diverse lineup of voices spanning culture, medicine, law, heritage, and the creative industries, including:

• Rear Admiral Roy Clare – on heroes, myth-making, and who gets remembered
• Dr Alison Smith – on art, the body, and Victorian scandal
• Seren Welch – on screen tourism, fandom, and why stories make us travel
• Professor Dominic Tweddle – on archaeology, myth, and pop culture
• Clarissa Levi – on inheritance, identity, and the emotional weight of “stuff”
• Dr Theeba Krishnamoorthy – on empire, medicine, and the fight for authority
• Melody Caban – on consumer culture, museums, and the business of history

Together, they reveal a world where revolutions were not always loud - but were always transformative.

A Cultural Podcast with a Point of View

‘History isn’t something that happened ‘back then’ - it’s something we’re still living with every day,’ says Dowd. ‘Season 2 is about uncovering the quieter revolutions - the ones that shaped our bodies, our homes, our culture, and our sense of identity. The things we take for granted now had to be invented, fought for, or quietly negotiated. And once you see that, you can’t unsee it.’

Based in São Paulo, Pinheiro will lead the growth and development of the Ozen.fm podcast network, which currently includes approximately 100 shows in Brazil. He will work closely with creators and production teams to onboard new talent, scale existing shows, and strengthen the network’s footprint across both Portuguese and Spanish speaking audiences.

In this role, Pinheiro will focus on identifying emerging voices, expanding the network’s slate of original content, and supporting creators with the infrastructure and strategic guidance needed to build sustainable audiences. His leadership will play a key role in positioning Ozen.fm as a destination for podcast creators and advertisers seeking growth opportunities across Latin America.

“Bruno has been instrumental in helping shape the next phase of Ozen.fm’s podcast network expansion,” said Rodrigo Tigre, Co-founder and President of Ozen.fm. “His deep knowledge of the regional audio landscape and strong relationships with creators are helping us build a network that reflects the diversity, creativity, and momentum of podcasting throughout Latin America.”

Pinheiro brings experience across advertising, radio, and digital audio operations, offering a comprehensive perspective on scaling podcast businesses in emerging markets. His focus on long-term creator development and strategic network growth aligns with Ozen.fm’s broader vision to invest in podcasting as a core driver of audience and revenue expansion.

“Podcasting in Latin America is entering a period of rapid growth, with new talent and formats gaining traction every day,” said Pinheiro. “At Ozen.fm, we are committed to providing creators with the tools, support, and distribution needed to help their shows reach new audiences and thrive.”

For inquiries, Bruno Pinheiro can be reached at bruno@ozen.fm.

The Independent Podcast Awards 20206 are now open for entry at independentpodcastawards.com. This is the fourth edition of the awards, which were co-founded by Verbal Diorama and whynow in 2023 to celebrate those podcasts made in backrooms, in their creator’s spare time and without the pressures of upsetting sponsors along the way. 

Since then the awards have attracted more than 1400 entries, shortlisted 500+ podcasts, and celebrated 75 winners. 

Last year the overall Independent Podcast of the Year crown went to Shelley & The Can Do Kids, hosted by Josie Taylor and Jemma Morphet, who also won Children & Young Adult Podcast of the Year. 

Emma Turner, Co-Founder of the Independent Podcast Awards said: “These awards were designed to celebrate the smaller indie shows that make up around 75% of the podcast industry in the UK. Many people may think that their show isn’t good enough to win an award, and they’re exactly the people we want to enter. We’re here to shine a light on the indies making great content in a big pool.”

This year there are 28 categories to choose from, including two new ones for 2026: Best Regional Podcast and Best Limited Series. As the names suggest, the search is on for the best podcast that celebrates life outside the big cities, and also those that were able to tell a story in just a few episodes. 

The team is looking for judges to help with the huge task of whittling down the entries to the nominees and winners. If you would like to put yourself forward to be a judge, or you’d like more information about judging, then get in touch. 

As always, events like this couldn’t take place without the support of the industry, and already signed up to this year’s event are: Acast, Advertising Week Europe, Kings Place, Podnews and Rusty Quill. 

The closing date for entries is Monday 8th June, leaving plenty of time for people to get their entries submitted. This year’s event will take place on Wednesday 4th November at Kings Place in Kings Cross, London. All the details about the show will be released nearer the time. 

For more information, and to enter the awards, go to: independentpodcastawards.com 

MIDiA Research has released its latest report 2025 audio consumer profile: Habits, platforms and personas, providing a view of global audio consumption based on consumer survey data across multiple markets.

The report finds that 32% of MIDiA’s international consumer sample listen to podcasts on a monthly basis, while 22% listen weekly. The analysis draws on Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q3 2025 and Q4 2025 consumer surveys and outlines who today’s audio consumer is and how their habits are shifting.

In terms of platform access, 62% of monthly active podcast users engage via YouTube, compared to 47% on Spotify, giving YouTube a 15-percentage-point lead. Spotify saw a 4-point increase from 2024 figures. Yet, our data goes further looking at specific market differences to highlight how for platform reach, it is still a two horse race.

The report also shows that 36% of global consumers are not interested in podcasts, a figure that has only reduced slightly since 2024. Highlighting that although there is a lot of necessary talk around platforms and formats, a key issue for podcasting will be to convince the unconverted.

Audiobook listening increased slightly, with average weekly listening rising from 3.1 hours to 3.2 hours. The share of audiobook non-listeners declined by 2 percentage points since Q4 2024.

The report also highlights differences in podcast genre engagement. News remains the top genre globally, narrowly ahead of comedy. Chat shows, True crime, and Politics saw increases in listenership, while News, Factual, and Games declined. In the United States, News dropped out of the top three most-listened-to podcast genres.

 "What we’ve tried to do in this report is go beyond the global average, and look at market nuances to get a better understanding of the international audio listener.”  – Laura Fisher, Audio and Entertainment Analyst, MIDiA Research

About the research

This report draws on a series of 2025 MIDiA Research consumer surveys to provide insight into today’s audio consumer. Where relevant, it also references 2024 data for year-on-year comparison.

The report includes data from Q3, 2024, Q4 2024, Q3 2025 and Q4 2025 MIDiA consumer surveys. Unless otherwise stated, all data reflects the weighted average across all surveyed countries, representative of their respective populations.

About MIDiA Research

MIDiA Research is the global leading authority in music, the creator economy, audio, and cross-entertainment. Our subscriptions, data tools, and strategy consulting bring clarity to complex industries by providing support and expertise. Our trusted data and powerful insights help make confident and impactful decisions. By leveraging multi-country consumer data, forecasts, market shares, and the insights from our creator panel, we empower clients to think differently, revealing unique solutions they did not even know existed.

With our deep understanding of both the business and culture of entertainment, we work with entertainment companies to navigate tough industry challenges. Driven by a passion for discovering new knowledge, insights, and solutions, our team nurtures creativity and innovation to consistently deliver dependable results.

“Disgraceland” and “Hollywoodland” will continue to be produced by Double Elvis and executive produced by ERM and iHeartPodcasts.

Since its launch in 2018, “Disgraceland” has become one of the most successful music podcasts in the world revealing the deeply human, highly dramatic, true crime–fueled chaos behind legendary musicians. Known for its award-winning cinematic sound design and immersive storytelling, this weekly series explores the dark side of legendary artists like Amy Winehouse, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Grateful Dead, Blondie and more. The show dives into music history like it’s never been heard before—edge-of-the-seat stories exploding with drama and the kind of information that will make listeners dangerous at dinner parties.

“‘My Favorite Murder’ was one of the podcasts that inspired me to create ‘Disgraceland’ and the folks at iHeart were some of the first to believe in the show,” said Brennan. “After I launched ‘Disgraceland,’ Karen, Georgia and I became friends, and there always seemed to be this unspoken shared willingness to work with each other at some point. That point in time is now, and I couldn’t be happier. What they’ve built with the Exactly Right Network is truly inspiring, and there seems to be enormous cross-over potential between fans of ‘My Favorite Murder’ and ‘Disgraceland.’ Like Karen and Georgia, Murderinos have great taste in music, so this partnership makes perfect sense.”

“We are thrilled to welcome our old friend Jake Brennan to the Exactly Right network,” says CEO Karen Kilgariff. “We’ve always loved the incredible shows he makes and so does our audience, so it’s a match made in podcasting heaven.”

As part of the deal, “Hollywoodland,” the first true spin-off of “Disgraceland,” will also join the Exactly Right Media slate of shows. Hosted and produced by Brennan, the series meets at the corner of Hollywood and true crime and explores the lives of some of the most celebrated actors and actresses through the true crimes that have most impacted them. Show topics include the mysterious death of Brittany Murphy; David Lynch and the real-life brutal murder that inspired Twin Peaks; Steve McQueen’s brush with Charles Manson and many more.

“Jake Brennan is one of the most compelling storytellers in podcasting, and ‘Disgraceland’ and ‘Hollywoodland’ are true standouts in the industry,” said Will Pearson, President of iHeartPodcasts. “These shows draw listeners in with unforgettable narratives that keep them coming back week after week. We’re excited to deepen our partnership with Exactly Right Media and to help grow these incredible series across iHeartPodcasts.”

New episodes of “Disgraceland” drop every Tuesday along with additional listener-driven bonus episodes on Thursdays and curated “Rewind” releases from the show’s extensive archive each Sunday. Scripted episodes of “Hollywoodland” post on Mondays, with bonus episodes on Wednesdays and Fridays. All Exactly Right Media shows are distributed by iHeartPodcasts and are available on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere podcasts are heard.

The Podcast Show London, the biggest international festival for the business of podcasting, is back for its fifth year next month, 20 & 21 May 2026, with Global and iHeartPodcasts returning as Headline Partners.

Global, the Media & Entertainment group, and iHeartPodcasts, the No. 1 podcast publisher globally, will once again bring their partnership to life at the centre of the industry’s biggest international gathering, championing the scale, creativity and commercial opportunities powering the podcasting industry's next chapter.

This year, Global’s presence will place a particular focus on Global Studios - Global’s newly launched podcast and digital powerhouse, built to create, grow and monetise premium podcast shows across audio, video and social media.

Throughout the show, Global Studios and iHeartPodcasts will showcase the strength of trusted talent, creator-led storytelling and cross-platform distribution, demonstrating how standout podcast shows travel powerfully across audio, video, social and live environments.

Together, the two businesses will create a major presence at the event with premium branding, on-site activations, high-profile sessions and opportunities for the industry to connect and discuss the ideas, partnerships and innovations shaping the future of podcasting.

The announcement follows Global's appointment of Craig Hunter as Managing Director of Global Studios to lead the next phase of its creative and commercial growth from September.

Joe Copeman, Director, Commercial, Global Studios said: “Global Studios brings together hit Global Original podcast shows, next generation digital media businesses like The Fellas Studios and The Overlap, best-in-class video and audio facilities, seamless distribution across all major platforms, and the marketing power of Global’s radio, digital and outdoor network. Being such a big part of The Podcast Show (one of the very best podcast events on the planet) with our friends at iHeartPodcasts, underlines our commitment to the future and growth of the industry.”

Will Pearson, President, iHeartPodcasts said: “The Podcast Show London has become an essential moment for the podcast industry, bringing together the people, ideas and innovation that continue to move it forward. iHeart is proud to return as a Headline Partner alongside Global, reaffirming our support of an event that truly reflects how powerful podcasting can be when great talent, platforms and ideas come together on an international stage.”

The Podcast Show is at the BDC, Islington, 20 & 21 May. Tickets are available at ThePodcastShowLondon.com.

For years, podcasting has been framed as a scale game: bigger audiences, broader reach, more distribution. But a different model is quietly taking hold. And no, it’s not a show hosted by an AI influencer. Humans are still at the helm here.

In 2025, podcasters earned more than $629 million on Patreon, making it the highest-earning category on the platform for the second year in a row—increasing 33% year over year. That growth reflects something bigger: a shift toward fan-first media businesses that are built for depth, not just scale.

Shifting from reach to relationships

We’re seeing growth on both sides: not only are more creators building podcast businesses, but more fans are also choosing to pay for them. Today, more than 47,000 podcasters are creating on Patreon, supported by 7.6 million paid memberships.

So why now? Because reach doesn’t mean what it used to. Feeds are more crowded than ever, algorithms shape what people see, and while clips travel, audiences don’t always stick. At the same time, fans are looking for something deeper: more access, more community, and a closer relationship with the creators they actually care to listen to.

Podcasting is designed for that shift. It’s inherently more intimate and community-driven, and when paired with a direct-to-fan model, it becomes a foundation for a real business. Podcasters on Patreon aren’t chasing reach or optimizing for ads. They’re building genuine relationships with their fans, and turning those relationships into sustainable, predictable income.

Built for multihyphenate creator businesses

Podcasting isn’t a standalone format anymore. It’s the backbone of more complex, multimedia creator businesses. Podcasters on Patreon are writers, comedians, filmmakers, musicians, and more. They’re working across video, newsletters, short-form posts, and livestreams to stay connected to their fans. That’s the kind of creator we’re building for.

Podcasters' media, business, and community all live in one place, so creators can go deeper with their audience, not just reach more people.

And because Patreon only makes money when creators do, everything we build is designed to help them grow. From native podcasting tools for managing multiple shows to hosting free and paid episodes, to new ways to package and sell episodes, to ad-free livestreaming and newsletters, it’s all about helping creators run a successful media business.

We’ve also expanded partnerships with major media players and deepened integrations with platforms like Spotify to meet creators where their audiences already are while helping them convert listeners into paying fans.

The most successful podcasters on Patreon aren’t just publishing episodes or putting “content” behind a paywall. They’re building full ecosystems around their work: bonus episodes, extended cuts, ad-free listening, exclusive series, live experiences, and real-time community engagement.

Where “too niche” doesn’t exist

Podcasting for us isn’t just about genres, it’s about connecting over subcultures. Creators are building spaces for people who are really into something—whether that’s knitting, anime, or the Bravosphere. That shared taste turns into community, and community turns into a business.

You can see it across the platform. In fashion, voices behind shows like The Cutting Room Floor and Throwing Fits aren’t just talking about trends—they’re shaping them alongside their audiences. In film, shows like Blank Check, Quentin Tarantino’s Video Archives, and We Hate Movies turn fandom into an ongoing conversation through bonus series, deep dives, and live shows. In true crime, RedHanded, True Crime Obsessed, and Criminal create space for sleuths to solve mysteries together. In pop culture, Good Noticings and Who Weekly give fans a place to stay plugged in beyond the timeline. And for reality TV fans, shows like 2 Black Girls, 1 Rose, Reality Gays, and Watch What Crappens turn every episode into a shared experience. Fandoms of all kinds live on Patreon, and fans don’t just follow along: they show up, participate, and help shape what gets made next.

And as we continue to expand our discovery tools, we’re making it even easier for like-minded fans to connect with each other.

The future of podcasting is direct-to-fan

As the podcasting space continues to evolve, one thing is becoming clear: the most durable businesses aren’t built on ads or addictive algorithms—they’re built on relationships. That’s what we’re seeing across Patreon: podcasters are building deeper connections, earning more per fan, and creating with more freedom.

This isn’t just a trend. It’s the blueprint for what comes next, and tomorrow’s top podcasters are already building with their fans today.

Literary Mama, the online literary magazine that has published writing about motherhood for more than two decades, has expanded the team behind its podcast, This Mama Is Lit!, with the addition of new co-hosts Sam Field (left) and Tiffanie Drayton (centre), and podcast producer Dana Wiker (right).

This Mama Is Lit! features conversations with mother writers about creativity, identity, and the experience of motherhood. In addition to Literary Mama’s six annual issues featuring creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, literary reflections, book reviews and profiles, the volunteer organization produces This Mama Is Lit! as part of its mission to amplify diverse voices and perspectives on motherhood.

Sam Field is a poet, queer trauma therapist, and workshop facilitator whose work explores motherhood, identity, and the nervous system. She leads writing groups and creative spaces, and her current poetry manuscript traces her journey into parenthood. Field brings a deep belief in the power of storytelling as a tool for connection and healing to her role as co-host.

Tiffanie Drayton is an award-winning writer, author, and cultural critic whose work examines race, migration, motherhood, and the psychological toll of the American Dream. She is the author of Black American Refugee: Escaping the Narcissism of the American Dream. Her writing has appeared in major publications including The New York Times, Marie Claire, NBC News Think, Vox, USA Today, and Salon, and her commentary has been featured on The Daily Show, PBS, NPR, and MSNBC.

“I’m so excited to join the creative space that once gave me a platform as both a mom and an author. Coming full circle as a co-host feels incredibly meaningful,” Drayton said.

“As a mom and writer I know the balance, commitment, and determination it takes to be a parent and a writer,” said Field, “so I am thrilled to be a co-host and part of a team that provides a platform for moms to share their work and magic with the world!”

Field and Drayton join as co-hosts, bringing new perspectives and voices to the show’s ongoing conversations. Wiker will oversee episode development, publishing, and marketing support for the podcast, working to expand the show’s reach and impact.

Wiker currently produces The Fabricator Podcast, which recently surpassed 100 episodes, and the Next-Gen Metal Fab Podcast for the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association. She is also a fellow in the Stony Brook University Podcast Incubator program, where she is developing an independent podcast focused on motherhood and identity.

“As a mother myself, it’s important to me to amplify other mothers’ voices,” Wiker said. “I know firsthand how challenging it can be to balance parenting, work, and creativity. I’m honored to join This Mama Is Lit! and support its thoughtful, candid conversations about motherhood and its commitment to inclusive storytelling.”

For more information about Literary Mama and This Mama Is Lit!, visit: https://literarymama.com

HARK Collective has confirmed the full speaker line-up for HARK Live, taking place at voco Manchester on 29th April 2026. The free event, brought to you by audioadpro, will unite agencies, businesses and brands from across the digital audio advertising sector for a day of insight, discussion and networking, marking the official launch of the collective.

Speakers confirmed for the event are from ACCENT, Audiomob, Distorted, Get Carter Productions, Humanise and Octave, who will explore how advertisers can better understand, engage and influence listeners across digital audio.

With 'Know Your Audience' as the theme underpinning the day's agenda, the programme will address how to plan strategically ahead of production, what creative best practice looks like across audio channels, and how brands can navigate audience behaviour in today's media landscape.

HARK Collective was founded to connect professionals working across the digital audio advertising space, with a mission centred on driving greater scale, effectiveness and creativity within the sector through collaboration and a stronger collective voice for the industry.

"Bringing together this breadth of expertise under one roof reflects exactly what HARK is about," said Roger Cutsforth, Co-Founder of audioadpro. "We want the delegates to leave our first event with fresh thinking, new connections and a real sense of what digital audio advertising can deliver."

Further details and remaining seats can be found at harkcollective.org

Ausha, a leading podcast marketing and growth platform, announces the beta launch of Ausha Visibility Ads, a new solution that enables podcasters to run paid visibility campaigns directly on Spotify and YouTube — making audience growth more accessible, controllable, and scalable.

As podcast discovery increasingly happens within listening platforms, visibility has become a critical growth lever. According to Discovery Stats 2024, 1 in 2 listeners discover new podcasts directly on listening platforms.

To address this challenge, Ausha is expanding its growth suite beyond organic discoverability.

Ausha has already established itself as a leader in organic growth through its Podcast Search Optimization (PSO) technology, which helps creators improve their visibility in listening app search results. Building on this foundation, Ausha now introduces paid ad campaigns powered by Base for Creators, enabling podcasters to actively promote their shows and boost visibility where listening happens.

With Ausha Visibility Ads, creators can launch campaigns directly from their Ausha workspace in just a few clicks — without needing advertising expertise or complex setup.

Designed specifically for podcasters, the solution simplifies paid promotion while driving performance through continuous optimization.

With this new feature, podcasters can:

• Promote their podcast on Spotify and YouTube
• Reach new listeners aligned with their topics and target audience
• Launch campaigns quickly through a guided experience
• Benefit from continuous optimization to improve performance
• Track campaign results in real time

A Strategic Step Forward for Podcast Growth

Ausha Visibility Ads is powered by Base for Creators, originally experts in paid promotion for music across streaming platforms and social networks, now co-adapted with Ausha to meet the specific needs of podcast growth.

This feature makes paid ad campaigns available to any podcaster, even non Ausha users, while Ausha Pro users benefit from a more tailored, supported experience.

Ausha Visibility Ads is now available in beta, directly within the Ausha platform. More information can be found at ausha.co.

As listener behavior continues shifting toward on-demand consumption, stations that fail to capture their broadcasts as digital assets risk losing reach, data, and revenue to digital-first competitors. PodcastBot.ai ensures that content doesn’t disappear when a show ends, it becomes permanent, searchable, and monetizable inventory.

Designed for organizations competing in a digital-first audio economy, the system captures live streams directly from broadcast infrastructure, applies intelligent AI-driven processing, and automatically publishes podcast-ready episodes. With support for multilingual programming; including English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, and Italian, broadcasters worldwide can scale their on-demand presence without increasing operational complexity. The result: expanded distribution, deeper audience engagement, and incremental revenue, all with minimal lift.

At its core is a scalable production engine built for both full-length programming and high-value segments. Standard Show Mode records scheduled broadcasts and converts them into complete podcast episodes automatically. Interview Extraction identifies and isolates guest segments within live programming, refines them, and publishes them as standalone episodes; ideal for highlights, exclusives, and evergreen content that performs strongly across podcast platforms.

The platform delivers true end-to-end automation, including audio capture, intro and outro detection, music removal for rights-safe distribution, sound optimization, and AI-powered transcription. Intelligent ad detection and marker replacement allow broadcasters to insert fresh sponsorships, activate programmatic demand, and monetize podcast inventory independently of terrestrial ad loads.

Seamless integration ensures compatibility with Ozen’s infrastructure as well as third-party streaming and hosting providers. Stations can generate episodes directly from live feeds or apply the same automation to archived material, instantly expanding their digital catalog and monetization potential.

“Radio stations create valuable content every day, yet too much of it disappears after it airs,” said Rodrigo Tigre, Co-Founder and President of Ozen.fm. “This changes that. Broadcasters can reach audiences on more platforms while generating new revenue from content they’re already producing. It’s about expanding distribution, strengthening monetization, and positioning radio for long-term growth.”

Supporting both live and archived audio, PodcastBot.ai enables stations to build continuously growing on-demand libraries. Video podcast generation is planned for a future release, extending the same automated workflow into visual formats.

In today’s audio landscape, distribution drives growth. By expanding beyond geographic signal limitations, broadcasters can reach national and international audiences across Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and other major platforms automatically.

PodcastBot.ai is available now through flexible monthly subscription plans designed to scale with production volume and organizational size. For more information or to request a demo, visit www.podcastbot.ai

SiriusXM Radio Airchecks Now Live!

Podscribe has expanded its Radio Airchecks capabilities to include SiriusXM inventory, giving advertisers and agencies visibility into ads running across SXM stations using the same trusted Podscribe workflow available for radio.

With SiriusXM Radio Airchecks, users can:

• Verify that ads aired on SiriusXM stations and shows
• Access detailed verified airchecks, including show, timestamp, and transcript
• Track campaign performance in near real-time as matches come in

This update eliminates a major blind spot in audio attribution, providing clear, verifiable proof of SiriusXM’s radio campaign delivery.

Podscribe will continue to expand station coverage and refine show mappings to further improve match rates.

Additional notes:

• Certain SXM XTRA channels are not included, as they typically do not contain ads.
• As with all radio aircheck, slight delays between airing and match availability may occur.

Automated Pixel Email Scheduling

Podscribe has automated pixel email scheduling within its platform to simplify the process of sharing tracking pixels with stakeholders.

Previously, a more manual and often fragmented workflow, pixel emailing can now be fully automated. Podscribe will automatically detect new campaigns that have not had a pixel emailed yet and send the email. This can be set up on a recurring schedule (weekly, or custom cadence).

This ensures publishers consistently receive the information they need without additional effort from campaign managers.

Key Benefits:

• Improved consistency in pixel distribution
• Reduced manual workload for teams
• Better preparedness for upcoming campaigns

To ensure successful delivery, Podscribe recommends confirming that all publishers have a valid email address configured in the platform.

Podcaster Logins for Publishers

To improve collaboration between publishers and podcast creators, Podscribe now offers Podcaster Logins, enabling secure and scoped access to performance data.

Publishers can now:

• Provide podcasters with show-level, audience and/or aircheck data
• Restrict access to specific shows only, with no cross-account visibility
• Reduce manual reporting and back-and-forth communication

How it works:

Publishers with admin accounts can invite podcasters directly from Account Settings in Podscribe dashboard by entering the podcast creator’s email address and assigning relevant shows. Once activated, podcasters gain access only to the data associated with their assigned shows, ensuring privacy and control.

This feature empowers publishers to keep creators informed and in the loop without compromising account security.

Driving Transparency, Automation, and Better Outcomes

These updates reflect Podscribe’s continued investment in making audio attribution more actionable and accessible. Together, they deliver a simple promise: more visibility, less friction, and better outcomes for audio advertisers and publishers alike.

Availability

These features are now available within the Podscribe platform. To learn more, visit the Podscribe blog.

Kaleidoscope, the New York-based media company redefining science and technology storytelling, today announced a historic new partnership with New York Times bestselling author and journalist Michael Easter to expand his viral wellness newsletter Two Percent into a twice-weekly video and audio podcast series, Two Percent with Michael Easter.

The series marks Kaleidoscope’s first video-native podcast launch as the company cements its evolution into a multi-format science and technology media brand and joins Kaleidoscope’s slate of acclaimed science and technology content, including TechStuff, No Such Thing, and Shell Game.

Episode 1 will air on Tuesday, April 7, with new episodes releasing every Tuesday and Thursday. Two Percent with Micheal Easter is a Kaleidoscope production, distributed by iHeartPodcasts, the No. 1 podcast publisher according to Podtrac.

Two Percent with Michael Easter builds on the momentum of Easter’s massively successful Two Percent Subtack newsletter, which reaches more than 150,000 subscribers and is the #1 wellness newsletter on social media. The podcast advances the form into a dynamic, accessible format that blends storytelling, research, humor, and actionable challenges designed for real life.

At a time when wellness culture often promotes complicated routines and endless optimization, Two Percent with Michael Easter takes a different approach. The show is built around a simple idea: small, deliberate actions, the “two percent” shifts most people avoid, can create outsized change in health, performance, and meaning. Each week, Easter examines the most pressing questions in modern health and performance. On Tuesdays, he sits down with leading thinkers, researchers, athletes, and cultural figures to unpack pivotal moments and hard-earned lessons. On Thursdays, he breaks down viral trends, new studies, and controversial health claims, translating research into clear, entertaining, and actionable takeaways listeners can apply immediately.

“Two Percent with Michael Easter marks a major step in Kaleidoscope’s strategic 2026 rollout of IP expansion, video-native formats, and multi-platform content,” said Oz Woloshyn, Co-founder of Kaleidoscope. “As the trusted home of science and technology storytelling, Kaleidoscope continues to partner with the industry’s most respected voices like Michael Easter, Walter Isaacson, Alice Hines, Zoë Lescaze, and Evan Ratliff to develop must-engage video and audio series. We look forward to partnering with Michael to delve deeper into his Two Percent newsletter, bringing even greater depth and insight to audiences while answering the most pressing questions in modern health today.”

Michael Easter is the New York Times bestselling author of The Comfort Crisis and Scarcity Brain, and his reporting has appeared in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Esquire, Outside, ESPN’s 538, Vice, and other major publications. He has been a guest on leading podcasts and television shows, including The Joe Rogan Experience, NPR’s Here & Now, The Rich Roll Podcast, The Huberman Lab Podcast, CBS Saturday Morning, and Good Morning America. Across platforms, Easter reaches more than 300,000 followers on social media and a wide-ranging audience of driven professionals, endurance athletes, military members, entrepreneurs, and everyday listeners seeking more meaning and better health.

“I’m thrilled to partner with Kaleidoscope. Their team brings strong journalistic judgement and incredible audio and video storytelling that will help me reach new audiences,” said Michael Easter, Host of Two Percent. “Together we’ll deliver actionable insights backed by science, rooted in story, and optimized to work for real people in the real world. And we’ll have a lot of fun along the way.”

Two Percent with Michael Easter is distributed by iHeartPodcasts and joins Kaleidoscope’s growing slate of premium science and technology storytelling. New episodes will be available every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, and everywhere podcasts are heard. Video content is available for download on Easter’s YouTube channel.

For more information on Kaleidoscope, please visit www.k-scope.com.

From Tuesday 7th April the Elis and John podcast will launch a brand new Patreon channel led by The Adventures Of Elis and John - a visualised monthly series that will feature excursions, activities and challenges with the award-winning comedians and their on-air producer Dave Masterman. ‘Episode #1 - Mini Olympics’ is out now.

As part of the show’s ‘pay what you can’ scheme across three tiers of identical content, subscribers will also get fully visualised episodes of the twice-weekly podcast for the first time, behind-the-scenes fun not seen anywhere else, first dibs on tour tickets and ad-free listening. Head to patreon.com/elisandjohn to find out more.

Elsewhere, the show is also getting its own dedicated YouTube channel. Featuring fan favourites such as Made Up Games, The Cymru Connection and Mad Dads, episode highlights will be released each week alongside other promotional content. Just search and subscribe to ‘Elis and John’, or head to youtube.com/@elisandjohn

For those who simply like everything as it is and wish everything would just STOP, podcast episodes will remain available across all platforms and ad-free on BBC Sounds, while a version of the podcast can still be heard on BBC Radio 5 Live on Friday afternoons.

This expanded offering - led by Elis, John and Dave’s own company Significant Productions - comes after the recent announcement of the show’s involvement with the BBC Audio Release Policy, which allows independent producers to commercialise titles that are no longer licence fee-funded BBC content.

Dave Masterman says: “We’re incredibly proud of what the podcast has achieved over the past seven years as a BBC commission, and we’re delighted to now have the opportunity to expand the show further. Our new Adventures series sees Elis somehow hitting himself in the head with a Javelin, and John has already taken it upon himself to film a behind-the-scenes video in the bath, so it’s been a strong start.”

Elis James says: “Neil Armstrong. Marie Curie. Whoever it was who first put wheels on a suitcase (Steve Jobs?). All of these people were pioneers, sure, but could they have imagined the kind of content Elis James, John Robins and Dave Masterman have planned for their fans? And then REimagined what they just imagined? I suppose we’ll never know (unless the suitcase person is still with us). It’s huge. We do not let this slip. If we end up winning a Nobel Prize, we’ve agreed it’s best for the three of us if John gets to keep it.”

John Robins says: “When people ask me what it’s like being a digital content trailblazer, I just fire up my Harley Davidson and let the engine do the talking. Then I light a cigarette and say “when you’re travelling at the speed of light, you’re always ahead of the curve”. Usually they can’t hear me over the engine, or they might ask me what I mean. But by then I'm long gone, off on another crazy adventure. Or just home if it’s after 6pm or I’m hungry. I have “Waaaaazup!” written on the back of my leather jacket. IYKYK”

You can find the show on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Just search @elisandjohn. All other information can be found at elisandjohn.com and significanthq.com

Independent podcast network Mashed Pumpkin Productions has achieved a significant milestone in the US market, with its newly launched series What I Survived charting at number 31 in the overall US Apple Podcasts chart, number one in Documentary Podcasts, and number four in Society and Culture, all within its first 47 days of release.

The show, hosted and produced by network founder Jack Laurence, launched on February 18, 2026 and has accumulated over 440,000 downloads since launch. In its peak week the show recorded over 200,000 downloads in seven days, with a single day high of 61,000 downloads following an editorial feature on the Apple Podcasts US homepage.

The achievement is notable given the company operates independently out of Queensland, competing directly against shows produced by major US networks including iHeartPodcasts, Wondery, NPR, Barstool Sports and the New York Times.

Jack says: “It’s honestly wild to see my show sitting amongst some serious heavy hitters in the world of US podcasting, it’s a market I’ve been trying to crack for the last four years, the fact that WIS is the show to do it was honestly very unexpected”

‘What I Survived’ documents the stories of survival and psychological recovery from extreme ordeals including plane hijackings, hostage situations, shipwrecks and life-threatening accidents. The show's US audience accounts for approximately 74% of total listenership, with New York, Los Angeles and Chicago among its top listening cities.

The milestone comes as Mashed Pumpkin Productions crossed 15 million all-time downloads across its network of shows, which also includes long-running true crime series One Minute Remaining, Crime at Bedtime, and Mysteries at Bedtime. The network recorded 868,000 downloads in the past 30 days, representing 18% year on year growth.

On the success of his catalogue of shows Jack attributes it to a number of things including his commercial radio background: “Having worked in radio for 15 years definitely gave me an advantage in the podcast space but there’s also an element of luck! Landing that feature on the US Apple platform was totally unexpected but I’m extremely grateful to the Apple team for the support as well as the incredible audience who have supported me for the past three and a half years.”

What I Survived Season Two is scheduled for release in May 2026.

About Mashed Pumpkin Productions Mashed Pumpkin Productions is an independent podcast network based in Queensland, Australia, founded by Jack Laurence in September 2022. The network produces investigative and narrative audio content across multiple genres.

Created for podcasters, producers, editors, audio or video entrepreneurs, and creative teams building in the independent space, the Soundwave Summit is designed to help attendees move beyond isolated creation and into real community, practical strategy, and sustainable growth. This year’s summit will focus on the issues shaping podcasting right now: monetization, video, AI, audience growth, and community-building.

TSS is being curated by key community partners across Canadian audio and media, including:

• The Sonar Network
• Lead Podcasting
• Black Canadian Creators
• Women in Media Network
• Canadaland

“Podcasting can feel like a solo sport, but it doesn’t have to be,” said the Soundwave Summit team in the event’s official announcement. “This is a day built for people who want to learn, connect, and build something real with others who understand the work.”

Attendees can expect

In terms of programming, we will explore the real opportunities and challenges facing creators in today’s podcast landscape, including:

• Monetization beyond basic supporter links, with conversations around sponsorships, ad sales, and revenue streams for independent creators
• The video shift, with practical ways to use video without needing a large crew or high-budget setup
• AI tools for creators, focused on efficiency in editing, transcription, and production support without losing creative voice
• Growth and community-building, with strategies for turning listeners into loyal supporters and long-term audiences

Ticket options at every stage

Attendees can choose from three ticket experiences:

VIP Pass – $159

Includes access to all workshops, panels, and keynotes, plus a VIP Podcast Power Lunch, guaranteed professional headshots, swag bag, and a drink ticket for the networking mixer.

Day Pass – $95

Includes access to all workshops, panels, and keynotes, plus first-come, first-served headshots and entry to the networking mixer at Boxcar Social.

Joint Ticket – $105

Includes access to both Podcast Creators Day at Radiodays North America on May 7 and Soundwave Summit on May 9, offering two major learning and networking experiences in one week.

A gathering built for Canada’s indie podcasting scene

More than a conference, Soundwave Summit has become a meeting point for Canada’s independent audio community. With creators often building in separate cities, niches, and networks, the summit offers a rare chance to connect in person, trade ideas, build relationships, and leave with practical next steps.

The event will take place at Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay W., Toronto, with an evening networking mixer to follow at Boxcar Social.

Envisioning a better world feels more essential (and more impossible) than ever. And it’s not something we can do alone. With Multitude’s newest member show, Dreaming Against the Machine, hosted by journalist and astrophysicist Dr. Adam Becker, we can work towards that goal of imagining better futures.

Dr. Becker has spent the last several years examining and debunking Silicon Valley billionaires’ visions for the future in his critically acclaimed book More Everything Forever. After that experience, he’s interested in finding hope in the darkness of the current political moment. Each week on Dreaming Against the Machine, Becker and guests will explore ideas about how to realistically create better and more inclusive futures.

“The public conversation about the future is dominated by the dreams of tech oligarchs and their overly literal readings of science fiction,” Becker says. “Setting the terms of the public conversation about the future carries political power, and we can’t cede that power to these nihilistic visions promoted by the ultra-wealthy. To push back, we need to envision feasible futures that we actually want.” 

Dreaming Against the Machine is the latest in Multitude’s growing lineup of member shows, which are independently owned by their hosts and cooperatively managed by the 8-year-old podcast collective. Becker also becomes Multitude’s second astrophysicist host, joining Dr. Moiya McTier (Pale Blue Pod, Exolore) in using scientific expertise to build better worlds. Fellow scholar-podcasters at Multitude include Dr. Matthew Gabriele (American Medieval), Dr. Claire Aubin (This Guy Sucked), and Dr. Deboki Chakravarti and Dr. Sam Jones (Tiny Matters). 

“Earnest, entertaining, and hopeful conversations are what Multitude does best,” says Amanda McLoughlin, founder and CEO of Multitude. “Adam is well-practiced at helping non-scientists understand the forces that make up our world. He’s also hilarious, with smart and creative friends that we can’t wait to welcome onto the show.”

The trailer for Dreaming Against the Machine, hosted by Adam Becker and produced by Nick Carissimi, is available to listen to now in all podcast apps. Episodes begin releasing weekly on April 14, 2026. Adam is available to follow on Bluesky, and more information about Multitude’s podcast collective and production services can be found at multitudeshows.com.

Dreaming up a better future, together.

Never Not Funny: The Jimmy Pardo Podcast will celebrate twenty years of podcasting with a marathon 8-hour livestreaming show. The Never Not Funny 20th Anniversary Spectacular will stream at NeverNotFunny.com and on YouTube on Saturday, April 11, 2026 starting at 4pm Pacific Time.

Jimmy Pardo, alongside his producer and co-host Matt Belknap, pioneered the comedy podcasting genre in 2006 when they recorded the first episode of Never Not Funny at Pardo’s dining room table. Since then, they have released almost 1900 episodes with 600 unique guests including Conan O’Brien, Hannah Einbinder, Jon Hamm, Amy Poehler, John Mulaney, Nikki Glaser, Nate Bargatze, Sarah Silverman, Paul Reiser, Jon Cryer, Tig Notaro, Adam Scott, and musicians like Richard Marx, David Foster, Tommy Shaw (Styx), Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon) James Pankow (Chicago), Lisa Loeb, and Weird Al Yankovic.

Never Not Funny was an early adopter of now-ubiquitous livestreaming technology. Pardo hosted Never Not Funny’s first livestreamed fundraiser in 2009, long before the pandemic. The 9-hour marathon livestream, conceived in the vein of nostalgic telethons, featured a round-robin of surprise celebrity guests while raising money for charity. Never Not Funny went on to host ten livestreamed marathons and raise $2 Million for charity.

Never Not Funny also embraced video podcasting early, a format Hollywood is just now investing in. Never Not Funny has produced video episodes since 2008.

The Never Not Funny 20th Anniversary Spectacular will feature the current cast consisting of Pardo, Belknap, video producer Eliot Hochberg and intern Garon Cockrell. In addition to a live band headed up by comedian Wayne Federman, the show will feature over 20 guests and will auction off signed posters to raise money for suicide awareness in honor of their former video producer, Andrew Koenig.

Jimmy Pardo, known as “The Fastest Mind in Comedy,” is renowned for his quick-witted improvisational style. He has hosted the seminal comedy podcast Never Not Funny since 2006 and hosted TV series including Science Channel’s critically acclaimed Race To Escape, National Lampoon’s Funny Money on Game Show Network, five seasons of AMC’s Movies At Our House and episodes of NBC’s Late Friday, VH1’s The Surreal Life and The Playboy Morning Show. He has made over one hundred television appearances including performances on The Tonight Show, Conan, and The Late Late Show. Inspired by his love of music (Pardo has attended close to 500 rock concerts) and many years in the music business, Jimmy Pardo also hosts the web series Jimmy’s Records & Tapes, currently in its fourth season on YouTube. His three comedy albums, UNO, Pompous Clown and Sprezzatura, have all topped the comedy album charts and many critic’s best of lists.

Vaudeville Sound announced the launch of its brand-new podcast and video production studio, expanding its creative capabilities and offering cutting-edge facilities for content creators, brands, and media professionals.

Designed to meet the growing demand for high-quality audio and visual content, the new studio combines industry-leading technology with Vaudeville’s longstanding expertise in sound production. The facility is fully equipped for podcast recording, video interviews, live streaming, and multimedia production, providing clients with a seamless, end-to-end creative experience, which includes recording, through to edit and delivery.

Equipped with three Sony FR7 robotic cameras and Nanlite professional lighting, Vaudeville’s latest offering elevates content to cinematic standards beyond that of typical podcast studios. Accompanied by Shure SM7B broadcast microphones, Genelec Speakers and an experienced engineer, content creators and producers will experience a completely turnkey solution that enables shooting and delivery in under 24 hours. Whether clients are producing branded podcasts, EPKs, social media content, or long-form video series, Vaudeville offers flexible packages tailored to a wide range of production needs.

Located in Shoreditch, London, the new space is designed to foster creativity and collaboration, welcoming both established creators and those new to podcasting and video production.

The launch reinforces Vaudeville’s commitment to innovation and its position as a leading provider of audio and media production services.

“The way audiences consume content is evolving rapidly, and we are committed to staying at the forefront of that transformation,” said Daniel Jones, CEO and Founder of Vaudeville Sound Group. “For more than 20 years, Vaudeville has built its reputation on delivering exceptional audio post-production across factual, animation, and feature film. Since the beginning, I have been driven to push the boundaries of what’s possible in sound, whether through pioneering immersive audio or investing in R&D beyond the traditional media and entertainment space. Our new studio is designed to empower creators with the tools, environment, and support they need to produce truly outstanding content, and I can’t wait for people to start experiencing our new offering.”

The new studio is already open and ready to book, by visiting https://www.vaudeville.tv/podcast-studios/ or emailing studios@vaudeville.tv.

Speakeasy arrives at an inflection point for creator media. Audio and video are converging, new distribution formats — from RSS to HLS — are reshaping how content reaches audiences and premium subscription revenue is growing alongside ad-supported models. New platforms are adding creator content, expanding the potential reach and monetization for top shows. Most creators are still navigating this shift with a patchwork of disconnected tools. Speakeasy is built for what comes next.

“Speakeasy is the platform we wished all our creators had access to, so we set out to build it,” said Chris Balfe, CEO, Red Seat Ventures. “Creators are the new media, and they require an AI-enabled platform that meets the growing needs and opportunities of distributing and monetizing across audio, video and streaming platforms. Speakeasy is built for the next generation of creators.”

Previously, creators have had to stitch together multiple vendors and tools to run their business across audio and video, but now with Speakeasy, creators have everything they need to own their distribution — hosting, ad-supported monetization, AI-powered analytics and support for the full range of modern formats from RSS to HLS and video – at the ready. Through an integration with Supercast, the premium subscription platform recently acquired by Red Seat Ventures, creators can also layer in subscription monetization — with both platforms continuing to operate independently.

Speakeasy is built on FOX’s scalable, secure, enterprise-grade technology stack and features AI-powered analytics and content management tools that support the full range of modern distribution formats — RSS, HLS, streaming video services and more. Speakeasy gives creators optionality, the ability to develop opportunities across FOX platforms and the capability to evolve as they build their business.

Speakeasy is designed for top creators and enterprises, who have unique distribution and monetization needs from those of traditional podcasters. Speakeasy is available by invitation only. To apply for an invitation, visit SpeakeasyStudio.AI

Deeply Unimportant, a podcast that features a deep-voiced former news anchor reading technical manuals as a remedy for insomnia and anxiety, has been selected as a showcased title in the Apple Podcasts Mental Health category. The seven-day feature this week highlights Deeply Unimportant’s use of research based "Cognitive Shuffling" and “Serial Diverse Imagining” methodologies as a non-pharmaceutical sleep aid.

In a saturated market of bedtime stories and ambient music, Deeply Unimportant has carved out a dedicated following doing the opposite: providing listeners with hyper-technical, high production value, emotionally inert audits of industrial standards and scientific manuals. From the structure of corrugated fiberboard to the moisture-density relations of soil, the show uses boring data as a "off-switch" for the executive planning center of the brain.

"Busy minds don’t need a story; they need a place to park their analytical energy," says Dallas Kachan, producer and host of Deeply Unimportant. "By reading inconsequential technical material as therapeutic ASMR, we provide a 'logic trap.' We give the listener's brain exactly enough data to keep it from wandering into personal anxieties, but not enough narrative tension to keep it awake. Being featured by Apple is validation that 'technical boredom' is a useful tool in the modern mental health toolkit."

The Apple Podcasts feature comes at a pivotal time for the show, which has seen a surge in listeners from the ADHD and OCD communities who find traditional sleep meditations too quiet for their racing thoughts and traditional stories too distracting.

Deeply Unimportant episodes to date include:

Sleep Aid: The USDA Textural Classification of Soil

Sleep Story: The ANSI/MH1-2016 Pallet Standard (Cognitive Shuffle)

Sleep Meditation: Beechcraft Starship Preflight Checklist

Insomnia Treatment: Technical Monograph on the Wood-Cased Pencil

Sleep Story: ISO 8601 – The Representation of Dates and Times

Bed Time Story: The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals (Boring Voice)

Sleep Story: ISO 2451:2017 – Cocoa Bean Specification and Quality Requirements

Sleep Aid: The Dewey Decimal Classification: Classes 000 through 020 (Cognitive Shuffling)

Bed Time Story: The Technical Categorization of Canadian Grain

Sleep Meditation: UIC 860: The Chemical Composition of Steel Rails (Boring Voice)

Sleep Story: ICAO Annex 5 Standard Atmosphere & Unit Conversion

Sleep Aid: CSC 1972 International Convention for Safe Containers (Boring Voice)

Sleep Aid: Santa’s Redacted “Naughty” List (Alphabetical First Names)

Deep Voice Sleep: NASA-STD-3000 Human Standards

Sleep Meditation: 1954 Singer Sewing Machine Operating Manual

Sleep Story: 1922 Western Softwood Lumber Grading Rules (Boring Voice)

"Restorative sleep is the cornerstone of health. The structural boredom of Deeply Unimportant can anchor the mind, allowing the body to settle into its natural rhythm of repair, said Dr. Caitlin Kolbuc, N.D., retired. "For many, the barrier to sleep is an overactive mind that refuses to disengage. Deeply Unimportant’s clinical, authoritative delivery provides cognitive focus to quiet internal chatter without triggering the alertness of a traditional story," said Dr. Patrick Callas, N.D., Madrona Integrative Health.

**Where to Find **Deeply Unimportant is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all other major podcast platforms. Listeners seeking an uninterrupted, therapeutic version of the ASMR-like experience can subscribe for loopable, 8-hour, ad-free versions and more at https://deeplyunimportant.com.

Acast yesterday announced a new multi-year partnership with one of Australia’s most popular podcasts, It’s A Lot with Abbie Chatfield. The show brings more than 500,000 monthly listens to Acast, expanding the independent leader’s premium podcast network in the region.

Hosted by media personality Abbie Chatfield, It’s A Lot has grown into a culturally powerful platform for young Australians, combining candid conversations, social commentary and high-profile guests – including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during the federal election.

Since launching in 2020, It’s A Lot has amassed nearly 40 million total downloads and hit 1.2 million listens during its peak month in 2025.

Chatfield was named one of Australia’s most influential podcasters in the Australian Financial Review Power List and is widely recognised as a powerful voice for young women. Across social platforms, she commands a combined following of more than 1.4 million, including 720,000 followers on TikTok, 580,000 followers on Instagram, and 113,000 followers on the It’s A Lot Instagram account.

Chatfield first rose to prominence on the seventh season of The Bachelor Australia in 2019, before appearing on Bachelor in Paradise Australia and winning I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2021. She has since hosted Love Island Afterparty Australia, FBoy Island Australia on Binge, Hot Nights with Abbie Chatfield across SCA’s Hit Network, and joined The Masked Singer Australia as a panellist.

Chatfield will appear at Cairns Crocodiles on Thursday 14 May, in conversation with fellow Acast creators Osman Faruqi and Jan Fran.

Chatfield says:

“I’m beyond excited to be back home working on It’s A Lot with Acast. I started my podcasting journey in 2019 at Acast with 0 listens, an at-home podcast set up and dodgy editing skills and I’m so thrilled to be working together once again. This marks a pivotal moment in my podcasting career as I am taking my own podcasting business, taking my production into my own hands and going independent with the support of Acast sales. This is a perfect partnership for my next endeavour and I’m honoured to re-join the Acast family.” 

Guy Scott-Wilson, Content Director for Acast ANZ, says:

“We loved working with Abbie when she launched It’s A Lot and it’s been incredible watching her stratospheric rise over the last five years. It’s great to be able to welcome her home as one of Australia’s most authentic and influential voices. By returning to Acast, It’s A Lot becomes a truly independent format. Abbie gets full commercial and creative control, and brands get a chance to integrate deeply with the community she has built, across all of the channels where Abbie shows up for them.”

Through the partnership, Acast will host, distribute and monetise It’s A Lot globally, connecting advertisers with a highly engaged, culturally influential audience.

Acast is home to some of Australia’s leading independent podcasts, including Casefile True Crime, Toni and Ryan, Just The Gist with Rosie Waterland, We Mean Well, Alpha Blokes and Hello Sport. 

Advertisers can contact the Acast sales team to discuss sponsorship opportunities.

About Acast

Acast is the global authority on podcasting, building the infrastructure that serves as the single point of entry for the whole industry. This enables creators to grow and monetise across audio, video, social, and beyond, and brands to buy at scale - without walls or borders. As the world’s largest pure-play podcast company, we connect 140,000+ storytellers with 4,000+ advertisers globally. Listed on Nasdaq Stockholm (ACAST).

“We’re really excited to work with NBC Sports and support their continued growth in podcasting,” said John Rosso, President & CEO, Triton Digital. “Premium media companies are investing heavily in digital audio, and they need infrastructure they can trust to scale audiences and monetize effectively. Our goal is to make that easier—bringing together hosting, measurement, and monetization in one place so teams can focus on creating great content.”

As part of the collaboration, NBC Sports will utilize several Triton Digital solutions, including Omny Studio for enterprise podcast hosting and distribution, Triton Ad Platform (TAP) for audio advertising monetization and campaign management, Podcast Metrics (PCM) for IAB-certified podcast measurement and analytics, and Demos+ for audience demographic insights, to maximize advertising revenue across podcast inventory. Together, these technologies provide a unified technology stack designed to streamline podcast operations, improve measurement transparency, and unlock new monetization opportunities for advertisers.

“Podcasting continues to be an important and growing part of our broader digital audio strategy,” said Aileen Sokol, Vice President of Content Partnership Development at NBC Sports. “Working alongside Triton Digital allows us to better understand our growing audiences and deliver reliable, consistent measurements to advertisers.”

Triton’s technology will support NBC Sports’ expanding podcast portfolio, enabling the company to distribute and monetize its premium sports podcasts.

To learn more about how Triton Digital helps media companies scale podcast distribution, monetize digital audio inventory, and deliver trusted audience measurement, visit www.tritondigital.com.

After 9 years of running a weekly podcast newsletter, EarBuds Podcast Collective – led by founder Arielle Nissenblatt – surveyed its audience to better understand how people engage with recommendations: what emails they open, what they click, how they discover, and more.

A few topline takeaways:

• People don’t open every issue of the newsletter, by design?: about half of respondents open every issue, while a large portion open only when a theme interests them. EarBuds is built around themed curation, and readers are engaging selectively.
• Recommendations drive readership, but personal voice is key: podcast recommendations are the primary draw, but “notes from the editor” ranked as the second most popular segment, highlighting a growing appetite for context, perspective, and personality alongside lists.
• Discovery is happening, but attribution is unclear: only about a third of respondents said they’ve discovered a podcast they now regularly listen to via EarBuds, while nearly half said they “can’t recall.” In other words: discovery works, but people don’t always remember how.
• Clicks don’t tell the full story: the most common action readers take when they see a show they’re interested in isn’t clicking a link, it’s opening their app and searching for it.
  This suggests that newsletters function more as touchpoints than direct conversion drivers.
• The product is dialed in: respondents overwhelmingly said the newsletter’s layout and length are “just right,” reinforcing that the current format works, and that future changes will be iterative, not structural.
• There’s demand for more niche recommendations: readers expressed interest in more topic-specific recommendations (history, fiction, true crime), even though EarBuds has already launched spinoff newsletters in many of these categories, pointing to a discoverability gap within the product itself.

The survey included 62 responses from highly engaged readers. While not statistically significant, the findings offer a useful look at how podcast listeners actually behave when interacting with curated recommendations.

View the full survey results and analysis

Read the full write-up

See the survey (and take it) here

Auralex Acoustics, Inc., the world's leading brand of acoustical treatments, is pleased to announce the new Relic ProPanel™ Absorber Series.

Do you miss the good old days of endless hours working away in a dimly lit, windowless studio? Miss the faint hum of a yellowed CRT computer monitor and unrecognizable stains on the floor? Well, Auralex has you covered - literally!

Each Relic panel undergoes a rigorous aging cycle to replicate the subtle acoustic characteristics of legendary recording spaces. To create the perfect retro aesthetic, Relic panels are available in NicoTine Tint finish, as well as several other vintage color finishes. The absorption properties are pretty darn good for panels that have been through this patented aging process.

*Panels may arrive with a faint sense of nostalgia and an unexplained preference for analog workflows. No actual time travel was used in the aging process.

About Auralex® Acoustics, Inc.

Located in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, Auralex® was founded in 1977 with a mission to provide top-performing acoustical treatment products at the best possible value. Since then, thousands of satisfied Auralex® customers have experienced improved acoustics, expert advice and exceptional customer service. Auralex® products enjoy widespread use among prominent artists, producers, engineers, corporations, celebrities and government agencies worldwide.

The Virginia Queer Film Festival (VAQFF) is proud to announce an open call for submissions for Queer Ear, its inaugural audio storytelling program debuting at the 2026 festival. In response to the growing cultural demand for more equitable and accessible forms of media storytelling, Queer Ear invites creators to submit sonically rich works that center LGBTQ+ experiences.

VAQFF is seeking audio-only storytelling pieces under 25 minutes in length from podcast series, anthologies, and stand-alone projects. Submissions may include narrative fiction, nonfiction, or experimental work, with a strong emphasis on innovative storytelling and bold sound design. While submissions are open to storytellers from all backgrounds, VAQFF is particularly committed to uplifting queer voices from Virginia and the broader Southern United States.

Selected works will be featured in a dedicated audio screening as part of the in-person Virginia Queer Film Festival, taking place October 9–11, 2026, at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Pieces may be eligible for a Queer Ear Audio Storytelling Award, which will be awarded at the discretion of the programming selection committee.

Submission Guidelines:

• Audio-only pieces must be 25 minutes or less
• Open to fiction, nonfiction, and experimental storytelling
• Projects must engage with LGBTQ+ themes
• All submissions must be converted into video files (MP4 or MOV) with English captions
• Submissions without captions will be disqualified
• Creators may use free tools such as Headliner to convert audio into video format

Submission Deadline: August 1, 2026

Submission link and information: https://filmfreeway.com/VirginiaQueerFilmFestival

DBL Down Media, the powerhouse behind the popular daily sports talk platform The Next Round, today announced a major partnership with The OG Kickoff, one of the most authentic and respected voices in SEC football coverage.

Effective April 1st, 2026, The OG Kickoff with hosts Connor O’Gara and Will Ogburn — formerly of Saturday Down South — will officially join the DBL Down Media network. This collaboration brings together two fan-favorites known for bold opinions, deep insider analysis, and unfiltered conversations about college football, the SEC, and the broader sports landscape.

The Next Round, hosted by Lance Taylor, Ryan Brown, and Jim Dunaway, has established itself as a daily destination for sports talk and news. Streamed live daily, the show reaches approximately 200,000–300,000 people across all platforms, with monthly reach exceeding 1 million unique viewers and listeners. Taylor, Brown, and Dunaway hosted the Southeast’s leading sports talk show, The Roundtable, on WJOX for over a decade before leaving traditional radio to launch DBL Down Media and its flagship show, The Next Round, in 2021.

The OG Kickoff with Connor O’Gara and Will Ogburn is a premier podcast dedicated to authentic, hard-hitting SEC football coverage. Known for its chemistry and fan-first approach, the show provides year-round insight into the conference’s biggest stories, players, and coaches.

"Connor is one of the most respected voices in college football and loves the sport every bit as much as we do," says Ryan Brown. "His appearances on The Next Round consistently receive excellent feedback from our audience. Beyond that, he is truly one of the best guys to work with in the industry. We are thrilled to welcome him and Will to the team."

Connor O’Gara and Will Ogburn added: "We couldn’t be more excited to join The Next Round family. It’s remarkable to see what they’ve built over the last few years, and we know that this partnership will help both The Next Round and The OG Kickoff continue to grow. We can’t wait to go to work with a team that’s committed to college football content like ours."

By adding The OG Kickoff to its growing network, DBL Down Media strengthens its commitment to delivering high-quality, independent sports content that resonates with passionate fans across the country.

The OG Kickoff is released on Tuesdays and Fridays. Fans can find the show on The Next Round’s YouTube channel (The Next Round - YouTube) as well as all major podcast platforms.

For more information, visit The Next Round or follow @NextRoundLive and @TheOGKickoff on social media.

Perth's BackChat Studios have announced a new partnership with House of Common.

The partnership will see BackChat Studios work closely with House of Common to accelerate growth, distribution and commercialisation of its expanding slate of podcast and social-first content.

Best known for its flagship show BackChat, BackChat Studios has built a loyal following through authentic, athlete-led storytelling and deep connections within elite sporting circles. In the past 12 months, the network has delivered more than 95 million social views, grown to over 300,000 followers, and now averages 210,000 monthly podcast downloads across long-form vodcast and social video formats. BackChat is one of 35 shows currently being produced out of the studio each month.

Through the partnership, BackChat Studios will unlock new commercial opportunities across branded content, sponsorships and integrated social campaigns, while expanding its reach across key platforms with the support of House of Common’s distribution and publisher framework.

BackChat Studios is joining House of Common at a time of strong momentum for both businesses, as the media landscape continues to shift toward social-first, personality-led, and always-on content experiences.

Co-founder of BackChat Studios, Will Schofield, said the partnership reflects a shared understanding of where modern sports media is heading.

“Common just get it. They understand where attention is going and why modern media is outperforming traditional channels across podcasts, YouTube and social,” Schofield said.

“We’ve built BackChat Studios around authentic voices and direct access to athletes. This partnership allows us to scale that in a way that still feels true to our audience. House of Common are perfectly aligned with how we see the future of sports media.”

Co-founder and COO at Common, Rachel Henry (née Hall), said BackChat Studios was a natural fit for the network’s growing ecosystem.

“BackChat Studios has built one of the most engaged and culturally relevant sports audiences in the country, underpinned by authentic storytelling and a deep connection to athletes and fans,” Hall said.

“What stood out immediately was the strength and scalability of their content engine. They’re not just a single show, they’re a true studio with a diverse and growing slate that’s primed for commercialisation.”

“We’re incredibly excited to take this to market together, working with brand partners to unlock smart, integrated opportunities across their shows and social channels and helping accelerate the next phase of growth for the business.”

The partnership signals BackChat Studios’ next chapter, as it doubles down on building one of Australia’s leading independent sports media networks; connecting audiences, athletes and brands in a way traditional media can’t.

EXCLUSIVE: The critically acclaimed sci-fi thriller podcast Cascadia is expanding its already stacked ensemble. Producers announced today that six additional actors have joined the highly anticipated second season, as production officially wrapped this week following nearly a year of recording.

The new casting update comes roughly a year after the series first unveiled its core Season 2 cast in an earlier press release that generated buzz across the audio fiction world. Since then, creators Adam Murciano and Antonio Cordero have been quietly building what they describe as their most ambitious season yet.

Season 2 was recorded across two major production hubs, Toronto and Vancouver, bringing together performers from across the country and creating what the creators say is a dynamic, nationwide roster of talent.

“From the beginning, we wanted Season 2 to feel bigger in every possible way,” Murciano and Cordero said in a joint statement. “Recording half the season in Toronto and the other half in Vancouver allowed us to collaborate with incredible actors from across Canada. We really pulled out all the stops to create a dynamic, country-wide roster for this season.”

According to the producers, the new season unfolds across three major storylines designed to keep listeners constantly on edge. The result is a layered and immersive listening experience that builds on the mysteries introduced in the show’s breakout first season.

(L-R) Darien Martin, Olivia Ay, Kyle Warren, Sena Yurika, Gian Carlo V and Blake Stadel

Among the newly announced cast members is Darien Martin (Cross, Alert: Missing Person’s Unit), who plays Jack Lorne, an American Coast Guard executive involved in a dramatic rescue mission after 200 Japanese refugees are forced to evacuate the island of Kural following a volcanic eruption.

Joining him is Blake Stadel (The Chicken Sisters, Riverdale), who portrays Captain Harding, the no-nonsense leader of the U.S. Coast Guard vessel attempting to evacuate the refugees before disaster strikes. As tensions mount aboard the ship, relationships between key figures begin to fracture, raising the stakes of the already dangerous mission.

The season also introduces newcomers Olivia Ay, Sena Yurika, and Gian Carlo V, who play a family struggling to escape the increasingly unstable island - a storyline producers say will ground the larger mystery in deeply personal stakes.

Rounding out the latest casting announcement is Kyle Warren (The 100), who will portray Eugene, the owner of Bluewave Media - a sleazy, relentless journalist determined to break the story of the missing boat over the Cascadia Subduction Zone at any cost.

As previously announced, the second season begins when an emergency rescue vessel carrying 200 refugees from the coast of Japan mysteriously disappears over the Cascadia Subduction Zone. What starts as a routine humanitarian mission quickly spirals into something far more unsettling, as secrets from both the past and present begin to collide.

Leading the previously announced cast is Rebecca Durance Hine, who plays Lila Walters, now a world-class deep-sea diver still haunted by the events of Season 1. She is joined by Dan Willmott (Mean Girls, Fargo), who takes on the role of an aged-up Holden Davis from Season 1, now the head of Hydra-Corp and a central figure in the unfolding mystery.

Rounding out the core diving team are Jesse Collin (The Recruit), Nathan Taylor (Morningside), Emily Stranges (Ready or Not 2: Here I Come), and André Dae Kim (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds), who embark on the mission alongside Lila.

Meanwhile, Megan Allen (The Expanse, Schitt’s Creek) and Josette Halpert (Ghostwriter, Priscilla) play investigative journalist Dani and her intern Bri, who work under Eugene at Bluewave Media as they attempt to uncover the truth behind what’s happening at Cascadia, only to find themselves entangled in a story that presents a major conflict of interest that rocks Dani to her core…

The podcast first premiered in 2021 and quickly gained traction, reaching No. 1 on Apple Podcasts’ fiction charts and building a devoted global fanbase. Since then, Cascadia has amassed more than 700,000 downloads and expanded internationally, including a French-language adaptation produced by Blynd Audio.

The success of the series also helped launch its production banner, 911 Podcasts, co-founded by Murciano and Cordero. The company has since expanded its slate with projects including the horror series ICE-CREAM and the comedy podcast Supermarket, demonstrating a growing presence in the audio storytelling space.

Now, with production complete and a larger scope than ever before, Season 2 is positioned to be the most ambitious chapter yet.

“Cascadia was our debut show, and it means so much not just to us, but to people around the world,” Murciano previously said. “This content lives out there forever. People may discover it decades from now, so we want to make sure we approach it with a lot of thought and care.”

An official premiere date has not yet been announced, though the creators say it’s closer than fans might expect, with an official trailer set to be released soon. Season 1 of Cascadia is currently available to stream on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other major podcast platforms.

The Webby Awards continues to see significant growth in podcast submissions, solidifying their status as the largest, most prestigious, and competitive honors in the industry. As audio and video storytelling reach new heights, this year’s awards reflect that evolution with expanded podcast categories, including all new Best New Podcast, Best Video Podcast, and Best Video Podcast Host. Video podcast nominees include titles such asThe Mel Robbins Show, Only Murders in the Building: Official Podcast, and Good Hang with Amy Poehler. Other podcast nominees include hitshows such as Las Culturistas, SmartLess and Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard; business podcasts including The Diary of a CEO, Pivot, and My First Million; comedy podcasts such as The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast, Handsome and Wisecrack; new live podcast recordings like Crime Junkie Live on Tour, Sing For Science's The Magic of Mushrooms with Kacey Musgraves and Paul Stamets, and On Purpose with Jay Shetty; and shows highlighting powerful female voices like Aspire with Emma Grede, Baby, This is Keke Palmer, and Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce.

30TH ANNUAL WEBBY PODCAST NOMINEES

Scripted (Fiction), Shows (Podcasts)

• DC High Volume: Batman - Realm
• Red For Revolution - Red For Revolution
• The Big Fix: A Jack Bergin Mystery - Audible
• Calm Sleep Stories - Calm, Inc
• Buzz: The Man & The Moon - iHeartMedia

Best Partnership or Collaboration, Features (Podcasts)

• The Rest Is History: The Complete History of The Beatles with Tom Holland and Conan O Brian - Goalhanger
• The Bowen Yang/Matt Rogers X Sesame Street X NBC Olympics Crossover Event - iHeartPodcasts
• Not Gonna Lie, with Kylie Kelce "My Disney Spectacular" from Walt Disney World, Episode 43 - Disney Experiences
• The Story of Woman in Kenya, with Orchid Project - The Story of Woman
• Downton Abbey: The Official Podcast - Treefort Media

Best Host, Features (Podcasts)

• Good Hang with Amy Poehler  - Kovert Creative
• Next Question with Katie Couric - Katie Couric Media
• The Mel Robbins Podcast - Best Host - SiriusXM
• Baby, This is Keke Palmer - Wondery
• Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky - Wondery

Lifestyle, Shows (Podcasts)

• We Can Do Hard Things - Silver Tribe Media
• Coffee Convos Podcast - KILLR Network
• Food Network Obsessed - Food Network
• Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club - iHeartMedia
• Nice Talk with Nikki Ogunnaike - Future PLC

Sports, Shows  (Podcasts)

• Pablo Torre Finds Out  - Meadowlark Media
• All The Smoke - All The Smoke Productions
• New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce - Wondery
• Bussin’ With The Boys - Hirsch Leatherwood
• 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony - Metro PR

Best Video Podcast, Features (Podcasts)

• Good Hang with Amy Poehler - Kovert Creative
• The Mel Robbins Podcast - 143 Studios, Inc.
• That Was Us - Rabbit Grin Productions
• Only Murders in the Building: Official Podcast - Hulu Originals
• 21 Questions w/ Madison Tevlin - by coastal inc.

Interview or Talk Show - News, Business & Society, Shows (Podcasts)

• On with Kara Swisher - Vox Media
• The Assignment with Audie Cornish - CNN
• My First Million - HubSpot
• The Diary Of A CEO - R. Agency
• Not Another CEO Podcast - Ringmaster B2B Podcasting

Interview or Talk Show - Entertainment & Culture, Shows (Podcasts)

• Thanks Dad with Ego Nwodim - Thanks Dad with Ego Nwodim
• All There Is with Anderson Cooper - CNN
• Office Ladies - Audacy
• Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard - Wondery
• Baby, This is Keke Palmer - Wondery

Best Co-Hosts, Features (Podcasts)

• SmartLess - SiriusXM
• Sibling Rivalry - Studio71
• The Pivot Podcast - The Pivot Podcast
• New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce - Wondery
• The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast - Rabbit Grin Productions

Belonging & Inclusion, Individual Episode (Podcasts)

• Handsome with Tig Notaro, Fortune Feimster, and Mae Martin - Headgum
• UNDISTRACTED with Brittany Packnett Cunningham - The Meteor
• The Anti-Trans Hate Machine - Trans Lash Media
• Driving All Night: The Relentless Rise of Brooke Goff - Rankings.io
• Rebel Girls Get to Know - Rebel Girls

Comedy, Individual Episode (Podcasts)

• Paul Rudd 3.0 on TYSO - TYSO Productions
• On Par with Maury Povich Podcast/Kathy Griffin Talks About Being The Most Hated Woman In America in 1-On-1 Interview With Maury - A Better Life Media
• Wisecrack - Tenderfoot TV
• The Nightly - Hatch
• When The Cops Say No, We Say Yes - A step too far productions

Best Video Podcast Host, Features (Podcasts)

• The Don Lemon Show - Lemon Media Network
• Seen on the Screen with Jacqueline Coley - We Are Social North America
• This Is Gavin Newsom - Independent
• In the Test Kitchen - America's Test Kitchen
• Take Your Shoes Off - TYSO Productions

Best Live Podcast Recording, Features (Podcasts)

• On Purpose with Jay Shetty - On Purpose
• Eva Guzman: You Are Enough | Women, Ambition, & Reinvention in Law - MMO Media, LLC
• Surface Level Live - Surface Level
• Crime Junkie Live on Tour - Audiochuck
• The Magic of Mushrooms with Kacey Musgraves and Paul Stamets - Sing For Science

Featured Guest, Individual Episode (Podcasts)

• Michelle Obama Reveals All: Life-Changing Lessons on Fear, Faith & Hope - The Jamie Kern Lima Show - The Jamie Kern Lima Show
• Aspire with Emma Grede - Audacy
• Skip Intro - Netflix
• One Song - Hartbeat
• Mark Ruffalo Says ‘Boycott, Divest, Sanction, and Prosecute’ Israel - Zeteo

Advice & How-To, (Podcasts)

• Don't Listen To Us - Lemonada Media
• The Ramsey Show - Ramsey Solutions
• Mick Unplugged - Mick Unplugged
• Today's Tips from AARP
• Lost Boys - Belay LLC

Arts & Culture, Individual Episode (Podcasts)

• 5 Good Things - CNN
• Jane Austen 250th Anniversary | MASTERPIECE Studio - MASTERPIECE
• American Masters: Creative Spark - American Masters
• 99% Invisible: The Great American Pyramid - 99% Invisible
• Totally Booked with Zibby - Zibby Media

Arts & Culture, Shows (Podcasts)

• ANTIQUES ROADSHOW DETOURS - GBH
• We Disrupt This Broadcast - Center for Media and Social Impact
• American Masters: Creative Spark
• Not Skinny But Not Fat
• Sounds Like A Cult - Margie Grove LLC

Belonging & Inclusion, Limited-Series & Specials (Podcasts)

• We're Doing the Wiz - Radiotopia
• Our New South - Next Chapter Podcasts
• Man Up: Conversations on Gendered Hate in the Digital Age - Long Story Short Media
• Truth Be Told - Buffalo Toronto Public Media
• Climbing the Walls - Understood.org

Belonging & Inclusion, Shows (Podcasts)

• UNDISTRACTED with Brittany Packnett Cunningham - The Meteor
• Freedom to Thrive: Resistance, Justice, and Resilience - National Immigration Law Center
• Storyhole: Loads of Gay Stories
• Surface Level Podcast
• 21 Questions w/ Madison Tevlin - by coastal inc.

Best Branded Podcast or Segment, Features (Podcasts)

• Things Bakers Know: The King Arthur Baking Podcast - King Arthur Baking Company
• Wild Ideas Worth Living - Puddle Creative
• Grindr’s ‘Who’s The Asshole?’ Season 3 - Sling and Stone
• Via Podcast Season 2 - Via magazine/AAA Mountain West Group
• Lock and Code: A trusted podcast for a distrustful internet - Malwarebytes.com

Best Creator or Influencer Series, Features (Podcasts)

• I Shaved My Vag For This - Katie Thompson & Soul People Productions
• Wild Wild Web with Eric Sedeño - Longview Artists
• We're Your Girls Podcast | Taryn Delanie Smith and Tiffani Singleton - Shoshalmedia
• Iconic Origins: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Paramount Pictures
• Almost Athletes with Dude Perfect

Best Indie Podcast, Features (Podcasts)

• Flightless Bird - Flightless Bird
• Shame Less with Lilly Singh - Unicorn Island Fund
• Solved with Mark Manson - Mark Manson
• Nobody Should Believe Me - Season Six - Nobody Should Believe Me LLC
• Bad Queers Podcast - Bad Queers Podcast

Best Indie Podcast - Limited Run, Features (Podcasts)

• The Astrology of America - Cosmic Coven
• Her Magic Mushroom Memoir - Divine Sign Productions LLC
• 1968 Blackflower Drive - Pryzsons Break Productions
• LEAD how this story ends is up to us - Emblem Entertainment
• Senseless with Erika Mahoney - Erika Mahoney, LLC

Best Individual Episode, Features (podcasts)

• Michelle Obama Reveals All: Life-Changing Lessons on Fear, Faith & Hope - The Jamie Kern Lima Show
• Creator to Creator: Vince Gilligan (Pluribus) & Jason Connell (Ghost of Yotei) - Sony
• The Telepathy Tapes - Podcast Nation
• The Louis Theroux Podcast - Mindhouse Productions
• ABC Audio | 20/20: Devil in the Desert - ABC News

Best Limited Series, Features (Podcasts)

• Fela Kuti: Fear No Man - Audible
• Lost Boys with Scott Galloway and Anthony Scaramucci - Belay
• Emotions of Change - The Great Full
• Gloves Off with Stephen Marche - Insurgentsia Productions
• Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness - National Constitution Center

Best New Podcast - Entertainment & Culture, Features (Podcasts)

• The Rest Is Science - Goalhanger
• On Par with Maury Povich Podcast/Don Lemon Talks Life After CNN In One-On-One Interview With Maury - A Better Life Media
• Joe and Jada - Hirsch Leatherwood
• Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce - Wave Sports and Entertainment
• What Are We Even Doing? with Kyle MacLachlan - Full Picture Productions

Best New Podcast - News, Business & Society, Features (Podcasts)

• The Joy Reid Show - Image Lab Media Group
• The Intersection by MeidasTouch - MeidasTouch
• Suspicious Minds: AI and Psychosis - Agoric Media
• The Narco's Children - Rainbow Lobster
• Apathy Is Not An Option - SPLC

Best Writing, Features (Podcasts)

• Tough Cookie: The Wally "Famous" Amos Story - Vanity Fair
• Aftermath: Hunt For The Anthrax Killer - CBC Podcasts
• Killer Psyche - Treefort Media
• Grim Death and Bill the Electrocuted Criminal - Echoverse
• Left Arm Treasure Society - GZM Shows

Business, Individual Episode (Podcasts)

• If/Then - Stanford Graduate School of Business
• Thoma Bravo's Behind the Deal - FGS Global
• The Heart of Healthcare - The Heart of Healthcare
• 3 Takeaways- StillGood Creative
• Take on Tomorrow: Is quantum computing about to radically change the world? - PwC's strategy+business

Business, Shows (Podcasts)

• Pivot - Vox Media
• Is Business Broken? - WBUR CitySpace Productions
• HBR IdeaCast - Harvard Business Review
• Morning Brew Daily - Morning Brew Inc
• TLDR - Wealthsimple Media

Business & Thought Leadership, Limited-Series & Specials (Podcasts)

• Behind the Business with Michelle Toh - Behind the Business
• The Breakout Booth: Money and Financial Healing - The Breakout Booth
• Disruptors: The Canada Project - Royal Bank of Canada
• In My Finance Era - Vanguard
• Startup Dad - The Startup Dad

Comedy, Shows (Podcasts)

• Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend - SiriusXM
• SmartLess - SiriusXM
• Fly on the Wall - Audacy
• Comedy Bang Bang - SiriusXM
• Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang - iHeartMedia

Creativity & Marketing, Shows (Podcasts)

• Marketing Brew Weekly - Morning Brew Inc
• This Could Work Podcast: Exploring the Ideas, Risks, and Visionaries Driving Modern Culture - Saylor
• CREATOR: The Podcast - Matador Network
• Smart Route - Smart Route
• AMA's Marketing / And Podcast - American Marketing Association

Crime & Justice, Individual Episode (Podcasts)

• 48 hours at El Refugio: A haven for families of ICE detainees - The Futuro Media Group
• Post Mortem - CBS News
• Women Beyond Walls Podcast - Women Beyond Walls
• Clues with Morgan Absher and Kaelyn Moore - PAVE Studios
• ABC Audio | 20/20: What Happened to Holly Bobo? - ABC News

Crime & Justice, Limited-Series & Specials (Podcasts)

• Who Took Misty Copsey? - The Free Press
• Spiral: Murder in Detroit - The Free Press
• Spotlight: Snitch City - The Boston Globe
• Wisecrack - Tenderfoot TV
• The Con: Kaitlyn's Baby - CBC Podcasts

Crime & Justice, Shows (Podcasts)

• Dateline: Missing in America - Dateline NBC
• True Crime with Kendall Rae - Mile Higher Media
• Bone Valley Season 3 | Graves County - Lava for Good
• Crime Junkie - Audiochuck
• ABC Audio and 20/20 - Cold Blooded: Mystery in Alaska - ABC News

Documentary, Individual Episode (Podcasts)

• A Summer Break That Wasn’t: American Kids Living in Fear of ICE - The Futuro Media Group
• Blowback - Airwave
• The Palisades Fire: Episode 1 Get they Boys Ready - Wave Maker Media
• Not a Very Good Murderer - Audible
• 99% Invisible: The Quiet Storm - 99% Invisible

Documentary, Limited-Series & Specials (Podcasts)

• CROOK COUNTY - Common Enemy
• Hot Money S3: Agent of Chaos - Financial Times
• Migrating to America: A Dream Worth Dying For - Cool Zone Media
• Suspicious Minds: AI and Psychosis - Agoric Media
• Where the Schools Went - The Branch

Documentary, Shows (Podcasts)

• Something Was Wrong - Something Was Wrong // Broken Cycle Media
• Reveal: Hard Truths. Real Consequences. - Mother Jones
• Levittown - Debbie Hoffman
• Heavyweight - Pushkin Industries
• Long Shadow: Breaking the Internet - Long Lead

Experimental & Innovation, Features (Podcasts)

• Our Ancestors Were Messy - Our Ancestors Were Messy
• Behind the Bastards - Cool Zone Media
• What Could Go Wrong? - Audible
• Pablo Torre Finds Out - Meadowlark Media
• The Quantum Kid - an educational podcast co-hosted by a 9 year old - Tesseract Quantum non-profit

Health, Science & Education, Limited-Series & Specials (Podcasts)

• NASA's Curious Universe: The Earth Series - NASA
• Unearthed: The need for seeds - Fresh Air Production
• Self Correction - Nature
• The Threshold - Foreign Policy
• Where the Schools Went - The Branch

Health, Wellness & Fitness, Shows (Podcasts)

• Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel - Vox Media
• Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta - CNN
• My So-Called Midlife with Reshma Saujani - Moms First
• Radio Headspace - Headspace
• Mayim Bialik's Breakdown - ICON PR

Health, Wellness & Lifestyle, Individual Episode (Podcasts)

• The disruptHER Podcast - Dr. Somi
• UnPaused - The Pause Life
• Modern Wisdom - alignPR
• The Tamsen Show - Tamsen Fadal Media
• The Solutionists - Deadset Studios

History, Individual Episode (Podcasts)

• StoryCorps - Voices From the Storm: Remembering Hurricane Katrina - StoryCorps
• The History Chicks - Airwave
• The Last Boat - The Economist
• 12 Years That Shook the World - USHMM
• The TransLash Podcast with Imara Jones: Unearthing Black Trans History - TransLash Media

History, Shows (Podcasts)

• National Park After Dark - National Park After Dark
• Geekstorians - Geektown.co.uk
• History That Doesn't Suck - Audacy
• Stuff You Missed in History Class - Best History Podcast - iHeartMedia
• Dark History - Monday Archives

Interview or Talk Show, Individual Episode (Podcasts)

• Jane Goodall on hope, AI, and the natural world - Palette Media
• The Oprah Podcast - Harpo
• Conversations with Coleman - The Free Press
• The (Free) Bus Stops Here — A Firewall & Race to Gracie Mansion Podcast - Tusk Holdings
• The Unusual Suspects - Audible

Interview or Talk Show, Limited-Series & Specials (Podcasts)

• Michelle Obama Reveals All: Life-Changing Lessons on Fear, Faith & Hope - The Jamie Kern Lima Show - The Jamie Kern Lima Show
• Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour - FOX Sports
• Exonerated: The Cost of Wrongful Conviction - WURD Radio
• SINNERS: IN PROXIMITY PODCAST - Proximity Media
• Legacy Talk with Lena Waithe - Lemonada Media

Kids & Family, Individual Episode (Podcasts)

• Lulu's Late Night - Hatch
• Parents You've Got This - The Expert Guide to Parenthood Podcast - Parents You've Got This
• Funky Foodies: The Funkies' Garden Gets Washed Out - Funky Foodies
• Narwhals Are Real?! Dive Into the Arctic's Coolest Secret! - Culture Kids Productions
• If Objects Could Talk - J. Paul Getty Trust

Kids & Family, Shows (Podcasts)

• Culture Kids - Culture Kids Productions
• Greeking Out - Disney Consumer Products
• Cookie Monster Mysteries - Audible
• Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest - Realm
• Live from Mount Olympus | Theseus and Ariadne - Onassis Foundation

Music, Shows (Podcasts)

• Queer the Music: Jake Shears On The Songs That Changed Lives - Mercury Studios
• Ctrl+B by Splice - Splice
• The Third Story Podcast - Unlimited Media, Ltd
• Chasing the Sound - Audible
• Joe and Jada - Hirsch Leatherwood

News & Politics, Individual Episode (Podcasts)

• Question Everything - Placement Theory
• Never Post: A.I. and New American Fascism - Charts & Leisure
• Project 2025 Is Even More Radical Than You Think - Independent
• Joy Behar's Message To Stephen Colbert - The View
• ABC Audio | 20/20 - Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy - ABC News

News & Politics, Limited-Series & Specials (Podcasts)

• Trumpland with Alex Wagner - MS NOW
• Three part series: 20th Anniversary of Katrina - Big Picture Science
• It Could Happen Here - Cool Zone Media
• The State of Abortion, 3 Years Since Dobbs - The Story Exchange
• ABC Audio | 20/20 - Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy - ABC News

News & Politics, Shows (Podcasts)

• Legal AF by MeidasTouch - MeidasTouch
• Today, Explained - Vox Media
• The Intercept Briefing - The Intercept
• Strict Scrutiny - Crooked Media
• Raging Moderates - Prof G Media

Original Music Score / Sound Design, Features (Podcasts)

• Full Body Chills Score - Audiochuck
• Red For Revolution - Red For Revolution
• The Strange Thing About… - Bang Zoom! Studios
• Richard III - Original Music by David Molina and Lindsay Jones / Sound Design by Lindsay Jones - Next Chapter Podcasts
• Hamlet - Make-Believe Association

Public Service & Activism, Shows (Podcasts)

• Chapters: Season Five (Chapter Five) - Incarceration - Past Forward
• Rebuilding L.A. - LA Times Studios
• The Anti-Trans Hate Machine - TransLash Media
• We the Unhoused - iHeartPodcasts
• Decoding Democracy One Episode at a Time - JAR Podcast Solutions

Science & Education, Individual Episode (Podcasts)

• Altered States - UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics
• Gas Station Heroin: The Kratom Crisis - Oh Gross
• Houston We Have a Podcast: Artemis II: The Mission - NASA
• Templeton Ideas--Brian Greene (Ultimate Reality) - John Templeton Foundation
• Screen Deep - Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development

Science & Education, Shows (Podcasts)

• Ologies with Alie Ward - Ologies
• Nice Genes! - JAR Podcasts
• Thriving Kids Podcast - Child Mind Institute
• The Cancer Letter Podcast - The Cancer Letter
• Particles of Thought - GBH, NOVA PBS

Scripted (Fiction), Limited-Series & Specials (Podcasts)

• The Murderer Killings - A True Crime Podcast - The Murderer Killings
• The Set Up - Sonoro
• Sacrilege: Curse of the Mbirwi - Audible
• The Void - StillGood Creative
• Hatch Classics: Queer Romance - Hatch

Scripted (Fiction), Shows (Podcasts)

• DC High Volume: Batman - Realm
• Red For Revolution - Red For Revolution
• The Big Fix: A Jack Bergin Mystery - Audible
• Calm Sleep Stories - Calm, Inc
• Buzz: The Man & The Moon - iHeartMedia

Sustainability & Environment, Shows (Podcasts)

• Broken Ground Podcast: A Podcast by the Southern Environmental Law Center - Rural Justice; Season 7 - Southern Environmental Law Center
• The Fire Problem: Season One - Past Forward
• Nature is the Solution - WBUR CitySpace Productions
• Sustainably Speaking - POOLHOUSE
• A People's Climate - Counterstream Media

Technology, Shows (Podcasts)

• Future Around & Find Out - Modern Product Minds
• Computer Says Maybe - The Maybe
• Marketing Against the Grain - HubSpot
• The Most Interesting Thing in AI - Atlantic Re:think
• The Vergecast - The Verge

Television & Film, Individual Episode (Podcasts)

• The White Lotus Official Podcast - Warner Bros. Discovery
• Golden Girls Deep Dive Podcast - Golden Girls Deep Dive
• True Crime Obsessed - True Crime Obsessed
• Skip Intro - Netflix
• ReLiving Single - Hartbeat

Television & Film, Shows (Podcasts)

• How Did This Get Made - Television & Film - SiriusXM
• The Severance Podcast - Audacy
• Golden Girls Deep Dive Podcast - Golden Girls Deep Dive
• Hacks Podcast - Warner Bros. Discovery
• The Wednesday Season 2 Official Woecast - Netflix

When Ashley Grant walked into her first Zumba class in August 2023, she made it exactly 15 minutes before she had to leave. She was too winded to continue. She couldn't do a jumping jack. She couldn't hold a plank. She was lifting 5-pound dumbbells and calling them her "big weights."

Today, she's 500-plus group fitness classes in, 26 pounds lighter, and regularly lifting 15 and 20-pound dumbbells. And she has documented every step of that journey, recorded mostly from the front seat of her car, on the way to and from the gym, on her fitness podcast, More Movement Please.

This month, the show hit 50 episodes.

"I never planned to start a fitness podcast," said Grant, a Richmond-based content creator, ghostwriter, and blogger who also hosts The Bloggy Friends Show.

"Then, when I got serious about fitness I thought, I’ve got to document this. If I can do this and share my journey with others, maybe someone else will believe they can too."

The timing of the episode 50 milestone carries extra weight. Episodes 48, 49, and 50 were recorded as part of Podcasthon, now in its fourth global edition. It’s an initiative where thousands of podcasters worldwide dedicate an entire week of episodes to raising awareness for a charity of their choice.

Grant chose to spotlight the Humane Society Animal League for Life of Madison County, Kentucky, and the way it was chosen is a story in itself. When Grant asked her community to nominate worthy organizations, one of the first voices to speak up was her own fitness instructor, Rhonda Goode, the woman Grant credits with changing her life.

"Rhonda has been teaching fitness classes for 14 years," said Grant. "She's the reason I love walking into the gym instead of running away from it. When her nomination came up in the random number generator, I took that as a sign from the universe."

The three Podcasthon episodes feature Goode in an extended, candid interview series covering 14 years of teaching, what she sees in a room full of students in the first 60 seconds, and what she would say right now to the person sitting at the crossroads of change who hasn't made the move yet. It is, by Grant's own description, some of the most honest and compelling content she has ever put out.

More Movement Please releases mostly short-form episodes of 5–10 minutes, designed to be consumed exactly when Ashley records them: in the car, in motion, in the middle of real life. The show is equal parts accountability, education, and inspiration, and is aimed at anyone who has ever talked themselves out of a workout.

Grant's own story has become the spine of the show. A former dancer whose passion for movement was interrupted by a car accident in her youth, she found her way back to fitness through Zumba at the Telford YMCA in Richmond, and hasn't looked back. In the first 100 days of her serious commitment, she completed 200 fitness classes. She turned 41 during that stretch and celebrated with five classes that day alone.

"I want people to hear my story and realize that if I can do it, they can do it," said Grant. "I couldn't make it through 15 minutes of Zumba. Now I take up to 12 classes a week or more. This wasn’t about doing a fitness challenge; it was about changing my lifestyle. And, it’s forever changed my life."

All three Podcasthon episodes of More Movement Please are available now, along with a direct link to donate to the Humane Society Animal League for Life of Madison County in the show notes.

More Movement Please is hosted on RSS.com where Ashley is a social media content strategist, and is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and other platforms. More information about the show and Ashley Grant can be found at famousashleygrant.com/fitness.

For generations, women have been told to be “good,” to put others first, to silence their own voices, to neglect their own needs. Now, Sara Hirsh Bordo, award-winning documentary filmmaker and founder of Women Rising®, a production company telling true stories of women and girls, is looking to break that cycle with her limited-edition podcast BEHIND THE PAGE: AUTOIMMUNITY & THE GOOD GIRLS™launching March 31st. This 10-episode series of interviews with experts spanning science to soul explores how and why women who put themselves first have the power to lead healthier lives.

Hirsh Bordo conducted more than 50 hours of interviews while researching her forthcoming book, Autoimmunity and The Good Girls: How Permission to Put Ourselves First Has the Power to Keep Us Well (June, 2, 2026 | HarperOne), which focuses on the missing modality in female wellness: sovereign self-permission to speak up, transform, and heal. BEHIND THE PAGE takes listeners behind the scenes, sharing highlights from the conversations she had with authorities in various fields such as medicine, psychology, and trauma recovery.

BEHIND THE PAGE launches March 31st, 2026 across major podcast streaming platforms, and will feature music by MILCK along with a new 15-minute interview each week from the following experts:

• Nicole Sachs, author Mind Your Body: A Revolutionary Program to Release Chronic Pain and Anxiety; podcast host of The Cure for Chronic Pain with Nicole Sachs
• Dr. Kimberlee Sullivan, PT, DPT, WCS, BCB-PMD
• Izzy Swanson, TCYM, Somatic Trauma Specialist, Trauma- Informed Reiki Master and Teacher
• Madhu Sai, former monk and registered clinical counsellor
• Michal Morrison, award-winning entrepreneur and eldest daughter
• Dr. Kelly E. Green, PhD, LP, author of Relationships in Recovery: Repairing Damage and Building Healthy Connections While Overcoming Addiction
• Sharon Lim, MS, CNS, LDN, Certified Nutritionist Specialist and founder of Nourishing Center
• Stacie Codino, NLC-P, EP, Reiki Master/Teacher
• Heather Ensworth, PhD, Shaman, bestselling author of Astrological Ages and the Galactic Center: Ancient Wisdom for this Time of Transition
• Molly McCord, Master Astrologer, bestselling author, teacher and podcast host of Intuitive Astrology with Molly McCord

Sara Hirsh Bordo is a 15-time award-winning filmmaker and Founder/CEO of Women Rising®, named "One of the Most Innovative, Interesting, and Purpose-Driven Women-Led Startups to Watch” by Inc. Magazine. Sara is currently directing short documentary films for Toyota and ESPN Women, and most recently executive producer of ConnectHer International Film Festival, consulting director for the Gates Foundation PitchFest Program, and the author and researcher behind the first proprietary quantitative survey at the intersection of female empowerment and health, Autoimmunity and the Good Girls™. Sara previously held positions in media and entertainment, including Executive Director of Interactive Marketing at Paramount Pictures, VP of Digital Marketing at MGM Studios, and CEO and Co-Founder of NowLive. She lives in New Mexico, is Aunt Sissy to eleven nieces and nephews, and Godmother Sara to three godchildren. For more information on Sara and her projects visit Autoimmunity & Good Girls platform.

National television broadcaster, executive producer and basketball insider Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson has officially signed with Buchwald for representation, marking an exciting new chapter in his accomplished and wide-ranging media career.

Robinson’s trajectory is a masterclass in media evolution. He has been a fixture in the industry since childhood, beginning his career in radio at just 12 years old. During that foundational era, he served as a pre-teen host for the-then New Jersey Nets’ kids radio show, Nets Slammin' Planet. The program was a staple of AM sports radio in New York City, airing on 1660 AM AAHS World Radio and 620 AM One on One Sports, where Robinson interviewed icons of the game and developed the "Scoop B" brand long before the digital revolution.

Robinson is the creator and host of the widely popular Scoop B Radio podcast, which has featured an impressive roster of guests across sports, business and entertainment, including Shaquille O’Neal, Mark Cuban, Ric Flair, George Foreman, Ice Cube and DJ Khaled. Beyond broadcasting, he has held editorial roles at The Source Magazine, RESPECT Magazine, Billboard, VIBE and Basketball Society Online, further solidifying his voice across multiple media platforms.

With nearly thirty years of industry presence, Robinson has built a multifaceted career spanning television, digital and print journalism. He has appeared on major networks including CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, Bally Sports Network, MSG Networks, ESPN Radio, SiriusXM & NBA TV, delivering the latest news across sports and entertainment. He has also expanded his reach into digital and pop culture spaces, including an appearance in the NBA 2K video game series and lending his voice to narration on the popular show “Unsung” on TV One.

In addition to extensive NBA coverage, Robinson has covered the WNBA since its inception in 1997, consistently advocating for greater visibility and storytelling around the league. He has been a vocal proponent of elevating the WNBA to the same level of recognition and respect as the NBA.

Through his partnership with Buchwald, Robinson looks forward to further growing his impressive and impactful body of work.