Apple Podcasts launches “Creators we love” down under

• Just in time for SXSW Sydney, Apple Podcasts has launched “Creators We Love” in Australia. The editorial team “curates and celebrates creators who are changing the way stories are told and shared”, and highlight Toni Lodge & Ryan Jon; mental health advocates Hugh, Josh and Ryan of The Imperfects; Shameless Media’s Annabelle Lee; sports commentator Marlee Silva; and parenting creators Gemma Pranita and Kate Reeves. The full list - including previous recipients in the US, UK and Canada - is posted on Apple Podcasts from today.

• People don’t really understand AI, says Sam Bhattacharyya, writing for Podnews today. (He has an AI research background). In the article, he explains how tools like ChatGPT work, how terrible they are for creation, and how AI can actually benefit us.

• Meanwhile, “the secret ingredient in every great podcast remains the same: a real human voice with something to say.” So says Steven Goldstein after testing a set of AI-generated podcasts with college students.

• Advanced podcast app Metacast now supports creator-made transcripts, using the podcast:transcript tag. Only creator-made transcripts highlight speaker names (and even have pictures of them); support of this feature enables transcripts to be in the app without the app doing a transcript itself (which can be costly).

  • If Metacast sounds like the sort of thing you want to try, it’s currently having a 50%-off sale, in what the company calls its “12 month survivaversary”. (It’s entirely bootstrapped).

• Podcast Intellectuals was a half-day conference last Friday, hosted by NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. In the closing session “Can podcasts save the university?”, panelists emphasised the need for institutional recognition of podcasts as legitimate academic output, better systems for archiving and peer review, and the potential for podcasts to re-engage the public with academic research. Neil McPhedran from HigherEdPods and Podium Podcasts attended - and told us that one panelist noted if podcasts can help save the university, academia might just be what helps save podcasting.

• The next iPadOS, 26.1, will include a gain control for USB microphones, making it a great potential recording device when you’re on the move - just add a decent microphone! It’ll be out in the next few weeks.

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Tips & Tricks

• Your audio ad is terrible - here’s how to fix it, suggests, um, a large US radio broadcaster. It includes: “most podcast ads don’t say the name of the brand enough”, and we’d heartily agree. Our rule is once every ten seconds in an ad (and you’ll hear us doing this in our daily podcast); their rule is a little more aggressive.

Podcast News - with Airwave

New with Airwave: Blowback, a podcast about American Empire, has just started season 6. Cuba sends an army to defend newly independent Angola from the combined forces of apartheid South Africa, the CIA, and one of the most infamous warlords of Africa.

Students at City St George’s University of London have launched Women’s World: Equity By Design, working with the United Nations Population Fund. The podcast focuses on the global efforts to advance gender equality and empower women and girls.

Darren Palmer’s Almost Home is brand new from MIK MADE this month - featuring one of Australia’s most renowned and influential interior designers. You missed Myf Warhurst last week, but the show’s guests today for the second episode are Tiktok darlings, the Aussie design team Josh & Matt. It’s available in both audio and video.

Wolf Entertainment — the production powerhouse behind Law & Order and One Chicago — is partnering with Realm’s kids and family division, Pinna, to launch its first children’s property, Patrick Picklebottom Everyday Mysteries. The show launched today, and features Patrick Picklebottom, a precocious 11-year-old with a love for reading and an uncanny ability to solve mysteries.