Ashley Flowers launches So Supernatural on Friday

On Friday in Podnews: what is “gone quiet”?

• Ashley Flowers is back with So Supernatural, in a new partnership with Crime House from Max Cutler’s PAVE Studios and audiochuck media. The show was a Spotify exclusive with Parcast; it now has two additional hosts, Yvette Gentile and Rasha Pecoraro, and will “dive deeper into the mysteries that captivate our imaginations and challenge our understanding of reality”. It launches on Friday.

• DeepCast Pro has launched in beta for English-language shows. It produces a downloadable file for each episode containing transcripts, “entities” (like people and things), key takeaways and quotes, to help market your show. The tool is free. Here’s what it gave us for yesterday’s podcast version of Podnews as a ZIP file.

• Libsyn Ads reports that average podcast ad rates were down by just over 3% last month. The average CPM rate was $21.25.

• Podcast hosting company PodToo has pledged to give 5% of the company’s gross profits to podcast app developers. The aim is to encourage app developers to incorporate new features in open podcasting.

• Spreaker is to launch Spreaker Create, a way to create a podcast directly from the Spreaker app. The company has opened beta testing for the new feature. Spotify removed a similar function earlier this year for users of its Spotify for Podcasters host.

• Only Murders In The Building has returned for a fourth season. Opinion is a bit divided on whether it paints podcasting in the right light: but even so, Wirecutter has done us all a favour by analysing the audio equipment they use to record their podcast. Spoiler: mostly, it’s chosen for looks.

• Working with Wondery, Magellan AI has released a new reach lift measurement product. The tool gives advertisers access to reach-related performance metrics; and highlights opportunities for optimising reach across podcast shows.

• In Calgary AB, Canada, PodSummit YYC 2024 is just around the corner - the event is on Sep 20-21, with speakers from across the industry and live podcasts.

People News

• Happy Birthday to Adam Curry. The podfather turned 60 on Tuesday.

Tips and tricks - with Ausha Pro 🚀

• Explore 10 top branded podcasts and what, according to Ausha, makes them stand out.

• Learn Ausha’s tips to create an effective branded podcast using your existing content.

• Lower Street tell us How to Choose a Great Podcast Name - or, as they insist on calling it, “how to namestorm”.

Podcast News

Don’t Kill the Messenger is celebrating reaching 50 episodes today with a special guest - the acclaimed movie director Ron Howard. In the interview with host Kevin Goetz, Howard emphasises his focus on storytelling and his collaborative approach.

Jessica Bishop, the host of wedding planning podcast The Bouquet Toss, has been featured in The New York Times.

From DoubleDouble, The Worst Podcast is a new show with Alan Zweig. The filmmaker talks to notable people, although it’s unclear quite who finds them notable, about the worst things in life - nagging fears, annoyances, and failures. Paul F. Tompkins and Janie Haddad Tompkins are the first guests, and Alan forgets the name of at least one of them.

Last year, The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast gave away $100,000 to their listeners, and this year, they’re doing it again, via its free American football pick 'em contest. The show has just returned for a new season from The Action Network.

How To Do Everything is back from NPR, with the producers of Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me, Ian Chillag and Mike Danforth. For this season, they rely on listeners to spark interesting “how-to” conversations, some of which will answer their questions. And some of which will not. Expect memorisation tips from a soap opera legend, a mayor in Italy bringing sunlight to his town for the first time in centuries and something called The Nasal Ranger.