Bartlett’s crown snatched

• Step aside, Steven Bartlett: there’s a new kid in town. Earlier this month, Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO beat the Joe Rogan Experience as the most subscribed video podcast in the world. Joe Rogan has 21.1 million subscribers; Bartlett has 21.9 million; but Figuring Out with Raj Shamani is beating both of them, with 22.1 million. The show is made in India, and launched in 2021. Shamani recently signed with talent agency WME after attracting well-known guests like French President Emmanuel Macron, Scott Galloway and OpenAI’s Sam Altman.

• Spotify’s Megaphone has just rolled-out HLS video distribution for Apple Podcasts for its customers. Here are the support details. The company announced that it would be supporting Apple Podcasts back in May.

• Google’s posted a new patent for turning your browsing history into a podcast for your commute. According to the website Patentlyze, it can time the podcast for the length of time you’ll be in the car - and it can also moderate its language or remove naughty words.

• Bloomberg reports that Bill Simmons is no longer taking advertising from ChatGPT. “We learned almost immediately that those segments weren’t a fit for us — our audience just didn’t like them,” Simmons said. Ashley Flowers and Mel Robbins have also been criticised by listeners for promoting AI.

• At the New York Times, Paige Cowett has been promoted to Editor in Chief of The Daily. Nazanin Rafsanjani joins the company as Managing Editor of the show.

• Molly Webster is to be the new cohost of Radiolab, WNYC Studios has announced. She’ll succeed current co-host Lulu Miller.

We’re not sending Podnews to anyone using Microsoft’s email services today. Microsoft’s services have been down for more than 12 hours at the time of writing. (Fun fact: 5,166 people on Podnews’s list use Microsoft for their email. They’re mostly corporates. We’d wish them good luck, but they can’t open their email anyway, so…)

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave and TWiT.tv: Intelligent Machines explores the most exciting revolution humanity has ever seen, filled with promise and peril. On this show you’ll meet the AI pioneers, inventors, and innovators who are about to disrupt every aspect of modern life. From TWiT, today explore why the next tech revolution might depend on which models stay truly open—and who gets to keep using them.

Transit Unplugged opened a new season with a roundtable featuring five of the world’s most influential transit leaders. The podcast was recorded live in Chicago. Like Podnews, the podcast launched in 2017.

In Gone Medieval this week, How To Survive the Black Death. In a few short years in the 14th Century, the Black Death wiped out half of Europe’s population, creating an apocalyptic landscape where human life was worth “no more than a dead goat.” Medieval dynamic duo Dr. Eleanor Janega and Matt Lewis explore how society endured history’s most fatal pandemic and the profound cultural and economic shockwaves it left in its wake.

Podcasts about podcasting - with the Podnews Weekly Review

PodBiz this week interviews Myke Hurley of podcast network Relay FM. He talks about how his team raised $311,000 for a new show - by asking listeners for the money.

Podcast Network Insights talks with The Democracy Group. Jenna Spinelle and Brandon Stover explain how collaboration, cross-promotion, and shared infrastructure create a different, supportive model for a podcast network.

Insider Secrets to a top 100 podcast sees Courtney Elmer joining Sam Brake Guia for a deep dive into the psychology behind what makes listeners click play, keep listening, and take action.

The Sound Off Podcast talks about microphone technique: choosing gear that suits your voice and recording space, and why wired headphones matter during remote interviews.

Podcast Perspectives asks a bunch of people for their 2027 predictions for the industry. Is it that time again?