New BBC News podcast for Asia

• The team behind the wildly popular Global News Podcast from the BBC have announced a new Asia-focused news show. The podcast, which will also be available in video on YouTube, will be called Asia Specific, and is slated to start within the next few months, according to the BBC’s Siobhán Leahy who announced the new podcast at Podcast Day Asia in Jakarta earlier today. Co-presented by Mariko Oi, it’ll be produced in the BBC’s Singapore bureau.

• The Radioinfo Asia Podcast Awards were also announced at Podcast Day Asia. The people’s vote for the podcast of the year was Joseph Ask, from SPH Media. The country of Singapore made the most entries; there were eighty finalists overall.

• If you combine advertising on both podcasts and streaming audio, you can reach 85% of all US listeners, according to Podscribe’s Q2/25 Performance Benchmark Report. The data also says that iPhone users convert 30% better than Android users - with Apple Podcasts being the leading app for visitor and conversion rates.

• Blue Wire has signed Steve Smith Sr’s The 89 Show. The show has 173,000 followers on YouTube.

• In Ireland, a new two-day podcast summit has been launched, including the All-Ireland Podcast Awards. The event, called SOUND.WAVES., will be held in November in Adare (“Ireland’s prettiest village”) in county Limerick.

• In Spain, the iVoox Podcast Awards have been opened for registrations. Winners — besides receiving a physical trophy — get one year of free visibility on the iVoox platform. There’s a blog post with more information. Está en español, naturalmente.

• The Podglomerate has produced a list of “podcast pros to follow on social media”.

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Podcast News

Drawn West is a hunting podcast for everyday hunters who hit the road each fall in search of unforgettable western hunts. You’ll hear content focused on western big-game hunting from the perspective of non-resident, DIY, and time-limited hunters — those of us who juggle family, work, and one or two weeks a year to chase elk, mule deer, and antelope across public land.

In a bonus episode of Our Big Shot today, Harvard professor Lee McIntyre speaks to host and science communicator, Dr. Seema Yasmin, about the five ways to challenge people who believe in conspiracy theories. The conversation is part of two upcoming episodes released in order to build on the podcast’s successful miniseries which was dedicated to understanding the power of vaccines and the science of immunisation.