COVID-19 podcasts going viral

• Acast tells Podnews that there are now more than 650 podcast episodes hosted on its platform alone about Coronavirus. Those episodes have been downloaded more than 16 million times. We link to some new titles in our podcast news section below.

• In America, ABC News plans a new daily podcast, “COVID-19, what you need to know” which launches today. (We don’t, yet, see it in Apple Podcasts).

• The radio and podcasting event Radiodays Europe has been postponed because of the virus. Over 1,500 people were due to visit Lisbon, Portugal.

• Podcasters can now reply to reviews on Podchaser. You can now say “thank you” for reviews, or even help with more information. Try leaving a review here

  
  Aug 22 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Triton Digital have released new rankers for the four weeks ending Feb 16: their new LATAM ranker; and their Australian Podcast Ranker, which was delayed after a typo. The Aussie ranker has a new #1: Stuff You Should Know from iHeartRadio, which is sold in Australia by ARN. From The Newsroom is the highest Aussie podcast in the list, debuting at #2 even though it launched a week into the data period.

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• iHeartMedia and Seneca Women have launched a new network of women-focused podcasts. It’s sponsored by Procter and Gamble.

• The International Science Council have launched ISC Presents: Women in Science, a set of 15-minute episodes hoping to inspire the next generation of female scientists; the episodes are produced by Studio Ochenta.

Podcast News

The Coronavirus Daily Briefing is a new podcast from Ride Home Media, focusing on the reason we’re all fist-bumping these days. “We feel that daily news podcasts are uniquely suited for breaking news events like this one, providing much needed utility and curation of what can feel like a deluge of things to follow,” says CEO Brian McCullough. (Ride Home Media / ART19)
The Coronavirus Podcast is a new podcast from BBC News, focusing on the covid-19 outbreak. Like other BBC podcasts, this public health message has been blocked from Google Podcasts. (BBC)

Coronacast is available from the ABC in Australia. (Like other ABC podcasts, it is disappointingly unavailable via Spotify; and isn’t, yet, in Google Podcasts either) (ABC Australia)

Personology is a new history podcast, which “aims to identify what propelled individuals into greatness and, in turn, how those acts changed all of our lives” (iHeartRadio)