The podcast crowdfunded for $200,000

• How much will people pledge for a good podcast? The Apple history podcast Designed in California has now raised over $200,000 in its Kickstarter campaign, with another seven days left. (There are plenty of fiction podcasts or podcast apps that could do with your financial support, just saying. Oh, and this.)

• Crossed Wires, the podcast festival in the UK, has revealed its guests and local lineup for the event. Greg James and Alice Levine are set to headline day one of the festival with the first-ever live show of their new podcast Bad Chat; while Miquita Oliver is announced to join How to Fail with Elizabeth Day. The festival is being held in Sheffield, Jul 2-5.

  • One of the organisers, Dino Sophos of Persephonica, spoke to UK MPs on the Culture, Media and Sports Committee about why some of the BBC’s podcasts are now available on YouTube. (“Probably a little bit late”, he says).

• Australian television personality Karl Stefanovic has removed a recent episode of The Karl Stefanovic Show where he interviewed, and praised, far-right activist and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson. Stefanovic’s main employer, Nine Entertainment, says the podcast is nothing to do with them - and that they’re taking the matter 'seriously’. One media outlet suggests that Stefanovic may have been fired from his $2mn TV job.

• Ausha took a look at Edison Research’s top 25 UK podcasts to see whether we can learn anything from their metadata, their publication frequency, duration or reviews. The recipe, they conclude, is “consistent publishing, strong metadata foundations, and audience trust.”

• Want to speak at Podcast Movement NYC? You’ve got a week to get your speaker submission in. Half the schedule will be selected by community vote; and half by an independent committee.

• Are podcasts on Netflix working? Following our coverage yesterday, Media Week in Australia interviewed our Editor on whether Netflix’s podcast strategy is failing. And media analyst Adam Bowie published more data and thoughts about Netflix’s success (or otherwise). We’re hoping that our coverage of his coverage of our coverage tempts him into covering this further, leading to some kind of inception point (but not that type of Inception Point).

Our privacy policy has changed (for the better): we’ve improved our use of Cloudflare to only load code from Cloudflare when it’s needed, rather than on page-load; and relaxed the “human” check when you search our site to last seven days, rather than just 24 hours.

People News

• Julia Amran has been hired as Director of Podcast Development at True Native Media. She’ll expand and strengthen True Native Media’s growing roster of creators and networks.

• Chris Quinn has been appointed as an Executive Producer at Platform Media within their sports slate. He’ll lead on the content and growth of the Paul Scholes-fronted The Good, The Bad and The Football.

Tips and tricks

• If you missed it last week, Losh Moodaley wrote a considered piece about better podcast measurement - and why it won’t fix the economics behind most podcasts. She was also a guest on the Podnews Weekly Review podcast last week. We’ve heard it get shout-outs on a number of industry podcasts - it’s a good piece of work, and worth a read if you’ve not seen it.

• Resonate share 10 Questions to Ask a Podcast Agency Before You Sign Anything - “who owns the RSS feed” is a good start.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: In The American Miracle with Michael Medved the popular national radio host examines improbable coincidences in American history… coincidences that some call miraculous.

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is celebrating 500 episodes over its eight year history, with new artwork. Today’s episode brings listeners three failures from five-time BAFTA Award and Olivier Award nominee, Kristin Scott Thomas.

New from Matthew McLean, Audio Indies has one rule - that your podcast should never need to be watched to make sense. Whether you’re audio-only or you publish video, too, this is the show for podcasters who put the listening experience first. The show covers the craft of spoken-word audio and storytelling to the value of open podcasting, audience ownership, and monetisation models built for independent creators with dedicated niche audiences.

The Indigenous Setlist is a new music podcast this week, explores how modern North American Native and Indigenous artists are redefining genres and creating today’s most electrifying music. The first artist profiled is The Halluci Nation (EDM) – representing the Six Nations of the Grand River (Mohawk) and Cayuga Nations.

Hosted by Farabi Khaleque, The Good Quest features in-depth conversations with celebrities, entrepreneurs, creators, advocates, entertainers, athletes, and changemakers. The podcast’s first season features a diverse lineup of guests, including Vanessa Clements, finalist on Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2 and former Big Brother Canada houseguest; Terry Axiotis, founder of the viral donut brand Homers; alongside additional entrepreneurs, advocates, and public figures whose stories highlight perseverance, leadership, and personal growth.