Hark launches The Conversation - curated podcast discovery

• Podcast curation platform Hark Audio has announced The Conversation, an easy way for listeners to discover podcast conversations happening around trending topics. The first Conversation to be added is one around the US elections, with clips from a wide range of shows focusing on the campaign trail - some you’ll know, some you won’t.

• Apple Podcasts is adding a better way to get around shows with chapters in the upcoming iOS 18 - when you “scrub” through the timeline, you’ll now see the chapters, reports MacRumors. (Appearance of a feature in beta doesn’t mean it’ll make it to the final build.)

• Nordic podcast hosting company Podspace now supports Apple Podcasts Subscriptions (a tool initially known as delegated delivery). Creators can now manage all content directly via Podspace’s own publishing tool.

• Edison Research says that 79% of weekly podcast listeners in the US “have listened to podcasts that have video”, with 72% actively watching the screen.

• Jam, a short-form audio app and website, is to close. “We’re still convinced there’s a future for the short audio format,” said founders Pete and Chris. It’ll close on July 15.

• Libsyn Ads has signed an exclusive ad partnership with Mark Haynes Productions for an audio drama, Hindsight: The Day Before.

• Veritonic has added benchmarks to its brand-lift measurement tool. The feature adds helpful context when showing how campaigns are performing.

• Zombie news now - and, four days after its international closure, Zombie Google Podcasts continues to refuse to die. In fact, it’s worse than that: the bodies of the recently deceased are returning to life and attacking the living - because over the last 24 hours, astonishingly, Google Podcasts’s website has been turned back on again and now happily plays podcasts once more. The app is still available to install in Google Play, but has now been removed from the Apple App Store; it continues to function on both platforms.

Moves and hires

• Lizzie Young has been confirmed as the new CEO of Commercial Radio & Audio in Australia. The organisation runs the Australian podcast ranker, and works with radio broadcasters.

• Billy Hartman has joined workflow automation and ad management company Frequency to expand its business development efforts.

• Oziel Enriquez recently joined Salem Web Media as the new Podcast Marketing Coordinator, where he will be working with Life Audio, one of the top Christian audio podcast networks.

Tips and tricks - with Memberful

• What is Podcasting 2.0? And Why Should I Care? The Podcast Host talks with Sam Sethi

Podcast News

The Bouquet Toss - A Wedding Planning Podcast has joined Love Stories TV. After five successful seasons as an audio show, it’s now a video podcast, available on YouTube, Spotify, and Love Stories TV’s streaming TV channel.

From the UAE, Crossing the Desert is the first reality show podcast that immerses listeners in the exhilarating journey of launching a business in Dubai. Recorded on location in the UAE, the show brings the highs and lows, the triumphs and setbacks, and the indomitable willpower of an entrepreneur on a mission.

In 5 Random Questions, which launches today, Danny Brown asks a guest 5 questions thrown out by a random question generator. “The guests don’t know what I’m going to ask, and neither do I, so each episode could go anywhere,” he says. The first two episodes are out now.

Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics is new from iHeartMedia and NBCUniversal - hosted by Saturday Night Live’s Bowen Yang and Actor/Comedian Matt Rogers. The team break down the top storylines, discuss the athletes to watch and their results, obsess over Paris culture and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village. It’s part of an iHeartMedia and NBCU collaboration for the Olympics.

Podcast on a plane

Imagine announcing that your shows are on haitus - and coming back soon - only to get on the aeroplane to see this.