A new podcast app you probably won't like

• A new podcast app, that you probably won’t like, has just been launched: Just Listen™ plays one random podcast episode after another. That’s literally it. Wenbin Fang from Listen Notes describes the thinking behind it, and how he built it, in a blog post.

• The team behind Anchor post their look back at podcasting in 2018. “As an industry, we’ve spent the year in limbo with regards to determining the best ways to make podcasting a viable business financially. The good news is that out of this uncertainty, many different business models have emerged and are continuing to evolve.”

• Want another video review of the Røde Rødecaster Pro? Here’s one that starts with someone trying to break it.

• ART19 has told Podnews that it, too, is working towards IAB Certification. They join the previously reported Voxnest/Spreaker, Megaphone and Libsyn. (Any more?)

• Mark Thompson, CEO of the New York Times, talks to Digiday about (among other things) the newspaper’s plan for podcasts. “We’ll look to scale the number of podcasts and the way we think about podcasting.” (He’d know - he was the boss of the BBC for seven years.)

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• We’ve not linked to all the “best of” podcast listicles this year, but here’s one we like - Quartzy’s Best Podcasts (And Podcast Episodes) of 2018. Jack Rhysider from Darknet Diaries sent it to us: see if you can work out why.

• Lee Tran Lam from The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry posts her pick of new food podcasts, from Heston Blumenthal to Yotam Ottolenghi.

Podcasts

Genetics Unzipped is a new fortnightly podcast from the Genetics Society, presented by Dr Kat Arney, science writer, author and broadcaster, and former host of the Naked Genetics podcast. The press release promises we’ll learn about spider-goats, which sound terrifying.