OMG, the last WTF drops today

• Today is the last episode of WTF with Marc Maron. We reported back in June that he was to end the show; he is the subject of a New York Times feature today, a focus in The Guardian, and - we’re sure - plenty more. For his final episode, number 1,686, Marc travels to Washington DC, for a second conversation with former President Barack Obama - who’s quite a fan.

• The Shawn Ryan Show, one of the US’s top 50 podcasts, has signed with Daylight Media. The show was with Cumulus Media, and last month the Wall Street Journal suggested the deal could be worth $10mn. Daylight Media is an expansion of QCODE.

  • Shawn Ryan got a focus in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend.

• In Australia, Jetpak Media, a creator representation house and media publisher, has been launched by former Spotify and ARN executive Kai Battaglene.

• Joining Spreaker and Blubrry, RSS.com has partnered with CodeADX, to expand monetisation options for podcasters: earning commission when listeners make purchases using your code. It joins RSS’s recent PAID programmatic ads. (Disclosures).

• Audiogram - a tool to make social video from your podcast- has launched a free AI-powered podcast promo tool. “We’ve been having a bit of fun,” Neal Pollock tells us - “it does a bit of research on your podcast, drafts a whimsical script and then generates a short promo video.” It’s intentionally silly, designed to explore the latest AI video generation models, we’re told. Here’s what it made for us. Weird. (It’s free to try).

• At SXSW Sydney, a panel tells us that Podcasts without truth and accuracy can pollute the public sphere. The event is all week in Sydney NSW, Australia (our Editor is there on Thursday).

• Further reading: AFP posts Mass-produced AI podcasts disrupt a fragile industry.

The Tech Stuff - with RSS.com

• RSS.com has announced full support for the podcast:location tag - offering complete coverage for the updated 2025 version of the standard which now supports the location of the podcast creator, as well as any location the podcast is about. Their support is complete, and supports OpenStreetMap IDs to allow new discovery methods in the future.

  • Here’s a demo showing how to set the full 2025 version of the podcast:location tag.
  • The Podnews Daily podcast’s RSS feed includes creator location for each episode - August and September included quite a lot of travel.

• Marco Arment’s Overcast has released a new beta, with entirely rewritten download code. He notes that “Downloads are becoming increasingly complicated with the prevalence of ad-blocking VPNs and network products.”

Tips & Tricks

• Rachel Corbett asks What’s the best social media platform for podcasting? There’s a surprisingly simple answer.

Podcast News - with Airwave

New with Airwave: Childproof - parenting is hard, but it’s even harder when you feel alone and have only the sounds of Cocomelon to keep you company. Childproof is a parenting chat show for when you’re craving adult conversation.

Mildly Informed with Chris Skinner and Richie Firth is a simple idea for a podcast - where each describe something that has happened to them recently and give it a review. Launched back in April, in the most recent episode, Chris is really annoyed at someone who fixed his bike for free. It’s also worth a listen to see how they treat Patreon subscribers.

If you’re looking for New Podcasts you’ll find a ton of trailers added every day for new shows - and ones you should take a listen to. It’s from Podnews; and you can even submit your own show to it, too.

The Funny Comics Fan Club has returned for a third season. Every week, the show reads through an issue of an old British comic. It’s hosted by comedian John Dredge and academic Doctor Mark Hibbett.

Podcast Promotion in the wild

This Podspike show, No Ordinary Tech Podcast, is currently advertising inside the UK’s busiest National Rail station, Liverpool Street. 61 million passengers will see this, if they advertised for a full year, which they won’t. “I think it pops really nicely,” Podspike’s CEO, Dan Page, tells us.

Podcasting will grow more if we market it more. Seen a podcast being promoted somewhere in the wild - other than on a podcast? Let us know by hitting reply.