A new home for Kevin Roose and Casey Newton

• First look: The creators of the New York Times’s Hard Fork, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, are to join NPR - for a new show called Machine Gods. Starting in October, it’s the first deal under new Chief Content Officer Nadine Zylstra: it will be in video, and will also be aired on NPR member stations from early next year. Zylstra and NPR CEO Katherine Maher will discuss the deal later today at the IAB Podcast Upfront, part of Podcast Week.

• The Podcast Study 2026 was announced at the Sounds Profitable Business Summit, as Podcast Week continues in New York City. Among the findings revealed: 45% of podcast listeners would be “at least somewhat likely” to pay for a subscription tier to remove ads; and 64% would sign up for email from their favourite podcasters. The authors of the study have announced four upcoming webinars.

• Speakers at the Sounds Profitable Business Summit yesterday included Don Lemon, the former CNN anchor, and a special session about YouTube’s recent changes.

• First look: Podscribe announced a direct integration with Rumble for attribution. The integration enables direct attribution for host-read, baked-in ads within creator content and podcasts on Rumble, and becomes the first video platform to support all the signals required for attribution under the Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting (AMP) attribution specification.

  • Podscribe has also announced full and automated reporting for YouTube engaged views.

• Members of the Podcast Standards Project are meeting tomorrow at 12.30pm ET, close to the Podcast Movement venue. You don’t have to be a member of the PSP to attend (or, for that matter, a ticketholder to PM). There’s a draft agenda linked from the events page.

• Podcast ads are great: if people are actually listening to them. Yesterday, a new patent was granted to Disctopia that checks how engaged each listener is, by asking them questions about the content while they listen. That could then be part of any payment to creators, the patent suggests.

• There are new Apple Podcasts features in iOS 27, tvOS 27, and macOS 27, which were released earlier this week. On Apple TV, you can watch video podcasts in a completely redesigned app; video podcasts are also now fully supported on MacOS desktop.

• Podpage has launched Podpage Agent-Built Websites. If you want to go beyond a template, you can now work with an AI agent, like Claude or Codex, to design your websites; and then use Podpage to make it properly hosted and updated.

• Signings: At the Sounds Profitable Business Summit, it was announced that Blair Braverman’s “What To Carry, What to Burn” is now part of Radiotopia … meanwhile, Audacy has signed Platypus Economics, the podcast from Justin Wolfers.

• Advertisers buying programmatic podcast campaigns through Barometer can now measure what those buys deliver, with a partnership with Magellan AI. Barometer has named Magellan AI as its exclusive measurement partner for programmatic campaigns.

• The BBC has added early-access podcasts to its paid subscription in the US and Canada. The subscription also includes unlimited access to BBC News, and the BBC News channel livestream in the US. Early access and ad-free podcasts have been also available on Apple Podcasts for some time - that will continue as normal (though you probably get better value by going direct).

• Caloroga Media is celebrating its third anniversary on Friday with a new name - dropping the 'shark’. The company will be at Podcast Movement later in the week.

• Saltwaves Studio launched PodMaster, a web-based podcast mastering service. PodMaster reduces noise, balances sound and emails you the finished master.

• Triton Digital released the Australian Podcast Ranker for August.

• The 31st Webby Awards are open for entries.

People News

• PRX has announced that its COO, Jason Saldanha, will succeed Kerri Hoffman as president and CEO from next month. Podcast Hall of Famer Kerri Hoffman had been CEO for ten years. Saldhana said: “I’m excited by the opportunity ahead and am honored to lead PRX’s next chapter alongside a remarkable team.” He’s been with PRX since 2019.
• Kelly Parker has joined Gemini XIII as SVP, Sales. She joins from Yea Networks - and takes her shows with her: Gemini XIII will represent Yea Networks’ shows, too.
• Ad-tech company Audion has named Mike Villabos as Chief Revenue Officer. He will lead the company’s rollout in the US.

Tips and tricks - with Audiencelift

• Never install custom software just to record a podcast, warns Joan Westerberg. There are
• How do the podcast charts work? We’ve got all the details.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: The Young Turks is Home of The Progressives. Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian and a host of progressive voices deliver the news and provocative commentary. Whether you are seeking a breakdown of current events, politics and the mainstream media or just a quick laugh, the TYT daily podcast will always keep you informed and entertained.

How do you find the right words when you’re face-to-face with the unexpected? Speakership in the Time of Change is a communication podcast for established leaders navigating change. Built on frameworks from neuroscience and patterns drawn from 10,000+ hours of working with high-knowledge professionals, Margaret Watts Romney brings this work out from behind the curtain of training rooms and private coaching calls and into every episode.

Futuro and KCRW present Reaching Out, a six-part audio memoir from documentary artist Sayre Quevedo and winner of the Audio Memoir Award at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival. On the eve of their 30th birthday, twin brothers Sayre and Connor set out to find the biological father who abandoned them before they were born. You’ll follow them through desert raves, drunken nightclubs, and across borders of time and language, observing the brothers confront the truths they’ve hidden from each other and themselves. Reaching Out is a story about fathers, sons, and the distance between. New episodes arrive weekly on Wednesdays through October 21, distributed as part of the NPR Podcast Network.

Experience classic Victorian horror stories as they’ve never been heard before in Victorian Gothic: The Hauntings. Become immersed in their spine-chilling, eerie worlds through the use of spatial and binaural sound design, placing you directly in the ghostly heart of things. Not simply narrated, these episodes bring all of the action and characters to life in an unnerving three-dimensional environment.

Podcasters in the wild

Nothing says New York more than the glamour and glitz of Times Square. Sounds Profitable partners got a spin on the NASDAQ Big Screen. Today at 4.45pm ET, it’s the turn of all the podcasters attending Podcast Movement.