How listeners find new shows

• YouTube is the most popular way to discover new podcasts, according to new research from Sounds Profitable and JAR Podcast Solutions. 61% discover shows via either YouTube or social media. However, different platforms vary with different ages. The data is a free download.

• Entertainment shows typically don’t perform very well for advertisers - but, there are some breakout entertainment podcasts with great ad performance, says Oxford Road, in a new ORBIT report. The best performing is The Popcast with Know and Jamie; but Jon Stewart’s The Weekly may be the one you’ve heard about (and it’s at #3).

• Triton Digital’s US Podcast Ranker for May 2026 was released. iHeart’s Stuff You Should Know became #1 in weekly average downloads. The top sales network was iHeart Audience Network.

• Arabic-language podcast host Thmanyah is no longer IAB Certified for Podcast Measurement. It last qualified in June last year.

  • IAB certification requires companies to recertify every twelve months. Audion, Captivate, Mediastream and Podtrac last certified in 2024.

• Rebel Audio, a new AI-powered podcast platform, launched in March, has moved into public beta. The platform promises AI powered translation, clipping and repurposing, and direct publishing to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and other platforms in one click. The company has launched a podcast to put the platform’s capabilities on display.

• Podcast Review reports from Tribeca Podcast Stage. A nicely-written piece involving elevators paints a positive view of the future of sound, in a video world.

• Silver Sound and The New York City Podcast Awards announced the winners of the latest “Sonic Dash”, a competition where creatives are challenged to make an original audio piece within 48 hours. The prize winners are in The Sonic Dash podcast. Top prize went to “Go For Broke or Gopher Broke?”, a piece follows a crew of sailors staving off boredom through acting out their own podcast.

• Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights released the Spring 2026 Podcast Download Report. It reports that watchable podcasts have hit a new height in popularity; and that 38% of weekly podcast consumers listen via a smart TV. However, only 8% say they only watch podcasts.

• Amazon delivered the most amount of money in podcast advertising in March, says Magellan AI - they spent $7.7mn, according to the company’s top spenders list. Genting New York, a gambling operator, is the biggest new spender this month, spending almost $2mn.

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Tips and tricks

• Wondering if a podcast network is right for you? In this replay of a session for The Podcast Academy, Greg Wasserman offers a practical look at network models, honest self-assessment, and how to find the right fit for your show’s future.
• From Podcast Movement Evolutions earlier this year - Steve McClendon from YouTube shared data from the platform, and how it works.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: Aghast at the Past is ripped straight from period newspapers - the strangest and most terrifying true crime tales of yesteryear.

The Small Bow Podcast has an interview with Anna Sale, the host of Slate’s Death, Sex and Money. The 'recovery show’ features stories about sobriety, mental health, and spirituality.

What happens when four of the biggest names in cybersecurity podcasting get together? In Defense in Depth, David Spark is joined by Dave Bittner, Graham Cluley and Leo Laporte to talk about what it takes in cyber media - balancing relations between sponsors and audience, and how they use AI.

Podnews Weekly Review this week talks with Losh Moodaley, and Voxtopica’s Richard Fawell - as well as the latest in the ongoing changes to podcast metrics.

Of people who take their own life in the US, four out of five are men. Yet, media rarely speaks to men honestly, as men. The Missing Conversation is a new, long-form podcast about the passages that define a man’s life, and launched yesterday.

Folk Files is the newest show to join The Bluegrass Podcast Network. Olivia Harding seeks to uncover the mysteries of folk music through the ages. Each episode dives deep into the tangled history of murder ballads, sea shanties, rebel songs, and other music that has withstood the test of time.

If you have UFO fever in the wake of Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, tune in to The Why Files: Operation Podcast this week to learn about the Falcon Lake Incident, one of Canada’s best documented and most baffling UFO cases. Did Steve Michalak really get burned by a spaceship? And why was stuff he found at the site radioactive?

This Father’s Day in the US on Cry It Out Loud you will hear two organizations come together for the dads nobody talks about. Chasing the Rainbows and Sad Dads Club open an honest conversation about what it really feels like to grieve a baby as a father — the silence, the isolation, and why loss dads are the most overlooked voices in pregnancy and infant loss.