Episode 2,000 for “Start Here”

• Congratulations to Start Here, the daily news podcast from ABC News, which published its 2,000th episode this morning. The podcast was launched in March 2018, and is hosted by Brad Mielke, who’ll be a guest on the Podnews Weekly Review this week.

• YouTube’s algorithm appears to have changed in September: it now heavily favours recency, according to Mario Joos on LinkedIn - who shares a way you can isolate the data for yourself. (You could argue that this algorithm change is a benefit to podcasting - where ‘recency’ is the algorithm in many apps.)

• Hindenburg has launched an advent calendar with “a daily treat for storytellers”.

• Spotify wants you to update your app. It’s almost like they’ve got something to unwrap shortly.

• The Pod Radar has launched. A little like ProductHunt but for podcasts, a new ranker is produced from listener votes for indie podcast episodes every week. It’s free to submit a show.

• AudienceLift has launched an API for its growth engine, allowing integration with podcast hosting platforms, networks and brand studios.

• The 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report was released by the IAB. Ad Results Media has given its take - that the creator economy doesn’t replace (marketing through) audio: it amplifies it.

Thank you to PodVault, who is our latest silver supporter. PodVault provides everything you need to create a professional podcast and distribute it to all major podcast platforms, and also supports private podcasts. Supporters like PodVault mean we can keep our newsletter free for everyone. You can become a supporter here.

The Tech Stuff - with RSS.com

• OP3 is being used by Audioboom’s hit True Crime with Kendall Rae. On Nov 18, the podcast was responsible for more than a third of all OP3-monitored downloads at some points of the day. (It’s great to see OP3 trusted by some of the bigger shows. It’s free to get your show in the system too).

• Chances are that your podcast uses the open, free software ffmpeg during its publish process. The ffmpeg team are volunteers, but are being pressured by an AI tool run by Google that spots obscure security bugs and demands that they’re fixed within 90 days. Google, which now has a market cap bigger than Microsoft, pays nothing for ffmpeg’s upkeep.

• Prefix analytics tools, like OP3, Podtrac and others won’t ever give you exactly the same numbers as your podcast hosting company. This is a very technical deep-dive from John Spurlock, which we’ve mentioned here before but it’s worthwhile reading again.

Moves and hires

• Cait FitzSimons has joined Pod Save the UK as Executive Producer. She was the Editor of 5 News, the UK television channel.

Podcast News - with Airwave

With Airwave: The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast has joined Airwave. The show aims to match nature time with the average amount of American kid screen time - which is more than a thousand hours a year. Nature time, research shows contributes extensively to every area of childhood development.

In the latest edition of Pods Like Us - AI in Podcasting: Humans, Voices, Ethics. The guests are Benjamin Field (Deep Fusion Films), William Corbin (Inception Point AI), and John McDermott & Mark Francis (Caloroga Shark Media).

Charles Dickens Ghost Stories is new from Noiser today - with Sir David Suchet narrating some of the most atmospheric and spine-tingling tales from Dickens. The series debuts with a double-episode premiere of A Christmas Carol, one of the most retold festive stories of redemption.

As a mother of three is found dead in nearby woods, it is revealed that her husband has been surveilling the family for years, hiding cameras throughout their home. The recordings exposed a twisted web of jealousy, lies, and control. The Binge Cases: Watching You is new from Sony Music Entertainment today.

Is it time to get to know members of the US Congress better? On NOTUS features an interview with a member of Congress every episode, exploring their background, their path to Capitol Hill, and the issues that motivate them. It launches today from NOTUS, a nonpartisan DC-based newsroom covering politics and policy in Washington and beyond.

In Fill The Silence you’ll hear more immersive sounds from daily life. Fill The Silence is perfect as background noise. Use it to focus while you work, drift off to sleep, or escape to places you’d rather be. From calming moments of nature, birdsong and dog walks, to the energy of wind, rain, traffic, lively cafés, and European cities every episode is designed to transport you and fill your silence.