Unravel returns with a con artist; Crime Junkie served legal letter

• Accused of plagiarism, Crime Junkie was sent a lawyer’s cease-and-desist letter at the end of last week by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. The letter claims “unauthorized use and broadcast” of a podcast series from the newspaper, produced by Cathy Frye. Meanwhile, Tanner Campbell says, in a blog post, that Crime Junkie “were just ignorant” and this was “inevitable”.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 16 2023

• Spotify appears to be generating automatic episode images from episode descriptions, we notice today. This week they’re rolling out podcast playlists to everyone: Dan Misener wonders what you could do with them.

• Instagram appears to be temporarily banning links to Apple Podcasts, marking them as not allowed. (You should be linking to your website or a service like podfollow or plink anyway, we reckon).

• A third of radio personalities are doing a podcast, according to a survey from Jacobs Media.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 16 2023

• In Boston MA, USA, the “educational audio conference” Sound Education is planned from October 9th-12th. Among the speakers is Helen Zaltzman (The Allusionist), Tony Phillips (WNYC Studios), and Julia Barton (Pushkin Industries).

• In Australia, the ABC have released an improved search function that uses automated transcripts from podcasts. They’re using AWS Transcribe, according to this technical article.

• Coming in March 2020, Africa Podfest is Africa’s first podcast festival. It’ll be held in Nairobi, Kenya: and they’re looking for sponsors: info@kali.media will find the organizers Paula Rogo and Melissa Mbugua.

  
  Aug 16 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Suchandrika Chakrabarti has written How to host a live podcast recording to grow your audience

Thank you to PODSquad for becoming our latest supporter: with their podcast booking service, they ensure that you’re speaking to the right people as a featured guest. You should be like PODSquad.

Podcast Revenue

• Podcast app Flick looks at the revenue being made by True Crime Obsessed, estimating that the podcast makes $1.2m a year.

  
  Aug 16 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Insurance company Geico was the #1 US podcast advertiser in July, according to Magellan. (They were #2 radio advertiser for 2018, too).

• Resonate Recordings post strategies for podcasting on Patreon.

Podcasts

Spreaker Prime: Dinner Sisters features a fresh take on dinner from two sisters who cook and review popular recipes from top food bloggers and chat about life in the kitchen. They’re using Spreaker Prime to make hosting and advertising easier.

Unravel, ABC Australia’s true crime podcast, is back for a new season, unravelling a Californian con woman who left a family in ruin. Narrated and investigated by a member of that family, it launches today. (ABC Radio)

A Scottish Podcast is an audio drama about a washed-up former radio DJ. His name is Lee, and these days he runs a paranormal investigation podcast called The Terror Files. In season 2, we’ve travelled with Lee and pals Gina and Dougie to the North coast of Scotland: the season finale will be on Friday 13th. (Libsyn)

Book podcast Backlisted has reached episode 100. The milestone episode features Sir Philip Pullman discussing one of his favourite books – Robert Burton’s 1621 1,400-page bestseller, The Anatomy of Melancholy. The discussion was recorded in Pullman’s kitchen, near Oxford. (Soundcloud)

Life can change in a moment is a long-form video podcast from “ER doc, Dr. Larry Burchett” (who was also on The Bachelorette). (Libsyn)