Less Is More: The Benefits of A Brief Podcast

Two decades and millions of podcasts later, it's likely what you want to talk about is already talked about. But if you're not afraid of doing things differently, you can still make a splash with your new show. 

Photo by Artem Beliaikin from Pexels

It's hard for anyone to keep up with all of the news about any given topic. Unless your full-time gig is keeping up with everything about one thing. For people who've acquired the podcasting habit, podcasting is where they often turn for a curated view of the important bits of their treasured topic.

So podcasters like James Cridland of Podnews and Brian McCullough of Techmeme Ride Home spend hours a day wading through a hundred and more articles, press releases, newsletters, emails, and other forms of inbound information every single day to create daily, timely episodes.

Some tech services are now cropping up to help creators, either by helping them automate the "bulleted' nature of quick reads or by letting publishers re-publish podcast episodes multiple times a day so it's always fresh at the time of download.

But helping people make sense of an avalanche of news with short-form episodes isn't the only business case for podcasters. 

Consider for a moment the two- to three-hour episodes, some of the more popular podcasts put out every week. Or more frequently. That's the price of being in the club, right?

But what about the people who do care about the facts or the thought leadership occurring on those long, rambly episodes. People who just don't have the 2–3 hours to commit to listening. Would they be interested in a distilled, just-the-facts version of those episodes? If the length of a popular podcast is a barrier for many, a bulleted, facts-reported-only version could approach and perhaps even exceed the size of the audience of the source show.

Maybe your next podcast? 

-----

Links

NYT piece on podiobooks from 2007 - https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/books/01podb.htmlPodnews by James Cridland - podnews.net/Techmeme Ride Home by Brian McCullough- ridehome.info/show/techmeme-ride-home/New York Times piece on the growth and expansion of Axios - nytimes.com/2022/03/07/business/media/axios-local.html?Spooler - spooler.fm/Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout

Two decades and millions of podcasts later, it's likely what you want to talk about is already talked about. But if you're not afraid of doing things differently, you can still make a splash with your new show. 

Photo by Artem Beliaikin from Pexels

It's hard for anyone to keep up with all of the news about any given topic. Unless your full-time gig is keeping up with everything about one thing. For people who've acquired the podcasting habit, podcasting is where they often turn for a curated view of the important bits of their treasured topic.

So podcasters like James Cridland of Podnews and Brian McCullough of Techmeme Ride Home spend hours a day wading through a hundred and more articles, press releases, newsletters, emails, and other forms of inbound information every single day to create daily, timely episodes.

Some tech services are now cropping up to help creators, either by helping them automate the "bulleted' nature of quick reads or by letting publishers re-publish podcast episodes multiple times a day so it's always fresh at the time of download.

But helping people make sense of an avalanche of news with short-form episodes isn't the only business case for podcasters. 

Consider for a moment the two- to three-hour episodes, some of the more popular podcasts put out every week. Or more frequently. That's the price of being in the club, right?

But what about the people who do care about the facts or the thought leadership occurring on those long, rambly episodes. People who just don't have the 2–3 hours to commit to listening. Would they be interested in a distilled, just-the-facts version of those episodes? If the length of a popular podcast is a barrier for many, a bulleted, facts-reported-only version could approach and perhaps even exceed the size of the audience of the source show.

Maybe your next podcast? 

-----

Links

NYT piece on podiobooks from 2007 - https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/books/01podb.htmlPodnews by James Cridland - podnews.net/Techmeme Ride Home by Brian McCullough- ridehome.info/show/techmeme-ride-home/New York Times piece on the growth and expansion of Axios - nytimes.com/2022/03/07/business/media/axios-local.html?Spooler - spooler.fm/Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout - evoterra.link/buzzGot a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications. - podcastpontifications.com/about/sponsorship-informationSerious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today! - AdvancingPodcasting.xyz

------ 

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter (twitter.com/evoterra) for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press (alliepress.net) assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value, and there are many ways to show your support. - podcastpontifications.com/support 

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Abortion is a basic healthcare need for the millions of people who can become pregnant. Everyone should have the freedom to decide what’s best for themselves and their families, including when it comes to ending a pregnancy. This decision has dire consequences for individual health and safety, and could have harsh repercussions for other landmark decisions.

Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health and independence of all Americans. Even if you live in a state where abortion rights are upheld, access to safe medical procedures shouldn’t be determined by location, and it shouldn't be the privilege of a small few.

You can help by donating to local abortion funds. To find out where to donate for each state, visit donations4abortion.com.

If you or someone you know needs help, or if you want to get more involved, here are 5 resources:

1. ShoutYourAbortion.com is a campaign to normalize abortion.
2. DontBanEquality.com is a campaign for companies to take a stand against abortion restrictions.
3. Abortion.cafe has information about where to find clinics.
4. PlanCPills.org provides early at-home abortion pills that you can keep in your medicine cabinet.
5. Choice.CRD.co has a collection of these resources and more.

We encourage you to speak up! And spread the word.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy