Tag: podcasting

Podcast Host, Michelle Obama: How Podcasting Became A Multi-Billion Dollar Industry
IMPACT, TOP FOUR

Podcast Host, Michelle Obama: How Podcasting Became A Multi-Billion Dollar Industry

“You kind of fail your way to success,” observed Matt Lieber, head of podcast operations at Spotify, at this year’s Audiocraft festival, an annual weekend of panels about podcasting. Normally held in Sydney, this year, thanks to COVID-19, the festival shifted online. Lieber was talking about StartUp, his podcast about establishing Gimlet Media in 2014. Lieber and his business partner, Alex Blumberg, wanted to develop a podcast studio that would become “the HBO of audio”. Last year, Gimlet hit the jackpot. It was acquired by Spotify for US$230 million (A$322 million). While podcasts have been alive on the internet since 2004 (“But what to call it? Audioblogging? Podcasting? GuerillaMedia?” asked the Guardian), 2014’s Serial is largely credited with starting a new boom for the form. Seria...
Podcasting’s Goliath – Mr. Joe Rogan
CULTURE, TOP FOUR

Podcasting’s Goliath – Mr. Joe Rogan

Comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan is caught in a spiral of controversies. It began when “The Joe Rogan Experience” hosted COVID-19 vaccine skeptic Robert Malone and a number of musicians pulled their music off of Spotify in protest. It has continued with Rogan apologizing for using racial slurs in past years, which prompted the streaming service to remove scores of his old episodes from the streaming platform. Given the thousands of hours of content that Rogan has produced, the scrutiny is unlikely to stop there. As we argue in our forthcoming book, Rogan’s podcast has long promoted right-wing comedy and libertarian political voices, including some who trade quite gleefully in racism and misogyny. However, what makes Rogan’s rise particularly important is that it goes beyond the standard...