2024: The Year of the Podcast

While you think everyone and their mother has a podcast, I hate to break it to you, that's not the case. As an AVID podcast listener I can confidently say that I still run out of podcasts to listen to. I spent 5,291 minutes (which is the equivalent of 88.18 hours) listening to podcasts this year on Spotify alone. I also listen to podcasts on Apple podcasts and YouTube.

On Jan 6 I made the bold move to relocate to Israel for my MBA, and with that came countless hours of living alone. I shied away from music, and let the podcast in to fill my empty brain space. The range of podcasts I listen to include podcasts about tech, podcasts about dating and just women who talk about their experiences and life (shoutout to Tinx- probes my favorite podcast this year), podcasts about politics and war analysis (best to listen to in Hebrew and in English for a full spectrum of fact checking), to Lex Friedman’s three hour episode charades, or Hoover Institute videos on YouTube w/ Peter Thiel talking about demogorgon or a bunch of physicists talking about space (typea beat i listen to for deep cleaning). At the end of this year, I'd say I'm a podcast "opinionator". 

Just yesterday, I noticed Wix (the website building company, and what hosts this blog) has their own podcast, too! I didn’t click on it but the thought that went through my head is lol what are they going to talk about? Building websites? I guess when there’s a niche, there’s a way. Which comes back to my point about the amount of podcasts out there- there aren’t enough. I want a podcast for every mood, for every curiosity. I want a podcast where the voices are pleasant to listen to and the energy being transferred is pure/genuine. And to the people hating on new people launching podcasts- who cares!! Let the people decide if they’re worth listening to. The fact more people are getting the access to produce is wonderful. And I suspect that it will only get easier to create, specifically podcasts for this context. I can’t wait for new AI tech that will smooth over noise inconsistencies during recording, and other AI tech that will make editing and the overall producing process easier. I’m sure there’s already stuff out there. 

Meanwhile I try to find more podcasts for every mood, I think search functionality is lacking. Spotify, which was the first podcast pioneer, has the most terrible podcast search and recommendation, in my opinion. I’ve never found a relevant, or “good”, podcast from their suggestions. Apple Podcasts is better, way more options and easy to keep track of all that you listen to. Of course YouTube has the best podcast search, but it is not a podcast app per se so it does not necessarily cater to that. 

The space has a huge potential. Brands are learning to utilize this type of media option. People who are brands representing themselves are far ahead in cracking the code to build a personal connection to an audience or a community. However, companies still need to figure out what is the best way to utilize this type of media, if at all. For VC’s, Andreessen Horowitz's (a16z's) and especially a16z’s crypto podcast is one of the best I’ve seen. Other VCs can utilize a podcast platform for certain founders they’ve invested in (with disclosure), or talk about whatever else their thesis or interests entails. Podcasts can tell a story, or they can bring a mediocre interviewer and an underwhelming speaker together to make me look for something else to listen to. Either way, it’s cool this is all happening, and I can’t wait to see what new podcasts will be launched and which will turn out to be hits in 2025.