MPR News with Angela Davis

Checking in on the podcast boom

A man listening to music on headphones
Through some of our most trying days, many of us turned to a familiar source of comfort: music.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

What is a podcast?

The answer is simple: It’s an audio production that you can listen to on demand. But that’s where the simplicity ends. 

Right now, there are so many podcasts available through apps on your phone, computer, tablet – even your watch – that you’d need to listen all day every day for the rest of your life to get through a fraction of them.  

Audio books have been around for decades, but podcasts are a relatively new way to listen. The internet made them possible, but the wide range of public interest makes them popular. From true crime, to design history, to self help and extreme sports, whatever you’re interested in, there’s a podcast about that. 

And now we have podcast networks: businesses that make money through creating and distributing podcasts. How are they doing that? On Thursday, host Angela Davis talked with two podcast executives about the business of podcasting.

Guests:

  • Jessica Cordova Kramer is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Lemonada Media and the executive producer of the “Pod Save The People” podcast.

  • Alex Schaffert is the chief operating officer of APM Studios.