What Makes Podcasting So Unique?

 In the last year, almost every news outlet has reported an astonishing number of podcasts in existence. Although reports of three million are common, these clickbait articles fail to realize that the number of active podcasts is substantially lower, maybe slightly over 400,000. According to Apple Podcasts, there are about 250,000 active podcasts and about 70,000 in actual podcast feeds. 

By contrast, there were 449 movies released in 2022, with 2018 being the recent high-water mark at 873. In TV, 2022 saw about 600 scripted TV shows aired on broadcast or streaming. That number will certainly decrease in 2023 and probably 2024 as the streaming bubble has been popped by impatient investors who are suddenly demanding profitability for the huge expenditures made to produce streaming content. Amazon's Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power cost $715 million. How many Dr. Pimple Popper type shows could you film and release for that amount of money?

So it already seems obvious that we have our first answer to the question posed on the article title.  

What makes podcasting so unique? First and foremost, it's the sheer number of active podcasts. Yet, podcasting offers so much more to its listeners.

In this article, I'll confine myself to three of the many reasons why podcasting is such a unique and splendid medium.

 There are subjects covered in podcasting that are not in other media.

 You can consume podcasts while engaged in other activities.

 There is an intimacy and immersive quality with podcast listening that is hard to duplicate

Let's begin with one of podcasting's most enduring strengths.

1. There are subjects covered in podcasting that are not in other media.

In the last five years, movies have been about superheroes and fantasy worlds. Those two subjects have captured 75 percent of all the gross revenue of movies released since 2018. 

It's not a stretch to state that "movies do not come close to depicting the breadth of the human experience." 

For TV, we have a multiverse. One with shows on 90-day fiancées, bitter housewives with swollen lips, and home renovation addicts. Then we have the TV broadcast dramas that are dominated by a law enforcement theme: Police, Forensics, FBI, CIA-adjacent. Streaming TV has the most diverse and actively creative media universe.

Then we have podcasting. The scope of subjects covered is too numerous to mention. Here's the short list: adoption, suicide prevention, sewing, astrology, the publishing industry, climate change (2,000+ podcasts), food history, Billboard chart history, Employee Communications departments, classical music, public speaking skills, happiness (500+ podcasts), nutrition (1,000+ podcasts), entertainment news, kids news, science, whiskey, Hollywood history, and more true-crime dramas than you can imagine.

Clearly, niche media is a signature offering for podcasting to listeners. Just to be clear, there is a distinct difference between niche and fringe. Niche is a guy in Nebraska with a podcast about the history of muscle car engines. Fringe is a podcast from a bunch of like-minded losers who are deluded enough to believe that they are superior to anybody. To them, their eventual takeover of the country is inevitable. Fringe people are about blame and hate. Niche people are about loving an activity and camaraderie. 

A perfect example of a niche podcast is WhiskeyCast, an 18-year-old podcast about whiskey. I am not a whiskey drinker, but listening to several episodes about whiskey blends, upcoming festivals, whiskey news, and testimonials from whiskey lovers was enlightening and energizing.

2. You can consume podcasts while engaged in other activities. 

I don't know about you, dear reader, but I'm not good at watching TV and doing much else. How can you watch The Night Agent on Netflix while cleaning the house and possibly follow what's going on? I watched Game Of Thrones with my phone off and shades drawn, and still missed some of the family drama and political intrigue.

Listening to podcasts offers a similar frictionless experience to audiobooks. It's no secret why audiobooks have been the fastest-growing segment of the publishing industry for the last decade. You can listen to a book while you drive to work, take the train, clean the house, take a walk, workout, reorganize your sock drawer, or just wait for stuff like in the doctor's office, checkout line, or any queue.

People are busy. Today, 23 percent of all households are managed by a single parent. That is the definition of busy, with little time for luxuries like sleep and relaxation. Yet, podcast listening slides seamlessly into the hectic lives of those solo parents.

When the pandemic hit, and people stopped going to work, there was an initial dip in podcast listening. However, that dip lasted only a few weeks, and podcast listening rebounded to levels higher than before the pandemic, even though many people stayed at home. I guess the case can be made that people stuck at home wanted to escape their families, so they donned earbuds or headphones and tuned them out with a podcast. 

Podcasts offer us the convenience of listening during our busy days when we are engaged in other activities. For some, podcasting listening can be therapeutic. 

Listening to podcasts also stimulates our brains in ways that TV, movies, TikTok, and YouTube cannot. When we are consumers of audio and video, our brains are force-fed the entire sensory experience. When we consume audio only, our brains are tasked with constructing images that coincide with the words being said -- as in podcasts or audiobooks.  

 3. There is an intimacy and immersive quality with podcast listening that is hard to duplicate.

First, let's acknowledge that reading is an immersive and intimate experience. It's the reason why reading books is centuries old and still going strong despite the naysayers. Podcasting is only two decades old and still losing its baby teeth.

Some media thrive on their social interaction. The movie theater experience is inherently a social mixer, with people reacting to the movies on the screen, and the reactions of the people in the theater.

TV was designed as a family experience in the late 1940s and 1950s, since most households only had one television set. Since TVs now replicate like rabbits in households, and people now use phones and tablets as reception devices, TV has become a more solitary activity. 

Recent Podtrac studies have revealed that podcasts are predominantly listened to via earbuds and headphones. In essence, podcasts and streaming music inhabit the same psychic universe in society, separating people from the external world. 

The days of gigantic speakers in people's homes blasting music from vinyl records have been replaced by wandering humans hermetically sealed inside private listening devices while the outside world goes about its frenetic and violent business.

One warm spring day, I washed, waxed, vacuumed, tire-shined, and silicone-sprayed my Hyundai. The task took two hours, and during that time, I listened to three episodes of the Drilled podcast by Amy Westervelt. During that time and the task, it was just me and Westervelt, as I considered how the enemies of climate change are so powerful and unscrupulous. As my car began to look more presentable again, I reveled in the private world that I inhabited with the podcast, its host, and my car. 

I have a friend who works in downtown Philadelphia and takes the train to work every weekday from South Jersey. Her routine is the same: In the morning, she listens to The Daily podcast. At night, Marketplace. To her, those two podcasts soften the harsh edges of public transit.

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You're probably wondering why I bothered to write such an obvious piece extolling the well-known virtues of podcasting. 

Here it is. At least two of those aforementioned reasons that make podcasting so unique are in danger. 

First, Spotify and other large companies threaten to crowd out the niche aspect of podcasting with the podcast version of TV lookalikes --  the Chicago, CSI, and Law & Order franchises. Spotify does offer some quality podcasts, but a lady in rural Georgia discussing macramé is beyond their corporate scope. And podcasting needs people like that woman.

Second, video podcasts threaten to transform podcasts into more of a TV / movie media consumption activity where simultaneous activity while podcast listening becomes difficult or impossible. Sure, you can watch /listen to a YouTube video podcast on your public transit commute if you don't mind peeping eyes. If you have the leisure time --  or you're quiet quitting -- you can certainly consume video podcasts. 

But watching several people talk to one another with headphones on is not the remarkable video experience that warrants a transition to the "see-able" instead of the "hear-able."

Finally, the real heroes of podcasting are not the most visible people like Joe Rogan, Ashley Flowers, or certainly not Steve Bannon.  

Podcasting's roots are decidedly populist. It's your next-door neighbor with a podcast on home repair tips. Or your niece with a podcast on women's soccer. 

Podcasting is people you've never heard of -- Matt Gilhooly of The Life Shift, Kyla Sims of Infernal Communications, Robert Peterpaul of The Art Of Kindness, and Evan Stern of Vanishing Postcards -- excelling in their sonic worlds and trying to make the world a better place.

 

Photo by Kampus Production