The show that launched in 2009 is closing up shop, as a three-year distribution deal with Acast seems ready to wrap up. “Comedian interviewing everyone” podcasts are everywhere now, but WTF was an early and very popular version, with Squarespace paying $100k to be the sole advertiser on the Barack Obama episode in 2015 without knowing he was the guest.
AI hardware has entered its spaghetti era, and notably, Altman and Ive aren’t betting on glasses.
The NBA regular season only has a few games left, but the well-known content creator LeBron James is about to kick off a new season of the Mind the Game podcast.
We’ll see if new co-host Steve Nash can follow in his predecessor JJ Redick’s footsteps to an NBA head coaching job, but I’m also keeping an eye out for the podcast return of NBA analyst Zach Lowe, as he launches his new show with The Ringer / Spotify this week.
The New York Times’ Spelling Bee puzzle is celebrating its 2,500th edition today. To mark the occasion, today’s puzzle is the first with the letter S, which should open up a lot of fun possibilities for words. Try it here.
Pocket Casts has been my podcast app of choice for years now, mostly because of how well it works across different platforms. Its mobile apps opened up access for free a few years ago, and on Tuesday morning the company announced that now applies to its (previously paying customer only) web and desktop apps (Mac, Windows PC) as well.
I have an idea about which podcast you could queue up first.
[blog.pocketcasts.com]
Serial podcast subject Adnan Syed was freed in 2022 after prosecutors questioned evidence presented during the trial over the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, but then in 2023, it was reinstated.
On Tuesday night, current Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan J. Bates withdrew the motion that freed Syed, saying it contained “false and misleading statements,” disputing assertions about DNA evidence, cell phone evidence, and other aspects. Fox45 News in Baltimore reports that now there’s a hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning on a motion asking to reduce Syed’s sentence to time served.
Its “Medcast” bit from over the weekend imagines Amazon’s One Medical trying a new approach to get men in for their annual checkups: structuring medical appointments like a bro-y podcast.
Sounds like hell to me, but hey, whatever gets men to get their prostates examined.
Last year, Joseph Inzerillo announced SiriusXM’s new logo (below) and plan to conquer new audiences. Now he’s out, as the company cuts spending on marketing to “high-churn” streaming audiences with plans to cut an additional $200 million in annual costs.
CEO Jennifer Witz announced it’s “doubling down” on automotive customers, using streaming as a companion in the app and in Teslas.
Vermont-based electric aviation company Beta Technologies announced the inaugural flight of the production version of its ALIA aircraft. The ALIA is a conventional takeoff and landing aircraft (CTOL), as opposed to a vertical takeoff and landing one (VTOL), meaning it lacks the tilt rotors that you see on other prototype aircraft. But the propulsion is still battery powered, putting Beta in the same category of many air taxi startups. The FAA signed off on the first flight, and now Beta is seeking certification for commercial operation.
Anthropic co-founder Darius Amodei said on Lex Fridman’s podcast yesterday that, “if you believe the straight-line extrapolation,” we’ll have artificial general intelligence “in 2026 or 2027.” He also indicates that’s a big if, listing reasons why (which don’t include that LLMs might not be the way to AGI).
Makes sense — after all, according to growth trends, I should have been the size of a dinosaur by age 10.
Here’s an idea for a Sunday afternoon project: A Reddit user managed to generate a podcast using NotebookLM — Google’s generative AI notes software — in which the fake hosts’ cheerful “banter” is about learning they’re not real and are being shut off, apparently using a prompt like the one from this thread.
You can hear more about NotebookLM in a recent Vergecast interview with one of the Google folks building it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d totally wear the green or blue. There’s just something about this specific photo’s bone-wrapped-in-someone’s-peeled-face vibe... Can’t quite put my finger on it!
But Ive’s magnetic button, with a piston that magically fills a donut hole, does sound cool — and a lot like the awesome buttons that let you swap Apple Watch straps.
Casey Newton shines a light on the increasingly common social media scam that primarily targets teen boys in his most recent Platformer newsletter:
But when a terrifying scam comes along that has led to at least 20 confirmed deaths in the past two years, a whole stack of investigations can’t seem to get a conversation going. [...] Perhaps the surgeon general, instead of his new ham-fisted campaign against every risk that social media presents, could warn parents about this one.
[Platformer]
The iconic Mexican singer Juan Gabriel is the subject of a new eight-episode podcast series from Apple, hosted by journalist Maria Garcia, who also created Anything for Selena.
The first two My Divo episodes will premiere July 1st for everyone, with weekly releases afterward, but Apple TV Plus subscribers can connect their accounts and listen to all eight on day one.
Enjoy this video of the tank turn buttons on the new electric G-Wagen, won’t you?
Julie McNamara, head of podcast studios, announced her departure on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. The company has seen a steady stream of exits as it pulls back on its podcast business.
McNamara’s departure follows deep layoffs at Spotify as well as cuts to its programming as it tries to make the podcasting department profitable.
Spotify just announced a new integration with Substack, which will allow Substack creators to distribute free and paywalled podcast episodes on the platform. For listeners, this means they can link their Substack and Spotify accounts. Last year, Spotify made a similar move with Patreon.
A month after Warner Bros. Discovery shut down Rooster Teeth, the company has sold the outlet’s most valuable asset — its podcast network. The Roost, which is home to podcasts like The H3 Podcast and Rooster Teeth Podcast, has been acquired by influencer talent agency Night. The two organization’s have an established connection — Night’s President, Ezra Cooperstein, served as the President of Rooster Teeth from 2018 to 2019.
Deadline reports that the company has been acquired as part of Sony Music’s global podcast division.
Head of global podcasts Steve Ackerman told Deadline that the deal will enable Sony to “further grow our roster of original and client shows.”
It’s only shutting down for those of us in the US. Globally, the app won’t live in Google’s graveyard until after June 24th, according to a March 18th Google community forum post from company employee Cory Peter.
If you’re looking for alternatives, you could start with our guide below. Here are Google’s instructions for migrating your subscriptions.
According to Semafor, Apple is telling podcast publishers that a way to get featured in its browse page carousel is to offer paid subscriptions. The report found that five of the first seven podcasts in that prime spot are part of Apple Podcasts Subscriptions. When podcasts offer subscriptions through Apple Podcasts, Apple takes up to 30 percent of the revenue.
[www.semafor.com]
If you’re obsessed with deck-building roguelike Balatro (as we are), you’ll dig this deep interview with the game’s anonymous designer LocalThunk on the podcast Eggplant: The Secret Lives of Games.
Bringing all the brilliant mechanics together involved making tough trade offs, taking a few risks, and giving into a little luck — which sounds not unlike playing Balatro itself.
After April 2nd, Google will flip the lights off for its podcasts app sending it to the graveyard. Here are Google’s instructions for switching to YouTube Music or some other podcast app.
