Announcer: 0:00

The Pod News Weekly Review uses chapters. And there's a long tech stuff segment this week. Just saying. The last word in podcasting news. This is the Pod News Weekly Review with James Kridlin and Sam Seth.

James Cridland: 0:14

I'm James Kridlin, the editor of Pod News. And I'm Sam Seth, the CEO of TreeFans. Today I go to PodFest. Sam has thoughts about YouTube and a big announcement from Sam. Right at the end, this podcast is sponsored by BuzzSprout with a tool support and community to help you keep podcasting. Start podcasting, keep podcasting with BuzzSprout.com.

Announcer: 0:35

From your daily newsletter, the Pod News Weekly Review.

Sam Sethi: 0:40

Now, I I was thinking in my head just there, I'm leaving on a jet plan. I don't know why I have that song in my head. Anyway, you're home now. Um I am home. Your luggage isn't, but we'll find out more about that later, yes.

James Cridland: 0:50

Yes.

Sam Sethi: 0:51

Yes, my bags aren't. Nor is my award. Right. So naming those two things, a, where were you? And B, what was the award?

James Cridland: 0:59

Right. I was at Podfest, uh, which was um for much of last week in a freezing cold Orlando in Florida. Um uh I have severe issues with the with the temperature uh that uh the United States gave me. The award was the Podcast Hall of Fame. Lots and lots of um uh very important people have that, and now they've debased the whole thing by giving one to me, um, along with uh a number of uh a number of other people at the ceremony as well.

Sam Sethi: 1:31

Mr. Asquith was there as well. How was he?

James Cridland: 1:34

Yes, Mark Asquith was there. It was a strangely emotional evening, actually, because we were saying goodbye to Dan Miller, who was a very popular podcast uh who passed in January uh 2024. Uh and of course the awards also remembered Todd Cochran, uh, who passed away in September. And I was uh you know, I was it was touch and go whether or not I would get through my uh speech. I I I I've kind of been thinking, do I put my speech in this podcast? And then I'm thinking it's probably a bit over the top, so let's not do that. But you can watch it if you would like at podcasthall.com, which is uh the website, uh, and I am the uh second person up. Nice.

Sam Sethi: 2:19

Now, um, how was the event itself?

James Cridland: 2:21

It was really good. It was a really good event. I mean, I say, you know, it was an emotional thing. There were ups, there were downs. Um uh we laughed, we cried. Um, but uh it was a good uh it was a good event. Um I I think probably star of the show was Dave Dave Ramsay, very well-known uh radio presenter. Uh so in my speech I say what a crappy job being a radio presenter is. And then and then I thought I I thought, oh, I I heard something there, but I'll just carry on. Uh it was probably somebody on Dave Dave Ramsey's table, um, uh, because he is a very rich man from being a radio uh yes, from being a radio broadcaster. But anyway, he led tributes to uh Dan Miller and he did that um really very, very well. Um so that was good. Julie Samuels was also there. She um was an attorney at uh the Electronic Freedom Foundation, the EFF. Um, and uh to it to a point, we owe uh podcasting to her um because there was a patent troll who for three years was busy suing people, and some people were paying up because they're stupid, and other people weren't paying up and saying no, we should be taking this to our uh lawyers and um doing stuff about it. And uh Julie Samuels was the uh lawyer who managed to shut them down. So that was a fascinating story, one that I'm going to write up for the Pod News newsletter. Uh so she was there, Paul Culligan was there from the podcast partnership, who is an excellent uh person who's been involved in podcasting all the way through, uh, along with many, many other people. Um and it was a really nice uh night, actually. It was um it was a night of the stars uh and really enjoyable. So uh yeah, you can uh watch the whole thing.

Sam Sethi: 4:05

Congratulations to you, by the way. Anyway.

James Cridland: 4:07

Thank you.

Sam Sethi: 4:08

Moving on. Now, uh Goalhanger um seemed to be in the news all the time at the moment. If it's not organizing an event, launching a new podcast, they're now talking about having 250,000, yes, 250,000 paid subscribers, paying about£6 a month,£60 a year, that's roughly eight dollars or$80 a year, which tells you that the company earns around$20 million a year from paid subscribers. That's pretty impressive, really.

James Cridland: 4:38

It is pretty impressive, yes. Um, so that was announced on the Media Club, which is an excellent podcast from Matt Deakin, one of those excellent podcasts where uh it's it's uh filmed um uh in video, uh, but you wouldn't know when you're listening to the audio of it, because that's the right way of doing it. Uh so um, but yes, um uh all kinds of um really nice numbers uh coming out of uh Goldhanger. Um now uh of of course what I I had to end up working out is well, how much have Goldhanger lost in terms of ad revenue uh from this? Because of course they're ad free. Um so does it make sense? And the answer is yes, it does make sense. Um if you look at the ad revenue that those subscribers were probably bringing in, uh then you can work it out. It's about two million that they've lost in ad revenue in comparison to 20 million that they've gained. So that's a good deal. Um although Apple are probably sitting there and rubbing their hands together. I reckon that they earn somewhere in the region of, I don't know, two, two and a half million um a year from those gold hanger users in terms of the 15 to 30 percent that Apple Podcasts um uh takes. So Apple Podcasts presumably very happy, thank you very much, for the money that they are taking, uh, as well as supporting cars who go hanger use for other platforms. They charge less. Um, I reckon that they're probably earning about a million dollars um from um those users as well. So definitely quite a lot of money being made, both by goalhanger, but also by their uh suppliers as well. And why not? I mean, that's how these things work.

Sam Sethi: 6:14

Nice jump change if you can get it. Yeah, well done. Yeah, no, exactly. Exactly. Now, I think it I get one of my predictions from 2026, paid subscriptions will, you know, outstrip advertising. I think I'm on a good start there. Thank you very much. We'll we'll see. Yes, I think so. Now, related to that, um rest is history, one of the podcasters on goal hangout is doing a weird, I think, launching a history festival at London's Hampton Court, which are very posh if you want to go there. Um, it's gonna welcome members, so paid members, uh, to a designed uh set, I guess, where they'll gather and talk about history.

James Cridland: 6:52

Yeah, I mean it's a two-day festival. And how do you do that over two days? Well, how do you do that over two days? And what um somebody called Conrad Withy, who's the chief commercial officer at Goldhanger, said in a press release, theatre shows are brilliant, but they're 90 minutes, and then everyone heads home without ever meeting the person sitting next to them, who also travelled three hours to be there. Drinks receptions work well for a hundred people, but not for thousands. So we needed a format that genuinely delivers what our fast-growing membership is asking for: a proper weekend together to celebrate history, where friendships form and the tribe can gather. Is there a better place for that than Hampton Court Palace? And they're using the word tribe, which I know is one of your favourite words, uh, Sam. It's all about community, this isn't it?

Sam Sethi: 7:38

Yeah, I mean, the the original name of TrueFans has gone through many, but it was originally Viral Tribe. Yes. The rest is history, just as a reminder, was the Apple Podcast of the Year, wasn't it, this year?

James Cridland: 7:50

It was, yes, Apple Podcast of the Year. And um, if you uh take a look at um uh one of the new rankers, which we'll be talking about relatively soon, but one of the new rankers uh says that the rest is history is the number three global podcast. Uh if you look at um total consumption. Uh so yes, the rest is history is a really, really large show. Weirdly, I've tried listening to it. It's not for me. Not for me. I don't know what it is, but it's not for me. But um clearly, a lot of people like it, so clearly I'm wrong.

Sam Sethi: 8:21

Yes.

James Cridland: 8:22

That's how that works.

Sam Sethi: 8:23

I wasn't saying yes to you, you're clearly wrong, but yes, people like it. Um moving on then. Um Neil Mohan, who's the CEO of YouTube, has just written his annual letter with his big ideas for 2026. What's his big idea, James?

James Cridland: 8:39

Well, what is his big idea indeed? Um, he is talking about more superstar creators and transparency, less AI slop. Hang on a minute, you over Google and you want less AI slop. Um and uh uh you know, blah, blah, blah, transparency, protections, responsibility, um, you know, strengthening safeguards for kids and teens, not in not in this country or not. Uh so there's all of that kind of uh stuff going on. But yeah, you know, yeah, okay. What did you think of it?

Sam Sethi: 9:09

Well, what he's said is yes, all of those things, but what they've done is actually provided more tools to create AI slop within the YouTube platform. So they're bringing out AI tools that will allow people to put their faces into short reels and do all sorts of things. So, yes, on the one hand you say you want less AI slot, on the other hand, you provide all the tools to enable AI slot. So we'll see.

James Cridland: 9:34

Yeah, indeed. And you know, it's posted on YouTube's official blog. Guess what? YouTube's official blog doesn't have RSS feed. An RSS feed, yeah, absolutely. Is it a blog without an RSS feed? Who knows? But uh let's not go there. Um, but yes, I mean, so YouTube having a good uh time of it, of course, uh in your neck of the woods. The BBC has just announced a perplexing uh announcement, haven't they?

Sam Sethi: 9:57

Yeah, they they're gonna do some programming for YouTube, which seems an odd thing to do, but yes, they're gonna be producing new channels and the Winter Olympics coverage.

James Cridland: 10:07

Well, I'm uh delighted that the BBC uh is uh spending license payers' money um to promote an American company. Uh that that that seems perfectly sensible. Oh no, it doesn't. No, no, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. Um it's part of uh an effort from the BBC to deal with the challenge of YouTube when it comes to younger audiences, apparently. Look, from my point of view, I would say yes, BBC content should be on YouTube. Absolutely it should. For a start, the BBC News Channel should be on YouTube live 24 hours a day. The ABC News Channel from Australia is. Why isn't the BBC News Channel there? Um, it should be absolutely live. Um, and um that should be something that the the BBC starts doing tomorrow if it if it thinks that it's journalism as i is up to snuff, which it clearly does. So that's one thing. But uh as for making shows specifically for YouTube, yes, they'll go on to iPlayer as well, so they will be visible uh there. They probably won't be visible on the BBC's uh international website because who knows what's going on there. But in terms of um in terms of that, I you know, I it's just weird from my point of view that the BBC is jumping in and making stuff for uh somebody who is essentially a competitor. Um so by all means get your stuff on there, but making stuff specifically, I don't know.

Sam Sethi: 11:31

Well I call the BBC strategy the hokey kokie because you know sometimes they've got one foot in and then they've got one foot out and then they've got one foot in again. Because they can't decide whether their podcasts are gonna be open or they're gonna be only on BBC Sound, or they're not gonna be on international, or they are gonna be on international, or they're only gonna be on their own platform, or they're not, they're gonna be on YouTube. So whoever you are, he or she or it, let's not be uh you know, gender specific. Um you have no idea what your strategy is for digital, I think, at the BBC right now.

James Cridland: 12:02

No. Well, I don't think that they've got any strategy at all at the moment. Um I I think from my understanding is uh Trump is now doubled his uh doubled the money that he thinks that he is owed. Oh so you can't do it. Psycho Trump will do nothing. He'll do nothing.

Sam Sethi: 12:18

Psycho Trump, yeah, yeah, bluster blaster bluster, chicken out.

James Cridland: 12:23

Yeah. Yes, well, yes, exactly. So how's Greenland? Yeah, so who knows? How is how is Greenland? When I was at when I was at Podfest, uh I I went through my usual here are the stats of different apps in different countries. And uh and and I said, Oh, and while I'm in America, here here are the stats in Venezuela, just in case you're interested. By the way, the number one was Fountain.

Sam Sethi: 12:45

Oh, no, well done Fountain.

James Cridland: 12:47

Uh well done Fountain. It's probably got something to do with the Bitcoin thing. Um, and then uh secondly, um uh I said, and here's and here's Greenland, although don't do it. Um and I think about a third of the room laughed, and the other two-thirds of the room looked horrified at me.

Sam Sethi: 13:03

The other two-thirds of the room went for their guns and came after you, yes.

James Cridland: 13:07

So uh yeah, so that was uh that would that was uh entertaining. But still, but there we are.

Sam Sethi: 13:12

Now, the one thing that Neil Mohan did say that I think is worth uh picking out, which is with openness comes a responsibility to maintain high-quality viewing experience that people want. Okay, that's a lovely sentiment. But I actually think that sentiment is something that we in podcasting should also adopt for audio, which is with openness comes a responsibility to remain high-quality audio uh as an experience. Uh, and I think some of the work that Dave Jones is doing in the podcast index, some of the work that other people are beginning to do. I think we I think have a um, you know, king canute type battle uh to stop AI slot, but I think it's a battle worth starting at least anyway.

James Cridland: 13:52

Yeah, no, I would definitely agree with that. And um I think you know, as with all of this, it's really important just to get good high-quality content out there. Different people have different views about what high quality means. Um, but I think we can all agree that deliberately misleading people is probably not uh the best plan. So uh yeah, no, totally agree.

Sam Sethi: 14:13

Now, one person you caught up with in Podfest was Rob Walsh, formerly of Libsin. I don't know where he is next, but formerly of Libsin, and he was saying that people turn to podcasts when there's breaking news. He says uh podcast 411, which is his podcast, said that um durations for the top 200 episodes in the Apple Podcast dip notably on the 3rd of January, and that was a Venezuela invasion or a snatch and kidnap, whatever you want to call it. Um but do they turn to podcasting for live breaking news? It used to be we said they turn to X for live breaking news. Is that true?

James Cridland: 14:51

Yeah, I think uh so this isn't necessarily live, but this is uh I've woken up, uh, I've heard that there's been a big thing which has gone on, and I think more and more people are now jumping to whether it's the news agents, whether it's the New York Times Daily, whether it's you know, um uh up first up first from NPR, whether it's any of those shows, I think people are jumping on for a you know, 15-minute um primer on what that news story is about. So I think it's not necessarily a replacement for things like, you know, turning on the telly and switching on CNN or Sky News or whatever it happens to be. I think it's more a case of I just want a piece of consider journalism to help me understand what's just happened. And you can very clearly see that there was a big drop in the durations um for uh episodes in uh shows that day, um, as people were, you know, um catching up on what the capture of Nicolas Maduro meant and you know uh and all of that. So I think that was really interesting. And as Rob was saying, that's probably the first time that he's been able to actually have proof that people are now using podcasts to catch up on news. Um you know, it always used not to be the case, but I think now you can really see that um people are using you know news shows in that way.

Sam Sethi: 16:18

I think we talked about it in our prediction show. Um live podcasting, uh true live podcasting is going to be democratized radio, I think. Um we haven't seen it take on in 24, 25 when we thought we would. I do think 26 now we are set. I know that Fountain are due to launch it. I know my own company, true fountain is set to launch it. I think uh RSS.com went 80% of the way. I think now um I hope more hosts will start to implement services that are simple enough. Alas, StreamYard, you know, click this button, do not understand ice cast, do not understand anything about the lit tag, but I just want to go live, I want to press a button, and I'm now broadcasting live. I think it has to be that simple. And I think if we can get there, you're right. I think more people will turn to podcasting for live breaking news.

James Cridland: 17:11

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think there's a difference between live breaking news, what's going on right now, and a considered um, you know, a considered uh piece that multiple journalists have been working on and that gives you everything you need to know in 10, 15 minutes. Um and I think there's a big difference between that and you know turning on the BBC News channel and just watching, you know, live information from journalists that frankly don't know what's going on. I think there is a bit of a a bit of a difference there. So I wouldn't necessarily say that this talks much about live shows, but I think that, you know, clearly you could see that there is something there for live shows as well. Um but I think you know, you you go going back and looking at shows like the News Agents or The Daily, where you you've actually had enough time to work out what are the most important things that people should know about this moment, what is going on, you know, that we should tell them about. Um I think that um looking at a you know a 15-minute podcast is actually a pretty good place um to go. It's you know in the same way that um that uh you will still pick up a newspaper on a big news day, you know, sometimes, um uh just to actually get a proper pricey of what's actually happened.

Sam Sethi: 18:32

Right. Um can I just say, James, you're a complete ranker. Yes, very good.

James Cridland: 18:37

Yes.

Sam Sethi: 18:37

Um I don't mean that obviously, but you know, this is the title of one of your posts, so please explain.

James Cridland: 18:43

Yes, because it was a complete ranker. It was a ranker that was complete. Um, I don't understand what anybody has uh to complain about a title that just says what a complete ranker. Um I did actually consider what a set of complete rankers um as well, but uh I decided uh I wasn't going to do that. Yes, so this is a new ranker from Podtrack. Um it is a global multi-channel podcast ranker that I found fascinating. And it's well worth um clicking through to on the Pod News newsletter earlier on in the week because what it shows is it shows podcast consumption, and by that we're talking about downloads, streams, and views. Um, downloads, streams, and views across media platforms and content types, including video clips. So this isn't probably something that's particularly helpful for advertisers. This is much more helpful for, well, how big is this show in terms of the amount of people it reaches? Um, although it doesn't quite measure that either. Um, but for example, the number one is the Midas Touch podcast, not Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan's at number two, Midas Touch is at number one. Why is Midas Touch at number one? Because they do really well with video clips. Um, almost a half of all of the Midas Touch podcasts downloads. Or views is through video clips on things like TikTok and Instagram. Joe Rogan is at number two, but he has roughly equal consumption in audio and video, but only 9% of his consumption through video clips. And the rest is history, even though it doesn't do particularly well in terms of video, still makes it to number three in terms of uh total um in total in terms of total consumption. So I just found that really interesting. It really shows the multi-platform nature of podcasting now. Um, and I thought it was interesting. We can only see the top 20, um, but um they have access to the top 200 if you if you pony up some cash and you can go and talk to the uh good folk there. But I thought that I I thought it was fascinating to be honest.

Sam Sethi: 20:49

I'm surprised because I've never seen a whole Joe Rogan show or listened to a whole Joe Rogan show. I've only ever watched him on clips. So I'm surprised that his low 9% consumption on that one. But anyway, yes, then there's some numbers.

James Cridland: 21:03

I'm surprised at that too, particularly since actually um for a long time the only way that you could consume him on YouTube was through short clips uh because that's the only thing that Spotify would allow out there. So I'm I'm quite interested in that. And um and it is also fascinating looking at you know the daily from the New York Times or at first from NPR, they show virtually zero video consumption at all. Um, so that was interesting. One of the other little things that I thought was interesting about this data is that there were some tick boxes, and there was a tick box um next to Spotify audio podcast that wasn't ticked for the rest is history. And I said, Really? Why why why isn't that ticked? And uh Mark at PodTrack said, well, because it's not available as an audio podcast on Spotify, it's available as an audio track of the video podcast on Spotify, but it's not available as an audio podcast on Spotify. And I thought, yes, that is absolutely right, because there will be differences in terms of the advertising that you can get in there, differences in terms of you know um uh the uh dynamically inserted advertising because you can't do that in terms of Spotify video. So then as soon as you turn a show into Spotify video, two things happen. Firstly, you don't have um dynamically inserted adverts, and secondly, it means that services like PodTrack or Triton or OP3 or any service that either relies on a redirect or relies on log analysis can't see how well you're doing uh because they don't get see any of the figures. And I thought that's really interesting because that again is something that I'm not really very, you know, haven't been really very aware of, you know, in the past.

Sam Sethi: 22:52

So do you think Spotify will enable pass-through data then eventually?

James Cridland: 22:58

Um I mean pass-through data, yes, probably. Pass through um, you know, uh uh pass through adverts themselves, probably not, um, because I think that that would be very difficult for them. So you you end up in this position where um actually some of these rankers are having trouble. I mean, for example, in in Australia, a big podcast has pretty well moved to video first, and they said, Well, we're not gonna be measured properly by the Triton ranker in this country, so we're just gonna come off the Triton ranker because of what's the point of being on there? And you can kind of see their point, can't you? Um so I hadn't I hadn't realized the extent to which actually Spotify video is making life very difficult for rankers, for um, you know, for attribution companies, for all of this, because you know, we lose all of the data uh from those shows. So it's um it's quite a thing. It's quite a sort of a you know a backwards change in terms of how um you know how podcasts have been measured and uh how they make money.

Sam Sethi: 24:07

So is that the second t-shirt in the pod news uh shop now? So the first one was something for your ears while your eyes are busy, and then I'm a complete ranker.

James Cridland: 24:22

No. Well, yeah, you know. Who knows? Who knows? Where is yes? Nobody's a complete ranker, I suppose. That's the problem.

Sam Sethi: 24:31

Yes. Yes, anyway. Now, uh zipping around the world quickly over to Canada. Um, Canadian True Crime is publishing its 200th episode today.

James Cridland: 24:42

Yes, congratulations to them. Um uh it's the biggest independent show in Canada. It seems to have done really, really well. Um a couple of shows have been made, a couple of TV shows have been made on some of the um on some of the um um uh episodes um for that particular show. Uh so that is going really well. And actually, you know, true crime in Canada is having a bit of a moment. Um the CBC is now working with the Toronto Star um and doing a great big um new show on somebody called Ryan James Wedding, who is one of uh the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives across the world. He used to be Canadian Olympic snowboarder, and now apparently, according to the FBI, um he's a drug lord. Uh so uh I know, so there's a thing. Um so all kinds of stuff going on in terms of uh Canada and in terms of uh true crime. So congratulations um uh to them. But yes, um uh really interesting.

Sam Sethi: 25:40

He went from one white powder to another white powder.

Announcer: 25:43

Nice. Yes, correct. People news on the Pod News Weekly Review.

James Cridland: 25:52

Yes, let's have a look at some people and some jobs and all of that. Um Lower Street, you say, is hiring a new chief revenue officer. Are they just?

Sam Sethi: 26:01

There they go. That means they've got revenue. At least he's got a job then to do.

James Cridland: 26:05

Um well, yes, uh, that's always uh that's always a thing. Uh not published on the uh the pod news jobs uh section, but perhaps it should be. So uh maybe I'll I will uh add it uh there. Uh Libson has left has lost someone else. Matthew Passy no longer works at Libsin. Libson um uh having a lot of um of people changes. Obviously, both Rob Walsh and LC Escobar have also left the company. Matthew was doing Rob's job um after Rob left. Um he didn't. No, well exactly. Uh he was also um sales and support for enterprise clients of the LibSin Pro platform, and um yeah, so um so he is off as well. Uh Libsin had a you know a booth right next to our sponsor Buzzsprout with weirdly similar colours. Um so that was a bit strange. Um I did I didn't speak with anybody from that company because I didn't really know anybody. Um uh I vaguely know Brian to look at, but I don't think we've ever sort of said hi. Um so yes, a very strange, uh very strange sort of feeling um uh there in terms of that. Uh also um stuff going on in the UK. So Craig Strachen has been hired as CEO of Jampot Productions. Now Craig Strachen used to work at Amazon Music and at Novel. Um Jampot is a um creator-led production company, which makes podcasts but also YouTube, um, uh founded by uh Jamie Lang and Sophie Haboo, um, who are um people who I have no idea who they are.

Sam Sethi: 27:43

Made in chill seat and newlyweds. Um uh he's a um I'm still very proud to say that I've got no idea who they are. Well, he's a candy kitten uh um heir. Yeah, so so he's a he's wealthy from producing a sweet confection, and then they did a very I mean it was Gen X. I mean it was a very much of that nature, right? They they got famous and made in Chelsea, and then they they got together, and then they've done their journey, which is about how they got wedded, and now they've got a journey about how they're having a child. I mean, yeah, it's of that nature.

James Cridland: 28:20

And I believe that Jamie Lang has also done uh shows on Radio One and various other things. Anyway, that's where Craig Stracken is now. Uh so hurrah for that. Uh, what else is going on? Craig Network, um, which is a uh sports um podcaster in Manchester in the UK, Montrostar, uh, has hired a um uh a woman rugby player, um uh Shauna Brown as brand mu as brand partnerships consultant. Um so uh that's good. That's a nice big hire for them. Uh Talk Sports, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch in the UK and is again a sport um radio station. They have appointed their first, I believe, head of podcasts, Abby Patterson. Uh it says new uh here, but I think it might be their first. Anyway, um uh Abby Patterson, I forget quite where she moved from, but she was a pretty big deal um by the looks of things. So it'll be um good to see what uh TalkSport end up doing in that um way. Uh also Flight Story um has uh also um appointed an Emmy Award-winning producer, which is very fancy, um, who used to work on the Oprah Winfrey show uh and all of that kind of stuff. Um so that's all nice.

Sam Sethi: 29:36

Yes. Um moving on then. Um one thing that uh I spotted last week, but we didn't have time to cover, was that Spotify has launched an awards hub. Um so you can go onto Spotify now and you can go to a current award, and you, for example, can go to the Golden Globes and you'll see the podcasts for that nomination or the winners.

James Cridland: 30:03

It sounds like a brilliant idea. Why didn't you do this, Sam? Strangely, we did it a month before Spotify.

Sam Sethi: 30:09

I I'm I'm going to have to have a look at who is on my platform from Spotify because every time I launch a feature, they bloody launch it straight after.

James Cridland: 30:18

Um well done, you're not sure.

Sam Sethi: 30:21

The difference is we turn all of those podcasts into a playlist, and uh you can then copy that into your own playlist. But anyway, nice nice to add. Um it is a good feature to have um because it means that you know everyone who's looking at awards just wants to play the podcast from those awards and another form of discovery. So well done.

James Cridland: 30:41

Well, well done, Sam. Another triumph. Thank you very much. Um I do notice also that Spotify has whacked their prices up uh eight percent in America, uh, which will go down well with everybody. Um there was also a very long piece from Ashley Carmen uh talking about um Spotify as well. She was flown to uh Sweden. Um uh I I was taking notes. Uh she was flown to Sweden and she was given time with uh all of the senior folks at uh Spotify, uh, whined and dined, presumably. Um so I'm sure that she had a lovely time. Um, but um one of the things that they were saying is that uh Spotify wants to be kind of the anti uh doom scrolling um app. And um they uh there was a really nice um quote from one of the Spotify folks who basically said that Spotify just wants to be your friend. Uh they want to be your friend, they want you to sort of feel as if when you open the app it's it's you know you're you're at home and you're at home with your friends. And I thought, oh, that's an interesting way of putting it. So um yeah, but it's a good um it's a good piece from uh Ashley. Uh if you get her uh newsletter, um then you can read uh all of that uh as well.

Sam Sethi: 31:58

Well, the other thing that Ashley was talking about was how companies like Headliner and others now are rapidly taking transcripts, summarizing them, turning the summaries into podcasts because people haven't got enough time to listen to podcasts. So forget Adam Curry's 2x, 3x, 4x, which he hates people listening at. Um but um this is not even listening to the full podcast now, it's taking the transcript, summarising it, and then turning four or five transcript summaries into a podcast using like Google Notebook LM type technology. So she's worried that um that's the way that some people are going. And I thought are some people doing that? And I think there is a small percentage of people who simply just want to suck the the podcast for whatever snippet of knowledge it might have, and there's other people who actually use it as a form of entertainment and enjoy the full podcast.

James Cridland: 32:53

Exactly. I think I think there's a fundamental m misunderstanding that um, you know, people are using podcasts for entertainment as well as using podcasts um to learn stuff, and you know, and just in the same way as you know, those companies like Blinkist Um who produced 15-minute versions of books, um uh, you know, just just like those companies exist, of course they exist, and and they will always exist because there's a nice copyright um loophole to enable them to exist. Um, but I don't suppose that that has significantly harmed the sale of books, to be honest. So um, yeah, so hopefully that should mean not too much impact for uh our uh for our industry.

Sam Sethi: 33:39

Kevin, who is one of the uh people at Buzzcast and Buzz Sprout, um, has admitted in the past not only does he uh triple X um his podcast speed listening, but he does that for movies as well, James, which I think is the weirdest thing ever.

James Cridland: 33:55

I know, which is very, very strange. It was his birthday on Saturday. Oh happy birthday. Yes, so I don't know which birthday, but apparently it was important enough uh to um have the entire company close the stand on Saturday morning and and go up for his party in the evening. So um yeah, so that must be really good. So, Kevin, uh I'm I'm sure that you will enjoy your bus pass.

Sam Sethi: 34:20

Oh no, he's probably only turned 50 or something, you know. Yes, I'm sure he has. Don't don't put him that old.

James Cridland: 34:26

No chance, no chance, he's not he's not he's not as old as you.

Sam Sethi: 34:30

Oh, thanks. Yes, I'm um we'll talk about that later. Thank you very much. Now, uh awards. There's more awards, it's clearly the award season again. The Ambis are about to be announced, and they've nominated a number of podcasts. What have they done?

James Cridland: 34:45

Yes, uh, so the Ambis um uh uh do have some uh exciting nominations there. Uh Call Her Daddy is in there, Crime Junkie, PodSave America, and there are 227 nominees, so who knows? Uh there must be a fair amount. Uh that ceremony uh is uh scheduled for February the 23rd. It's part of the On Airfest in Brooklyn for the first time. Uh so that will be uh exciting. Um that goes uh coincides with um uh On Airfest uh obviously and the podcast business summit, which is it which is an invite-only thing. Um I've never been to one of those. Um it's um very much Bloomberg's thing, uh, and so I wish them all the best with that. Uh, but that is happening in the United States in February. Um, so um uh enjoy if you are off to that. Uh ACAST doing a couple of things, uh including an event for podcasters in Singapore. Uh it's close to Clark Key in uh early February. It's called Monetize the Mic Podcasting for Creators. And um Timmy will be there from Acast in uh Singapore. Uh Adam will be there from uh ACast in the UK. I hope he comes with uh subtitles. Can't remember whether Adam has a Scottish accent or a Yorkshire accent, but either way. Um so um I'm sure that that's gonna be good. Also, tips to make uh money podcasting as well, and it's free for you to go to if you are in Singapore and an up-and-coming uh podcaster. And uh there is also uh podcast movement evolutions, of course, which is at South by Southwest this year. Um, there's a bunch of um uh details about the event. There's a morning keynote from YouTube. Now I'm not going because it clashes with something else that I'm doing, um, but that should be pretty good. And um I can't say anything about the uh podcast movement New York event yet. I am not involved with it, but I do know that um uh that a date has been set, which is great. I do know what the venue is, I'm not gonna say, um, but all of that is in hand, which is really good. So uh the sooner that we can talk about that, the better. I believe that uh we should hopefully get Briar Barletter on uh from Podcast Movement and from Sounds Profitable, and we can learn a little bit more about that over the next couple of weeks.

Sam Sethi: 37:05

Now, this is one that you've highlighted in the past. Uh, Podcast a Thon has crossed a significant milestone with more than 2,000 podcasts. Remind everyone what is Podcast a Thon?

James Cridland: 37:16

Yeah, so Podcast Thon is a um it's a charity podcasting initiative. So basically, if we were going to take part, Sam, uh we would dedicate one whole uh episode of this show to a charity of our choice, and we would talk about that charity and we would talk to some of the people who are involved in that charity, and we would uh try and get people to give to that charity and all of that sort of thing. That's basically what it does. Uh it's a really good thing. Um, it's growing and growing and growing and has done over the last um three or four uh years or so. Um Doug Downs has written a great piece for the Pod News newsletter, which you can find um in uh in that over the over the last couple of days, um, and doing very, very well. So um hurrah for Jeremy and for everybody involved in that uh event.

Announcer: 38:04

The tech stuff on the Pod News Weekly Review.

James Cridland: 38:08

Yes, it's the stuff you'll find every Monday in the Pod News newsletter. Here's where Sam talks technology. We didn't do one of these last week, Sam, because we ran out of time. So you did. Doubtless we've got four and a half million things. Just a reminder. No.

Sam Sethi: 38:21

I looked for it and I cut all the all the stuff out. I thought, yeah, no one needs to know. No one needs to know. It was last week's news. No one needs to know about it. Yeah, yeah. Um, but let's start with this week's then. Um you had a little conversation over a beer or three, I would guess, um, in Podfest about something called the RSS comments tag. Tell me more.

James Cridland: 38:43

Well, in fact, um it it it's a comment, it it was a conversation not over beer, much to my sadness. Rob Greenley doesn't drink, Daniel uh J. Lewis doesn't drink, so far as I can work out. Um Dave Jackson doesn't drink, Rob Walsh doesn't drink. Wow. So, you know, I wasn't gonna be the only person to party started to have a foaming beer in front of me. Everybody else was having tap water. Um, but still, we were um but we were talking about comments and how useful and important comments are because of course in YouTube front and center are the comments, uh right in the player. Um, so you can't really miss the fact that there are comments there. And one of the excitements that we were all talking about is that people are very excited about YouTube because of that community aspect that we don't have in terms of podcasting. Um and so um we were all saying, wouldn't it be brilliant to have some form of comments in apps? And um, you know, and I uh put forward an idea that I'd had, but clearly haven't written down anywhere. Um, or if I have, I can't find it, um, an idea that I had. Of essentially a very simple way of doing comments that would essentially fit with absolutely any comment system that anybody wants to build. That's all absolutely fine. If you want to, you know, if you want to um uh um moderate comments, uh then that's absolutely fine. You you you can do anything you like uh as long as you just transform the comments that you have into a standard JSON file. And away you go, job done. Um, and it's up to you as to how you put those comments together, and perhaps we produce some, you know, JSON producers that can automatically pull from other places. But however it is that we end up doing it, having comments that appear in podcast apps. Maybe you can't post from podcast apps, but at least can see them in podcast apps will be a super useful thing. So um, yeah, so I think we've got a rough agreement of a way forward. Okay. I think that people understand what the what it is that we should be doing, and I suppose I have to write it up now.

Sam Sethi: 40:58

Yeah. Uh well, you know, slopey shoulders and all that thing. You've taken the uh taken the mantle on, I think.

James Cridland: 41:04

Yeah, but I think, you know, I mean, from my point of view, I just want something which is really easy for podcast um app developers to code um so that you can actually see the things in there. Uh you can see that see the comments in there. You might not be able to post a comment directly. That that I think is probably something that we just need to, you know, to understand. But I think being able to just see comments um in whatever app you're using is probably a great plan. So uh yeah, so we will um I'll you know I'll write it up somewhere and then people can do absolutely nothing about that as they've done nothing about any of the other any of the other comment systems for the last five or ten uh um you know years seemingly. But uh yeah, that would be a good thing, I think.

Sam Sethi: 41:49

Yeah, I mean one of the things I I I I do want to say is um with my own platform, we do support the social interact tag, right? So the social interact tag is uh okay, it's not comments within apps being shared, but what it was or what it is is um people putting comments on Mastodon or other social platforms and we pull them in. So we do it from Blue Sky Threads, Mastodon. We don't do LinkedIn, but I mean fundamentally you can go to several examples that I could list where I mean one of the people who who's very good at doing it is David Marzel, um, where it will show you uh a set of comments made on social media aggregated within TrueFans in the comments section. Um are you suggesting with this comments tag that we would be then sharing comments from apps so that I could see comments in Podverse or Fountain or other apps?

James Cridland: 42:55

Yeah, absolutely. So what I'm what I'm saying, and it's interesting, I've just found out where I did write it up, and I was actually talking about using uh you using RSS for comments as well. Who'd have thought it? But uh actually I think it's probably easier just to use uh Jason, uh, you know, and away you go because I think I think this I think there's a little bit of over over excitement there. Um but yeah, so I'm I'm talking very much about um about a um uh you can use anything you like to leave comments, but all that um all that we need from you is a standard JSON format of those comments. Um so it's up to the podcast host potentially to do that, and the podcast hosts can run comments, or you can um do that through other platforms as well. Um, but all you need is a is something to to transform whatever those comments are in into a JSON format so that they're easy for a podcast app to then show. Um and it's really then up to um you know it's really then up to um any podcaster what what comment system they want to run and everything else, and just and just make that visible and make that available, you know, in that way. Um I mean, you know, reading the the spec that I did uh end up re- rewriting, um uh actually using RSS weirdly works fantastically well. Um I think the the one change that we came that we came uh uh around at the table was um to make sure that uh comments exist both on a episode um uh level but also on an I um uh you know an item level per episode, but also on a channel level as well, uh, in some ways. So that um the idea there is that ideally you want some comments there, um, and quite a lot of shows won't have any comments. I think Adam and Dave will come at this through the point of view of No Agenda, which is a massive show, which always has millions and millions of comments. Most shows would not get millions and millions of comments. This show gets very few comments on Spotify where you can leave them, very few comments, if any, on on YouTube. So actually making life as easy as possible kind of makes sense, you know, in terms of uh in terms of how that bit works. Um so um being able to then have some comments which are the last comments left about this particular show is probably useful to at least kick those conversations off. Um but you know, it's it's all that stuff that that needs sort of um uh sorting, but it would be nice um to again have another have another go. I mean, I ended up writing quite a lot of hard work um, you know, in terms of um uh in terms of this and um not that much response to be honest. Uh Russell uh responded um and somebody called the Bells uh and that was it. So um yeah, Stephen Bells maybe so maybe I think if we give that another push uh we might be able to um get a little bit further.

Sam Sethi: 46:16

I I think um I think it's been one of those conversations that's gone around the loop two, three years ago. We were talking about cross-app comments, then we wanted micro payment boosts and booster grams and and payments with comments, and then I think we've come full circle back to let's just make it simple, let's get something out there, and then we'll worry about the payments with comments and everything else, which I know um Oscar at Fountain has done a good job on. We've not implemented that element yet. Let's see what you come up with and maybe can implement implement that if it's quick and easy. Yeah, no, it should be good, I think. Now, one of the other things that's been talked about is merch and uh adding something to the RSS feed for merch stores. Now, uh Nathan Gathright has proposed back in 2024, June 2024 even, uh it's on GitHub. And it was one of those conversations where, oh, well, logically, if you look at Spotify or you look at YouTube, they've got merch elements, and so should we not replicate some of that within podcasting 2.0? It never really got any further because I think people were too busy implementing all the other tags and trying to catch up with where we were, so I think it got left on the cutting room floor, but it has now suddenly raised its head again, and I'm I'm quite interested because there's two approaches to it. One is to basically create a URL to a third-party store, so a Shopify store or a printful or whatever. Um, now the conversation was should we just put it in the funding tag? Because fundamentally, the funding tag is able to take one or multiple URLs. The problem is how would you then differentiate between what is the icon for the funding tag and what is the icon for a third-party store link? Um, and is that correct? Because it's not really funding. So um one of the ideas was do you put in another tag called the podcast store tag, and then have a URL similar to the funding tag, so you could have multiple stores within it if you wanted. That's one way. So I looked at Spotify how they do it, and I looked at um Bruno Mars has recently got his new merch store. There's only three items in it: a Marga t-shirt, and I can't remember what the other one was. When you click on the merch tab within Spotify, it shows you the product, but when you click on the product, it takes you outside of Spotify to a um Shopify site for um payment and delivery, which makes a lot of sense because that's one of the biggest challenges. We could implement a hosting solution which would say upload product, description, price, etc. etc. etc. You then have the the payment element, okay, that can be done, but the delivery element is always the trickiest part. Um, I've done this before in the past, and what you've got is you know, does the post office have a two-kilogram limit? Does this exceed the two kilogram limit? So then you've now got to work out if they bought four t-shirts, what will the delivery price be? So there's a lot of complexity, um, not just being able to put a you um a product up and then take some money for it. And I think outsourcing that maybe as the first step to things like Shopify, or um we were talking about it, the Kelsey brothers having Amazon as their outsource shop. Um, and that I think is where it started. So I think the proposal right now on the table is to have a new tag called the podcast store tag with a URL to a third party outside of the app for fulfillment.

James Cridland: 50:00

Right. So you wouldn't have I mean, when you use YouTube and you go to MKBHD's channel, for example, then underneath his video you can actually see some of the stuff that he's selling. Um and you can, you know, you can see a here's a here's a fancy t-shirt that you can go and buy and you know, and all of that. Um there's no pricing, um, but there's links directly to the stuff that he's actually selling. You're you're just saying, no, we'll just have a store.

Sam Sethi: 50:27

No, no, I think I think there's it's two parts. Um I'm looking at how we can do A and then how we can do B, right? Um instead of trying to bore the ocean. So the quickest way of doing it when I looked at it for myself at TrueFans was we could just extend the RSS feed with a podcast store with a URL like the funding tag, so that you'll see an icon on the podcast page and have a shopping cart icon, you click on it and you go out, right? So that's just you know, quick, cheap, and dirty uh uh way of doing it. The second way, of course, is then hosts have to then allow you to have an upload of product description and then a URL link out. And that can be done. It's just I know that's gonna take a little longer to do. So I just was looking at how do we do it really quickly, A, and then yes, replicate what YouTube and Spotify do by showing product um and then allowing the full fulfillment of that. Again, that's all they do is externally allow the full fulfillment because you've got sizes, you've got um, yeah.

James Cridland: 51:29

But I mean, all all of the f fulfillment isn't isn't something that we need to worry about. We're linking to a shop, and that shop can can can deal with all of that. So we don't have to worry about any of that stuff. But what we do need to worry about is who it if this is going to be coded into a ton of podcast apps, who earns money from that? Because the podcast if the podcast apps aren't going to uh to earn any money from that, this sounds like quite a complicated thing to achieve.

Sam Sethi: 52:02

Well, do I earn money from the funding tag? No, because if I parse you through to Patreon or I parse you through to buy but it's just a link, but it's just a link.

James Cridland: 52:10

Whereas so it's just a link to a shop, right? So either we have either we have a link to a shop, which isn't a very good or exciting thing, yeah, or we ask our podcast hosts uh uh and our podcast um uh and our podcast app developers to spend a lot of time incorporating all of those images and everything else into their apps for no money at all. So I suppose the question is what what where do we go, you know, where do we go? What what's in it for the entire ecosystem? And I think this was the bit of genius with streaming sats, the bit of genius with you know um boosts and everything else is that you know you could take, if you wanted to, five percent off the top. Um, you could take um a percentage of all of that that goes all the way through the system um because somebody was using your your app. I think in terms of this, there doesn't seem to be an awful lot of um you know of obvious um upside for the podcast uh developer to put to do any work in terms of this. Whereas, you know, that that that was the beauty in terms of the streaming sats thing was the splits and making sure that actually everyone in the chain earned money from all of that.

Sam Sethi: 53:31

I agree, and and but the problem, as you know, is we are switching from key cent to LN address, and that's causing a little bit of a hiccup. Um I think that having just a an icon and a link out, just to begin with, just to get that function going, people actually go, Oh, okay, I've I've added a link to my store. Because even though you build the tags, people don't put, for example, their location in, right?

James Cridland: 53:58

Because not all hosts have or even the funding tag. Yeah, exactly.

Sam Sethi: 54:02

So I'm just saying, so even if we build the tags, that you know, um, it doesn't mean they'll go and fulfill it. And so I think instead of spending a lot of time as an app developer building their lovely UI that would allow for presentation of t-shirts and mugs and whatever, whatever, let's just see if anyone's going to click on the link first. Then we can go, right, as a host, I can then add this as a competitive advantage. If we provide a merch store, other hosts don't. Maybe that's the differentiator to come across to me. So that's the next thing we do. And then maybe the third step is that, yeah, we look at okay, how do we take a little bit of you know, a percentage of the transaction? But I don't think we go to the third step first. I think we just have to start to take a step forward, and that's all I think we're gonna do.

James Cridland: 54:50

Yeah, it's difficult, isn't it? It really is, because you know, where do you start? Why would anybody spend the time and effort making something that um you know that the the the the the public need hasn't been shown? Um, you know, there's been no research into into any of this, and why would you, you know, in terms of the in terms of the payment, you know, why why would you end up uh uh doing all of this? So I think it it is very, very difficult, isn't it? I do appreciate that. And it's um so it'll be interesting to see how quickly this um this happens and how easy it is to code all of this stuff as well, of course.

Sam Sethi: 55:30

Well, the first one is easy. I mean, and I think you know, um it could be done pretty much by all app developers, you know, in a in a half a day, right? Adding a an extra field with the podcast store tag and allowing people to put in a URL to a third party, like a Shopify or wherever it they want, an affiliate link. That's easy. That that could be done. The question is where whether people will do it as a host, um, because it's going to be on the host side that it's done, um, and whether people will then fill it in. We don't know. So you got I think it's chicken and egg, like with all tags, you've just got to do it and then see what happens. I would love to know from YouTube or Spotify how much merch they actually have as sell through. I mean, and that would be a lovely number to know whether they actually the fact they've got it there actually does anyone click through and buy. Yeah, and then the other one is with Spotify, they've got something very similar with ticketing because they they outsource ticketing to things like Ticketmaster and stuff like that. And I'm sure that they have a deal with Ticketmaster for every affiliate link out. So Yeah, of course they do, yeah. Maybe that's the model, maybe there's a way of promoting certain Shopify stores and taking a small percentage for affiliate traffic that you you send as an app. I don't know.

James Cridland: 56:49

Yeah, no, it's it's it's um it's very interesting. And and uh, you know, and how much money is there in merch, which of course is another question entirely, and you know, and all of that kind of stuff. So um uh yeah, but uh we will watch this space as they say.

Sam Sethi: 57:05

Now Adobe um have been working very hard on numerous things to do with AI, uh, voice and uh cleaning up stuff and all sorts of things. Now they've just announced that they're gonna use AI to turn your PDF into a podcast, very similar to what Google, I suppose, did with Google Notebook LM, which is taking a document. But yes, you can now take your Adobe Acrobat PDF and turn that into a podcast.

James Cridland: 57:30

No, you can't. You can turn that Adobe Acrobat PDF into an audio file.

Sam Sethi: 57:35

Oh, yes, yes. Slap myself on wrist and apologizes.

James Cridland: 57:40

You'll be you'll be telling me next that a PDF is a podcast.

Sam Sethi: 57:43

Um I think you're gonna be telling me that next, actually. Go on.

James Cridland: 57:48

Dave Jackson thinks that a PDF is a podcast. Right. Uh weirdly, Apple Podcasts says so as well. If you take a look at the Apple Podcast website, um then Apple Podcast actually says that it supports a number of different file uh sizes, uh uh um uh file types. Uh M4A, MP3, MOV, MP4, M4V, most of those, as you'll be aware, are video files, or PDF file formats. Um now, I don't know whether you've ever tried um uh using a PDF uh podcast on Apple Podcasts, but guess what? It doesn't work. Right. So don't really understand why it is still uh in their um in their uh implementation um as being valid when it isn't. I also can't actually find any podcast app that supports PDFs, even though um there are 1,718 shows with PDFs in the podcast index. I'll have you know. At least, by the way. Um you can go and have a look at um uh one of them is called Breaking Bad News, which you'll find in the Apple Podcasts Directory. It's not about the TV show, uh, it's um it dates from 2015, uh, and it is an open university course from the UK telling you how to break bad news to people. So it's a course, an educational course. Um, and uh it's fascinating because every other um uh item in that RSS feed is a PDF, and then every other item is an audio file. Um so you can you can download all of the course materials as you work on that, except of course nobody supply nobody supports PDF um uh at all in terms of podcasting, apart from actually the Pod News um podcast directory, because um I I thought, oh well that that that'll be a two-minute job, and so coded it. Well we've now supported we've now supported that, but uh yes, so there's a weird thing. Um Apple Podcast says that PDFs are actually uh podcasts, um, but really they're not, and please stop, is what I guess I'm saying.

Sam Sethi: 59:57

Moving on then. Um little story. I saw, and it's something that's going on in the industry that's really, I don't know, not fascinating, but but something to watch. CarPlay, which is or Android Auto, seems to have been the flavour of all car manufacturers and how to deliver audio uh uh into the car. But there's been a backlash to it. Um, Apple came out with uh Ultra CarPlay, which uh certain manufacturers like um Aston Martin uh jumped on so they can take the whole of their dashboard and so not just the music and entertainment part but also your fuel, your speed gauge and everything, and customize it. Um and then against that Ford has taken out CarPlay and and or Android Auto and looks like BMW and Mini are going down the same road because they've now got their own global player, it's available in 180,000 cars, it's rolling out to 300,000 BMWs and mini cars by the end of 2026, and it is a user interface for radio shows and podcasts, but has nothing to do with Apple or Google.

James Cridland: 1:01:03

Yes, it's interesting. So um uh so what uh Apple Ultra CarPlay is, and um uh Google has a similar one, which I think is called Google Android Automotive, which is different to Android Auto, because of course it is. Um, those two systems are essentially a full operating system for your car. So you get in and um the entire car um uh is completely running an Apple uh OS or indeed a Android OS. You don't have to plug your your phone in, it it just works. And so that is what um some of the car manufacturers are going for. Now, the backlash that some of the car manufacturers have had against Apple CarPlay and against um Android Auto is that it's seeded control of the dashboard essentially to Apple and Google. Um, and that's not what car manufacturers want because car manufacturers want to earn additional money from drivers once they have um driven away. You know, as a good case in point, my car has a um a full sat nav in there, and I could, if I wanted to, spend I think it's a hundred dollars every six months or something in getting up-to-date maps for the system. Um, and presumably MG are earning some money out of that because otherwise, why would they do it? Um, but of course, why on earth would I do any of that when I can just plug my phone in? Um so that's what I'm doing. I'm just plugging my phone in. Um, so there is quite a lot of backlash from auto manufacturers, you know, against um having all of this um Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in their cars, and you can kind of understand their point. So um so I think BMW and Mini, you know, they will use um I think they use Android Automotive, uh, but I could be wrong uh in terms of that. But anyway, Global Player now producing their own version of the app for that operating system kind of makes a bunch of sense. So um you can see that there's going to be more of that. And in fact, you know, a good case in point was until very, very recently, Elon Musk's Tesla, which uh refused to have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto because it wanted control over its uh users. Apple Podcasts made an app for Tesla. It's one of the uh it's one of the weird additional apps that Apple Podcasts has made. Um, but um uh but uh you know uh eventually Tesla has turned around and said, Oh, okay, you can have your Apple CarPlay and you can have your Android Auto, and that and those now work. But um yeah it is, it's fascinating. It's a real fight for the control of the um of the car dashboard. It'll be um interesting seeing what goes on there and um you know and whether or not the car manufacturers will win, or whether or not people like you and me who just want to plug their phone in and play some music uh uh are gonna win instead.

Sam Sethi: 1:04:03

Yeah, I think uh what's what's interesting as well, um I think BMW, I mean I was very upset when I did have a BMW. Things like heated seats and certain features would only be turned on if you paid a subscription, right? Yes, weirdly. And my Range Rover just sent me a notification that says the in-control tracker now subscription has to be renewed or we will turn it off. And I'm like, Jesus, you know, it's it's it's penny pinching at its best. I I don't get it.

James Cridland: 1:04:36

Of course it is, of course it is, yeah. And it's um, but it's also, you know, there are now more costs to auto manufacturers as well. You know, all cars uh these days have to have a mobile phone SIM card in them. Um auto manufacturers have bought access to data through those SIM cards. So therefore, instead of just selling a car and away you go, um, we are costing um these auto manufacturers money because the system, you know, because because they still have to pay for this sort of thing and they have to pay for the data and they have to pay for you know um for the maintenance and everything else. Um, so it's a a much more complicated world now.

Sam Sethi: 1:05:17

Yeah, but can I just point out I've got one of those in my car, it's an internal Wi-Fi in the car using the SIM chip, right? And it's basically 4G out. I'm like, I never bloody use it, it's oh totally unreliable. I've got a phone there, thank you very much, and I I've got access to you know 5G on my phone. I don't need a 4G SIM, which which is pseudo Wi-Fi's.

James Cridland: 1:05:39

But of course the 4G SIM is busy reporting back to the auto m manufacturer uh uh in terms of where you are, in terms of how the car is doing, all of that kind of uh stuff. Yeah, so uh yeah, I it's it's um it's a very different world than it was, you know. Um I mean you listen to Dave Jones occasionally talking about his Ford truck that he's fixing from the 1960s, it's a very different world uh these days in terms of in terms of what's in there.

Sam Sethi: 1:06:07

Now, Transistor, uh they have added support for the Spotify open access, which is basically private feed. So the idea is that you could uh fundamentally go into Transistor um create a private feed. Uh sorry, you could yes create a private feed, so pay for the private feed, and then have that in your Spotify app via the Spotify open access. Is that correct? I think I'm right there.

James Cridland: 1:06:35

Yes, I think so. Yeah. So you can um so Transistor has done private podcasts for a while, and now you you you get access through um uh th through uh uh Spotify open access as well. Uh yeah, which makes a bunch of sense.

Sam Sethi: 1:06:50

I've said and I think it's it's something I think will happen. I think Spotify will wake up one morning and go, we're leaving a lot of money on the table. So when we talked earlier about goal hanger making millions from uh basically a subscription service through Apple channels or through uh supporting cast, um I think uh Patreon has been very successfully using Spotify to put um private feeds through the Spotify open access. And Spotify, because of the wrangle they had with Apple about the App Store, weren't we're not charging for it. And now that they've won the case against the Apple App Store, I'd be amazed, if not surprised, that um Spotify don't wake up and go, actually, hmm, all that private feed stuff that people have been doing. I think we should probably do it ourselves, actually, and make a bit more money and not give all that money away to uh memberful supporting cast or Patreon.

James Cridland: 1:07:49

Yeah, well, yes, maybe, maybe.

Sam Sethi: 1:07:53

We'll see. Now, um road people down the road from you who don't talk to you, what have they been doing?

James Cridland: 1:08:00

Well, I don't know because they've not actually told me uh about this. Apparently it was uh unreleased uh on the floor of CES. It's the Rodcaster Video Core, uh, which is a video switching system that integrates with your Rodcaster Pro 2 or the Rodecaster Duo, which essentially turns that product into something that will then switch video as well, um, which is uh quite nice. So it's essentially it's a big black box which plugs into your Rodecaster or Rodcaster Duo, uh, which is quite nice. It's got auto switching, it's got um a built-in hard drive, it's got all kinds of stuff. Um so uh yes, they are going to be selling it this summer. Uh also, by the way, what was launched um at uh CES was the Shaw MV88, um, which is uh the little microphone that uh Shaw produce. Uh but this one now has uh a USB-C connector uh on the back. It's really nice, it's a really nice little um microphone. And if you've been listening to the Pod News Daily, or indeed this show last week, you would have heard me using an earlier version of that. So it's a very smart little microphone just to carry around. So that was also shown off at uh CES, uh, as well as a couple of you know wireless microphones and other things, which you know it's all fine, but um yeah, but certainly the uh both that new Shaw microphone and the Rogaster Video Core uh looks um certainly interesting.

Sam Sethi: 1:09:27

Now, uh, those developers out there who are interested, jQuery, which came out on January the 14th, 2006, is 20 years old. And to mark the occasion, they've launched jQuery 4.0. Uh it's got a number of major releases in it. It's the first release for almost 10 years. So again, if you're using that JavaScript library, there you go. There's a new version.

James Cridland: 1:09:52

Why why write a very small piece of JavaScript when you can when you can download uh all of jQuery and um uh and double the size of your web page? Uh perfect idea. Not a fan. I I would heartily recommend it. Yes. Uh Spotify is doing some weird things with paper books that I don't fully understand called Spotify Page Match. Yeah, I don't get this. Which allows you to both listen to a uh a book and then you uh and then you pause and it says, Oh, you're on page 220 of the printed version, so that you could then pick up uh the printed version and then carry on from where you you left off, um uh which will be useful to the three people who'll do that. So that's nice. Well done, Spotify.

Sam Sethi: 1:10:37

Well, it's supposed to be like um Amazon's whisper mode, right? When you got an Amazon ebook, you can go from the audible to the ebook and ebook to the audible, which made a lot of sense if you wanted to do it that way. But I don't get why you go from an Audible um listening on Spotify to a physical paper book. I don't get that one at all.

James Cridland: 1:10:58

Well, yeah, I mean maybe if you prefer to read, um, but um then you jump in the car and you just want to carry on with that book, then that's probably a nice thing. But I don't know. I wonder if it works with every single book. I bet it doesn't. Uh I bet there's some metadata that needs to be worked on there. Um, but um uh yeah, so that uh is um currently being tested by Spotify, they've not even launched it. Uh so that'll be fun.

Sam Sethi: 1:11:25

Never to be launched, then guest.

James Cridland: 1:11:27

Well, yes, I mean who knows. Uh anyway, other uh entertaining things going on. Uh there's a uh a tool called PodSpun, which is a um a way of essentially producing an LLM from your podcast content. Uh so you can say, you can ask uh Diary of a CEO, for example, um uh ways to reduce stress, and it'll give you five strategies from some of the guests on that show, which is nice. Uh it's worth a peek, although by no means the first company to end up doing that. Um podcastle has rebranded as async. I think they're rebranding as async because it doesn't include the word pod in there because they're doing more and more video stuff. Uh so that'll be exciting. I hear, by the way, um uh video stuff coming from Wondercraft next week. Um, so uh we should keep an eye out for that. Podsquee has launched a standalone tool called Audio Enhancer, which um is$9.99 a month for you to use, and I'm sure it's entirely separate from Podsqueeze's free audio enhancer that they uh launched uh three months ago. Um not quite sure what's going on there. Um there is a uh a video platform um which um uh I mean a very weird press release. Uh the thing is called LRT Presents, and you'll be able to watch video podcasts on Roku, Amazon Fire, PlayStation, and Xbox. Um he spelt PlayStation with two words, uh, so that's nice. Um, and um you end up paying to be on that uh channel. Um uh as with any distribution avenue, he says, uh, to which I replied that actually podcasts don't pay fees to be on Netflix, on YouTube, on Spotify. Actually, Netflix pay you. So um, yes, I don't really understand what the deal is there. But you know, still uh I suspect that we'll see a ton of people trying to make money out of video podcasts, and perhaps that's going to be one of the ways of doing it. Um finally a new website for Godcaster, uh, the podcast and live radio tool, Adam Curry going off to talk about Godcaster at the NRB 2026 conference, which I'm imagining I'm not quite sure what NRB stands for. National Religious Broadcasters. Religious broadcasters, yes, that's probably it. Yes, I was thinking national radio broadcasters, and then I was thinking, no, that's probably not it. Uh, but anyway, um, so uh yes, so some good stuff going on there.

Announcer: 1:13:55

Booster gram. Booster, boostergram, super comments, zaps, fan mail, fan mail, super chats, and email. Our favorite time of the week, it's the Pod News Weekly Review inbox.

James Cridland: 1:14:09

Yeah, so many different ways to get in touch with us. You can uh send us fan mail by using the link in our show notes, super comments on true fans, boosts everywhere else, or email, and uh we share uh any money that we make uh as well. Um uh a ton of uh exciting um uh things uh going on there. Um well uh uh what does it say here? We welcome Seth Goldstein. Oh yes, Seth Goldstein, who joined us as a uh new supporter, uh, which is very exciting. Um so good to see uh Seth, thank you. Um and uh Cameron Mole um has um uh very kindly been supporting us for the last uh three years, I think. So uh thank you to Cameron. Um uh so uh and all of that. What else have we got in here? What does this one say? Um uh a thousand and thirty-five sats from Bruce, the ugly cracking duck. Oh, it's good to hear from you, Bruce. Thanks for making sense of the numbers. 73, uh, he says. Uh he was using podcast guru uh to leave us that.

Sam Sethi: 1:15:11

While you're doing that, you forgot to mention that Silas has now become a new subscriber.

James Cridland: 1:15:16

Oh, did I? Oh, I well I should have mentioned that. Uh Silas, thank you. Um that is uh excellent. Yes, I I hadn't scrolled down far enough. So, Silas, thank you so much. And eight dollars a month, which is a very kind thing for you to have done. By the way, I ended up um using some of this money to buy uh folk um uh drinks at the bar at Podfest. I was uh very grateful for that. Uh so uh thank you very much um for your support. Uh much appreciated, Silas, and indeed everybody else uh who is um supporting us uh as well. If you would like to do that, weekly.podnews.net uh is where to uh end up going. Um I've gone through an awful lot of uh scrolly scrolly scrolly here. Um there are uh entertaining things um uh from uh fountain in here uh as well, which is uh nice. So um good to see uh a ton of those uh coming in. And um yeah, let's um let's let's see what happens uh when we see more of those um boosts and things um uh coming through. But the strike is uh working quite nicely for me. So, Sam, what's happened to you over the last week? Well, uh we have you got any big news? Uh I don't know. Well, we're gonna block all AI Slop. Is this is this the biggest news that you're going to mention in this section, Sam? Tease them out, James. Tease them out. No. All right, tell us what you're doing with AI Slop then.

Sam Sethi: 1:16:48

Well, we just decided we're gonna be a human-first platform, so we're gonna try and block it all out. So one of the things that we've found about when we're testing our hosting is how much bots stream uh content from you as a host. I mean, it's it's significant. And yeah, um, I have an ongoing conversation with Apple about how many hours they're using to get transcripts and chapters. Now we've added a switch, which um so we decided we weren't gonna block it ourselves because we could we could just block it at source. Um but people then would moan at us about, oh well, I want to be indexed by OpenAI or Claude or uh or whatever, and I want my Apple chapters and transcripts. So I understand. So we're gonna leave it up to you. But in the model that we have, of course, is you get charge per megabyte, it's like a mobile phone model. And so if you want a AI to index you, uh they will charge you, or we will charge you, because they will be streaming megabytes of data. Um, so you're cool. Uh so that's what we've done, but we would like to become a human-first platform.

James Cridland: 1:17:53

So I wonder what happens when you do block Apple, whether or not actually you just get chucked off the Apple platform altogether. I my suspicion is you probably do. Because if Apple can't see your audio, then it's just gonna go, oh well the audio doesn't eat doesn't exist and you'll get thrown off. So I'll give you an example.

Sam Sethi: 1:18:10

A 36-minute episode of TrueFans Creators was played by Apple for seven and a half hours.

James Cridland: 1:18:20

Yeah, that's quite a lot, isn't it? Why? Um I mean you know Yeah, I mean I don't I don't d disagree with that. I'm just I'm just asking what happens when you block Apple. Um have you tried doing that?

Sam Sethi: 1:18:32

No, we will. Um, and I'll let you know next week when I go, oops. Um yes.

James Cridland: 1:18:38

Yeah, it'll be interesting because my my suspicion is that you'll just fall off the directory because it won't be able to see any of your audio and it'll think that it's broken. Um but you know Yeah.

Sam Sethi: 1:18:49

That's the reason why we've given the choice. I mean, it's just it's just it's just a weird thing, right?

James Cridland: 1:18:54

Is it uh is it like giving a child a gun?

Sam Sethi: 1:18:59

Well, giving them a choice. No, it's you know, guns don't kill. People kill. Guns don't kill. That's what I hear the NRA told me.

James Cridland: 1:19:06

Wow. Are you are you turning into uh are you turning into a a song from the early 2000s?

Sam Sethi: 1:19:15

Um uh we've also migrated to and this is really something I'm I'm quite excited about.

James Cridland: 1:19:20

Is this your big news that you've migrated? Do you want me to go for the big news, do you? You've migrated to MongoDB Atlas. Yes. Wow, what does that mean?

Sam Sethi: 1:19:29

It's an AI ready uh database. Um so we used MongoDB already. Um and so yeah, human first platform. Here we go, AI ready platform. Um yeah.

James Cridland: 1:19:39

The the human first platform, so you're using an AI voice interface.

Sam Sethi: 1:19:43

Exactly. That's what I was gonna say. Yes, yes, talk about irony. Um uh what it does is it in improves our search and indexing. So that's the first thing. It also builds um our interface for AI voice interfaces. So um, not for a while, but We are working on a voice interface called Kevin and Kelly. They're the names of the uh interface characters.

James Cridland: 1:20:08

Kevin, obviously named after Kevin Finn from No, well, very nicely, but no.

Sam Sethi: 1:20:14

Kevin Kelly was the person who did a thousand true fans.

James Cridland: 1:20:18

Oh, oh, I see what you've done there.

Sam Sethi: 1:20:20

Yeah, that's very clever. So we've taken Kevin and Kelly, so a male and a female name. And it's interesting because Apple has announced that they're turning Siri into an AI chatbot as well for the next version of their OS. Great.

James Cridland: 1:20:35

I can hardly wait to turn that off.

Sam Sethi: 1:20:39

Not a fan then. But um so yeah, so anyway, that's that. Okay, right.

James Cridland: 1:20:45

So what anyway, Bruno Mars tickets. This is this is the news that I wanted to get to. You haven't got anything else, have you?

Sam Sethi: 1:20:51

No, no, no, yes. I'm turning 60 this year, so the bus pass is coming out. No, um 20,000 in the wait list before we got the tickets. Wow. Wow.

James Cridland: 1:21:00

So this is a this is a birthday present that you've been bought.

Sam Sethi: 1:21:03

Yes, by my my two children, yes. They they know how much of a fan I am, and so yes, they got me that. So it's very exciting. Wow. How can we? Yes, so yeah. Okay, uh, yes, we've closed our funding, James. Yes.

James Cridland: 1:21:15

Yay! I I I wondered when you get to it.

Sam Sethi: 1:21:19

Very good. Now, I now I've got to send you the press release. I will do the thing is I don't want to send you the press release because I don't want anyone to know how much we've raised because it is a decent amount of money, and I worry that. Yeah, well, no, they were, but um I I'm I'm really, really not happy with the idea of putting it out into the ether because I know what's gonna happen. My inbox is gonna get flooded by oh, we're a podcast SEO expert. Oh, I want a job with you. And I'm just like, I don't want this stuff, so I don't know. I I've done this in the past when you've got funding, and every Tom Dicking consultant comes out the woodwork asking for a job. So um I'll send it to you, but by a boy, I'm not happy. Uh I'm happy I'll obviously get you the money, but I'm I'm not happy. I can see what's coming. I can see what's coming. Wow, gosh. Uh and then the second break. Well done, you thank you very much. I'm very relieved. Yes. Uh yes, 10 million valuation. I will say that.

James Cridland: 1:22:16

10 million valuation. There you go. Excellent. Um, well, I I'm looking forward to getting the press release. That was an exclusive. You heard it here first. It is. But it's an independent. Unless I publish something in the next 20 minutes.

Sam Sethi: 1:22:31

Um, and then the other one is yeah, we are putting our hosting live. Uh, we've got the first ones going live on Friday, and then officially we open the doors on Monday. So I'll see the press release for that as well.

James Cridland: 1:22:44

Excellent. Gosh, you've been you've been a busy man this week.

Sam Sethi: 1:22:47

Yes. Come on then, James. What's happened for you?

James Cridland: 1:22:51

Well, um uh I uh yes, I've I've I've written a another tedious trip report if you want to have a look, james.critland.net slash blog, um uh all about my uh entertaining trip to um uh uh to uh the US um where uh we were evacuated from the uh from the airport before uh before I even took off. So that was fun. Um uh for some fire alarm or something else, uh anyway. Um uh so that was great fun. You'll find um you'll find even audio from that uh in my blog post because I suddenly thought, oh, I can record some audio here. I will. Um case you've ever wondered what the emergency evacuation alarm sounds like in Brisbane International Airport. Um uh so anyway, so that was fun. And then on the way back, I ended up having to um basically run from one plane to another. The app lied to me and said that the plane had already taken off. So I kind of slowed, and then you could hear somebody shouting at me from down the um the other end of the airport. Are you flying to Brisbane? Uh and I said uh yes, and he said, Hurry up! And so I had to start running again because uh because the app had lied to me, but it be because it turned out that it hadn't um taken off. So that was good. So I ran in, got got onto the um got onto the plane, sat down, uh looked at the app, and the app said that um my bag had also made it. So I thought that's amazing, that's really, really good. Anyway, the app lied to me again, and my bag hadn't. Um so yes, so my bag, which includes my award, which is glass, um, which may or may not have broken, um, is uh is is well it's it's made it to Brisbane, but um as for when it'll eventually get to me, who only knows? It's been in Brisbane for two days now. And uh I rang them up and they said, Oh well, we'll go we'll we'll get in contact. And I said, How will you get in contact? And they said, Well, we'll send you an email or or an SMS or or we'll give you a ring. And I said, Did you uh any one of those? You know, and they said, you know, so make sure that you're you know available. Uh you know, what really? Anyway, so um, so that was nice. Um, what else have I been doing?

Sam Sethi: 1:25:09

I was gonna say, does it you know, you know, you get one award and two come along at the same time. Um, will you get your Ambes award eventually?

James Cridland: 1:25:18

Yes, well, my Ambies Award that I won uh back in May of last year. Um, yes, apparently I get that next week. Uh that's very exciting. No, here. Um, so what I have to do, um, the weight of these things is quite considerable. Um, so what I have to do is actually in my home office, uh, I've got a very rickety IKEA um uh you know set of shelves, which um is in uh the the perfectly useless position of not actually being visible at all in my camera. So I've I'm gonna have to go to IKEA and buy some more furniture to put to put my awards on, love it. Uh so so that'll be fun.

Sam Sethi: 1:25:59

Does that mean we're doing video then? No, it does not mean we're doing video. Can I just point out it's very useless having an awards in your studio that no one could see because we just do video. I don't do video.

James Cridland: 1:26:12

We don't have to do video to this. Uh so that was good. So uh another thing that we did, he says moving on, um, is um there was an inventors section at the uh at Podfest, and I thought, oh well, I will go and show the idea of the podcast location uh and um uh tag, which I did. Um and uh I it was the most humiliating uh experience that I have ever had. Um because I didn't realize inventor I thought meant show us your good ideas, not show us your good business plans. I didn't realise that I was pitching a business, and so of course, you know, I said I I I went through what the the the location tag did in three minutes. Uh I I did that very, you know, very well in terms of timing. Went through all of that, and all of the judges were looking at me as if I was absolutely insane because I had said in the middle of it, you know, there's no money, uh there's no money to do any of this, uh, it's all completely open. We're using the open open street map, it's all completely open. And they were looking at me, and then one of the judges said, So how are you gonna make money out of this? And I said, Well, I'm not. All podcasters are gonna make money out of this because their stuff is gonna be easier to find. And one of the uh and the judge just sort of shook his head, looked down at his at his um, you know, at his at his uh scoring uh uh sheet, and you could see him writing a zero down there. And and I was there thinking, I was there thinking, you know, I uh you know, I didn't realise that it was a pitching uh event for essentially money, not that you want any money, um, but it was just really weird. So the whole open source thing, the whole idea of, and and this perhaps tells us why podcasting 2.0 in some parts of the world doesn't really, you know, people don't really understand it. Because all of the judges looked at me as if I was just this weird British guy that just landed from a different planet, uh, and they simply could not understand why on earth I was even talking, wasting their time talking about this totally useless thing that wouldn't earn anyone any money. Fascinating, absolutely fascinating.

Sam Sethi: 1:28:29

To be fair, if it's a uh a VC asking for pictures, um they are asking you to give them an idea that would generate income and money and the return.

James Cridland: 1:28:40

Exactly, exactly. If it was VCs asking for pitches, I wouldn't have wasted my time doing that, and I'd have gone off and uh had a little had a little bit more fun in the freezing cold Florida. But uh, but no, this was an inventor's thing. So I thought, well, you know, inventor thing, not not uh making making tons of money thing.

Sam Sethi: 1:28:58

Right.

James Cridland: 1:28:58

Uh so it was very confusing. So, you know, I went into this very naively uh and came out of it feeling like an idiot. So that was fun. It was very weird, but it certainly taught me a lot of why some people just don't understand podcasting 2.0 and why, you know, all of that stuff is just a bit weird. So uh yeah, yeah, yeah. Very strange. Very strange. And uh yes, uh, you you you've written down what I've done this week, so I feel uh duty bound to um go through the three things.

Sam Sethi: 1:29:30

I feel like an absolute bloody stalker around you. Oh look, let me let me make a note for him then.

James Cridland: 1:29:37

Yes, so you have. Yes, so the other thing that I did is I bought a new phone because Apple all of a sudden uh sent me an email saying uh I think it was uh dated the 16th of January, saying, just a reminder, your loner phone is due back on the 16th of January.

Sam Sethi: 1:29:54

Oh I'm so surprised they took it back.

James Cridland: 1:29:57

Yeah, I'm surprised that they've taken it back. I mean, it was the top of the range. Um, you know, Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max XL.

Sam Sethi: 1:30:08

Somebody join the team, they need to give them a phone.

James Cridland: 1:30:11

So I was there thinking, oh, you know, well, here you here here you go. Um so anyway, so yes, so I thought to myself, oh no, I I need to actually have a think about what phone I need to buy and then go out and buy it. Um, so I thought, well, what am I gonna buy? Um do I stick with Apple or do I go back to Android? And I was getting very excited actually about moving back to Android. Um, because I thought to myself, well, you know, it's been a while, but you know, I like the Android, the Pixel Watch more because it's round, um, you know, and it looks nicer, it does better things, um, you know, and and you know, it'd be quite nice to use a Pixel again and blah blah blah. Um but then of course I was there thinking, but I won't have Apple Podcasts, I won't have some of these new apps that I'm using, Flighty and all of those sorts of things. So maybe I should stick with that, I don't know. And um, and then there was a guy called Paul, um, who's a geeky man at the coffee shop that I go to. Um, and there's another geeky man at the coffee shop that listens to this podcast. God knows what he gets from it. Um, but he listens to this podcast while he's mowing his lawn. Hello, Ross. And anyway, Paul ends up uh turning around to me and he says, Well, it's a choice between freedom and privacy. Android gives you freedom, iPhone gives you privacy. And you should probably start with privacy first before freedom.

Sam Sethi: 1:31:34

So I thought that was really interesting, wasn't it? That was uh an interesting take. I mean, the Mel Gibson phone, I've never thought of it as that.

James Cridland: 1:31:43

So yeah, so I thought okay. Given that I've just spent quite some time, you know, lessening my reliance on Google. Um, I don't use its maps, I don't use its search, I don't use its AI, I don't use its single sign-on. Um, I was there thinking, actually, it's probably Apple. Anyway, I've got the orange one. Right.

Sam Sethi: 1:32:04

The one the one that scratches. Excellent.

James Cridland: 1:32:07

Yes, well, I don't care about that because I'm I I take care of my uh I take care of my equipment. You put a case around it, do you? And it is mine. I do not use cases. It's mine. It's mine and I don't use a case. When it was when it wasn't mine, I I spent ten dollars on a case, on the cheapest case from Amazon, um, just so that I wouldn't scratch somebody else's phone. Right. But no, on this one, no, it's my phone. So I will um I I will I will go back to having a naked phone. Uh if it's good enough for MKBHD, it's good enough for me, Sam.

Sam Sethi: 1:32:40

It's the weirdest thing is, right, Apple spent a gazillion trillion dollars on design to make it look beautiful, and then the first thing we all go into is stick a case around it.

James Cridland: 1:32:48

Yeah, I know, I agree. I agree. Actually, the the the orange one is um I mean it's less slippery than previous ones. Um it's got sort of a sort of a etched back, which is made out of something. I'm not quite sure what it's made out of, glass, presumably. Um, but it's um yeah, it's just um it feels it feels more robust, this this new build of the um so I've got the the Pro, not the Pro Max, but I've just got the Pro, which is still$2,000, um, which sounds like an awful lot. Probably because it is.

Sam Sethi: 1:33:21

Well, I've got my iPhone 11 Pro Max and it's still ticking along nicely.

James Cridland: 1:33:26

Well, that's the point. So this will be my phone for quite some time until until Apple make it obsolete. Um so uh yeah, but um but maybe for my 60th I'll upgrade. Maybe for your 60th, yes, you'll upgrade to the Apple iPhone Zimmer.

Sam Sethi: 1:33:45

Special I tell you, I am gonna struggle really badly saying the words I am 60.

James Cridland: 1:33:52

Yeah, well, yeah. Yes. Remind us when that is, just so that we know when to when to get our cards. September.

Sam Sethi: 1:33:59

Yes. Yeah, you got a while. Yes.

James Cridland: 1:34:02

Gosh. Well, there you go.

Sam Sethi: 1:34:04

Anyway, yes, not to be mentioned ever again. Now, moving on.

James Cridland: 1:34:08

I'm I'm I'm you know, I'm I'm I'm gonna look forward to when I get to say that I'm 50. Oh no, that would be that would be going back in time. Um and that's it for this week. Um, I'm sure you're pleased to know. Uh, all of our podcast stories taken from the Pod News Daily Newsletter at Podnews.net.

Sam Sethi: 1:34:27

You can support this show by streaming Sats. You can give us feedback using the Buzz Sprout fan mail link in our show notes. You can send us a super comment or a boost, or better still, become a power supporter like the 23 power supporters. Welcome, Silas, and welcome Seth at weekly.podnews.net.

James Cridland: 1:34:43

Yes, our music is from TM Studios. Our voiceover is Sheila D. Our audio is recorded using CleanFeed, and we edit with Hindenburg. And we're hosted and sponsored by Buzz Sprout. Start podcasting, keep podcasting.

Announcer: 1:34:57

Get updated every day. Subscribe to our newsletter at podnews.net. Tell your friends and grow the show and support us. And support us. The pod news weekly review will return next week. Keep listening.