How do you feel about the future of podcasting in 2026?

Dave Jackson (0:00): Spotify, YouTube, AI slop, immoral creators that are blatantly ripping off other people. It makes you wonder where the heck is podcasting going? We've come a long way in the twenty years since we first started. So I thought we'd go into the deep end of the pool. And I asked you, where do you think podcasting is going?

Dave Jackson (0:22): Do you feel optimistic about it? Pessimistic about it? What do you think? And what's great about this, I really thought, oh, this is the question nobody's gonna answer, and it's the direct opposite. Everybody's got an opinion.

Dave Jackson (0:34): Let's get to them.

Dave Jackson (0:35): The school of podcasting with Dave Jackson.

Dave Jackson (0:41): Podcasting since 2005. I'm your award winning hall of fame podcast coach, Dave Jackson. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you're new to the show, this is where we help you plan, launch, and grow your podcast. Our website is schoolofpodcasting.com.

Dave Jackson (0:58): Use the coupon code listener when you sign up for either a monthly, yearly, or if you want to, go right in the middle, quarterly subscription. It's all available over there. So, yeah, I at the end of the month, I ask you a question. You answer. We discuss.

Dave Jackson (1:14): We're gonna start it off with the one, the only king of podcast editors, Steve Stewart.

Leslie Martin (1:20): I'm gonna sound very pessimistic about the future of podcasting. I think it's kinda true, although I'm still very optimistic personally about it. One thing we can expect from podcasting in 2026 is, there will be a discovery problem, as there always has been. There will be a resurgence in podcasting, as there is every single year. But seriously, I think I can sum up the future podcasts and podcasting with one word, and that's more.

Steve Stewart (1:46): The pessimistic side of me is saying it's gonna be more confusing and more video, and that's really where the focus is in my brain. YouTube will continue to be the number one source. The surveys say people will find new podcasts, and don't disagree with that, especially now with everybody actually moving or not everybody, but a lot of people moving more of their stuff to YouTube, whether it's audio only with a video single frame or actual video. And why should that be a surprise? They have superior search.

Steve Stewart (2:11): YouTube has much superior search and recommendation capabilities over traditional podcast apps. And the cost of recording video these days is as low as it's ever been. Mean, if you wanna set up a studio and stuff, of course, but a Riverside account, setting up a camera with your iPhone, it's it's never been less expensive to do video. These days, oh my gosh, quality can be so much better with very little additional resources. But, of course, the definition of what is a podcast will become muddied and confusing.

Steve Stewart (2:42): A show that is only on one platform cannot be a podcast. A show that can't be without constant Internet connectivity or consumed with a screen off part of the time without having to pay for that usage at least on one platform, it's not a podcast either. It's an exclusive. Maybe it could be considered a private podcast, but restricting people to one app and requiring them to use it in only one way. It's not inclusionary.

Unknown Speaker (3:09): It's exclusionary, which is the opposite of what podcasting is. And I predict podcasting will become more confusing because of video. Apple's recent edition of HLS video is proof. It's proof of that. Most people don't understand how

Steve Stewart (3:22): it works with good reason, because it is more confusing. And don't get me started on all the AI podcasts. Podcasts are getting a bad name because of these counterfeit shows, these fake voices, that intimate personal nature of what podcast has always been, it's gonna be diluted because people aren't going to be able to tell if Kyle and Sheila from NotebookLM are real people. I mean, certainly don't have any chance of meeting them in the hallways at a podcast conference. Just wait.

Steve Stewart (3:50): One of these AI shows is gonna win a podcast award, and they're gonna send people to impersonate Kyle and Sheila from Nobel Geller. You watch. Somebody's gonna do it. It's gonna be fun or funny. But the fallout from something like that is gonna be overwhelming.

Steve Stewart (4:04): I'd love to have a cheery outlook on the future of podcasts and podcasting. I guess the good news is the barrier to podcasting is still low, and there's no governing body or regulatory standards, just best practices. For that reason, podcasting is still the greatest medium on the planet, and I'm proud to be a part of it. More people are gonna get into creating video or audio content, not necessarily just in podcasting, but in every medium out there. The ones that are free are gonna be the low barriers to entry.

Steve Stewart (4:35): Podcasting certainly almost falls into that. You could podcast for free. Well, free as monetarily, but without putting resources behind it, it's not really gonna be sustainable. People are gonna get into digital media in somewhere or another. Podcasting is gonna have its place.

Unknown Speaker (4:53): And I think the people who consume podcasts, they're very special people in that they understand the value of the intimate relationship that podcasting brings. It's a medium unlike any other, and it can be so much more valuable than TikToks and video shorts on YouTube. This has been Steve Stewart, professional podcast editor for ten years now, surprisingly ten years, creator of the Podcast Stars Club, cofounder of the Podcast Stars Academy, and host or cohost, I should say, of the Podcast Editor's Mastermind Show, which guess what? You can find it everywhere, even on YouTube.

Dave Jackson (5:30): Thank you, Steve. Yeah. We'll have links to stevestewart.me and everybody's website and everything mentioned. Just go to schoolofpodcasting.com/1030three. Next up, we got Kim Newlove.

Unknown Speaker (5:42): Hey, Dave. This is Kim Newlove with the pharmacist's voice podcast and the Perrysburg podcast. I'll tell you about my podcast first, and then I will answer the question of the month. For my first podcast, which is called the pharmacist's voice podcast,

Unknown Speaker (5:57): you

Kim Newlove (5:57): can find that at thepharmacist'svoice.com. We explore pharmacy topics and careers so my audience feels connected to the profession of pharmacy and inspired to contribute to it. And then the Perrysburg podcast is my other podcast. It's a local podcast. It's a service project.

Kim Newlove (6:15): It is a resource for the Perrysburg community. We talk about what's in Perrysburg and why people like to live here. The website is perrysburgpodcast.com. And now for my answer to the question of the month. You asked how I feel about the future of podcasting, and I would say that I feel really good about podcasting right now here in 2026.

Kim Newlove (6:38): I think it's gonna be around for a long time, and I personally really enjoy it. I'll give you some more details so you understand why I feel optimistic about podcasting. So for each of my shows, I know my why. I feel like I'm on a mission every time I step up to the mic. And I feel like I'm honoring my why every time I publish an episode.

Kim Newlove (7:02): It's a great feeling. And it it's something that makes you feel like you're accomplishing something. So I'm one of those people that likes to check boxes, and I feel like I'm checking the box every time I step up to the mic. Motivation and passion are very important for podcasters. I must say that I feel motivated to put together an episode every time I do it, for both shows, and I feel passionate about my topics.

Unknown Speaker (7:28): I feel passionate about pharmacy topics and careers, and I feel passionate about telling the community what's in Perrysburg and why people like to live here. Dave, I know that in the past, you've said that content is king. I believe that. And because I believe that, over time, I've been refining my content to fit the mission of each show. And every time I publish something, I aim to give the audience what they want.

Kim Newlove (8:01): So it's on mission, but it's also what the audience wants. I can't help but feel optimistic that I'm going to continue to publish valuable content because I understand the formula. I know the secret sauce. You might think that after a combined 500 episodes across two shows since 2019, I might run out of ideas. But I've heard people say before that they still have plenty of ideas, and I'm in that camp.

Kim Newlove (8:31): I still have plenty of ideas for each of the two shows, and lining up interviews and guests is easy. My guest list is deep, and I always have a waiting list. How can I not feel optimistic about podcasting when things are going right? It's going well. I'm still able to keep up with my production schedules.

Kim Newlove (8:54): I actually just changed my publication schedule from weekly to monthly for The Pharmacist Voice, and it was a great choice. So it helped me better keep up with my production schedule. The podcast is a recipe, not a statue, like you've always said, Dave. So I'm able to keep up with my production schedule, and it feels even better now. I need to focus on income generating activities for the pharmacist's voice because it's for branding, marketing, networking, and building relationships for my business, which is called the pharmacist's voice.

Kim Newlove (9:30): I write, narrate, podcast, coach, and consult. So if I wanna focus on making money, I have to back off a little bit with the podcasting. My schedule changed back in 2025 when my older son who has autism graduated from high school. We have to do what we have to do, but I feel good about podcasting because my production schedule is right for me. I can imagine how if I kept trying to do weekly episodes and it wasn't right for me, I would not feel so optimistic about podcasting.

Unknown Speaker (10:05): I'm gonna wrap this up. I think I've said enough. I probably sound like Pollyanna because I'm saying everything's going great. I do struggle in real life, but overall, I feel really good about podcasting right now. I think I'm making really good choices.

Unknown Speaker (10:19): I'm getting what I want out of podcasting, and I truly believe that my audience gets what they want when they listen. Everything's not perfect, but I do like how it's going, and I feel good about the future of podcasting. Dave, I think that's all I have to say. There was a lot of Dave in that, response, by the way. I've learned a lot from you, and I put it into practice.

Unknown Speaker (10:43): And I think I'm doing really well because of it. So not to be a teacher's pet, but that's my 2¢ on the April 2026 question of the month. Thank you so much for including my response among the others. Can't wait to hear what everybody else has to say. And that's it.

Kim Newlove (10:59): This has been Kim Dulove from the pharmacist's voice podcast and the Perrysburg podcast. Happy podcasting, everyone.

Dave Jackson (11:05): Thank you, Kim. And there are no wrong answers here, by the way. The way you feel is the way you feel. And the one thing, and I'll talk about this a little later, is depending on where you are and who you hang out and what's what's happening, that's gonna have a different effect on your opinion. And so I that's why I wanted to hear your opinion.

Dave Jackson (11:25): Let's hear Todd's.

Todd the Gator (11:27): Hey, Dave. It's Todd the Gator here with the Guardian Down Roundtable and fifty years experience required soon to become lessons in the rearview podcast. I am definitely more of the optimist here. I really think that podcasting will become more a part of our daily lives than it does today. You can see TV and radio and all the other classic forms of media out there.

Todd the Gator (11:50): They're struggling to compete with streaming and other internet forms of entertainment like YouTube. So too will podcasting become more woven into our routines. I know that I produce a live video form of my show, but you still can't beat the portability and more importantly, the personal connection of an audio podcast. I have limited time to tune into YouTube before work, but I can listen to many podcasts throughout the day. It's much more efficient.

Todd the Gator (12:17): And I learn something new every time to boot. My only worry is ads. I think the listeners will vote with their time when it comes to ads. I know my thirty second skip button is worn out on my phone and I hate to be the pessimist here. I don't really think advertisers are going to change the way they pay us poor podcasters.

Todd the Gator (12:39): I think for most of us podcast producers down the road, we're going to eventually see that. And I believe that more crowdfunded forms of monetization will emerge. The only thing that bothers me today is that my forms of crowdfunding, like my Patreon community, they're a little clunky in terms of ease of joining. But once a platform figures out how to integrate Patreon or buy me a coffee or whatever into podcasting, where it's more effortless to just press a single button and boom, you're in, the more it'll be accepted as the main form of monetization. And I think more podcasters will earn a living doing what they love and have a passion for.

Todd the Gator (13:16): I really think that more podcasters in the future will be profitable as they each have their own unique fan base. Once someone pushes the envelope in the podcasting industry out there and takes the leap of changing the old ways of monetization, I really think the other forms of podcast companies out there will soon follow. And then boom, it will be the way that you can finance our hobby. So yeah, I'm an optimist for the most part, but very pessimistic at the current system of annoying ads, whether you're host reading them or the jarring intrusions that are dynamically inserted into your podcast. But I digress.

Todd the Gator (13:55): We go live every Thursday night, 9PM Eastern on my YouTube and Twitch channels covering topics that affect our gaming hobby as adults. The channels are both Todd the Gator, t o d d t h e g a t r. The podcast is called Guardian Down Roundtable, where my co hosts and I invite members of our adult gaming community to jump on the show and present a topic that they wanna discuss to the table. I mean, we really honor what our guest co host wants to talk about so much so that we've gone off script sometimes and talked about anything from how professional mechanics are undercut from dealerships they work for with their pay structure to how our younger generations are robbed of the social training of working at a physical office versus the remote working that a lot of them do now, which is one of our topics this week. We also go live in our now eight year old Discord community on the live stage.

Todd the Gator (14:51): So we were streaming to all three platforms simultaneously. If you would like to check out that community, the invite link is discord./guardiandownroundtable. I'm starting a new solo podcast called lessons in the rear view, where I present topics and stories and lessons learned from living a life as a thirty two year business owner, thirty four year married person, a gamer, a father of a son and daughter, and now the new role of grandfather. I share stories of my mishaps, but also my breakthroughs. It'll be coming soon.

Todd the Gator (15:24): I do have the domain. It's lessonsintherearview.com. I'll be launching very soon. But until then, you can go to fifty years experiencerequired.com to listen to my past episodes covering anything from money, relationships, and running a business and more. As usual, thank you, Dave, for all you do, sir, to get podcasters on track.

Unknown Speaker (15:44): And congratulations on the new merger. Take care. Thank you

Unknown Speaker (15:48): so much, Todd. Next up, we got Leslie.

Leslie Martin (15:51): Hello, Dave. This is Leslie Martin. I've been a podcaster for over six years now, but I've been doing it under a secret identity that I cannot reveal here. But I can reveal that in real life, I do podcast editing and production. And if anybody is interested in either of those services, I would appreciate if they would just drop by my website at greatland.media.

Leslie Martin (16:13): As for the question of the month, well, I am pessimistic about the future of podcasting. Of course, we're all aware that Spotify and YouTube are trying to seize control of the word and the concept of podcasting so they can basically destroy it because they can't make any money from podcasting, which by definition is open to anyone and everyone, no gatekeepers, nobody in the middle, saying what they can and cannot do and holding out their hand for some money. They only make their money when they can control the creators and consumers in the audience. So they're trying to dilute and redefine the meaning of what a podcast is, substituting their own definition, and then ultimately erasing from people's memory what true podcasting is. Unfortunately, there are those among us who have turned quiseling.

Leslie Martin (17:02): They think that they're being neutral, that they're acting as mediators, but in fact, they've capitulated. Their argument is that, well, the public, the audience should get to define whatever a podcast is. And whatever they wanna call a podcast, if it's a YouTube video, a Spotify exclusive, well, then so be it. Well, that is, forgive me for being blunt, the lazy ignorant argument of a fool. Nobody would say that the public, the car media, the magazines, the newspapers, if they wanna call a Yugo a Cadillac, well, then it's a Cadillac.

Leslie Martin (17:42): It doesn't matter as long as that's what they believe. No rational person would make such a stupid argument. And trust me, Cadillac would have a problem with that. So we in podcasting should have a problem with YouTube, Spotify, and the public calling things podcast that aren't podcasts. We need to educate the public.

Leslie Martin (18:07): I know it's a hard slog because we're fighting against some big money and some powerful voices and traders within our own ranks that those people can point to and say, see, we told you it's a podcast. But if we don't educate the public as to what a podcast really is and why it matters, we're gonna lose podcasting and it will be our fault. Well, that's my my take on your question. And once again, I'm Leslie Martin at great land dot media.

Unknown Speaker (18:40): Thank you, Leslie. And, yeah, I'll be chiming in on these. If you're like, hey. Why isn't Dave interrupting these like he normally does? We got a few, so I'm gonna save my comments to the end, but, it's great to hear everyone's opinion, including the one and only Ralph Estep Junior, the content creator's accountant.

Ralph Estep Jr. (18:55): Hello, Dave. It's Ralph Estep Junior. You can find me at askralph.com. And, honestly, Dave, as I thought more and more about the question of the month, I said, you know, there are a lot of things that I can be optimistic about. Personally, I think there's many more opportunities available out there.

Ralph Estep Jr. (19:13): Technology has made the idea of podcasting open to a lot more people. There's certainly a ton of different platforms to put your content on. Those are all positive things, but at the same time, I'm a little pessimistic as well. One of the things that I think is really happening in the industry is there is this widening gap between those who are making it and those who are not making it. Now, honestly, and I've spoke about this with you before and been on the ask the podcast show talking about it.

Unknown Speaker (19:45): In a lot of ways, there are a lot of these coach hustlers out there telling all these people about how you can make a million dollars overnight by podcasting. You just gotta get out there and be consistent and put out the content. But unfortunately you and I both know that's not going to happen for most people. That's why I always say, listen, you've gotta define at the front end, what is your why and how you measure that. So if you're able to have a why, it's a passion, it's a project for you, something you really enjoy, And you understand how you're going to measure that.

Ralph Estep Jr. (20:20): And that measurement is something that you can quantify and you feel good about. And I feel very optimistic about podcasting. If you're in podcasting because your why is to make a lot of money, Honestly, Dave, at this point, I feel a little pessimistic about that. Of course, there's always the opportunities to sell your own things. You've talked about that in your school of podcasting, in the book that you wrote.

Ralph Estep Jr. (20:46): But I think the gap between those who are making money in podcasting and those who are not is actually widening. I think it's becoming much more difficult to make money in podcasting. So in that regard, I feel a little pessimistic. Again, I think it comes down to your perspective. So to answer the question of the month, month, define your why measure that and understand whether you're meeting your own internal barometer of whether things are going well for you.

Ralph Estep Jr. (21:20): If you're interested in finding out more about me, you can go to askralph.com where I do several shows. I do financially confident Christian. That's a daily sort of devotional show where I help people with their finances. I also do a weekly sermon show. It's called truth unveiled with Ralph.

Ralph Estep Jr. (21:39): And finally, do a very practical business show and that's called the content creator's accountant. You can find all of that content at askralph.com, but Hey, one more thing. I also am the co executive producer of the podcasting morning show. And I would encourage everybody to come and join us. We're actually changing the time starting May 4.

Ralph Estep Jr. (22:00): It'll be to 8AM Eastern time. And you can find that at podcastingmorningshow.com. Thank you, Dave. I appreciate everything you do. You always bring great information to the podcasting ecosphere.

Unknown Speaker (22:14): So thank you so much, Dave. You be well, my friend.

Dave Jackson (22:17): Thank you, Ralph. And, again, I'll have a link to that out at schoolofpodcasting.com/103three.

York (22:24): Hi, Dave. This is York from Welcome to Earth Stories. I think the biggest danger for podcasters is the government.

Unknown Speaker (22:33): Oh, yeah. This should be fun.

York (22:35): In my country, Canada, there's new rules being placed on regular citizens, speech laws. And some of these laws, they make it so difficult to speak your mind, to speak things that you know are the truth. But because there's sensitive listeners, you're not allowed to do so. You have to speak them in quiet, in your home, And pretty soon, are saying that even your home may be a place that they can listen into. But that's for another story.

York (23:13): For me, I don't really deal with politics on my show. It's fictional. But sometimes, I have to be careful because we have here in Canada all different laws, as I said, being passed, and people are listening in, writing things down, and feeding it back to the government. Even places that you wouldn't think that the government will be listening into, they are. So that is my fear.

York (23:44): Hopefully, my fellow Canadians will fight. But here in Canada, we're not really known for that, for standing up to the system, sometimes here and there. Overall, that's not really the Canadian motif. That's not really our style. My plea is for other nations to step up and don't let what the Canadian government has in store for podcasters.

York (24:15): Don't let your government do the same thing. That's gonna take tremendous effort to resist and to say boldly and passionately and respectfully, I wanna fight to record it and to put it out there. But there's a lot of pushback. But we have to push back even harder. There's a story that I wrote called The Almighty Algorithm that's coming out later on this year.

York (24:44): And it talks about these type of things, about government control, about podcasters being de platformed because of the things they have to say. And even though this is a fictional story, I see some truth behind it all. For the positive, because of all of the tools that's out there, all of the intelligent tools, it makes telling a story even better, especially if you are on a very low budget, and you don't have 20 engineers and all of the actors involved to making great stories. Now, with some small modifications, with the various tools that I have because of AI, a virtual million dollar studio. I think this is great for storytellers, particularly when it comes to fictional storytellers because you could create music, sound effects in all different worlds.

York (25:49): We weren't able to do that at least at a financially responsible way. And it's gonna get even better and better with the new software that's that's gonna be coming out. Those are my two things. One is a little bit of government control and the other one is how intelligence is reshaping the creative world. If you wanna hear more from me, especially the episode that I alluded to earlier, the almighty algorithm, you could visit me on my website at welcometoearthstories.com.

York (26:28): And we have a new season, season nine coming out later this year. Thanks, Dave.

Dave Jackson (26:35): Thank you, York. And this was an one aspect I hadn't even thought about it. And now that I have, I'm like, holy cow. But let's toss it over to Chris.

Unknown Speaker (26:43): Hey. What's happening, Dave, and everybody at School of Podcasting? I am Chris of the brand new show, cool cars with Chris. Basically, think of it like your cars and coffee. It was a podcast, it would be Cool Cars with Chris.

Unknown Speaker (26:56): You can find it at coolcarswithchris.com. And to answer your question of the month, well, let's get me thinking because podcasting is kind of evolving. Like, we don't know where it's going, what's trending, what's popular. People think it's going in one direction. Some people think it's going another direction.

Unknown Speaker (27:12): And I think podcasting, at least from the user side, the consumer side, the listener side, it kinda really depends. And so when you're creating something for that user, whatever it is, you have to kinda think about what mood or what kind of things they're into, what they're listening for. Some people listen to podcasts to learn things. Some people like to listen to podcasts to just be merely entertained. Sometimes a combination of both, you know, it really just depends.

Chris (27:40): But I think that for me personally, if I'm gonna look up something really quickly, I usually don't don't go to a podcast to do that. And so for me, when it comes to a podcast, I think I listen for possibly the host, if I like the host or not, their point of views or not, you know, their delivery, of course, sound quality, of course, just all the basic normal things. But what is the future gonna be for podcasting? You know, what I've been doing on this new show here is something that I have never done in podcasting before ever, Taking the show on the road, like actually doing live recordings at live events in person outside outside the office, you know, going out and about. I think maybe possibly that could be the new direction for podcasting.

Unknown Speaker (28:30): It's an immersive experience. It's not just sitting here in the studio recording into your computer in your office. You can be taking the show on the road. You know, I know interviewing is popular, but maybe just maybe, you know, getting outside your comfort zone, out of the chair, out of the seat, outside, out and about, touch grass, all that kind of stuff. Maybe that's where the future podcast needs to go.

Chris (28:53): Because I think sometimes we think of a podcast, just somebody sitting there at their desk, just reading a transcript, something they probably easily could have found out on ChatGPT or Google themselves. But here you are saying it. I'm not, you know, jabbing you personally or like that. I'm just saying a lot of shows do that format, and maybe that format is starting to dry up. I don't know.

Unknown Speaker (29:14): But that's my thoughts. Anyways, you can find me at coolcarswithchris.com, and I'll see you later.

Dave Jackson (29:19): Thank you, Chris. Again, everybody's link will be out at schoolofpodcasting.com/1030three, and I'm gonna chime in right after this.

Steve Stewart (29:28): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (29:30): Still not sure if you should join the school of podcasting? Listen to the latest message I got from one of my members.

Speaker 10 (29:36): Hey, Dave. It's Mark Lawley at Practical Prepping. We're the prepping podcast with no bunkers, no zombies, and no alien invasions, just practical prepping. Just wanted to tell you, it's working. We're hitting over a thousand downloads in the first week.

Speaker 10 (29:52): A couple of episodes have hit a thousand in the first two or three days. Most are around 1,600 in thirty days, but a couple went over 2,000 in less than thirty days. Just thought we'd let you see how your coaching is helping a middle aged couple with a little old podcast in North Alabama that started on a $30 Olympus single track digital recorder.

Dave Jackson (30:14): Wow. Thank you so much, Mark. And you've heard what I've helped Mark do. Let's see what you and I can do together. Go to schoolofpodcasting.com/listener and join today.

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Dave Jackson (31:29): The school of podcasting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Dave Jackson (31:33): Alright. I'm gonna start off with RSS. RSS is the syndication of podcasts, and it's so powerful because let's say I got kicked out of Overcast because I said booger. Okay. I'm still available on every other app.

Dave Jackson (31:52): That is not the case with YouTube. A giant quotation marks here, YouTube podcast only goes to YouTube and YouTube music. And with AI slop, and that's what it is. And I know some of the companies hate it when we call it AI slop. So with that, I say your AI slop is causing lots of noise around podcasting, and what I'm talking about is hundreds of shows.

Dave Jackson (32:22): Shows, not episodes, shows, hundreds a day. And I was listening to the podcasting two point o show, and here's Dave Jones, who is the guy that runs the podcast index. And here's what he was saying.

Speaker 11 (32:36): I wanna be fair to all of the hosting companies. It may seem like I'm giving Spreaker a hard time because they they had just become such a factory for Slop.

Unknown Speaker (32:50): Slop factory.

Unknown Speaker (32:52): They're a Slop factory. They've become a Slop factory.

Unknown Speaker (32:54): They're a Slop slut.

Speaker 11 (32:56): And this morning, saw a a whole slew of of just scam garbage with phone numbers to call and all the the it's a full on scam Yeah. A campaign. I saw this hitting multiple hosts, Buzzsprout, Podio, who was a Podbean, it was like three different hosts. The the rock and a harder place that the hosting companies are in is that they you have to do a free even if you don't have a full a a true free tier tier, like Spreaker and rss.com and Red Circle, even if you don't have that, you still at least it's table stakes now that you have to have a trial period, fourteen days, thirty days, whatever it is, you just have to. And a lot of stuff can happen in a in a fourteen day or a thirty day trial.

Speaker 11 (33:57): It's a whole lot of abuse. And I know as I know for a fact that there are people in the hosting companies every single day they spend, who knows, an hour or more scraping through the trial accounts trying to get rid of this stuff and four zero four these these scam feeds.

Unknown Speaker (34:20): Yeah.

Dave Jackson (34:20): It's hard, man. So we've got, you know, the company's called Inception Point. I like to call them Insloption Point. And thank you, Jason, for that over at Empowered Podcasting. I love that term.

Dave Jackson (34:33): And the other thing we've run into is, again, these are just morally bankrupt people that in this case, like, they could make a show. Mine's called the school of podcasting. Maybe theirs is gonna be called the school of podcast. And then the artworks looks very similar. And then oh, except they're doing it for history podcast because history doesn't change in general.

Dave Jackson (34:58): That's a whole other podcast. But James Kerdlin from podnews.net, great source for all things podcast news, Did some snooping around, and, well, here's what he found.

Speaker 12 (35:09): The company is based in New York state. It's run by Ibnul Jayf Farabi, who uses a post office box in East Harlem. Farabi's commented on Reddit and is unrepentant. He says, you lot because you don't like competition. If your entire business model is being threatened by one person using AI agents, then you need to adapt.

Speaker 12 (35:30): Otherwise, perish.

Dave Jackson (35:32): I'm sure his mother is proud. Yeah. So we're up against that kind of stuff. And if you're kind of thinking, nobody's ever I mean, the AI stuff's never really gonna catch on. Well, then I tuned in to the new media show where they were interviewing the CEO of Libsyn, and Rob Greenlee mentioned this.

Unknown Speaker (35:51): It's gonna get tiring with people talking about AI slop when there's audiences growing and consuming that content. You know? Because we had a a show in The UK just in the last two weeks that reached the number one most popular show in The UK that was all AI generated. Mhmm. That's just already happened.

Dave Jackson (36:08): And then there's YouTube. And, yes, YouTube is not a podcast because it doesn't have an RSS feed. And I agree with the person who was like, we need to educate the audience, but I think that boat has sailed. I've just said at this point, it's messing up our metrics. So when people go, the number one podcast is on YouTube, and you go, it's only available on YouTube.

Dave Jackson (36:33): Like, that's the only place you can watch it. So but the other thing that people aren't talking about is demonetization. And go to YouTube. This is what I did. I started studying.

Dave Jackson (36:45): Are people getting kicked off of YouTube? And a lot of people are. Well, I don't know about a lot, not compared to the insane amount of people that are on YouTube, but this is from a guy. It's JJ Jack Films. And these are people that do animation, like legit animation, and they're getting demonetized.

Dave Jackson (37:04): Check this out.

Speaker 13 (37:05): Eddie FRB announced that their channel got demonetized. Just kind of magically and automatically, it just it just happened without any details as to why. So they obviously reapplied for monetization. And here's where it got weird. After a quote unquote manual review, YouTube claimed that Eddie's content remains repetitive, mass produced, and inauthentic.

Dave Jackson (37:30): Okay. I saw the video. None of the above. It's absolutely ridiculous, that claim.

Speaker 13 (37:35): Why would YouTube just automatically demonetize a whole channel as creative as Eddie FRBs. So Eddie theorizes that it's not the long form content, it's the Shorts that YouTube is flagging as repetitive. Let's take a look at their Shorts. Right? Are they spamming with copy paste Shorts?

Speaker 13 (37:55): No. Not at all. But the infuriating thing is even though visually they share similar templates, these are all different videos. It seems it appears as though YouTube's AI flagging system mislabeled this content as spammy or repetitive simply because upon passing glance, sure, they look the same because there are templates. There are these vertical templates, but the real content, the meat is in the middle.

Speaker 13 (38:23): That's different. That an actual good, talented, hardworking creator who spends thousands of dollars and weeks and months on videos, they're getting demonetized because of an error. And it somehow gets worse. It gets worse than that. Because in their video, where they, in detail, discuss this whole thing, Eddie shows us that they had to make a video appeal, like an unlisted video appeal to YouTube, right, to reapply for monetization.

Speaker 13 (38:53): So they had to in detail explain themselves like, no, no, no, this isn't repetitive. This is, you know, I'm just doing the formula of making Shorts content from my longs, something that many creators do. It's kind of a thing that you have to do today as a creator. Right? If you make long form content, but you wanna grow your audience, you kinda also have to turn it into the short vertical, you know, TikTok scrollable format.

Speaker 13 (39:19): And then YouTube didn't even watch the video. And then they still said, nah. Yeah. We had someone check. No.

Speaker 13 (39:26): You have to reapply for monetization in June. By the way, it's March, and YouTube is withholding around $6,000 of a month's worth of AdSense that Eddie FRB may not ever get.

Dave Jackson (39:39): Yeah. I had to do some creative editing there. He likes the f word a lot. You do you. But the interesting thing, I thought when I looked into this, that this guy was getting demonetized.

Dave Jackson (39:51): Like, he has a rap battle between Cartman from South Park and Charlie Brown. And I was like, well, that's the problem. And yet because you're arguing with AI and then this and everybody, when they say manual review, they all put up giant quotation marks. So this is why I'm like, do we really wanna make YouTube the king? Do we is that really okay?

Dave Jackson (40:15): Because, you know, enjoy their customer service.

Steve Stewart (40:17): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Dave Jackson (40:18): Throw on top of that Spotify, and we'll not even mention the fact that they lied to their partners when they first came on the scene and then bought a company and became their competition by buying a free media host. Now we're not even gonna mention that. It's just the fact that all of their features only work in Spotify, and they're not really, let's just say, overjoyed about RSS. They said it you can't update it, which was funny because then, you you know, things like that transcript thing that now everybody's using. Yeah.

Dave Jackson (40:51): It turns out you can update RSS specs. And had they come to the table, there are a whole bunch of people that are working on things to make RSS do more, but Spotify has yet to implement hardly any of it. Everything they do is different. Everything is just only works in Spotify. And so they're the kid on the playground that doesn't wanna play with anyone and then wonders why they don't have any friends.

Dave Jackson (41:19): But Dave, they're free. Yeah. I know. And they've got a big, big, big, big giant megaphone. I guess, you know, they actually own that company too.

Dave Jackson (41:29): But, I mean, they get the marketing word out there, and a lot of their marketing is things that isn't always entirely specific. I'll go that route before I go getting sued. So I'm not if you need free, check out rss.com. Check out Buzzsprout. There are much better free options.

Steve Stewart (41:49): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Dave Jackson (41:50): And so the other player in the pool is Apple. And now with their HLS video gizmo, the beauty of that is that video is being delivered via an RSS feed. So I love the fact that there are two big players, huge players that you have to go to their platform to get it. And with this new video from Apple, you know, you can get it wherever you find wherever you find your podcast. And, again, never say that.

Dave Jackson (42:23): And I've interviewed Justin Jackson who's very excited about this new way of getting video into Apple versus the old way. They both are delivered via RSS again, which is great. But I am of the meh, and we're gonna talk about that and how you can have three people with completely different points of view, and yet they're all right. That's that's a future episode. So, Dave, you sound very pessimistic.

Dave Jackson (42:56): There are my good friend, I miss him a lot. Been thinking about him a lot. My buddy, Todd Cochran, I remember, and this goes back decades, and there were things going on with advertisers. Not that all advertising is bad, of course. But he came out, and Todd had had a an an adult beverage or two and came out and stood on these steps and said, boys, there's a there's a fox in the henhouse.

Dave Jackson (43:25): It's already here. And that's kinda how I think about that. And and, you know, we have faced trials before. There was a patent troll that at one point almost shut down all of podcasting. And thanks to the IFF, I believe, Freedom Foundation something, a bunch of lawyers got together and fought that for us because some guy tried to say he had a patent on podcasting.

Dave Jackson (43:54): So we've seen creepy things come in. That's the kind of disadvantage. The bigger we grow, the more people are gonna try to hijack it. And I do get nervous that so many decisions are based on, well, it's good for the advertisers because they say, well, if the advertisers, if we can't figure this out, you know, podcasting is gonna go away. And I'm like, no, no.

Dave Jackson (44:21): The advertisers will go away. There are other ways to monetize, and that's where I tend to agree with Todd the Gator. I think we're gonna see more people turn to things like I like Supercast. I know we all say Patreon. I like Supercast.

Dave Jackson (44:38): It's a little easier if you do this on your phone. When you sign up for Supercast, it goes, oh, hey. You're on an iPhone. Do you wanna listen to this in Apple Podcast? I also see you have Pocket Cast and Overcast on your phone.

Dave Jackson (44:51): It does make it a whole lot easier. That's the biggest reason why I like Supercast versus other types of, you know, premium tools. You have to tell your audience who isn't that techie, oh, go in. Don't click on the RSS feed, copy it, and then paste it, and then go into Apple Podcasts. Go into shows, and then click on the three dots, and we've already lost half the audience.

Dave Jackson (45:15): So, yeah, that's always kind of so that's one of the reasons why I like Supercast, and I think we're gonna see more people doing that. I do see more companies just being the, you know, Johnny on the spot. It's a you know, we do it slices. It dices. It even julienne's.

Dave Jackson (45:35): Order now. Beehive, which is a newsletter tool, which also has a way to build a website, has tacked on podcast hosting, and I heard they're now tacking on live streaming. And in my travels, I could be wrong. I need to go kick the tires on Beehive. When you try to be everything to everyone like, I just went over and played with Riverside's hosting, and they didn't even make it through the first test.

Dave Jackson (46:06): And I was like, oh, I'm not using this. Now it's bare bones. And if you need someone to just host your media but from a marketing standpoint, I was like, wait. I can't put a link in the episode to the episode? I was like, yeah, that's not gonna work for me.

Dave Jackson (46:20): And so I've not been in the beehive thing yet. Haven't looked at it, but I just know a lot of those things when they try to be everything to everyone. The end result is meh. So those things can make me feel pessimistic because there are wolves here, and they don't care about podcasting. They care about their board of directors.

Dave Jackson (46:47): They care about profit. And, of course, they should. I want profitable companies. But in the end, I don't think they care about creating a great experience for the audience, and that's really the number one thing. But the thing that keeps me kinda like Steve Stewart said, I believe in podcasting.

Dave Jackson (47:09): When I first heard about it, and this is where I always say, if you give a podcast to a marketer, they're gonna try to sell things. If you give a podcaster to someone like me, I'm a teacher, I wanna educate everyone. And so when I heard I could reach people on a global audience via an RSS feed, Real Simple Syndication, I was like, woah. This is a game changer, and that has not changed. The fact that I can hear from people on the other side of the planet, that's amazing.

Dave Jackson (47:48): Never forget that those are real people. When you go into your stats and your media host and you go, wow. I'm being heard in a 113 countries. That's because there are a 113 countries of people that are checking out your stuff. That's the truth.

Dave Jackson (48:05): Here's something that there are no hurdles on, and that is making great content. Yes. There's time. There's those kids that are always getting in the way. You know?

Dave Jackson (48:16): But making great content and asking your audience to share, that's what I've been talking about for decades. And I I get it. It's not the 10,000 download switch. But when we look at all the promotional items now, shorts, YouTube just put a tool in to where you could say, I only want to see thirty five minutes of shorts. I don't know about you.

Dave Jackson (48:45): When I try to find the long form information that I want to watch on YouTube, I can't find it. Again, they're ruining the experience for the audience. But YouTube just went in and said, hey. You can now kinda dial down the Shorts on your page as an audience member. So if your tool to grow your audience with Shorts, that might be taking a hit right now, which is funny because YouTube, a while back, changed the criteria of a Short to mean basically zero.

Dave Jackson (49:22): Like, if you watch point 001% of a video, it's now counted as a view. And then you're like, wow. I got 20,000 views of this one video. I'm going viral. Are you?

Dave Jackson (49:34): Go in and look at the completion percentage. But I love the fact that we can still reach a global audience with our stuff. And then if we can make content, and it's, again, it's simple, it's not easy, so good that they tell a friend that is not corrupted yet. We don't have bots going out and saying, hey, I'm your uncle Charlie. You should check out this show.

Dave Jackson (50:03): Because if my brother recommends something to me, I'm watching it. Me and my brother, we're not twins, but, man, we're close. So I still love that. I love the fact that you, yes, you can start a podcast. They're like, oh, well, do I have to get schooled or do I have to get some sort of certification?

Dave Jackson (50:25): No. You if you got something to say and a couple $100 for equipment, you can start podcasting. Now I can help you with the kind of best practices, and that's probably not a bad idea. I just heard I just listened to seven episodes of a brand new to me, brand new podcast about podcasting where the person kept referring to, hey, because you're watching this video. And I kept thinking, no.

Dave Jackson (50:53): I'm I'm listening to it. And he could have just said, hey, you know, because you're consuming this episode. Yeah. There you go. And now I still think you're talking to me.

Dave Jackson (51:03): But I love the fact that anyone can start a podcast. That's also, you know, for the record, one of the bad things about podcast. And the good news is anyone can start one. The bad news is anybody can start one. But if you have something to say and you wanna reach a global audience, and I still say there's nothing stopping you from growing your audience.

Dave Jackson (51:25): The only difference is if we compare 2005, we had this lovely grass filled park, and we would go to the top of the hill in the park, and you could say, I have a new podcast. And everyone in the park could go, oh, wow. I just heard there's a new podcast. Well, now fast forward twenty years, there's a there's that party at the bottom of the hill that's doing a barbecue and good for them because it smells amazing. But they also brought a stereo, and it's really loud, and they got a lot of oomphs, oomphs, oomphs, and you're trying, hey.

Dave Jackson (52:00): I've got a new button. People can't hear it because there's too much noise. And then there's this other crowd that came in, and they've got who knows what's going there's a lot of noise now. But if you've got that passion and you've got that drive and you just wanna talk about it even if you don't make any money, then podcasting is still great. Keep in mind, there are a lot of things being added to podcasting that are being brought over from radio.

Dave Jackson (52:30): And so if you're a new DJ in a small market, from my research, I saw you're gonna make somewhere around 20 to 30,000 a year. And that's kinda hard to feed a family on, which is why if you're in a small market, you're in, I don't know, Beaver Mud Mississippi and you're, you know, Bubba Fresh is helping to open the new Piggly Wiggly supermarket. There's a reason why Bubba needs that gig because he's gotta make some money. Now if you make it to a midsize sort of market, maybe a Cleveland. Hello, Cleveland.

Dave Jackson (53:05): You know, you're gonna make around 40,000 as a DJ. But this whole thing of, like, I'm gonna start a podcast and I'm gonna make 6 figures. Maybe if you're using the podcast to promote your business, you typically the people that are making bank from podcasts are not making money from the podcast. They're using it as a marketing arm. But I talked to some folks in radio and they said, yeah, midsize market, you're making about 40,000.

Dave Jackson (53:32): If you're the morning person, then you might make a little more. But we need companies that care about podcasting. Why? Because in 1996, the US government passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and it kinda ruined radio because they all got bought by each other where you used to have, you know, maybe 50 people to contact and say, hey. Will you play my record?

Dave Jackson (54:04): Now you got about, I don't know, 14. And so and they all sound the same. Oh my gosh. And they don't care. They don't care that they ruined radio.

Dave Jackson (54:16): Radio used to be amazing in America. In fact, recently oh, do we need one of these? We do need one of these. Hold on. And now

Unknown Speaker (54:23): it's time for a power rant.

Dave Jackson (54:27): About three years ago, there was a guy on Saturday nights, and he was doing radio like it was when I was a wee lad. And he would take requests. And he had an amazing an amazing amount of knowledge. He would be talking about all these old bands, and he would update us. He's like, hey.

Dave Jackson (54:44): I know you haven't heard about these guys since '87, but they've done this and they've done this. And it was amazing show and is entertaining, and it wasn't like anything else on the radio. And we're like, wow. And I literally had an alarm set on Saturday to tune in to the radio, which is just poo poo kah kah the rest of the time. It was appointment.

Dave Jackson (55:04): It was must hear radio. And, of course, the radio station fired the dude. It was amazing radio. So, you know, you can't have good stuff. And now the guy's trying to do it on his own on, I think, live three sixty five or something like that.

Dave Jackson (55:22): But realize that these big companies may not care about podcasting in general, and I don't think they care about the audience because they're too busy looking at the profit line. So these giant ones, the Spotifys, the YouTubes, and things like that. So when they yank somebody's you know, hey. We're gonna demonetize you because, I don't know. Our AI got it wrong.

Dave Jackson (55:46): I I've I've yet to hear anyone say, oh, their customer service was amazing. Haven't heard that yet. So let's wrap this up. Am I worried about some of the big players in podcasting? Sure.

Dave Jackson (55:59): And I continue to watch them, and I'm doing my best to watch them with an unbiased view. I I realize I always sound like I'm anti video. I'm I'm not. I'm actually doing more things on YouTube, but I'm also not counting on any money coming in from that. And if money does come in from that, I'm not, you know, tying my whatever house payment to that.

Dave Jackson (56:25): So I am worried, but I'm still very optimistic about podcasting because I see the potential. Somewhere, I have a recording of me in 2005 saying, I think podcasting is gonna change the world, And I still believe that. But the more money and the more success that comes to those who push through and persevere and, you know, listen to their audience and get better with every episode, the more people become successful, the more wolves are gonna come in trying to get their piece of the podcasting pie. Whereas my buddy, Paul Culligan, says, that sweet, sweet podcast money.

Steve Stewart (57:09): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (57:12): Oh, now that's a good question.

Dave Jackson (57:15): Most of us use some sort of remote recording for interviews, etcetera, etcetera, and most of us have gone through more than one. So think of a new podcaster they say, I want to record remotely. Who do you recommend and why? And then let us know any horror stories from previous ones you've used. I need your answer by 05/22/2026, and don't forget to say a little bit about your podcast and your website.

Dave Jackson (57:48): Just go to schoolofpodcasting.com/question by May 22 or click the link in the show notes. Oh, where am I gonna be? August 21 through the twenty third, Charlotte, North Carolina, Empowered Podcasting three. I went last year and the minute it was over, I'm like, I'm going back to this one. You gotta check out this one, especially designed for independent podcasters with a maximum capacity of 250 people.

Dave Jackson (58:24): I love that because I get to meet everyone. Check it out. Empoweredpodcasting.com.

Dave Jackson (58:32): The school of podcasting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Dave Jackson (58:37): So, again, everything is out at schoolofpodcasting.com/103three. And keep your eyes focused on your audience. Keep your ears focused on your audience. Find out what they want and give it to them in a fun and entertaining fashion and make content that's so amazing that they can't help but share it with their audience. Speaking of that, this would be a good time to go to your phone and click that share button and share it with at least one person.

Dave Jackson (59:07): That would mean the world to me. And if you're a person that's like, alright, Dave. I think I got the passion. I definitely have an idea for a podcast, and I'm ready to plan, launch, and grow my podcast. Well, check us out at schoolofpodcasting.com.

Dave Jackson (59:21): Use the coupon code listener when you sign up for either a monthly, quarterly, or yearly subscription. And, of course, that comes with a thirty day money back guarantee and a whole bunch of coaching, a whole bunch of community, and a whole bunch of courses to get you going in the right direction. Thanks again so much. Until next week. Take care.

Dave Jackson (59:42): God bless. Class is dismissed.