Past Episodes of Podcast Pontifications

At its core, podcasting is pretty simple. What makes podcasting so complicated, is us, the podcasters, trying to give our audience what they want. But is it what we need?

Podcasters have a myopic view of metrics, often putting the greatest import on statistics that matter the least to the people who matter the most - our listeners. Here’s how to do better for your show.

Want to make a better podcast? Listen to a lot of podcasts that are better than yours. Here’s a simple technique that will make you a more productive podcast listener without monopolizing your time.

16 years in and podcasting still relies on an obfuscated and disconnected-from-reality metric to track all aspects of success: file downloads. There’s a better way. Several, in fact.

Congrats! Your podcast is starting to earn real money. Or has the promise of doing so. Before you rush to hire for a sales or content position, consider picking up a business manager first.

Before you take to the podcast airwaves with your own hot take on a trending topic, answer these three questions to make sure your words aren’t doing more harm than good.

Like most creative and professional pursuits, critical opinions help make podcasting better. But when your criticism inhibits the creative process, it limits the promise and potential of podcasting.

You know that little voice inside your head raising nagging suspicions about some aspect of your podcast? It’s probably there for a reason. And you should probably give it voice.

We tend to assume the power is in the hands of the voice behind the mic. But as podcasting matures and expands, other hands are exerting their influence on what makes it to our ears.

It doesn’t take much looking to find podcasters grumbling about how hard it is to grow the audience of their shows. Most of the time, that’s an internal, not external, problem.

The faster you can get things done on your podcast, the better. But spend 90% of your time in upfront planning. Here’s how podcasters resolve that opposite advice in different ways all the time.

You may call them a frivolous waste of time, but filters and effects on pics, videos, and streams have become a staple of how we communicate. But not in podcasting, oddly enough. Will that change?

To err is human. To really screw things up, it takes a podcaster. With or without a computer. Oopsies happen. Sometimes, leaning into our errors can uncover hidden intentions and creative growth.

If nominations for “busiest podcaster” or “most stressed out podcaster” awards opened, we’d all probably want one. Or a vacation from our podcast. But are these extremes healthy for us or our shows?

Podcast innovation is coming at us faster than ever before. Spoiler: It’s not slowing down. How you react to new ideas that could fundamentally change podcasting says a lot about who you are.

I’ll cut to the chase: Podcast Pontifications is going on medical leave until I can get this 9mm stone out of my left kidney. You really don’t want me screaming in pain every 2 minutes, right?

Podcasters spend so much time doing their podcast that they often lose sight of why they are podcasting. Getting out of the tactical mindset isn’t easy. Maybe it’s something you should meditate over?

Content and context blend together with sound and sight to create the tone of your podcast. Every podcast has a tone. And if it’s discordant, it’s going to sound odd in the potential listener’s ear.

Podcasting is a creative endeavor, and all creatives eventually think their work sucks. And while it might, you’re probably just stuck and need a technique to get you over the hump. Or slump.

Wendy’s has a new podcast, and it’s not great. At least, not on the surface. But what we see as a low-effort offering might mark a new inflection point in podcasting that few of us saw coming.