If we listen to many mainstream climate stories, then time has run out. Right? This thoughtful series hosted by Laurie Laybourn explores what happens now that we are on track for the world's temperature to rise by more than 1.5C. Its first episode is tough but crucial listening, full of talk about how scientists have underestimated the risks, listing potential outcomes including the UK being unable to grow food. It's time to draw up new plans to cope. Alexi Duggins Widely available, episodes weekly
This week, I've been reading about Intel factories and Nobel Prize winners and ATM thieves, watching this pop-punk "Defying Gravity" cover on repeat, reliving my teenage music taste now that The Format is back, catching up on the new Critical Role campaign, taking all my calls with the delightful Pop Phone handset, watching more Love Is Blind than I'm proud of, sending this deep dive on RSS readers to anyone who hasn't blocked me,
People hunt for shortcuts - some podcast episode that dials in confidence and charisma overnight. Spoiler: not happening. What actually works are the small, compounding habits any of us can pick up if we pause long enough to listen and apply. I've made rent hustling side projects, missed on others, and learned the same lesson every time: leadership doesn't come as inspiration; it comes as repetition.
He said the "whole concept of brand safety" is a "problem." "That's just subjective," he said onstage in conversation with measurement giant Nielsen. "You look at somebody and you look at their audience and you say they're not necessarily safe. What does that mean? There was a time a couple of years ago they were saying Judy Blume books weren't safe - Judy Blume!
Observer critic Miranda Sawyer and gal-dem founder Liv Little team up to give their takes on the cultural zeitgeist, each bringing their own interests to cover everything from reality TV to fine art. First up, Little charts the massive rise of former Little Mixer Jade Thirlwall (the girlies are loving her), while Sawyer explores how true crime revolutionised podcasting and exploded into documentaries, drama and more.
If the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election could be summed up in the style of Dustin Hoffman learning about plastics in The Graduate, it would be: Podcasts. ("One word, Benjamin: Manosphere.") Donald Trump went on every show he could; Kamala Harris didn't. And in the contemporary " attention economy," as lab-grown paid-media sound bites lose their potency, Trump won decisively with the part of the electorate whose last-minute votes are guided by vibes and auras-also known as the most important part of the electorate.
As entrepreneurs, we're constantly bombarded with recommendations for the same big-name podcasts (How I Built This, The Tim Ferriss Show or Masters of Scale). They're good, but they've become the mainstream playlists of the entrepreneurial world. The real edge comes from discovering voices that are flying under the radar - podcasts that don't just regurgitate clichés but dig into gritty lessons, unconventional strategies and the realities most entrepreneurs are too busy or too cautious to discuss openly.
After graduation, I scrambled to get my real estate license because I literally had no idea what else to do. I could pass the state exams, and broker tests... But I felt like a complete fraud trying to advise people on the biggest financial decision of their lives when the biggest financial decision of my new career was the exam filing fees.
And remember when we used to talk on the phone? Actually answer calls? Speak to humans? Luckily, the mailbox saved us, at least for a while, until it started telling us not to leave voicemails but to text instead. Voice notes came next. Great for the lazy typers, less so for the unlucky listener trying to find the right "environment" to hit play. We traded ringtones for vibrations, calls for texts... and now suddenly we're all excited because GenAI has voice mode.
When directly asked by Speedy Morman who his close friends are from the show, Ace names Chelley, Olandria, Taylor, and Bryan. But what about Nic?! "Me and Nic are cool, but to say we are super, super close like we were in the Villa, that's not the case," Ace explains, implying that he was unhappy that Nic wasn't defending him publicly like how he did privately - it's unclear if he's talking about the Jeremiah vote, as Nic told Andy Cohen he voted for Austin.
Jottings of note: Speed Test Podcast the fastest growing audio medium, listening is highest among young people, driven by young people trending toward daily listening. Those are key takeaways of the PodPoll Report 25 reports, produced by audio strategy and production firm Deadset Studios. All of this pertains to the Australian consumer sudience, where younger listeners over-index as podcast onsumers.
Michelle Obama stated, "There hasn't been one moment in our marriage where I thought about quittin' on my man. And we've had some really hard times."
This podcast dedicated to the untold tales behind history's so-called sidechicks features a tongue-in-cheek approach, highlighting the stories of figures like Madame de Montespan.
But is this anything anybody really asked for? Having two fake podcast hosts rant about a subject you're researching - likely with a smattering of hallucinations - sounds like an incredibly counterintuitive and needlessly obtuse way to get quick access to information.
Our friend-of-a-friend makes a similar decision under much stranger conditions: she's the tag-along girlfriend of a guy doing a six-month apprenticeship at an internet-famous bee farm, which happens to be thrumming with socialism and polyamory.
I guess it's all the normal human virtues - some of which are forgotten virtues - but one of the most important human virtues, I think, isn't even really considered a virtue, but it is one that changes the world.