The podcast that crashes car radios

• Play 99% Invisible in your Mazda or Nissan, and your radio might crash, according to a recent episode of Reply All. Both Podcast Addict and Pocket Casts have now been patched to stop this from happening; and on Reddit, the person who noticed it, a guy called Ben, pops up with more detail of the bug: and in the comments, a solution… it turns out that characters like %In (along with %jn and %hhn) cause the issue (it’s an “uncontrolled format string”, apparently).

  
  Aug 12 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Zach Kahn has spotted that Apple Podcasts has much better browsing functionality in the latest beta version of iOS. “It makes it that much easier to discover new shows”, he adds.

• TMZ is reporting about a legal matter between Chris Hardwick and Cadence13. Hardwick didn’t make an episode of ID10T between mid-June and mid-November, which TMZ claim is in breach of contract. The website also reports that Cadence13 has made about $394K in ad revenue from the show.

  
  Aug 12 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Digiday reports on podcasting’s pivot to paid. The report claims that Luminary reached out to 160 podcast creators, and has signed deals with 54 of them.

• Caroline Crampton has launched a newsletter called The Listener, “where I curate and send out three amazing podcast episodes every day”. Our link goes to a free month’s subscription, and a way to get your podcast in the newsletter. (We also list more podcast recommendation newsletters).

• Meanwhile, The Daily Goody is a short daily newsletter with a new tip each day to help podcasters make better podcasts.

• SiriusXM is now packaging talk shows as podcasts, exclusive to Pandora (who they own).

• Steve Pratt believes that there’s a better metric for podcasting than downloads.

• The host of Earshot, a radio promotion and imaging podcast, has gleaned some useful learnings from Spotify’s analytics.

• Podcoin, an app that pays people to listen to podcasts, now apparently has 10,000 daily users. “Podcast owners can claim their podcast for free by filling out a simple form to prove ownership.”

Podcasts

I don’t give a rip is a new podcast with the stars of Bravo’s Real Housewives of Dallas, along with TV personality Amy Vanderoef. “My mouth is unfiltered and so is this podcast!” said D’Andra Simmons in a press release. (YEA Networks / Audioboom)

What Was That Like is a conversation with someone who has found themselves in an extremely unusual situation. Previous episodes feature people who survived a mass shooting, prevented a kidnapping, or caused a fatal accident. What was that like? (Libsyn)

Forward Talks is a podcast from the UAE about ways in which we can move towards sustainability, interviewing sustainability change-makers. (Goumbook / AMAEYA Creative / Podiant)

The Beyond Social Media Show kindly mentioned us in their latest episode. Thank you! (Libsyn)

She Podcasts also gave us a shout-out on their latest episode too, digging into She Podcasts Live. Thank you as well! (Libsyn)

Correspondence

More on the great “should we use the word 'subscribe’ debate”…

Matt says:

The one thing I’d say about ’subscribe’ is that it’s used widely on YouTube and seemingly without negative consequence

Adam says:

Significantly more people use YouTube than listen to podcasts, and they all seem to cope with the word “Subscribe” just fine. They realise that by hitting the “Subscribe” button, they’ll hear about new episodes as they’re uploaded. There’s no implication that it’ll cost anything.
I used to think that “Subscribe” might have connotations about paying money, as in a newspaper or magazine subscription. But (sadly) few of today’s Millennials and Gen Zs have ever paid for such a subscription.