Manoush Zomorodi to host TED Radio Hour

• Manoush Zomorodi is back at public radio, after being selected to be the new host of the TED Radio Hour, one of the world’s most popular podcasts. She replaces Guy Raz, who announced in July that he was stepping down.

• Edison Research are releasing their Spoken Word Audio Report on Tuesday in a webinar. You can register for that webinar, free, here and also get a copy of the report. It promises to show how spoken word, including podcasting, fits into US consumer behaviour.

• The Onion and Sony Music Entertainment are working together to produce The Topical, a daily satirical news show, launching in January. “A daily news podcast provides an opportunity for The Onion to access and inform billions of presumably illiterate people previously deprived of the finest reporting the world has ever known,” says The Onion’s Jordan LaFlure.

• Podcast host RedCircle has added dynamic insertion, allowing you to add ads or other content to podcasts in a dynamic way (perhaps adding today’s ads to your back catalogue of shows). It’s free for podcast creators.

• Podcast host Captivate has launched Captivate Sync™, a WordPress podcasting plugin. The company has a history of WordPress development.

• Podfan, a membership support service for podcasters, has dropped charges for recurring listener support. The move follows competitor Glow, who did similar last week.

  
  Aug 18 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Audio fiction podcaster Sean Howard has posted a view of the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards judging screen for the audio fiction category. He notes that judges get to choose from five different pre-selected podcasts, and are unable to select other shows. It’s unclear how those initial podcasts were chosen.

• MusicsExchange is a service that sells theme songs for a one-off, exclusive, payment.

• Morning Brew’s Josh Kaplan writes a long, and helpful, list of experiences of selling podcast advertising for the first time. In it, he patiently explains all the different bits of how podcasting works, in order to explain how difficult it is.

• The BBC’s James Purnell shares some download figures for the Corporation’s podcasts - the Missing CryptoQueen is close to 1m plays. The final episode dropped this week, with an interesting twist.

• Digital lifestyle media company Ozy Media has raised $35m, in part to fund new podcasting. Investors include iHeartMedia.

• HotPod turned five years old this week. To celebrate, Quah publishes a list of things people are frustrated by in podcasting. Fair warning: this is a depressing, miserable read.

We’re in Prague, Czechia, until Friday - and if you’re a local podcaster, we’d love to catch up tomorrow evening for a chat and a beer. James is at james@podnews.net

Podcast News - with Spreaker Prime

Spreaker Prime: Catlick, hosted by B.T. Harman, features the lost story of how spies, villains and midnight vigilantes nearly destroyed the South’s grandest city. The podcast is part true crime, part memoir, and part history-teacher-you-wish-you had. He’s using Spreaker Prime to make hosting and advertising easier.

Uncommon, a long-form interview podcast “helping you build your knowledge, skills and mindset through interviews with unique individuals”, interviews James Cridland, Podnews’s Editor. Here’s the episode on YouTube. (Neuralle Media / Simplecast)

Facebook’s Face 2 Face is back for a third season - this time they’re in New Zealand to discover inspirational tales and wisdom from creative leaders at the top of their game. (Whooshkaa)

The latest episode of Be The Drop was recorded live in Adelaide SA, Australia, and is an interview with James Cridland, Podnews’s Editor. (Narrative Marketing / Libsyn)