As the pandemic heads into its second year, officials say that catastrophically high U.S. cases of new podcasts are showing no signs of abating.
“We knew there would be a post-Christmas spike of noise-canceling headphones everywhere, but nothing like this,” said Dr. Hannah Glass, lead data analyst for the Podcast Ridding Exchange. “If my estimates are correct, it seems that by next week 3 in 10 Americans will have at least 5 friends asking them to listen to their new podcast.”
Asked what made the widespread audio broadcasting cases so infectious, Glass said it was mostly people underestimating what goes into making a good one.
“All it takes is hearing one podcast where the hosts go blabbing aimlessly for too long with no editing, and you’ve got a new person thinking ‘Fuck, I could do that,’” Glass said. “And he can do that. But should he? That’s a whole other question we definitely know the answer to: No.”
As for measures the public can take to protect themselves from the contagion, Glass recommends transcribing an interview and editing together even one minute of half-way decent multi-track audio.
