I was a podcaster back in 2012, I still love podcasts in 2021. Here’s what I learnt.

words Ry-Ann Lim

What was your first paying job?

Mine was being a podcaster for a local business radio station back in 2012. I helped produce two shows called “Enterprise” and “Careers Unusual”. At “Enterprise”, I invited entrepreneurs behind local businesses I cared about to talk about their cool new ideas -- think of a less high pressured version of Shark Tank. In “Careers Unusual”, as the name suggests, we spoke to people with unusual careers. I remember inviting a mortician and even a beauty pageant queen to the show. I loved my job even before podcasting became a thing because I got to find stories and meet people I was curious about, people whom I otherwise wouldn’t get to speak to.

Podcasting is fun, potentially meaningful and has low barriers to entry.

I wasn’t surprised when people caught on to it especially during the pandemic. While everyone was straddling housekeeping and working from home, podcasts served as a way of keeping up with the newest as well as being entertained. The listening proclivity resulted in a double in podcast consumption last year and big changes in listening habits as a result of the pandemic. During the pandemic, every day started to look “like the weekend” and morning routines started to change as people spent more time at home. It is no wonder audio companies began making big investments in podcasts. For example, Spotify rolled out exclusive content such as the Michelle Obama podcast and also signed a $25 million deal with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that the number of monthly active users listening to podcasts saw a small increase from 19 to 21 percent, but the amount of podcast content they’re consuming more than doubled. This applies to me as I noticed my own consumption of podcasts increasing throughout the pandemic. There are many reasons to love podcasts, and here are some of mine:

As a girl on the go, I am often multitasking and trying to learn something at the same time. A podcast, unlike written or visual information, is perfect to listen to while exercising, during my morning ride to work, while vacuuming, and pretty much any other time I want.
It’s cheaper (read: free!) to listen to stories from authors or articles. For example, it’s free to listen to stories on The Economist rather than buying the print or subscriptions. Podcasts are also now more easily accessible than at any time in the past.
More tolerable and relevant advertisements. It goes without saying that words on a web page cannot engage an audience as well as a voice can. Voice fosters trust, which in turn leads to the sale of a product or service. Podcasters are like social media influencers - good ones value their trust with listeners and don’t want to spam them with loud, unoriginal radio ads. Successful podcasters balance the tension between maintaining the quality of ads while scaling quantity.
Embracing slow news by focusing on high-quality sources. Following the breaking story on Twitter gives a lot of information, but waiting until the next day to listen to it on The Economist or Today, Explained almost always leaves me more informed. I prefer listening to a story on a podcast after it has been vetted on established news sites because it provides more quality than social media chatter and breaking news sites. Sometimes breaking news may be of lower quality than the slow reporting that is possible once journalists had time to process it. The internet is a democratising platform in the sense that anyone can share their thoughts. However, to reduce misinformation, you should carefully constrain your attention to small numbers of people who have proven to be world-class in subjects. I appreciate how podcast often invites field experts who have proved reliably smart and insightful to interview, reducing fake news.
There’s value in telling the stories of people who don’t make the news, but who make societies work. If there are places that seem silent to you, it’s not because nothing’s happening; it’s because no one’s listening. Podcasts like A Slight Change of Plans invite us to hear intimate conversations that give us a raw look into how people navigate changes in their lives.
I like how podcasts allow for a more immersive experience of reporting - sound clips, intonations, and laughter are useful ways to tell a story. When I was a teen journalist of sixteen reporting for the Star Newspaper, I was told to not just report intellectually, but to use all my senses, inhabit the landscape with my body. “Don’t tell them it’s raining. Make them feel drenched” was the advice. The audio format does just that for me.

2012- 2021: Here’s what I’ve observed about podcasting from then till now.

There are many ways to tell stories to entertain, challenge, educate, inspire, or unite us and break down cultural barriers. Podcast is one of them. For example, there have been countless podcasts episodes that serve the zeitgeist of racial reckoning in America such as Apple Music’s exclusive podcasts, like Ben & Jerry’s “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America” among many.
Podcasting has become a relatively new field to build a career in. Just like how becoming a YouTuber as a full-time job wasn’t imaginable some decades ago, we can now see podcasts providing meaningful opportunities for creators to build robust businesses. If you’re a creative professional interested in getting started in podcasting, it’s about the transferable skill sets you’ve gained working in other industries.
Podcast fans of the past ≠ podcast fans of today. As podcasting grows, the listener base is diversifying. Podcasting is becoming a mass medium thanks in part to the audience that discovered them during the pandemic. With 60% of podcast listening done at home, adoption was notable during the pandemic. Back when I was working at the radio station, our main listeners were aged 35-54, mostly business owners or working professionals listening to us on the way to work. New research by Edison Research found that new listeners (listening for six months or less) were aged 12-34. This change is significant and this affects…
… podcast monetisation. At the local radio station where I worked, we sold ad space to pay for the bills. Because of our working professional demographics, ads sold were mostly for luxury items such as European car brands (Volvo, VW and the likes). In recent times, besides audience growth, podcasts now have a youthful audience profile. A recent article by Forbes suggests that podcast listeners have a median age of 34, younger than their broadcast radio counterparts (47 years old) and network television (57 years old). Additionally, the percentage of monthly podcast listeners among 12 to 34 years old has grown from 27% in 2017 to 49% in 2020. As podcast adoption continues to grow, marketers will allocate more media budget to the audio platform. In my own observation, I see business owners hitting the podcast circuit, appearing on interviews to establish their names as thought leaders in the industry. As a result, both large advertisers and PR agencies have become more involved in the podcast industry. I could see why brands loved advertising on podcasts - the audience does pay attention to high-value content. Hundreds of brand effect studies show that podcast advertising generates a significant lift in brand awareness, favourability, consideration and purchase.

I believe we’re still in the early stages of podcasting, with more room to interact with the medium. I am curious to know how podcasts and their app features will evolve. We have already started to see meditation apps like Calm and Headspace combine audio with other functions. Other apps might add translation, transcriptions or visual enhancement, while some provide links to web pages that provide more information or shopping links. With the world focused on trying to reduce screen time, it opens up a massive audio opportunity and I think podcasting is here to stay. Before I leave, here is a list of my favourite podcast shows:

Black Girl Songbook - Great storytelling and a whole lotta’ swag. This podcast explores the ‘underwritten history’ of Black women in pop. I love it for its format: each episode comes with tracks from featured artists. Host Danyel Smith, a veteran music journalist who served as editor in chief of Vibe and Billboard has interviewed a bevvy of cultural figures likes Whitney Houston, and keeps advocating for the respect black women are due. Expect lots of “holla at cha’ girl”, “yass, queen”, and supportive girlfriend talk.
To a Lesser Degree by the Economist - Relevant and thought-provoking. This new podcast series focuses on climate change from The Economist. This eight-episode series takes a hard look at the technologies, the adaptation and the politics needed to address extreme climate change. Climate change is such a huge and complex topic that shows like this helps to create conversations. The final episode talks about the closure of COP26 and the outcome means for the future of the planet.
A Slight Change of Plans - Compassionate and oddly scientific. Here host Dr Maya Shankar interviews guests about the changes they have undergone in their personal lives to help others embrace challenges and grow. I like the way she interviews very much. She asks intelligent questions while being able to connect us to our shared humanity.
Actsplore This - Contemporary and biased for action. This show is targeted at the modern-day working professional. Hosted by Janice and Sarah-Ann, former lawyers who went on to do an MBA before pivoting careers. Each week, they pick the minds of guests who have “done it” to share some actionable insights on how to thrive personally & professionally. If you’re building a career or just a productivity junkie like me, Actsplore explores ways to create a more meaningful and fulfilled life.

10 Years On... Why I Still Love Podcasts

What was your first paying job?

Podcasting is fun, potentially meaningful and has low barriers to entry.

2012- 2021: Here’s what I’ve observed about podcasting from then till now.