Spotify supports Podcasting 2.0! Plus, research into kids podcasts

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Announcer (00:00):
The Pod News Weekly Review uses chapters.
Chapters even work on Spotifyor YouTube, if you really have
to the last word in podcastingnews.
This is the Pod News WeeklyReview with James Cridland and
Sam Sethi.

James Cridland (00:15):
I'm James.

Sam Sethi (00:15):
Cridland, the editor of Pod News, and I'm Sam Sethi,
the CEO of True Fans.

Molly Bloom (00:20):
When families are interacting and listening.
Kids are often the onesstarting these conversations.

Molly Bloom from Brains On on what gets kids
talking about your podcast PlusApple and podcasting at WWDC
News from Spotify that we thinkyou'll like, and YouTube.
Is it really dominatingpodcasting?
This podcast is sponsored byBuzzsprout, with the tools,
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(00:48):
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Sam Sethi (00:57):
Now, james, I was away last week, so first of all,
you are welcome back.
Thank you very much andcongratulations to John for
doing a wonderful job standingin for me.
Not too well, thank god.
Um, I do like doing this job,so, um, hands off.
Um, no, he was very good, hewas indeed.
Now, at the beginning of theweek, apple made a few

(01:18):
announcements uh, new ui glass.
Ui, that seemed to be the bigannouncement.

Windows Vista is back, everybody.
Yeah, oh my God, yes, yes, yes,we're all good, we're all good.

Sam Sethi (01:32):
But you also picked out three or four things from
the announcement that related topodcasting.
What were they?

Yeah, there were a number of different things
that Apple announced which wereabout podcasting.
They didn't sort of properlyannounce them in the video, but
if you looked carefully enoughthen you would have seen the
clues.
So Apple Podcasts, first of all, has got two new features.
One of them is Enhance Dialogue, which is just like the
independent apps have had forsome time.

(01:59):
I believe what it will do inApple Podcasts is it actually
brings the voices away from anybackground music or other noises
and things like that.
So I believe that they'retalking about it being AI
enhanced, I think, which isusually the way of these things.

(02:21):
But anyway, enhanced dialogue isone new thing in Apple Podcasts
.
The other thing is moreplayback speeds, which is yeah,
yeah, yeah, whatever.
But the interesting thing aboutthat is that the app will also
let you save your preferredspeed per show, which Apple
Podcasts has never done before.
So that's good, because itmeans that you can speed up

(02:42):
certain shows, not mentioningany by name the new media show
and you can leave other showsnot speeded up.
So that's a very good thing,and so that's basically the
Apple Podcasts changes.
A couple of other littlechanges include Apple's AirPods
will be upgraded to soundhalfway decent, so that's good

(03:02):
in terms of their microphone.
So that's good for intervietheir microphone, so that's good
for interviewees who insist onusing AirPods.

Sam Sethi (03:07):
Can they still use them because the Bluetooth
actually disturbs the recording?

Yeah, Now I believe that the technology
there is actually going to makeit work better in terms of the
microphone in there.
So I don't think it's just aBluetooth thing.
I think it's more to do withhow the microphones have always
worked in those things.
So I mean, the proof is in thepudding.
I don't believe that any.

(03:33):
I don't believe that that hasbeen rolled out yet, but it'll
be fun to play with.
Obviously there's a couple ofother little things.
If you're listening to apodcast using airpods when
you're in bed, then the audiowill pause when you, when you
fall asleep, and then you'llwake up as one of your airpods
goes clunk onto the floor.

Sam Sethi (03:53):
Um and I'm just trying to work out what they've
added.
Sorry, um, because they musthave added something that does
sleep detection yes, uh, youwould have thought, wouldn't you
?

um?
One of the websites that I readsaid oh, it's got something to
do with um.
It's got something to do with,um, uh, your apple watch, but
it's not um.
So it must be something to dowith sleep detection something.
Maybe it's just the movementmonitor in there, um, that it
actually spots how, hopefullynot Sat still on a train.

Sam Sethi (04:27):
Suddenly your AirPods keep going on and off.
No, thank you Having to shakeyour head to make them work.

I don't think sat still on a train.
I don't think that that's thepoint of a train.
I think the trains are alwaysmoving, aren't they?
So I think you should be okay.
But, yes, I would probablyagree with you that this is a
technology which may go wrong,so worth having a play with that
.
There's also a new audio inputcontrol in iPadOS, in the new

(04:55):
version of that, which is veryswanky and confusing.
So all of that stuff you know,very sort of hidden away in
everything else, you will, ofcourse, be using the new Mac OS,
I'm imagining no.

Sam Sethi (05:09):
I'm imagining you've already downloaded that, have
you?
No, no, no, not at all.
No, I genuinely thought aboutit and I went should I do this?
And then I went we'll cleanfeed work with it.
And I thought, oh my God, no, Ican't do this.
The it.
And I thought, oh my god, no, Ican't do this, the stress would
kill me this week.
Yes, so I went, no, we're notupgrading, we'll wait.

Yes, for once in my life, I was being patient
well, I have upgraded my phoneand my um, uh, and my iPad, um,
and noticed no difference, yes,and noticed oh, there's lots of
glass everywhere.
Um, that's about it.
Um and um, actually there's aton of differences on the iPad,
and I've also looked at thinkingabout uploading, you know,

(05:54):
upgrading the Mac, but then Idid exactly what you did and
went no, I think I'll just wait.
I think clean feed itself willbe fine.
Feed itself will be fine.
It looks as if most apps arefine.
It looks as if there are acouple of sort of VPN apps which
aren't particularly happy, butapart from that, it looks as if,
pretty well, everything is goodbecause, essentially, apple
haven't really launched an awfullot.
The one thing that I'm sort ofquite excited by is that the new

(06:18):
Apple AI inside your Mac is nowtied up with the shortcuts app,
so it should mean that you cando some sort of, you know, a fun
shortcut of you know,summarisation or image

(06:39):
generation or something.
So that would be quite fun toplay with.
But that's about as far as I'vegot.

Sam Sethi (06:44):
Yeah, I wasn't getting excited by the
announcement, I guess, look,they're not going to do
everything.
They've announced a few changes.
We'll wait for the hardwarechanges.
I don't think iOS, iPhone 17,unless they rename that as well
is going to be dramaticallydifferent either.

No, I think we're at a point with technology
now where everything is sort ofrelatively mature in terms of
all of the tech and it's just,yeah, working out what new
little features you might want.
I mean, obviously, the bigthing with the last iPhone was
the new cameras and the newcamera button, and so you know

(07:23):
what are they going to do nexttime, who knows?
But yeah, it's always Foldablephones that would be clever.
Apple oh, foldable phones.
Oh, you want one of those, doyou?
Oh well, well, there you go, Ido yeah.

Sam Sethi (07:36):
Get rid of the iPad.
Have an iPhone that folds outto an iPad Job done, there you
go.

Who knows?
Anyway, who knows?
If they're listening to you, mrSethi, then Never.

Sam Sethi (07:47):
They don't even invite me to their parties, like
they'd listen to me.
God, no, the chances are Right.
Moving on, maybe anothercompany who might invite me to a
party or listen, no, I doubtthat as well.
Youtube no chance of that.
What was interesting is we areabout to start, james, a YouTube
channel, aren't we togetherwhere we're going to do video?

(08:08):
Oh, no, we're not.
No, we're not, no, no, becausewe are no we're not.
No, james sat there frozen tothe screen going.
What is he talking about?
No, because everyone seems tohave to do a YouTube channel
with a video at the moment, buta lovely gentleman from Signal
Hill says that's not needed.
What did he say?

Yes, paul Rismandel has been looking at
the data.
This isn't an opinion.
He says this is actual,evidence-based stuff.
No, youtube is not dominatingpodcasting, and he says that the
majority of podcast consumersare still using an audio-first
platform most often.
He says it's time to tone downthe discourse.

(08:50):
Well, I mean, it's a discoursethat I've been trying to tone
down for quite some time becausequite a lot of the data that I
see that is actual data thatcomes out of downloads and
things shows that YouTube ismost certainly not number one.
But it's always nice seeingmore people saying that and in

(09:12):
fact, you know audio is still amassively important thing.
So you know, important to keepit in context.

Sam Sethi (09:21):
Yeah Well, it shows that YouTube PR has been very
effective at making theirposition as the number one
podcasting app, with certain keymetrics like 1 billion plays,
which we still don't understand.
But look, I think there are atthe top end of the podcast tree
people who are using YouTubeeffectively.

(09:43):
I mean, one of the mostannoying things right now is
watching how the newsagent orthe rest is politics.
They are literally YouTubefirst.
Now I don't even think theythink they're podcasts.

Yeah, yeah, no, it is fascinating.
I mean I was reading somethingon LinkedIn Harry Morton from
Lower Street doing an awful lotof exciting posts all about what
he's doing in terms of YouTube,and I was just looking at one

(10:21):
of his recent ones and he wassaying, oh, we've done all of
this hard work to make our showswork better on YouTube.
And I'm there thinking, well, Imean, it's brilliant that you
know you've got an audio companywhich is learning how to make
YouTube videos, but what doesthat mean about where podcasting
is going?
I'm not sure, necessarily, thatanybody's going to agree with

(10:42):
me there, that anybody's goingto agree with me there.
But yeah, I'm just sort of youknow, just a little bit worried
about the headlong push to video, particularly since, as Signal
Hill Insights says, here they'renot number one.
There's one piece of researchwhich they very much push at

(11:03):
YouTube and that's EdisonResearch's numbers, which have
asked what is the app that youuse most often to listen to
podcasts, and YouTube appearsnumber one in there.
Well, that's not the same asconsumption.
That's a people bit of data,not consumption.
So, again, we just need to be alittle bit careful, I think, in

(11:26):
all of that.
Having said that YouTube justreleasing some more figures.
One figure for the US economy.
Apparently, youtube contributed$55 billion to the US GDP in
2024, which is the equivalent of49,000 full-time jobs,
according to the company.
Anybody would think that that'sa company that is rather

(11:49):
desperate not to get split upfrom what I can see but what we
can also see is that an articlein the New York Times I don't
know if you saw this, sam sayingthat YouTube has relaxed its
moderation rules.

Sam Sethi (12:02):
Look, this seems to be in line with the current US
government strategy of sayingcertain things DEI going away.
Certain things are more capablefor people to say online that
they wouldn't have been able tosay maybe a year or two years
ago.
I don't know.
Maybe that's where it's going.

Yeah Well, maybe who knows?
But yes, I don't know, maybethat's where it's going.
Yeah Well, maybe who knows?
But yes, change at YouTube.

Sam Sethi (12:32):
But certainly interesting seeing now a fair
amount of people coming out andbeginning to talk about the
Emperor's new clothes when itcomes to YouTube, I think what's
interesting, though, I heard apodcast the other day and they
were saying somebody said, goand see my video, and the
immediate result was not spotify, and I think spotify has got a
big challenge.
So the immediate response ofthat person was oh, I went to

(12:56):
the youtube to find theirpodcast, their video podcast,
and I think, yes, spotify isgoing to struggle, I think, with
video podcasting if they can'tget people's default Pavlovian
behaviour to be oh, I'll go toSpotify and look at that video.
And I don't think people do.
And I think the other one isthe godfather, no, sorry, and

(13:18):
the other one is the podfather.
Has spoken, by the way, lastFriday.
You are now he Friday.
He's mandated that only audiois a podcast.
Video is not a podcast.
Oh well, there you go.
So it's mandated.
That's it.
End of discussion.

The podfather has spoken.

Sam Sethi (13:37):
Yes that's it.

Well, there you go, and on that bombshell shall
we talk about Spotify.

Sam Sethi (13:44):
Well, we better do yes, Because you've got a hell
of a story here to talk about.
What have they done, james?

Yes, Spotify, hell has officially frozen over.
Spotify is supportingPodcasting 2.0.
Right, say that again, becauseI'm sure that's a typo.
Spotify is supportingPodcasting 2.0.
It's adding podcast transcriptsfor many shows to its app.
Not just that, but if you hostyour podcast with Spotify for

(14:13):
Creators, or Anchor as it usedto be known, then they will be
publishing those transcripts.
If you tick the button to sayyes, it will be publishing those
transcripts using thePodcasting 2.0 podcast
transcript tag.
And, in fact, if you have alook at an Anchor RSS feed right

(14:33):
now, you'll see the podcastnamespace is already in it.
Wow, who would have thought it?

Sam Sethi (14:39):
Who would have thought it?
Someone's going to get sackedover at Spotify for doing that.
No, I'm sorry, congratulations.
That's going to get sacked overat Spotify for doing that.
No, I'm sorry, congratulations.

That's super exciting.
I asked my contact at Spotifyare you going to be supporting
creator transcripts that come inthrough RSS?
So what they're currently doingis they are automatically
producing transcripts of showsthat appear in the Spotify app.

(15:08):
Obviously, they can't deal withmy surname.
They can deal with yours,seemingly, but they can't deal
with mine.
But still, there we are.
But Spotify also currently letscreators upload their own
transcripts using VTT or SRTfiles, which is good news.
I can't get that working yet,but I'm sure that it is good

(15:28):
news.
But I did say are you going tosupport ingestion of creator
transcripts using RSS, using thepodcast transcript tag?
And I always like it when aspokesperson says more than they
kind of meant to say, becausethe answer that I got was no
timeframe to share at this time.
No timeframe to share at thistime is most definitely not.

Elena Tsakakis (15:52):
No.

That's most definitely.
Yes, but at some point, anddon't hold us to it.
So that's very exciting.
So how exciting that we'vemoved in the last three years
from nobody's doing any of thispodcasting 2.0 stuff it's all
been a total failure to evenSpotify supporting the new

(16:16):
podcast transcript tag.
How exciting.
So there's a thing We've won.
We've won we can pack up and gohome now.
Pack up and go home.
Pack up and go home.

Sam Sethi (16:25):
No, don't tell Adam and Dave that they'll close the
service down, shush, shush.
So yes, what was Adam's words?
We have achieved.
What did he say last time?

oh, what last time?
Oh yes, this was a couple ofweeks ago.
Mission accomplished.
He said yes, yes, thatexcellent phrase Last seen by
George W Bush.
So, yes, yes, how exciting isthat.

Sam Sethi (16:50):
More importantly, okay, this is brilliant news and
well done Spotify.
Look, I'm going to defendSpotify for a minute because,
well, somebody had to.
The reality is the the numberof tags and the namespace has
been evolving, um pretty rapidly, right, and if you're a

(17:11):
corporate company and you haveno input to the creation of the
namespace which is their ownfault they could join, but they
haven't.
Um, you're not going to rely onthat namespace to be the thing
that you are betting your wholefuture of your company on um in
terms of profitability, shareprice, etc.
Yeah, so you will go and doproprietary stuff at the pace

(17:33):
that you can do it at with thecontrols you have within your
own closed wall garden, andthat's what they've done, and I
think now they're realizing that.
Actually, what can we add that'snew and different?
They can't add much more.
We're finding that in thenamespace.
Actually, if you look at thenumber of new tags that are
being suggested, they're veryfew and far between.
There's not much being added,not at the pace that we did two

(17:56):
years ago, and I think they'velooked around.
Apple's done it.
Yeah, okay, we're getting thisdata in.
It's free data.
We can actually use it.
We don't have to spend money onour own.
I don't know.
Maybe that's where it's comefrom, maybe they've got the same
push or pressure that Apple had, that they need to support it
for the what was the society whowas suing people?

Yes, yes, the National Association for the
Deaf.
I mean, it is an accessibilitything, Of course it is, but the
fact that Spotify have and they've not fully done this yet, so
you know, let's not run awaywith the idea but the fact that
Spotify have not reinventedsomething that has already been

(18:40):
invented but is basically sayingthere is a standard out there,
we will use it and, more to thepoint, Spotify for Creators
publishing those transcripts sothat Apple podcasts can use
those transcripts, I mean, howexciting is that?
So I think all of this iseverything moving in exactly the
right way.
So, yeah, and you know, one ofthe things that I was very vocal

(19:05):
about for the pod news reportcards that was reported earlier
on in the year was basicallyhighlighting that and saying
Spotify has really bad scoresfor open standards, for
supporting open standards, and,you know, maybe being bottom of
that list for the last fouryears is something that Spotify

(19:28):
has finally gone.
Oh well, actually, maybe thereis something that we can do
there.
So, no, I think it's all goodWish list for Christmas person
tag chapters.

Sam Sethi (19:39):
Let's not get ahead of ourselves, hey, right and tag
chapters.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, right?
Although I should also saychapters now, because Buzzsprout
supports the Podlove chaptersformat as well.
Chapters now in the Spotify appfor this show look amazing.
They look super good, so youknow.
So everything is comingtogether.
It might be the in invertedcommas wrong standard, but
nevertheless, everything is good.

(20:06):
Everything is beginning to workas we would hope, so yeah it's
good.

Sam Sethi (20:12):
Don't mention micropayments, then we're all
good.
Right?
Other things that Spotify havebeen up to they've been working
with United Airlines to announcea collaboration.
What have they said, James?

Yes, so it's the first time.
So if you jump into a number ofdifferent airlines, you will
get Spotify content in some wayshape or form on the in-flight
entertainment.
It's mostly Spotify podcastsand they're mostly hidden away
on a podcasts page with maybe afew audio books in there.
What United has announced isthat they are getting rid of the

(20:47):
audio category entirely,replacing it with Spotify, and
what Spotify will then give youis audio books, podcasts, music
playlists and video podcastsvideo and audio podcasts.
So it's the first time thatSpotify's video podcasts have

(21:08):
made it to an in-flightentertainment system.
And I have to say if there'sone use case where video makes
sense, it's being stuck on aplane for hours, because, of
course, video makes perfectsense in terms of that.
So that was interesting to endup seeing United jumping in.
I think you can get Spotifycontent on Delta and on a few

(21:31):
other American airlines, as wellas Emirates and a few others in
other parts of the world.

Sam Sethi (21:40):
But, yeah, the first time that video podcast has made
it into the aeroplane, I thinkone of Spotify's secret sources
I've said this consistently overthe years is that they are
everywhere, and I think this isone of the best things that
Spotify do.
You know, I turn on my Alexathey're there.
I go to my car it's there.

(22:01):
I go now to an aeroplane it'sthere.
I go to my car it's there.
I go now to an airplane it'sthere.
I go to my, you know, fire TV.
I just think they're great atdoing that.
That's one of their things, Ithink.
Gives them hello Apple.
You know, don't just be my op,he can be on one platform.

Well, you see, and I think Apple just has so
Apple is in Tesla cars.
So if you want to drive like aNazi, you can have a listen to
Apple podcasts in there.
So Apple are on a few otherwhat's the phrase?
They use?
Surfaces.
They're on the Aston Martin DBXas well, by the way.

(22:40):
Oh, are they.
Well, there you go.
But where they're not, of course, is Android phones, and that's
probably not the Apple Podcaststeam making that choice.
It's probably a little bitfurther up the tree in terms of
that, but yeah, so that'sinteresting.
Other things going on, by theway, very briefly, in terms of

(23:04):
Spotify, the Spotify PodcastAwards took place in Mexico, so
they run a podcast awards there.
Interestingly, the Top of theTop podcast, as they called it,
was a podcast that is actuallyhosted by Ivux, not hosted by
Spotify.
So that goes to show that itwas a sensible awards where they
didn't just give everything toSpotify people.

(23:25):
So that was good.
And a few people have soldshares.
Recently, chief Public AffairsOfficer Dusty Jenkins crazy name
, crazy person has sold a totalof 5.1 million shares, and
there's a board director calledMona Sutphen who has sold 3.3

(23:46):
million shares.
Now you've been looking at howmany shares Daniel Eck has sold.

Sam Sethi (23:50):
Yeah, I just think, when you start to see board
members or leading execs sellingoff big chunks of shares, it's
normally a good time to lookaround.
And Daniel sold off in April2025, he sold 50,000 shares, so
$28 million.
But he also divested $666million of stock in July 2023.

(24:14):
And Martin Lorenzen, who's theco-founder, sold off $556
million worth of shares.
It's just interesting, In thelast two years or so, they've
sold off the co-founders.
That is $1.3 billion worth ofshares and you sort of go okay,

(24:35):
you're taking money out, you'rereducing your equity
stakeholding.
Is there a reason when also, itgoes down below that to the
executive team?
I know Daniel's got his newhealth company and I know that
may be where he's got his focus,but I don't know.
It's just one of those things Ithought I wonder who else is
selling shares.

It's just interesting, isn't it, in terms
of Spotify share sales.
So I mean Spotify obviouslydoing very well in the stock
market at the moment and I guesswho knows what the next couple
of years are going to bring.
I mean, you know we coverednews yesterday in the Pod News
newsletter that WARC media aresaying that global advertising

(25:18):
spend is going to go down again,you know, downgrading their
growth forecasts even further.
So you know there's clearlyconcern about what is going to
happen in the next couple ofyears.
So perhaps it's a good time tosell shares if you happen to
have a lot of them.

Sam Sethi (25:35):
Now, this was an interesting story.
Moving away from Spotify overto Twitter now, or X as it
should be called, venus andSerena Williams are going to
launch a video podcast on X.
Now, you had that as a simpleone-line story and I thought,
okay, there's a number ofquestions to unpack from that,
mr Cridland, one being when didTwitter have video podcasting?

(26:01):
I remember Clubhouse very welland I know that they had video
capabilities in the past andthey still have, but officially
announcing a podcast that'slaunching on X, is this their
new strategy?

Well, x have had content on there before.
I mean, weirdly, x, um has alsobeen doing live um sport on
there as well.
The women's national basketballassociation, um, is, uh, on
there.
They've had um, a podcast, umcalled chloe in wonderland,

(26:37):
featuring chloe kardashian, whois famous for, oh yes, nothing.
So there we are.
So I guess it's just.
You know, x does have video andmaybe they have lots of
advertisers coming to them andwanting to buy some video

(26:58):
advertising.
So perhaps it's that.
I don't know, but I suppose youknow.
I was curious to see it beingcalled a video podcast and I
wonder whether that's just.
You know the YouTube effect ofof?
Oh well, you know, let's, let'scall it a video podcast instead
of just a TV show and take itfrom there.

(27:22):
But yeah, it's going to be athrill.

Sam Sethi (27:25):
It's launching in August, so yeah, yeah, I mean
the questions you know,open-ended questions.
Does it support RSS?
Can you switch to audio only?
Will there be exclusive content?
Yes, I'm sure that the rumoursof a ex-wallet and micropayments
means that they probably will.
Again, lots of open-endedquestions.

(27:47):
Curious to see, when itlaunches in August, what it will
look like.

Yes, it'll be interesting to take a peek.
I will wait for other people totake a look at it and then find
out what it looks like fromother people, because I sure
aren't going to look at it formyself.

Sam Sethi (28:05):
Well done.
Now you've got a story hereabout kids podcasting.
Tell me more.

Yes, so this was some really interesting
research.
I thought Brains On, which is apodcast for kids, has done some
research with the ScienceMuseum of Minnesota and the
research was all around how tomake great kids shows,
specifically how to designpodcast content to spark

(28:32):
conversations with your family,and particularly looking at
podcasts in cars, you know oneof the best practices you know,
because that's a great placewhere you can listen to a
podcast with your kids, you cantalk about the things that are
going on in the podcast and allof that, and so you know there's

(28:56):
clearly some interesting stuffin there.
So I thought, well, what wouldbe interesting is to talk to
somebody from the Science Museumof Minnesota and also the
co-creator and host of Brains On.
So I chatted with ElenaTsikikis from the Science Museum
of Minnesota and with MollyBloom from Brains On, and the

(29:19):
first question I asked Molly waswhat Brains On was.

Brains On is a science podcast for kids and
their adults.
We answer questions that kidssend to us from all over the
world.
Every episode is hosted by meand a kid co-host.
The kid co-host is differentevery time and kind of go
wherever curiosity takes us, sosometimes we you know a kid will

(29:43):
interview a scientist, or we'llhave a song about bruises, or
we'll you know have a skit wherewe anthropomorphize molecules.
It's a really fun and sillyshow, but we also take kids'
questions and curiosity veryseriously too.

And so why did you want to do this research
into making podcast content thatsparks family conversations?
What was the thinking behind it?

This is actually our third study that we've done
with our partners at the ScienceMuseum of Minnesota, and the
first study we did with them,you know, was really
groundbreaking because therehadn't been any research really
into who was listening to kids'podcasts and why and how, and so
this came out of that firststudy that we did together and

(30:31):
I'll let Elena kind of talkabout what piques the interest
of the researchers at theScience Museum.

Yeah, Elena, I was going to ask you.
I mean, firstly, you know, theworld of podcasting has lots of
research, but that research isnormally based on online surveys
, but you did things quitedifferently in this study.
So how did it work?

Yeah, the first study that we did with Brains On
was actually a survey and wegot some really interesting
insights from that Um and we.
We got some really interestinginsights from that, one thing
being that almost every familyum said that they had
conversations while they werelistening to brains on in the
car.
And so for us as researchers,that really kind of sent a

(31:15):
signal to ask the next questionof you know why?
What are those conversationsabout?
What does that look like?
Things like that which justcouldn't be answered through a
survey.
In the same way, that beingphysically in the car in some
way could help us understandwhat those conversations looked

(31:37):
like, sounded like, kind of howthey came to be, and so that was
what started to get us thinkingabout the different
opportunities to learn aboutwhat this listening experience
was like.
That didn't rely on, you know,people to think and remember and
share that, but would allow usto see things as they were sort
of happening and just in a morenatural way.

So why did you focus on listening to the
podcast in the car rather thananywhere else?

Yeah, so that was also from the survey.
I think it was 90, it was 91%of families from that survey
shared that they listened in thecar, and that was something
that we had had some hypothesesabout.
You know, we thought peoplelisten to podcasts in the car.
It wasn't shocking, but it wasas informal science researchers

(32:28):
it's.
It was.
It's a new learning space.
It's a space that we maybedon't typically think of as an
opportunity to learn in the sameway that like a classroom would
be, or, you know, or a museumor whatever it may be, and so
the car was emerging as thissort of understudied space for

(32:50):
learning that happens aroundpodcasts, and so that was really
exciting to us as researchersof being able to look at this
space in a new way and in aspace that really hadn't been
studied in informal learningresearch prior and I guess
there's less opportunity formultitasking in the car.

There's less other things to do there's.
You know you're not also doingthe cooking and and you know
doing the housework andeverything else.
So I suppose, in terms of aplace to learn, it's actually
quite an interesting place.

Yeah, absolutely , and you just mentioned some of
the things that we learned fromthe study and things that we
heard from parents, which werethings like you know we're in
the car together, our attentionis focused when we're listening
at home.
We're very rarely, you know,all sitting together on the
couch listening to a podcasttogether.
You know someone's doing dishes, someone's playing with toys,

(33:45):
someone's doing homework,whatever it may be, and when
you're in the car, you're takingthis sort of existing space and
parents shared that.
You know listening to thepodcast helps turn it into a
more productive environment,because they were just sitting
in the car and that wassomething that you know.
They weren't doing other things, there weren't those same

(34:06):
distractions, and so they wereable to all engage as a family
together in listening to thepodcast in ways that just
weren't really wasn't reallyhappening outside of the car and
Molly.

what other lessons did you find from the
research?

I mean, I think one of the interesting things we
learned was sort of the momentsin the podcast that spark the
most interaction.
We design our podcast to havethose moments, but it was cool
to see the ones that aren'tnecessarily the games.
Like we know, kids love toguess the mystery sound and we
know that's sort of a naturalplace for interaction.

(34:42):
But then to hear about theinteraction that just happens
from families hearing me talk tothe kid co-host was really
interesting and surprising.
And also, you know, hearing thekid interview the expert also
sparked questions in ways thatwe weren't really expecting and
to find out that when familiesare interacting and listening,

(35:04):
kids are often the ones sort ofstarting these conversations and
it's not just the parents whoare trying to engage their kids.
So I thought that was reallyinteresting, especially since
our show tries to emphasizekids' voices.
It's very gratifying thatthat's sort of coming across and
the kids are picking up on that.

Yeah, elena, there's that segment in the
podcast called the Mystery Sound.
Let's hear one of those mysterysounds.
Are you ready?

for a mystery for the ears, because it's time for
the Mystery Sound.
Siddharth, are you ready tohear today's mystery sound?
Yeah, okay, here it is.
Hmm.

What do you think?
That was one of the mostpopular segments of the show,
wasn't it?
I'm curious from your point ofview, elena?

how does it work ?
Why is it so popular?
That's a great question.
I can't say for certain, ofcourse, but I think one thing
that we really noticed in thedata about the mystery sound is
that it's something that's inevery episode.
It follows the same sort ofstructure.
Every time it starts with alittle soundbite, molly says the
same thing, or a very closevariation of the same thing.

(36:27):
The kid co-hosts guests.
First, they revisit it.
So it follows this patternwhich allows families to
establish their own patterns.
And so when they hear that soundor when they hear Molly say you
know, it's time for the mysterysound, um, they immediately
have this sort of reaction andevery family's reaction was a

(36:48):
little different.
Um, sometimes it was, you know,the adults just saying oh,
mystery sound, and like silenceso they could hear it.
Um.
Other times it was sort of thatstructured like okay, you go
first, what's your guess, childone, what's your guess, child
two?
But it was clear that you knowthey were ready and they knew,
and even in some episodes whereyou know the mystery sound maybe

(37:09):
happened a little later orthings like that than they were
used to, you could see thatcoming out in the conversation
Like, oh, we haven't heard themystery sound yet, what is that?
What is that?
So I think that having thatrepetition, that's definitely
that was definitely one thing.
And then another thing that Ithink contributed to the kind of
engagement around the mysterysound was the child co-host

(37:32):
guessing Molly, an adult askingthe question to the child, what
do you think?
And the kid making a guess sortof opened the door for children
who are listening to seethemselves as guessers as well
and answer Molly's question asthough they were, you know, on
the podcast, as though Molly wasasking them and see themselves
in kind of that guessing rolethat the child co-host was

(37:53):
modeling in the episode.

Well, let's find out what that mystery sound was
.
Here's the answer.

Announcer (37:58):
My name is Milo, and that was the sound of me closing
my van door.

Well, there we are.
Molly, very focused work aroundkids' podcasts and learning
about science, but are thelearnings for any type of
podcast in here?

Yeah, I think so.
I mean, I think there's just alot to be said for respecting
your audience and makingsomething that's driven by what
kids are interested in, andreally listening to them and
taking them seriously.
I think that's sort of for anykids podcast.

(38:34):
I think that's sort of aninteresting and important thing
to remember.
And then, you know, I think,for adult podcasts I think most
adult podcasts are listened toprobably you know an individual
listening on their headphonesthat's how I listen, or I'm in
the car by myself and kids'podcasts sort of have an
interesting bonus to them, whichis that a lot of times they're

(38:57):
listened to in groups, eitherfamily groups or classrooms.
So to know that there aremultiple people listening and to
design your show knowing thatthere's these groups listening.

I mean, you know we're talking about learning
about science here, but there'sa lot of other learning in
podcasts, isn't there?
Like to be honest learningabout goods and services you
might wish to purchase, or, aswe know it, advertising?
Are there things thatadvertisers can learn from this
study as well?
Molly, do you think?

That's a good question.
We didn't really look at thatat all.
The episodes that theresearchers played for the
families ads were not included.
But I guess I would just saythat to know that if ads on
kids' podcasts, particularly thekids are listening very closely
and they listen to themmultiple times and they remember

(39:47):
them.

So it's just the way that kids and families
listen to this kind of stuff,consistency, repetition, all of
that stuff we know works verywell in terms of this show, but
you can also see that perhapsworking in other shows as well.

Yeah, absolutely .
I mean, I think, just havingspaces where families and, you
know, kids in particular, kindof know what to expect.
That's where we saw a lot ofengagement and that was true in
different segments of thepodcast.
In addition to the mysterysound, there were other elements
where, you know, people sort ofknew what was coming and they
were excited to participate.

(40:29):
I mean, I think about the callouts, which is inviting kids to
share their own idea, their ownresponses to kind of a silly
question, and that was somethingwhere, again, kind of once that
question was read on thepodcast, there was these
immediate reactions of oh, whatwould you say, what would you
send in?
You know, this is what I thinkand so like having those things

(40:50):
in there that are repetitive butalso are inviting in, that
participation I think is reallyimportant in this podcast.

Yeah, I would also say too, you know, we have other
podcasts in our Brains onuniverse.
We have a, a debate show calledsmash boom, best and a history
show called forever ago, and wedo similar.
Those shows are very differentthan brains on in a lot of ways,
but they have a lot of the samestructural lessons that we've
learned, which is exactly whatelaine is saying is to be super
consistent and predictable insome ways, but then, within that

(41:20):
predictability, be surprisingand funny, um, and so you know,
if people are curious to hearhow those lessons that we've
learned from this study play outin other podcasts, they could
check out Snatch Room, best andForever Ago.

And Molly, how important are kids' podcasts do
you think, in terms of all ofthe shows out there?

I mean I think it's a really exciting space that is
just sort of underdevelopedright now.
There's like I mean, we werethe first kids podcast way back
in 2012 when we started, and nowthere's been so many more that
have come on the scene, butthere's just so many more that
could you know there's.
There's far fewer than they'reall podcasts for adults, and I

(42:03):
think the best thing aboutmaking shows for kids and their
families is just howappreciative they are and how
sort of you become a really bigpart of their daily life,
Because if anyone's ever had akid or hung out with a kid, you
know that they like to listen tothe same thing over and over
again, Like it becomes a part oftheir daily routine, and so

(42:23):
it's very impactful to makestuff for kids and to know that
it's sort of shaping who theywill become.

So, elena, where can we go to learn more about
the work that you've done here,and the Science Museum of
Minnesota as well?

You can read more about the research at
brainsonorg slash research.
The Science Museum of Minnesotais located in St Paul,
Minnesota.
You can visit us at smmorg.
We are I work in the Departmentof Evaluation and Research and
Learning, where you can readabout the different work that we

(42:59):
do and the different thingsthat we study, and right now we
are in the process of gettingour final findings written up
and assembled to be shared morebroadly on our own website, but
it's not quite live yet.

And if you go to that research page, there's also
a webinar.
You can watch where we talkabout the findings more in depth
there too Fantastic.

And where do we go to find out more information
about the Brains On universe,Molly?

You can go to brainsonorg or wherever you
listen to podcasts.

Molly Elena.
Thank you both so much yeah.

Thank you for having us.

Announcer (43:31):
Thanks for having us the Pod News Weekly Review with
Buzzsprout.
Start podcasting, keeppodcasting.

Sam Sethi (43:41):
Right, james.
Now, from children to aroundthe world, let's have a quick
look.
What's going on in Africa?
It seems that they've foundvideo too.
Is the video disease spreading?

Yes, the video disease is most certainly
spreading.
The unrelenting rise of videopodcasts in Kenya, according to
African Business I do likeunrelenting, that sounds as if
it's a dreadful rise that nobodywants.
So, yes, that makes a bunch ofsense.
But some nice numbers in thatparticular story, just sort of

(44:19):
really showing how videopodcasting is certainly growing
in that part of the world.
Kenya's top podcaster in thatpart of the world, kenya's top
podcaster, for example, isgetting around 300,000 views per
video, which is, you know,quite nice and large, although
very male focused.
71% are men who listen to thetop 10 shows.

(44:46):
But, yeah, a bunch ofinteresting data that you'll
find in there.

Sam Sethi (44:51):
Now, this is a story I did, like Goalhanger have
announced a new free monthlymasterclass.
What are they doing?

Yes, so the companies, producers, editors
and commercial leads will streammasterclasses live and free for
you to watch.
Goalhanger's Green Room is whatit's called, and you can sign
up to the first few classes nowif you want.
Anybody would think that maybeGoalhanger have discovered a

(45:21):
grant for educational stuff.
Maybe that's what's going on,but it's a good thing
nonetheless, so certainlyworthwhile taking a peek at if
you are keen in learning fromothers, totally free, and you'll
be able to watch after theevent as well.
In terms of streaming, will itbe a video podcast, who knows?

Sam Sethi (45:47):
I think it'd have to be, wouldn't it?

You would kind of hope it would be, wouldn't
you?

Sam Sethi (45:53):
Now, another story that you reported back in April
was about Tencent Music wasbuying Himalaya.
It seems that that's gonethrough now, James.

Yes.
So Bloomberg actually got thescoop back in April $2.4 billion
to buy Himalaya, which is a bigChinese podcast platform, and I
think everybody looked at that$2.4 billion and went, wow, that
is an astonishing number.
Anyway, it turns out it's morethan that.
Tencent has sent a note to theSEC saying that the deal has now

(46:27):
been done $1.2 billion worth ofcash plus $1.5 billion worth of
shares.
And there are a number ofpeople that will be very rich
from that, including Sony Musicthat owns quite a lot of
Himalaya.
So fascinating company.
Himalaya, so fascinatingcompany, which, if you remember,

(46:55):
had a very strange jump intothe US as well and then went
away from the US after storieswere told.
But yeah, himalaya, 2.7 billiondollars, that's a lot for a
podcast company.

Sam Sethi (47:10):
Crazy Rich Asians, that's all I'd say.
Crazy.

Rich.

Sam Sethi (47:13):
Asians Great film, great film, if you've not seen
it.

Yes, and finally , congratulations to Kim
Treasure at Audacia Audio.
They've partnered with SportSocial to sell all of Sport
Social's ads in the Asia-Pacificregion, and so that will be
good on both of their points ofview.
I mean, obviously, UK sport inparticular, incredibly big in

(47:42):
Asia.
I remember landing in SouthKorea for the first time in gosh
it must have been 2005, maybe2005, 2006.
Did they all shout out GarethSalke to?

Sam Sethi (47:56):
you.

Well, it was the first time I'd ever been to
Asia, and I went out of thehotel in the morning to find
myself a coffee and literallythe first thing that I saw was
somebody wearing a man Unitedshirt and I thought, wow, isn't
the world a small place?
So, yes, so there we are wementioned Spotify earlier on.

(48:20):
We should also mention thatSpotify's podcast division have
made 15 layoffs, including staffat the ringer.
Apparently they say that thecuts are the results of a focus
away from audio and towardsvideo.
Spotify declined to commentthere, again, video is to blame.

(48:40):
Talking about awards and events, which we weren't I'm going to
now, because there's a bunch ofawards and events happening,
including Podcast Movement, ofcourse, which is the next big
one in Dallas, texas, on Augustthe 18th.
If you use the code PODNEWS,you'll save money on selected

(49:00):
tickets there.
The Publisher Podcast Awardswere earlier on this week in the
UK.
There's also Podcast Day Asiaand Radio Days Asia, which is in
Jakarta in Indonesia.
Again, if you use the codePODNEWS, you'll save money if
you're going to that one as well, and very much looking forward

(49:23):
to that.
There's a whole day ofpodcasting going on in Jakarta
and Pod Summit in Calgary inAlberta on September the 19th,
which I will be there as well.
And congratulations to thewinners of the New Zealand Radio
and Podcast Awards.
Public service broadcaster RNZwon the most awards, although

(49:44):
the podcast of the year was wonfrom iHeartRadio because, of
course, number one for podcasts.
It's a show called SportsCafe-ish which comes from NZME
in the country there.

Sam Sethi (49:59):
Must go down to New Zealand one day.
Find out about it.

It's definitely there.
I've been, it's definitelythere?

Sam Sethi (50:05):
Great, I look forward to it.
I kind of stop at Australia andthink that's far enough.
I'll better go home now.
Yeah, to be honest, yes,exactly One thing from around
the podosphere that I did wantto highlight a very interesting
show if you want to listen to itwas Daniel J Lewis and Dave
Jackson's Future of Podcastingthis week, where they talk about
HLS and all about how thepodcast standards group are

(50:28):
going to be looking at using hls.
I think it's interesting thatthe alternative enclosure and
also the enclosure do notpre-mandate the format that goes
within those enclosures.
So hls is just a media formatand so I don't think it's it's a
case of we have to changeanything for the adoption.
It's a case of hosts using HLSas a alternative media format.

(50:53):
The actual standard itselfalready supports it, which is
quite good.

Announcer (50:57):
The Tech Stuff on the Pod News Weekly Review.

Yes, it's the stuff you'll find every Monday
in the Pod News newsletter.
Here's where Sam talkstechnology.
What's going on, Sam?

Sam Sethi (51:07):
Well, the Podcasting 2.0 website has undergone a
rebuild.
James, what have you been doing?

Yes, well, it's not me, it's Daniel J Lewis.
But Daniel J Lewis has rebuiltit essentially to allow me to
edit it.
I think that's the main thing.
I think that's what I meant.

Sam Sethi (51:21):
I mean, what have you been doing?
You've been putting pressure onDaniel.

Get on with this .
Yes, so podcasting2.org iswhere to go for that.
I kicked the tyres earlier onin the week the podcast
transcript tag, which, of course, is now out of date again
because of Spotify's adoption ofit.
But yes, that is certainly mucheasier to edit that.

(51:44):
So hurrah for thatpodcasting2.org.
You can go and edit it as wellas an edit this page button on
every single page, so that'snice.

Sam Sethi (51:53):
Nice, ok, talking of Podcasting2.0, there's a new
company called ProxyFeed thatoffers a new service.
What do they?

offer.
The idea behind this is it'sanother podcast mirror, if you
like.
There are a few of these aroundwhere they will actually take
your RSS feed and host itthemselves, and you can then add
additional features.
So perhaps you're hosting witha podcast hosting company that

(52:22):
doesn't allow you to use verymuch podcasting 2.0.
Podcasting 2.0.
Well, if you use a proxy feed,then you can, because you can
actually grab that RSS feed andmake changes to it.
One of the things that I thoughtwas really interesting is that
proxy feed will allow you tokeep your RSS feed, or their

(52:45):
copy of it, under your owndomain, or their copy of it
under your own domain.
So, instead of you know, theRSS feed for this show is, of
course, at a buzzsproutcomdomain, as it should be, because
A they're our sponsor and Bthat's who we use to publish our
show, and it sort of struck methat there aren't very many

(53:08):
podcast hosting companies thatallow you to take your RSS feed
and put that under your owndomain so that you are freer to
leave, because it's thereforemuch easier to keep control of
your RSS feed.
So I just thought that that wasan interesting thought, did.

Sam Sethi (53:25):
Blueberry, try this and I don't think it succeeded,
did it?

I think Blueberry have it as a product
of theirs.
It's called Podcast Mirror,it's at podcastmirrorcom, and I
do think that there are a fewothers of these tools as well,
and so I suppose the question is, what do they offer that you
can't get from your podcast host?

(53:51):
And part of that is potentiallyyour own domain.
Part of that is potentiallysupporting podcasting 2.0 tags,
although this company don'tsupport very many of them so far
.
Part of them could be just alittle tick box add this podcast
to OP3, and it willautomatically add all of the
redirects for you.
I think there's definitelysomething in it I mean kind of

(54:17):
TrueFans has been doing it forthe last year and a half, two
years, kind of in that you canchange the RSS feed that your
systems see, can't you?

Sam Sethi (54:29):
Yeah, we experimented with it.
We thought if you wanted to addany tag that was in the
podcasting 2.0 within Reason Ithink we've supported them all
you can add them by claimingyour feed in TrueFans and then
it would only work withinTrueFans.
We thought, okay, well, that'svery limiting.
So could we do something whereyou could publish your updated

(54:53):
feed to the podcast index butkeep the enclosure or the
alternative enclosure with youroriginal host, like Buzzsprout?
And we tested that and thatworks.
We've got some more stuff thatwe're going to be doing with
that.
But yeah, I think it's a safeway for people to experiment
with podcasting 2.0 tags,Because one of the things we do

(55:15):
in our creators dashboard is wehave a toggle that says true
fans feed original feed, and soyou can go and play with every
tag you like, change your feedand do what you want and then,
if you don't like anythingyou've done, flick the switch
back and we just put back youroriginal feed for you.
So it's a fairly safe way ofexperimenting, I think.

Yeah, no.
So I think that that's a prettycool and pretty smart thing.
What else is going on in thewhole tech?

Sam Sethi (55:44):
world.
Congratulations to Castomatic.
They now support the Lit Tag,so I think that's great.
One more platform now tosupport live podcasting.
Um, and I think live podcastingin the second half of 2025,
it's going to have a bit a verybig impact personally.
So, yeah, congratulations now.

I think that's very exciting descript as well,
releasing a new set of features,including improved filler word
removal.
They say and they've also addedand this was a no-brainer and
I'm really surprised that otherremote recording tools haven't
added this They've added ateleprompter.
That's just such an obviousthing To add a teleprompter so

(56:27):
you can stare at the screen andread whatever it says just
underneath.
It makes a ton of sense.
So nice additions from Descriptthere.

Sam Sethi (56:39):
Now Podstats is a new tool that uses OP3.
What are they doing, james?

Yeah, so OP3 does analytics and it's free.
Op3.dev and the analytics pagesthat OP3 produces are they're a
bit boring, they're a bit black, but nevertheless you know
they're fine.
But you can do more with that.
And so what Podstats has doneis it's used the API into OP3 to

(57:05):
pull all of the data in to showyou more data for the entire
time that you've been with OP3,to pull all of the data in to
show you more data for theentire time that you've been
with OP3, rather than just thelast couple of months.
But it also shows you nicethings like trending graphs and
those sorts of things, and it'sjust a prettier way of seeing
some of the OP3 data.

(57:27):
So I thought that was quiteinteresting, that a company has
essentially started by pullingthe OP3 information and just
making that look prettier.
So it's quite a nice thing.
The tool is in preview at themoment, so everything on there
is free, but it looks reallysmart actually.
So it's, yeah, worth a peek,certainly in terms of how that

(57:53):
works.
It's particularly good when youhave a look at a graph and you
can see the amount of downloadsincreasing, as our show appears
to be doing right now.

Announcer (58:02):
So you know, that's always a good thing.
Super comments, fan mail, superchats and email Our favourite
time of the week.

Yes, there are so many different ways to get in
touch with us.
We can email by using the linkin our show notes or super
comments on True Fans or Boostseverywhere else, or email, and
we share money that we make too.
That's me and Sam sharing everymoney, and I only mention that
because Silas on Linux sent us athousand sats here and said

(58:39):
this is why I posted to James toskip the week, so Sam's
replacement, that's you, johnMcDermott, wouldn't have to read
a boost about Sam getting cash.
Lol, good co-host, thoughskilled.
You may remember last week thatSilas on Linux gave us
something like $70 worth of sats, which was very kind and made

(59:04):
my umbral hurt a bit, but thankyou for that.
Words you've never said before.
Yes, exactly.
So yes, and I felt sort ofslightly bad that we didn't put
John in the splits and maybe weshould have done for last week,
but still, there we go.

Sam Sethi (59:22):
Anyway, we've got 644 sats from Neil Velio.
Ha ha, excellent crucification.

Yes, I was being rude about his comments about
radio statistics.
I think last week Cy sends us3,865 sats.
Now he's using TrueFan, sothat's probably an amount of
money rather than a randomnumber.
But anyway, Cy says, like DannyBrown also enjoyed hearing John

(59:51):
as a guest host, chatting toJames, you should invite more
along to join in to occasionallyshake it up.
And then says can John get someof this sweet value for value
as well?
Yes, oh, okay, Everyone'swanting the money now.

Sam Sethi (01:00:05):
Oh yes, here we go.
I want to be a guest, I wantthe money.

James Cridland (01:00:09):
Come on, yes, and Danny managed to, I think,
comment without sending any sats, which means that I haven't
seen what Danny's originalcomment was.
But Danny Brown from Canada didthen send through 4,762 sats.
So thank you, danny, for thatmuch appreciated.
Silas on Linux, also says thatlowering fees on payment systems

(01:00:33):
that aren't compatible is notenough.
I think he's talking aboutMyVisa and MasterCard.
If only they just lowered thefees, then everything would be
happy plan, and I don't think helikes that very much.
But still, there we are, andBruce, the ugly quacking duck

(01:00:55):
sent through a row of ducks2,222 sats.
If things settle down to oneway of doing podcasts, one way
of paying for it, what elsewould you have left to report
and what would I look forward tolistening to each week?
Thanks for the reports and theconversation.
Good show 73s.
Thank you, bruce.

(01:01:16):
Bruce, don't worry, mate.

Sam Sethi (01:01:18):
We have a ton of stuff we haven't talked about
yet.
Yes and yes, there's a lot totalk about still, even if we
settle down and getmicropayments working, indeed
Just you wait until this specialepisode on L402.

It's coming, it's coming.
It's not here yet, but it'scoming.

Sam Sethi (01:01:38):
Oh, dear, yes.

Yes, we should also thank the noteworthy 19,
those kind people who havegrasped the internet's money
which, of course, is Visa andMastercard and gone to
weeklypodnewsnet, and thosepeople include John McDermott,
our co-host from last week, mattMedeiros and Marshall Brown.

(01:02:00):
Thank you all so much for doingthat.
It's very much appreciated, andthat does get shared regularly
with Sam as well, so that'sdefinitely a good thing.
So you have been on holidayspending some of this money.

Sam Sethi (01:02:17):
Yes, Well.

I could spend more thanks to Silas as well.
Yes, where did you go?
What did you do, and are youpleased to be back at work?

Sam Sethi (01:02:27):
Right In that order, I went to Alsace, which is
stunningly beautiful.

it's a handsome, incredible country.
That's in France, isn't it?

Sam Sethi (01:02:34):
Yeah, well, occasionally it was in Germany
for a while and then gettingback to France and then went to.
Germany.
Yes, it's one of those, but no,very beautiful there.
And then we went down toLausanne, which is the home of
the Olympics at the IOC, and,yeah, went to Montreux to the

(01:02:54):
festival Very nice FreddieMercury's home.
And yeah, no, it was all verylovely and we did a lot of wine
tasting and driving electricbikes and basically just yes.

Announcer (01:03:06):
Oh they were, electric bikes were they that
was one piece of detail that wasmissing and basically just yes,
oh, they were electric bikes,were they?

Oh, mate, that was one piece of detail that was
missing from theself-congratulatory Facebook
posts.
I've been cycling across theAlsace yes, okay In an electric
bike.

Sam Sethi (01:03:23):
Seriously.
Well, let me put it this waythere was no spitting, there was
lots of swallowing of wine, andyou basically get to the fourth
vineyard and you try and get upa hill without an electric bike
.
Good luck to you.
Yeah, no, that wasn't working.
But then I came back and we didanother 27 kilometres of the

(01:03:46):
Thames Path.
So four legs to go.
That's all I will say.

Very nice.
Whereabouts were your 27kilometres this time round?

Sam Sethi (01:03:55):
It was from just outside Cull House over to
through Abingdon into Oxford,and Abingdon is stunning if
you've not been to it.
I loved it.
Yeah, it was very pretty.
But yes, very good, yes, andthen we have started doing our
testing for HLS.
So more about that in futureweeks.

More about that in future weeks.
Yes, that'll be exciting, james.
What's happened for you, mate?
I have done virtually nothing.
All of a sudden, queensland isnow in winter.
We're in the depths of winter.
I wake up and it's six degreesoutside, which still means that
it's six degrees inside becauseour houses are made out of
sticks.
And, yes, it's been very chillyin the morning.

(01:04:42):
But apart from that, I've donevery little, which has been very
nice.
Rather boringly, I ended upchanging my electricity supplier
over the week and moreworryingly.

Sam Sethi (01:04:56):
I read about it.

Yeah, well, yes, there you go, but one of the
things that I have, of course,because Jean ended up convincing
me vaguely to get into the homeautomation.
Changing my electricitysupplier also meant rewriting
all of my home assistant screens.
So there we are.
But my new electricity suppliergives me free electricity

(01:05:22):
between 11 in the morning andtwo in the afternoon, which is
three hours of free electricity,and it's been really
interesting basically changingeverything in the house so that
it comes on at 11 o'clock,because, you know, we've got a
pool pump that needs to run fora couple of hours.
We'll make sure that that runsbetween 11 and 1.
We've got, you know, we've got acar that needs charging.

(01:05:45):
We've got, you know, adishwasher that needs working.
Wow, you know, literallyeverything goes on between 11
and one, and it's really funny.
So I've got a little screen infront of me which shows how much
electricity the house is using,and we pile everything into
those three hours.
So that's quite fun.
And then the other thing thatit's got is it's got very cheap

(01:06:06):
electricity overnight betweenmidnight and six in the morning.
The only way that you can getthis is if you own an electric
car, because they want you tocharge your electric car using
it.
Well, we've got solar panels,so I'll still charge it during
the day, when it won't cost usanything anyway.
But in this particular case itdoes mean that we can actually

(01:06:28):
leave some of the heating onovernight, which we've needed.
So yeah, so it's been quiteinteresting, just sort of
playing around with that,reconfiguring all of the boring
stuff, making sure that you knowthe water heater turns on at 11
o'clock in the morning and allthat kind of stuff.
So that's been quite fun to endup playing around with.

Sam Sethi (01:06:46):
Well.
At WWDC, apple announced theirnew home management platform.
Maybe you could switch to thatif you wanted.

Well, I mean, you know, Home Assistant is
certainly interesting, but mygoodness, it is a.
The whole thing is heldtogether by just random, you
know random bits of code writtenby nobody in particular.
So I've got an integration withthe electric car so I can see

(01:07:13):
how much charge the electric carhas, and blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, I was curious aboutthat particular plugin.
So I went to have a look at theplugin and it said this plugin
is no longer being developed.
If anybody wants to develop it,then please.
And so all of this entireecosystem is run by just
well-meaning coders in theirbedrooms.
It's just not great.

(01:07:35):
So, yeah, it'd be veryinteresting if either Apple or
Google well, let's face it, it'sgoing to be Apple get
interested in integrating all ofthis stuff properly.
That would be reallyinteresting.
But still, that's kind of wherewe are right now.
Anyway, that's it for this week.
All of our podcast storiestaken from the Pod News daily

(01:07:56):
newsletter at podnewsnet.

Sam Sethi (01:07:59):
You can support this show by streaming stats.
You can give us feedback usingthe Buzzsprout fan mail link in
our show notes.
You can send us a super commentor become a power supporter,
like the naughty but nice 19.
That's not the phrase we'remeant to use, are we?
But I'll stick with it for now.
At weeklypodnewsnet.

Yes, our music is from TM Studios.
Our voiceover is Sheila D, ouraudio is recorded using clean
feed, we edit with Hindenburgand we're hosted and sponsored
by Buzzsprout.
Start podcasting, keeppodcasting.

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Molly Bloom (01:08:36):
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