Show Notes.
- James Andrew Miller’s oral history podcast with Cadence13, Origins, is returning with three new seasons — or “chapters,” in its parlance — on the horizon: one on the famed college football coach Nick Saban, one on the upcoming season of Saturday Night Live, and one on the legendary HBO show Sex & The City.
- Tenderfoot’s Up and Vanished will kick off its second season on August 20. The podcast has now partnered with Cadence13 for distribution and monetization.
- Radiotopia’s new Showcase series, called The Great God of Depression, dropped in full last Friday. Pagan Kennedy, a co-producer on the project, also published an related Op-Ed in the New York Times over the weekend.
Miscellaneous Bites
- “The Information has learned that only about 2% of the people with devices that use Amazon’s Alexa intelligent assistant — mostly Amazon’s own Echo line of speakers — have made a purchase with their voices so far in 2018, according to two people briefed on the company’s internal figures.” (The Information) As Nieman Lab’s Joshua Benton pointed out over Twitter: “That’s despite survey data suggesting something more like 25%.”
- Breaker, the Y Combinator-accelerated podcast app, rolled out a new feature yesterday called “Upstream” that aims to help publishers to create and manage a “premium content” structure without having to rely on a non-podcast specific membership platform like Patreon. (Website)
- “Apple’s HomePod may have just doubled its share of the U.S. smart speaker market.” (Fast Company)
- “‘The Conservative Movement . . . Has Become a Racket’: Steve Schmidt Is Starting a Pod Save America for Never Trumpers.” (Vanity Fair)
- “Colleen Scriven’s ‘Lesser Gods’ Podcast in Development as HBO Comedy Series.” (Variety)
- “The Podcast Bros Want to Optimize Your Life.” (NY Times)
- “Patreon creators scramble as payments are mistakenly flagged as fraud.” (The Verge)