Tracking
- Over the weekend, the New York Times ran a great profile on Guy Raz, the prolific podcast host with a trademark sound of inquisitiveness. The profile, written by Nellie Bowles (who, by the way, has long been excellent on the Silicon Valley beat) offers this noteworthy data point: Raz’s three podcasts for NPR (How I Built This, TED Radio Hour, and Wow in the World) are said to have “a combined monthly audience of 19.2 million downloads,” which, if matched against the Podtrac ranker’s global unique download number of above 165 million in October, means Raz is responsible for roughly 10% of the organization’s podcast downloads. This is especially notable when you consider that Raz, largely a product of the NPR system, isn’t quite so exclusive to NPR any longer: earlier this fall, Spotify launched The Rewind with Guy Raz, a music interview show.
- ICYMI: “Earlonne Woods, Co-Host Of Ear Hustle Podcast, Gets Prison Sentence Commuted.” Here’s the NPR report on the story.
- Just a reminder: the Washington Post will launch their own daily news podcast, Post Reports, next Monday. It will target the evening commute with a 5pm ET drop time, and according to Digiday, the team is apparently estimating 1 million downloads per month to start.
- The BBC have launched EastEnders: The Podcast, a companion to the London-based soap that has been on the air since 1985. In a break from the traditional TV companion podcast, this one will feature “breakout audio dramas closely linked to ongoing storylines” on the show and featuring the TV actors, rather than analysis or criticism. There’s a teaser up here, and the first episode goes out on 28 November.
- Bravo’s TV adaptation of Dirty John is out now, to mixed reviews. Of all the pod-to-TV takes that were pegged to the launch, I thought Alison Herman’s, over at The Ringer, was the best. (Give! Connie! Britton! More! Roles!)
- Don’t miss Sarah Larson’s latest review for the New Yorker website, on WBUR and the Boston Globe’s Last Seen.