As kids, most of us enjoyed hearing our parents narrate bed-time stories to us rather than reading storybooks. There was a certain appeal in lazily listening to the Adventures of Tintin. As we grew up, this laze took a new form. It turned away from stories on the radio and cartoon audios to Spotify’s exciting, new venture– Podcasts. But of course, this is just a cool revival story to tell our kids.

The original story began in 2000 when Dave Winer and Adam Curry, two friends having (very) intellectual discussions came up with the idea of podcasting, i.e. software that supported downloading online audio. Soon after that, Ben Hammersley, a writer for The Guardian, casually gave it the name ‘podcasts’ in 2004. Before anyone knew it, podcasts went from downloadable audio files for nerds to audio blogs with personal experiences. Books, iTunes and even presidential addresses (by George Bush) started widely popularizing them. We all believed this was it -– this was the golden age of podcasting. And for a while, it was. But when millennials came knocking around with their shiny new Blackberry’s, podcasts became as lifeless as Jon Snow. 

Of course, this death was short-lived. In 2020, they were re-born under the influence of a deadly, population killing virus (the irony!). According to audio platform Dax, podcast listening is up by almost 14% in April 2020 as compared to February 2020. 

The desperate need for human interaction and sitcoms on OTT platforms have paved the way for podcast popularity and the best part? There’s no censorship involved. So you can be on either side of the F-word, and no one will actually give an F! It’s a pretty great perk.

Podcast genres have also evolved rapidly and now range anywhere from gory true crime stories to funny parodies about Bollywood’s latest and palest. 

You can either motivate yourself with Influencer/Motivational speaker Jay Shetty’s podcast “On Purpose” or simply indulge in stand-up comedian Kenny Sebastian’s hilarious life rant as you get through the monotony of zoom meetings. 

Everything from news, politics to fitness, it’s all suddenly on the table. According to reports by Nielsen, there are currently 850,000 active podcasts on the internet with more than 30 million episodes. That’s more than the total number of movies in the world. That kids, is pretty impressive.

In this giant maze of audio overload, there are a few podcasts that manage to stand out. ‘Serial’– a murder-mystery story about an old Baltimore homicide, is currently one of the highest-ranked podcasts on the internet. ‘The Tech Guy’, a round-table discussion about the latest high tech trends, holds the record for the longest-running podcast since its start in 2004. Celebrities like Dax Shephard, Snoop Dogg, and Amy Schumer are also jumping on this bandwagon with witty, insightful discussions about varied topics. 

And podcasts like ‘Spooked’, ‘Call Your Girlfriend’ and ‘This American Life’ have gained quite the momentum in the last few years for their quality content and soaring user reviews.

So, what’s next for podcasts? Are they worth the hype? Yes and no. It’s definitely subjective. Many of the popular ones are expected to turn into television shows and movies in the future. Hence, if you’re someone that connects with visual content, here’s a silver lining for you.

An unfavourable opinion rising among many is the fact that some podcast speakers don’t consider their audiences before speaking. So, when two friends start a podcast and Karen bursts into laughter saying ‘Do you remember that weird date?’, we are left saying ‘No Karen, WE DO NOT.’ Clearly, it’s a no-win situation.

For others, the fact that many new podcasts are sometimes carbon copies of older, more successful podcasts. This is pretty unsettling and tends to drive away from the audience. But other than that, these audio outlets are faring pretty well. It’s hard to tell what kind of future awaits them so until then, all we can do is listen (Or not.)