Podcasting has changed the way we consume information. But there’s a phenomenon-in-the-making worth tuning into for its capacity to shape the way business and personal narratives will be told. Whether you are a content creator, a business owner, or a marketing executive trying to make sense of the latest multi-media explosion, the convergence of radio, audiobooks and podcasts is a trend you can’t afford to ignore. In this post, we offer examples of boundary-breaking forms of storytelling, along with links.
The Poet Podcaster
Once upon a time poets wrote poems. Now, they are podcast stars who are taking listeners by both ears. Meet U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith. Her daily podcast The Slowdown has been called “a literary once-a-day multivitamin.” Smith is no stranger to breaking boundaries. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for her collection “Life on Mars,” which blends science and science fiction with the oddities of the human experience. Each daily episode of The Slowdown features a poem selected, introduced, and read by Smith.
Conversation Meets Talk Show
“If you’re seriously smart but refuse to take yourself too seriously, come a little closer because we are here and hear, to slay.” This is the promise behind the Hear to Slay podcast, hosted by novelist and essayist Roxane Gay and Tressie McMillan Cottom, professor and sociologist. Both women offer incisive takes into the politics shaping our world. Part conversation, part radio talk show, this podcasting model is ideally suited for people and businesses who have something important to say and can now own both: content and platform.
Sounds Like a Radio Drama Crossed with a News Report
Some podcast producers are crossing all the boundaries. S-Town is an investigative journalism podcast hosted by Brian Reed and created by the producers of the podcast Serial and This American Life, a public radio program which is now also a podcast. Back in 2017 the podcast was downloaded a record-breaking 10 million times in four days. It has been downloaded a reported 40 million times. Despite the investigative tone, S-Town is neither true radio, nor true crime story, but rather a complex and tricky narrative experiment. The S-Town producers had done this before with their 2014 Serial, a similar cross between journalism and documentary hosted by Sarah Koenig, which has an ongoing podcast world record for downloads: more than 350 million times.
Will It Blend? Memoir, Audiobook, Podcast & More
Feelings, finance and the system are what comedian and New York Times best-selling author Gaby Dunn examines in her weekly podcast Bad With Money. Hers is an unabashedly radical point of view shared by the guests journalists, politicians, and activists who join Dunn on the voice stage. Bad With Money: The Imperfect Art of Getting Your Financial Shit Together, is now a book. It’s also an audiobook. It’s also a memoir. Successful across many media and genres— book, podcast, audiobook, finance, career advice, and comedy, Dunn’s growing platform defies categorization. This kind of trailblazing is great news for all content creators.
Audiobooks Blended with Podcasts
We couldn’t wait to listen to this new mixed format: an audiobook with a podcast inside. The Young Adult thriller Sadie, by author Courtney Summers falls in this category. In the audio book, half the story is told as a true crime podcast — with a full cast of characters and sound effects — about the unsolved murder of a dead girl and her missing sister. The other half is narrated in the first person by the missing girl herself. The audiobook/podcast even spun off a podcast of its own — The Girls — hosted by the book’s fictional reporter West McCray.
These are just a few examples. But following are compelling reasons why audio media convergence in podcasting will continue, creating rich storytelling opportunities along the way:
- The connected car is here, opening up enormous opportunity for on-the-go podcast listening while driving.
- The smart speaker is booming, making it easy to tell Alexa or Siri to find and play your favorite podcasts.
- Listening platforms, portals and apps continue to get better.
- Podcast content lives alongside music in most audio portals. This means users with no deliberate intention of seeking out podcast content will now encounter it.
- People choose to listen to podcasts and consequently are more engaged — they listen to almost everything they pick!
- Audio storytelling is an immersive experience.
- Podcasting is an agile and transportable medium that goes where print and video cannot go, i.e., as a background companion for other activities like working out or driving.
Ultimately, it is this particular technology’s ability to collapse the distance among people, and to give the feeling that there is one person out there speaking only to you, that lends the podcast medium its power to engage, persuade and change hearts and minds.
As BurstMarketing’s Chief Content Manager, Marisol guides the content strategy for your podcasts and develops engaging narratives that lead to audience growth. With more than twelve years of experience as a writer and producer, Marisol has created award-winning content for e-zines, magazines, videos and podcasts. As a former news reporter, she’s skilled in using storytelling to engage audiences.
