SUBCLADE K

New data: Top CDNs used by the 1.9 million new podcast episodes found in December 2025 livewire.io/podcast-cdns...

New data! updated my ranking of the top 3rd-party podcast analytics services, based on the share of the 1.9 million new episodes published in December 2025 livewire.io/podcast-trac...

New data! My ranking of top podcast hosting companies based on the 1.9 million new episodes published in December 2025 livewire.io/podcast-host...

here's a gem: generated podcast so stuffed with ads its hard to find the short-amount of non-ad audio yes it's in the Apple Podcasts directory podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...

Just updated my graphs of @transistor.fm's monthly reported stats to include the newly-finished month of December 2025. livewire.io/transistor-s...

Buzzsprout just published their public stats for December 2025, so I just updated my post tracking them over time - another year in the can livewire.io/buzzsprout-s...

2026 is even harder to type

‘Closed networks are a big company thing, not a cloud thing’ www.pfrazee.com/blog/atmosph...

‘I guess ‘theater of the mind’ is no match for straight-up TV’ www.semafor.com/article/12/2...

‘"I don't have time for this." That might be the name of a podcast. I just ended one with that exact phrase, and it totally fits the way I feel about these rambling diatribes by the time I'm about to sign off.’ daveverse.org/2025/12/28/5...

well I'll be - it seems to work in Brave too and ⌘-w closes the right-view, if focused mikecaulfield.substack.com/p/using-open...

‘Podcasting today is a global, unauthenticated supply chain - not broken, just security-blind’ kfir-g.dev/blog/blogs/2...

This is why the ad tech companies will always win. People fundamentally do not value their time

sorry @esb.lol normally I don't ping, but I bet someone on the team could do this in like two seconds. I'm not caught up on the best way to pass through config else I'd try a PR myself github.com/bluesky-soci...

hehe what a flex

‘When I hear people say the future of audio is essentially television, it makes me feel they never knew what was exciting about sound in the first place’ www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

‘strive for excellence, ignore success’

Fuck you people. Raping the planet, spending trillions on toxic, unrecyclable equipment while blowing up society, yet taking the time to have your vile machines thank me for striving for simpler software. Just fuck you. Fuck you all. I can't remember the last time I was this angry.

‘I'm trying to provide the subtleist unwavering form of movement’ www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

‘At 11 a.m., YouTube had an average audience of 6.3 million viewers in October. Netflix’s audience is less than half of that (2.8 million). Amazon has about a million viewers at that hour, and HBO Max, Paramount+ and Peacock, draw fewer than 600,000.’ (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/b...

‘“One impact is that the Boulder Internet Time Services no longer have an accurate time reference,” Sherman added. As a result, the U.S. official time slowed by around 4.8 microseconds’ gizmodo.com/colorado-win...

I realise this is probably extremely niche, but in the event you wanted to download podcasts to your Windows 11 computer, FluentCast seems like a pretty good free option. luandersonn.com/fluentcast/

ikea final boss

this morning's soundtrack music.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

‘Making them equal parts assistant and friend may be toxic for some people, but, so far, appears to be a successful business strategy.’ (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...

‘podcasts are the place to break news and update your fans’

@bnewbold.net looking into hosting my own relay following your directions at whtwnd.com/bnewbold.net... is this line still needed in winter 2025?

while you were not paying attention, Safari ka-chunked its way to the top (!) of the web platform Interop 2025 Dashboard wpt.fyi/interop-2025...

I have to say, Gemini 3 Flash (now the default) does a better job of explaining op3.dev than I do. Nailed it.

‘canary in the coalmind’

‘Threads still supports federation with other apps like Mastodon, but Hayes was clear that it’s not a top priority for the current roadmap’ archive.is/CLcnc

‘It is the audio equivalent of a “content farm.” This isn’t the future of podcasting — it is programmatic ad arbitrage dressed up as scale.’ www.radioworld.com/columns-and-...

‘In 2026, I’m hoping — begging, really — that we finally retire the idea that digital incompetence is an acceptable personality quirk in professional settings.’ www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/plea...

‘Now it’s becoming clear that the platform best positioned to be the ‘Android of XR’ is… well… Android XR itself’ www.roadtovr.com/meta-horizon...

still using my hls.livewire.io indexing site to keep an eye on podcast feeds using HLS in their alternateEnclosure tag just ran across the first one I've seen using AV1 for video (and Opus for audio) - it's hosted on peertube hls.livewire.io?q=feed:https...

‘In a move that’s sure to send shockwaves through Hollywood, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has signed a multi-year deal that will give YouTube the exclusive global rights to the Oscars, beginning in 2029 and running through 2033.’ variety.com/2025/film/ne...

‘Visa is now in a race with its main competitors to support a technology that could be disruptive to its role as a payments intermediary’ Visa Offers Stablecoin Settlement for US Banks Using Circle’s USDC archive.is/NIwei

‘“It honestly felt like a place that was on its last legs,” Ali McKay, 34, said of the Paramount lot, which she recently toured. “Very little was immediate or particularly relevant. There was a vibe of tiredness, like the end of something.”’ (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/b...

carplay

AI-generated podcasts have entered the open system in a big way, it will be an interesting story to follow in 2026. RSS tags will not help here. Podcast hosting companies may not always cook up the slop, but they are paid by the bowl to distribute it. Best thing that ever happened to them.

I see Apple already has a policy in place for generated podcasts If this were enforced, and publishers were incentivized to add _something_ to both the "metadata" (show notes? new itunes:generated tag?) _and_ the audio itself, that would greatly help in mass id podcasters.apple.com/support/891-...

‘Podcasts are not unscripted, but they shouldn’t _feel_ scripted; podcasts are not unstructured but they shouldn’t _feel_ structured. It is about carefully curated, artificial familiarity that creates a communion between publisher and audience.’ futureproofnews.substack.com/p/my-word-of...

‘I expect this to be an escalating problem and solutions will evolve as we go forward.’ castro.fm/blog/hiding-...

‘“If we were serious, we would pull this tool immediately,” the editor added.’ futurism.com/artificial-i...

26.3 beta developer.apple.com/news/release...

Happened to have four days in a row of zero podcast listening. Felt good

‘Dauphin Highlands’ days are numbered. In August, it voted to sell the course to Harrisburg I, LLC, for $45.6 million - roughly 10x the recorded value of the 228-acre plot. But it isn’t a traditional buyer. It wants the ground, not the greens, as a site for a data center’ golf.com/news/data-ce...

‘The flood of slop in 2025 included absurd videos, off-kilter advertising images, cheesy propaganda, fake news that looks pretty real, junky AI-written books, “workslop” reports that waste coworkers’ time… and lots of talking cats.’ www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/wor...

For a story - looking for people who have had awful/untrue/libellous comments placed on their Apple Podcasts listing, and experiences with Apple support when trying to get them removed. Won’t mention your show and will keep you anonymous. [email protected] Please boost/share.