Theo Von’s podcast is climbing the charts with a little help from TikTok -Gudstory

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Hope you all had a great weekend. Today, I’ve got news about James Corden’s new SiriusXM deal, Theo Von’s rise on the charts, and, what I’ll admit is a significant tonal change, a look at what the podcast is actually doing in the discussion around the Israel-Hamas war. Is helping.

Don’t call it a podcast deal (that’s what I’m told). the former late late show The host will have a new weekly program on SiriusXM that is exclusive to subscribers. This Life of Mine with James Corden There will be a weekly celebrity chat show, because literally what else would it be? The show, which will launch in early 2024, was announced Wednesday ahead of SiriusXM launching its new app.

As executives discussed during an investor call last week, the new app is expected to better combine SiriusXM’s satellite and podcast offerings. The company is under pressure to attract younger audiences as its flagship satellite product and Pandora hemorrhage customers. In Q3, SiriusXM lost 94,000 subscribers and Pandora lost 112,000 subscribers. Meanwhile, podcasting revenue grew 28 percent, even during what everyone can agree has been a very bad year for podcasting.

The idea that Corden has swapped out the day-to-day workings of late-night television for a lower-elevator audio show is not unprecedented (see Conan O’Brien and Trevor Noah), but it is interesting that his show appears on SiriusXM proper. and is not being widely distributed like podcasts. Corden has never been known for being outrageous, but he was exceptionally good at creating great, viral celebrity content. (“Carpool Karaoke” is the most notable.) A deal where their show is niche, and a radio show first, podcast second, seems to run against that strength.

Again, we don’t yet know how the new app will integrate SiriusXM shows with podcasts. Perhaps the exclusivity and new app configuration will encourage cordon-heads to move to satellite.

Or maybe it’s just me, but I blame it on maternity leave (because I do everything!). Edison Research released its list of the most popular podcasts between July and September, and This past weekend w/Theo Vaughan Right in the middle, landing at the number 5 (!!) spot this american life And smartless,

Vaughn, a comedian who is a frequent guest joe rogan experience, has been making his show since 2016. While we’ve seen new shows with big names rise up the rankings very quickly, it’s also been a while since we’ve seen a long-running show like this pop up. He remained at 15th position between April and June this year. Vaughan could not even break Edison’s top 50 in the same quarter last year.

According to Rolling stoneclip from this past weekend There has been a recent buzz on TikTok, which may explain this sudden growth. Like other shows that generate viral moments (call her daddy, JRE), Vaughn’s show is a video podcast.

I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how podcasting affects the way the public digests and debates the war. In many ways, podcasting lags behind other forms of digital media in this situation. TikTok, Instagram and Twitter/X have been front and center as they have been created to amplify the shocking visuals coming from the war and the resulting outrage. I believe this is where podcasting can provide something different and much needed.

What podcasting lacks in the ability to go viral, it (can do Build with depth being the key word here. Over the past month, I’ve watched several podcasts trying to make sense of what’s going on, and for me, it’s the antidote to the overly simplistic, righteous anger of social media.

For day-to-day news and analysis, I’ve been loving news agent, The UK-based show, hosted by three BBC veterans – Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Louise Goodall, does a great job of looking at the war from different perspectives, and the hosts’ analyzes manage to be spicy without being sensationalist . Whereas the new York Times It made some mistakes in its breaking coverage, the Daily Last week an interesting episode was published on how the way people view the 1948 war continues to fuel conflict today. Additionally, The Ringer’s Plain English with Derek Thompson It has many great episodes that subtly depict the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I’ll continue to keep an eye on how this plays out in podcasting. I’m also interested in how left-leaning political shows might reflect growing divisions on the left more generally, so keep an eye on that in a future issue. In the meantime, what shows have you binged on in the last month? Feel free to ask me your thoughts and suggestions at ariel.shapiro@theverge.com.

that’s all for today! I’ll be back next week with the latest audio news.