Podcasts look different here
They look like Substacks
The quiet underlying current that powers so much of Substack is intimacy. It’s what writers talk about the most—the direct relationship they are able to create here. No intermediaries or gatekeepers between them and their audience, financial, editorial, or otherwise. It’s what readers come for too: that special access directly into the thought universe of their favorite thinkers.
What is more intimate than an email directly to your inbox? A voice directly in your ear. Podcasts, first known as “audioblogs” in the 2000s, are what took the audio medium from its widest distribution (over the radio waves, to all of us) into the sanctuary of the one-to-one. As podcast lovers well know, it feels like your favorite thinker is talking to you, right into your brain.
Which is why there’s such a natural home for podcasting here. At Substack, we’re always building on the same core foundation—that close, deep relationship with the people who are most obsessed with your work. So here, we’re taking podcasts further away from the radio waves and deeper into the domain of that intimate, direct space. Here, podcasts are a place for your listeners to hear from you, straight into their inbox or any podcast listening app, and be able to pay you for the shows they love—without your having to hock mattresses or mortgages in ads. Unlike almost anywhere else on the internet, it’s a place for listeners to hear (or read, or watch) both free and paid content, and reward you for either or both. It’s a place for your listeners to come back to respond to you, and to each other, and to form a community around your work.
All of that means podcasts look different here. They look like Substacks.
They look like
’s Martyr Made, where episodes can be six hours long, with weeks going by in between—but in between epic episodes, readers and listeners get sent fascinating bits of research or participate in discussion threads or read related essays (or listen to audio versions of essays). It looks like , where paid subscribers get a regular bonus episode every week, plus roundups of other podcast episodes, articles, and videos they might like that are related to that week’s discussion, and a place to hang out in the comments and dissect favorite moments of the episode. It looks like Lenny’s Podcast, a natural outgrowth of the wildly popular, deeply practical career and professional wisdom of . It looks like the all-star launch of ’s Courtside—featuring guests like Regina Spektor, Heather Cox Richardson, and Katie Couric—with a blend of free and bonus content that subscribers get in the same RSS feed in their podcast listening apps. It looks like or —both podcasts with roots in public radio, where fans can now pay the hosts directly and jump into comments to share their own take on topics like “economic false prophets” or the risks of using ChatGPT for legal briefs. And it looks like Burnt Toast by , who moved her podcast over from Libsyn to incorporate it more directly into the broader Burnt Toast universe of content. Virginia says:“[Substack podcasting is] more seamless to work with, since I’m already working in Substack every day anyway. And being able to send pod episodes directly to the newsletter list has given me way higher downloads—it was very hard to build an audience in Apple Podcast or Spotify because they are so thoroughly saturated.”
Over the past year and a half, we’ve been quietly building tools for these kinds of podcasts to evolve and flourish here—all based on the powerful fuel of a direct relationship with your listeners, all meant to encourage your listeners to reward you directly for the content they love. More than one in 10 of Substack’s “bestseller” publications now include a podcast of some kind.
You can create a post around your episode that’s so much more than show notes could ever be—with data and graphs, photos, videos, references, your amazing pre-production materials or extra thoughts from research—and encourage vibrant discussion from listeners in the comments. You can use our best tools and, with one click, publish your episode to all the major podcast players, so that you’re always maximizing your distribution and ways of bringing new listeners into your Substack universe.
And maybe most powerful of all, we’ve got a flexible audio paywall, allowing you to share the majority of an episode with the public while keeping some bonus content for paid subscribers only. This is built on a premise that fuels growth for many writers already on Substack: readers fall in love with the free content, and that leads to paying subscribers.
“It allows us to seamlessly send different versions of the same podcast episode to free and paid subscribers. This means we can put out a substantial free show that serves our whole listener community, while also effectively encouraging free listeners to convert to paid. And then, once they upgrade, they never have to hear another pitch.”
Podcasting—like so many media businesses built on legacy models that revolve around advertising and attention-grabbing incentives—is hitting a rough patch. Advertising deals are shrinking, while podcast marketplaces and players are more saturated by the day. We wanted to create a space where writers don’t need to play games to reach, cultivate, and grow audiences, and where they can earn a reliable income directly from their subscribers.
Podcasters can find another way here. Open the doors to let your listeners into your podcasts. Let them pay you for the work they love. Speak to them directly; don’t fight for airspace. Give them more of your brain, more space to talk to each other, and more space to thank you for it.
It’s not a podcast anymore. It’s a Substack.
Add a podcast to your existing Substack or start a new one. Visit the Help Center to learn more about podcasting.
 | A guest post by
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I've been publishing a podcast episode for nearly a year now in my Substack - Centered on Christ. Being able to interact with my readers through audio as well as the written word, gives me another way to connect with them. It had certainly benefited my subscribers - and it's helped me as well!
So have I, except mine is more sarcastic, blunt, and R rated, with cocktail recipes, lol.
Do you have co-hosts or interviews? My main barrier to entry is that it would likely be just me spouting into a microphone, which does not sound appealing lol.
No it's just me - I tend to keep the episodes short. Most fall in the 10-20 minutes range.
Interesting! I've always flirted with the idea but struggled to figure out an avenue. Mine is news without opinions, so really the only pathway I see is basically NPR haha, but that doesn't sound appealing. Will continue to brainstorm.
I follow William Spaniel on YouTube. He's a Pittsburg university professor and has a wry, dry, arid sense of humour, which you need when you vlog on the Russo-Ukrainian War. His voice sounds like AI. I'm convinced it isn't, because even AI isn't that wry and dry. He does occasionally voice an opinion, however.
Thanks for the invite?
I would LOVE to hear these Podcasts but (as I keep saying) I am deaf.
Either use subtitles or make sure there is a transcript!
Substack has a new automated transcription feature that hopefully more writers can use: https://on.substack.com/p/transcription#details
I’ve started podcasting using YouTube with captions and sharing the audio here with a transcript... if that’s the case which way would you choose to listen? It’s really important my work is accessible!
Substack app goes absolutely haywire for me while listening to any audio file - dies without saving progress, plays after removing headphones, etc.
Among other reasons, that's why when I started a podcast I opted to just stick to more traditional Anchor/Spotify/YouTube route.
Thanks for letting us know. We'll investigate this.
Let' hope they fix that problem in the near future!
Agree and maybe the solution is just a better integrated "download and play locally right away" feature. I'm really not sure, but as a year old app I would have hoped they'd have tackled this fairly common feature set
Well I have notice that "subscribe with a caption" is still not working correct, yet. And I told them about it over a month ago.
So I guess things will take time.
Agreed, I think it could use some up-tuning. But it would be a fantastic system once fully integrated.
That's interesting. But you can also host it here and play it on Apple and Spotify (at least) from what I understand, right?
Curious because I'm thinking of migrating my hosting from podbean to here.
Crazy to see Substack evolve. It could turn into a *better* social media that the internet needs!
“We wanted to create a space where writers don’t need to play games to reach, cultivate, and grow audiences” - THIS is why I love Substack!
Right?!!
I have started podcasting as an experiment with Substack features. One year later, I am officially calling my publication a podcast and audio is now my main medium.
I adore making my podcasts right here. I just dial in and speak. After I published my latest and most personal podcast here a couple of days ago I received a number of direct messages through other DM’s saying how much they were touched by this and adding to the conversation.
I was really surprised because this was the first podcast I published without first writing a script.
In the end ( for me ) it is all about those conversations. How wonderful they are.
I’m going to re-release my entire Twin Peaks podcast on Substack with transcripts.
That’s settled then. TMWWD podcast coming to Substack!
Fiction podcast?
The Man Who Wouldn't Die Podcast.
🤣
A Fiction Podcast! 😂
Got to turn this into Episode One: https://alexanderipfelkofer.substack.com/p/the-man-who-wouldnt-die-audio
I question the historicity of "audioblog" attesting to the 1980s. The word "blog" doesn't show up until 1998 in its modern sense. Citation needed to sate my etymological curiosity, please.
Thanks. We made an error there and have now updated the post.
Awesome! Have a great day!
Yes. I too saw that - I tracked it down to them confusing a sentence in either Wikipedia or its source The Gaurdian that says ------ "Podcasts, previously known as "audioblogs", had its roots dating back to the 1980s. With the advent of broadband Internet access and portable digital audio playback devices such as the iPod, podcasting began to catch hold in late 2004.[" ---------Now one could read that to mean "Audioblogs" date back to the 80's, because it's a bad sentence, but it's this podcasting concept that [allegedly-very weak support for it talking about MIDI files and music] goes back to the 80's. While they may have been briefly known as audioblogs, the roots go back before that term is used, and the sentence refers to roots.
Well sleuthed. The roots of digital audio playback are in the 1980s, not the term "audioblog" per your citation. Thanks for putting in the leg work.
It would have been quite a feat of causality to coin a compound word before one of the single words was coined.
Thanks. I get a kick out of it, almost glad they wrote it. The only way we'll fight AI [not that this is - but it could be, GPT would pull like that] and or plain old human overwriting/content marketing.
Gosh to get very technical if audioblog was 80's it would be before even the root of the single word: "web" was in use: web to web log - to 'blog."
"Web" in the Internet sense is traceable back to 1992, perhaps even as early as 1990 when used with other words ("web browser" .e.g.)
The author hasn't updated their piece yet. Everyone's tolerance is different, but man, if I had an error like that on a blog post, I'd be tripping over mea culpas by now.
In your opinion, what would those roots be, exactly? Audio files on bulletin boards? This is not a rhetorical question, I'm just trying to recollect the chain of events and visualize the connection. I was there but memory is a bit faded.
I was somewhat there. I see two roots - one is "internet radio" using RealMedia, where the real [.rlm?] files are embedded and the person downloaded a player to listen - which I did quite a bit of in say 1999. And you could totally do "episodes" if you had good website skills. Radio stations started using Real. I didn't so I just erased page and created a new HTML index page for new episode. But that didn't have the syndication/delivery factor that's just 'browsed' by a user who has to know to come back every week, etc.
so, then I'd say it's weblogs with hyperlinked audio files and then RSS to deliver that in a syndicated fashion. This podcast interviews Adam Curry who many call the Podfather - he doesn't claim to have invented it - he puts it at about 2000. https://www.parthenonpodcast.com/eyewitness-history/podcasting-inventor-adam-curry-discusses-mtv-steve-jobs-and-spilling-tea-on-paul-mccartneys-carpet
If you go way back 80's and such. two telephone modems talking... I'm certain there was audio files on bulliten boards and then AOL certainly. But the upload time!!! it couldn't have been a long show! I have trouble calling these podcasts but some people might have made them manual episodic. I see it as an unconnected family tree.
Wow, thanks for refreshing those memories! Can you believe I had totally forgotten that Real ever existed. Sure, I had the plugin installed on Netscape like everyone had at the time. I guess it failed to leave nostalgic marks on my soul, even though now I remember listening to some foreign radio stations on the Real player, which was such a novel experience at the time. Thanks, the timeline is looking a lot clearer now!
apparently the guy - Rob [something, Glasser maybe] had an ego that would make Jobs or Musk look small, he would yell at all the employees and a random hallway meet could be 'career-ending' Two legacies of Real Networks are - Patricia Cantwell, the Senator made her initial money to finance a race on Real stock and is still a Senator. Rob G was one of the funders of Air America radio.
I didn't know any of that. Thanks for the side stories!
I came here to say the same thing. I believe the author got the decades mixed up.
I feel like there is actually a place where freedom of speech and thought is valued and nurtured. Let this always be our sanctuary - Substack: a place where one can really listen to what others think and a place where everyone can share what they really feel.
It’s not just News current affairs and stuff. I have a Pottery podcast called The Potscast, Substack has helped it grow
Https://keramikslu.substack.com/
Love the name!
Thanks 😁
Someone who has moved their podcast to Substack want to break down their pros and cons and lessons learned?
I have not moved, but I learned that podcasts generate more subscribers than written stuff. Also - compared to YouTube - you have a five times higher reach of your audience. And the paid versions drive paid subs.
Waaa, to me it is the opposite. Written text generates more subscribers than the podcast. I suppose, when people read they keep their eyes on the page and see verious prompts to subscribe. But when they listen, they just put the phone in their pockets. What do you think?
Good point. I think about.
It’s so easy to produce a podcast. So easy, in fact, that even I managed it! You can hear me reading it here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/rosygee/p/double-trouble?r=faoyr&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
And sometimes a podcast is a serialised audiobook.
As in Writ Large which is going out on Rand Research
Beautiful, insightful read! I look forward to explore all the names and recommendations shared. It's been in my head for a long while to think about podcasts myself, and it's certainly encouraging to find a space where you can feel both safe and heard in so many ways. One more reason to love this all. Thank you Substack! 💪🏼
I’ve been toying with the idea of a fiction podcast for a while. It’s good to know that I have all the tools I need right here.
Brilliant. This and the recent transcription service have convinced me to migrate my podcast from Podbean to here (as host).
Are pods hosted on substack distributed through an rss feed, as is the case of a conventional podcast host?
My podcast is hosted on Substack and feeds to Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Tunein and Pocket casts. I think it's also on a few other platforms as well. There is an rss function that allows you to easily distribute. I migrated from Podbean to Substack and do not regret the decision.
An opportunity was missed to add audio to this post.
I’ve had a podcast in the traditional sense for over a year now. I love hosting the show but I’d love to build a community around it.
This article has given me food for thought.
I’m new to Substack but I can see that many of my articles will likely be used for pod episodes and many of my pod episodes will likely be expanded into articles on Substack.
So, I’m seeing a strong for argument for having both my writing and audio in one place and building the community I’m looking for here.
Thanks for planting the seeds in my brain with this article. I’ve got some investigating to do…
Once I’ve imported my podcast can I import new episodes from the same location or do I need to record them through Substack? My pod partner records them through Zencastr and I can’t seem to figure out how to add just the most recent episode.
In substack, is it that you're clicking on the "New Post" button instead of clicking on the right had side of the "New Post" button -- which is "Arrow Down, then Episode" (new episode)? From there you should see the upload button -- first, click on the "Add podcast" field.
Secondly, i record audio not thru substack. Once done recording (in the cloud), I download the mp3 file recording to my laptop, then upload it to substack via 'new episode' (above).
I’ll give that a shot.
Just started my BadFiction podcast today. Really interested to see how Substack compares to Spotify, for example. I just have this feeling that while Spotify might have reach, Substack has the relationship.
Hi to all you other creators!
Hope Joe Rogan finds his way to Substack. What I don't like is that Ms. Doomberg moved to Substack.
I just started to upload Podcast episode on my Youtube. Been thinking of doing the same here. Might give it a try!
You’re making wanna give this a whirl. Although, It scares me a tad.
Love these examples.
Mind blown! Substack + podcasts seems like a natural pairing - tomato & basil. When I get my account going, this may be something to consider at some point. I certainly look forward to checking out the array of podcasts here.
Allow me to shill for one of my podcasts that is exclusively hosted & distributed from here, Friends of Indie Left, an interview series I did in 2022. Working on dusting it off and doing some new interviews this month. The livestream becomes a podcast and both live here at Substack
https://indiemediatoday.substack.com/podcast
Most of the people I interviewed are on Substack, too!
https://indiemediatoday.substack.com/podcast
Thank you!
Podcasting was not known as such, but Earl Nightingale was doing this back in the 60's and 70's with Our Changing World which you can find some of that on youtube. Earl Nightingale may have been only about 5 minutes, but was supported by the financial institutions. So you mention that podcasting or audioblogs started in the 1980's. WRONG, I hate to tell you. Maybe in a different form, but it was on radio and I tried to listen to it before I ran off to the buss stop, without missing either.
I’ve recently started dabbling. Haven’t announced my podcast and don’t intend to for several weeks, because eventually I want it to be more than voiceovers. AndI want to get better at production.
I distribute it through Substack. So far, it appears on Apple but not the others. Spotify is tricky and I get the impression it’s important. ...
As with a lot of things, I started off telling myself I didn’t want to give too much time to the podcast, now spend about 90 minutes for every 10 minutes of audio.
My unsolicited advice for Substackers giving podcasts a go: Invest in a decent mic.
Good luck!
Thank you for this powerful reminder. The fourth season of Timeless Leadership is coming to Substack, to be released this month, possibly with some revamping.
https://www.timelesstimely.com/s/timeless-leadership
Love the new additions to the community. Always making progress 🩵🫡
"What is more intimate than an email directly to your inbox?" I hope you're kidding here. 💙
Sounds geeat. Best wishes in kicking of this venture. Promote truth, morality and unnumbered information and your success will be guaranteed. Since we are all grown-ups, a multi-faceted approach to reality is welcome. Let's leave the Legacy platforms for the toddlers. But one of ore biggest fights in this shared endeavor of truth is the censorship that we will face as adgenda driven forces see the writing on the wall. Their desperation to stop free and truthful expression will be a force to be reckoned with. Let's all stand tall against this evil!
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From my article posting on Substack, I have started first doing audio voice overs and putting some in the podcast section. I published my first Video Podcast today, once I mastered all the tech and artistry I enjoy doing. I will separated out the audio and set up as separated podcast (audio only) for the podcast channels, especially as I thought the interview went well and would help some podcast only folks with the issues discussed. I love working with Substack and all it offers. I like to get you comments on my first Substack video podcast at: https://www.inmindwise.com/p/post-trauma-suffering-to-happiness
Hi, is there a way to subscribe to a substack podcast using a podcast client?
Is there podcast RSS?
Thank you
I moved my gaming podcast here but i still didn't announce it to the listeners. I'm still testing Substack, I like it so far but I'm thinking about making my own website.
one would like to continue to see the freedom to write as one pleases
“The quiet underlying current that powers so much of Substack is intimacy.” Love this line, and the place I’ve begun to explore and write in.
Neat
One significant gap in Substack's features so far as monitizing podcasting goes is the lack of support for Spotify's Open Access API. This means that people who pay to get access to extended episodes, bonus content, early access, etc., and prefer to listen to podcasts in Spotify have to use a different app for paid content. Which is too bad, given how big of a platform Spotify is for podcasting. With Open Access support, people could subscribe to their Substack member private feed in Spotify alongside everything else they're listening to. https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/open-access#
interesting, though I've no idea where to start with a podcast.
Plugging my podcast, I make music :
https://open.substack.com/pub/falstiansounds?r=ba0ts&utm_medium=ios
Loving the podcast feature. Thanks for making it easy and fun. Let's keep growing.
This is not what I had assumed about podcasts. Glad I tuned in. Thanks
This is really cool. I'm planning on starting one soon. Can the same episodes be published to Spotify, iTunes etc?
I've been podcasting for a decade but have never tried it on Substack. Taking recommendations from those reading this — what should my first audio project here be?
Right, nice try with the "audio logs" from the **1980s** suuuure.
You realize nobody used the term "blog" at all until at least 2002, right?
Because the real word was "log," which we were familiar with somewhere between Captains Ahab and Picard.
Then when we kept logs on the web, we called them "web logs," and that *definitely* wasn't until LiveJournal, which was circa 1999, maybe 2000 at least. Ferris Bueller was an old man by then, hacker though he may have been, bro def did not keep a "web log," and he certainly wasn't there when it got shortened to "weblog," and further truncated by the cool (read: gay) kids to just "'blog" a few years later. Which is where any form of "blog" comes from, the B from Web. Do you not understand linguistics or history? Read some Katherine Dee at defaultwisdom.substack.com ffs
Yay! Loved using it.
RG for "BUMMA" great title isn't it. I am so abstract so much. I am banned from a meditation center in NYC
Fantastic. I am just learning how to do podcasts and did my first interviews today! I don't have any fancy equipment, but I'm going to experiment here and hopefully build it up as I go.
I’m wondering if someone could help me (or kindly point out that I’ve missed a very obvious solution!) I’ve got a podcast and would like the option of adding my article voiceovers to the podcast feed but *only* for paid subs. The difficulty is that I want to keep the voiceovers freely accessible to everyone on my substack (accessibility is important to me) so putting them behind a paywall isn’t the answer. I also think I could create separate podcast eps for each voiceover but that seems kind of clunky.
I have a feeling that voiceovers in the podcast feed would be a convenience-related selling point for new paying subs, and would like to be able to offer the few hundred people who are already paying an additional perk.
If anyone has any workarounds or suggestions, I’m all ears!
The Wright Report. Looking forward to accessing it via Substack.
Does your podcast platform provide an RSS feed that can be accessed from a standard podcast player? Does it include private feeds for premium content like Patreon does?
If you are not providing this functionality, then this would be a radical departure from your previous practice of giving a content creator full control of their relationship with their audience.
Even if you are providing these things, it is problematic for anyone who doesn't have their own domain name, since their audience would be forced to resubscribe if they leave your platform.
Worry not, Kaleb. Substack provides RRS feed. Explore the settings on the separate Podcast tab on the dashboard. If you don't see it, you might need to first enable podcasting.
Really excited about using the podcast feature!
I host the largest packaging podcast in the world here actually! Moved over from Anchor and it’s been amazing
Can't wait to start!
Not a podcaster but exciting stuff!
‘Hawk’ not ‘hock’
I think that adding some written content to a podcast adds so much value.
It’s great to listen to a podcast but it’s even better to have a place to go back and reference some things that isn’t just a choppy transcript.
I think it’ll allow writers and podcasters to expand their talents even more.
I’ve been thinking about doing this actually, though I’m spread on time. My legit fear is that I wouldn’t have enough paid subscribers to keep it going.
💚 it
thanks Substack 🙏🏼
🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
PLEASE(!) get CLOSED CAPTIONS for the HEARING IMPAIRED.
I am unable to "view" any of your videos because there are no captions available.
:(
Substack constantly talks about supporting writers while desperately begging users to use its apps and get into its walled garden. It also now runs a parallel social media site. Everything they say is contradicted by their own actions
I do a weekly podcast where I interview well known boxing authors. How do I load them from Youtube to Substack?
"The quiet underlying current that powers so much of Substack is intimacy."
How hard is it to announce a new feature without the manipulative appeals to emotion?
When you make them audio/video I'll think about it. Why only audio? That makes zero sense to me
I would love to hear from anyone who has moved their podcast from a host like Libsyn to here? Pros and cons???
Need to start a podcast
Just posted my first podcast episode recently. It was a super seamless experience. Absolutely love it :)
Okay, fine. I'll start a podcast on here.
I am so tempted by this! Can you record and edit right within Substack, and if so. are those tools robust enough to be meaningful?
A podcast is a great idea for any writer! I've been a guest on several and have done my own before. All you need is a nice mic and something to say.
Here you can find the largest show in German language with over 100 episodes in 3 month.
Best downloaded version >45k downloads.
https://grenzenlos-leben.net
Would love to know what specific data is most important to you!
Starts & Streems. How many times someone has started the podcast and how many time they have kept listening more then one minute.
Just started mine today!
Me!
Please use subtitles/transcripts. There are many deaf people in the World. At the moment I rely on transcripts.
How do you pronounce RΛISINI?
Appreciate the invite! Look forward to your podcasts. In the spirit of Substack, we should also interview brilliant humans who are not as well known.
I learned so much interviewing my father and will be posting one with Tiananmen Square student protest leader Fengsuo Zhou on Thursday: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/cultural-revolution-podcast-father#details
I would like to share my unique perspective from NYC and a black tibetan Buddhist and some other areas as well. RG for BUMMA
Let me know if I'm of the right status!