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The Star
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Star
Who is watching all these podcasts?
The following are the run times of some recent episodes of several of YouTube's more popular podcasts: 'This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von,' No. 595: Two hours, 14 minutes. 'Club Shay Shay,' No. 172: Two hours, 59 minutes. 'The Shawn Ryan Show,' No. 215: Five hours, four minutes. 'Lex Fridman Podcast,' No. 461: Five hours, 20 minutes. These shows follow the same general format: people sitting in chairs, in generically designed studios, talking. And, like many of the biggest podcasts these days, these shows are all released as videos. They don't feature particularly fancy camerawork, or flashy graphics, or narratives. All of them require time commitments typical of feature films, ballgames or marathon performance art installations. Yet going by YouTube's statistics, hundreds of thousands of people have viewed all of the above episodes. Which leads to comments such as this, as one fan wrote after a recent episode of Von's show: 'Truly, this podcast was amazing to watch.' So a genre of media named for an audio device – the iPod, discontinued by Apple in 2022 – and popularised by audiences enamoured of on-demand listening has transformed in recent years into a visual one. It's well established that the American brain is the prize in a war for attention online, a place that incentivises brief and sensational content, not static five-hour discussions about artificial intelligence. So what gives? Who exactly is watching the supersize video talk shows that have come to define podcasting over the past several years? At the highest level, the audience for video podcasts is simply people who consume podcasts. 'Who is watching these?' said Eric Nuzum, a podcast strategist. 'A person who loves podcasts who happens to be near a screen.' Indeed, according to an April survey by Cumulus Media and media research firm Signal Hill Insights, nearly three-fourths of podcast consumers play podcast videos, even if they minimize them, compared with about one-fourth who listen only to the audio. Paul Riismandel, president of Signal Hill, said this split holds across age groups – it's not simply driven by Generation Z and that younger generation's supposed great appetite for video. But dive a bit deeper into the data, and it becomes clear that how people are watching podcasts – and what counts as watching – is a far more revealing question. According to the Signal Hill survey, about 30% of people who consume podcasts 'play the video in the background or minimise on their device while listening.' Perhaps this person is folding laundry and half-watching 'Pod Save America,' or has 'The Joe Rogan Experience' open in a browser tab while they do busy work at the office. That describes Zoë McDermott, a 31-year-old title insurance producer from Pennsylvania, who said she streams video of Von's show on her phone while she works. 'I don't have the ability to watch the entire thing through, but I do my glance-downs if I hear something funny,' McDermott said. 'It's passive a little bit.' Still, this leaves everyone else – more than half of YouTube podcast consumers, who say they are actively watching videos. Here, it gets even trickier. YouTube, the most popular platform for podcasts, defines 'views' in a variety of ways, among them a user who clicks 'play' on a video and watches for at least 30 seconds: far from five hours. And the April survey data did not distinguish between people who were watching, say, four hours of Lex Fridman interviewing Marc Andreessen from people who were viewing the much shorter clips of these podcasts that are ubiquitous on TikTok, Instagram Reels, X and YouTube itself. All of which makes it hard to pinpoint a 'typical' podcast viewer. Is it a couple on the couch with a bucket of popcorn, streaming to their smart TV? Is it a young office worker scrolling through TikTok during his commute? Or is it the same person engaging in different behaviour at different points in the day? Alyssa Keller, who lives in Michigan with her family, said sometimes she watches 'The Shawn Ryan Show' on the television with her husband. But more often, she puts the video on the phone for a few hours while her children are napping. This means she sometimes has to watch marathon episodes in chunks. 'I've been known to take multiple days,' she said. 'Nap times only last for like two hours.' In February, YouTube announced that more than 1 billion people a month were viewing podcasts on its platform. According to Tim Katz, head of sports and news partnerships at YouTube, that number is so large that it must include users who are actually mainlining five-hour talk shows. 'Any time you have a number that large, you're going to have a broad swath of people consuming in lots of different ways,' Katz said. Recently, The New York Times asked readers if and how they consume video podcasts. Many of the respondents said they played video podcasts in the background while attending to work or chores, and still treated podcasts as audio-only products. A few said they liked being able to see the body language of podcast hosts and their guests. Still others said that they didn't like video podcasts because they found the visual component distracting or unnecessary. Video can have its drawbacks. Lauren Golds, a 37-year-old researcher based in Virginia, said she regularly hate-watches podcasts at work – in particular 'On Purpose,' which is hosted by British entrepreneur and life coach Jay Shetty. She said she had had awkward encounters when co-workers have looked at her screen and told her that they love the show she's watching. 'There's no way to say it's garbage and I'm watching it for entertainment purposes to fill my need for hatred,' Golds said. One thing a 'typical' podcaster consumer is less likely to be these days is someone listening to a full-attention-required narrative program. Say 'podcast' and many people still instinctively think of painstakingly produced, deeply reported, audio-only shows such as 'Serial' and 'This American Life,' which listeners consumed via audio-only platforms such as Apple Podcasts and the iHeartRadio app. Traditional podcasts relied on host-read and scripted ads to make money, and on media coverage and word of mouth for discovery. And it was a lot of money, in some cases: In 2019, to take one example, Spotify acquired Gimlet – one of the defining podcast producers of the 2010s – as part of a US$340mil (RM1.4bil) investment in podcast startups. Now, the size of the market for video podcasts is too large to ignore, and many ad deals require podcasters to have a video component. The platforms where these video podcasts live, predominantly YouTube and Spotify, are creating new kinds of podcast consumers, who expect video. McDermott, the Von fan, said the video component made her feel like she had a friendly guest in her home. 'It feels a little more personal, like somebody is there with you,' she said. 'I live alone with my two cats and I'm kind of in a rural area in Pennsylvania, so it's just a little bit of company almost.' The world of podcasts today is also far more integrated into social media. Clips of video podcasts slot neatly into the Gen Z and millennial behemoths of TikTok and Instagram. The sophisticated YouTube recommendation algorithm suggests relevant new podcasts to viewers, something that wasn't possible in the old, siloed model on other platforms. To get a sense of just how much things have changed, imagine the viral podcast appearances of the 2024 presidential campaign – Donald Trump on Von's podcast and Kamala Harris on 'Call Her Daddy' – happening without YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and X. You can't. In a sign of the times, in June, radio company Audacy shuttered Pineapple Street Studios, a venerable podcast producer known for its in-depth narrative shows such as 'Wind of Change' and Ronan Farrow's 'The Catch and Kill Podcast.' Jenna Weiss-Berman, who co-founded Pineapple Street, is now head of audio at comedian and actress Amy Poehler's Paper Kite Productions. Poehler's new podcast, 'Good Hang with Amy Poehler,' is typical of the genre: a charismatic, well-known host, interviewing other charismatic, well-known people. Weiss-Berman said she was concerned that the costs associated with high-quality video production would be prohibitive for smaller podcast creators, who faced almost no barrier to entry when all the genre required was a few microphones. 'If you want to do it well, you need a crew and a studio,' Weiss-Berman said. For podcasters with an established audience, the potential of video to open up new audiences for the world of talk podcasts is obvious. (The Times has introduced video podcasts hosted by some of its more recognisable columnists.) Adam Friedland, a comedian who started his video interview show in 2022, first came to prominence on an irreverent and lewd audio-only hangout podcast with two fellow comedians. He got an early taste of the limitations of traditional podcast distribution when he discovered fan cutups of the funniest moments of his old show on YouTube. 'There was an organic growth to it,' Friedland said. 'We weren't doing press or promoting it.' Friedland's new show is an arch interview program with high-profile guests and considerably fewer impenetrable – not to mention scatological – references. Along with that, distribution over YouTube has made a once cult figure something a bit closer to a household name, as he discovered recently. 'There was a regular middle-aged guy at a Starbucks who said he liked the show,' Friedland recalled. 'Some guy holding a Sweetgreen.' Friedland's show is the rare video podcast with a distinctive visual point of view. The vintage-looking set is a reconstruction of 'The Dick Cavett Show.' And Friedland made it clear that he prefers people to watch the show rather than listen to it. The many ways that Americans now consume podcasts – actively and passively, sometimes with another device in hand, sometimes without – bears an obvious similarity to the way Americans consume television. 'I think podcasts could become kind of the new basic cable television,' said Marshall Lewy, chief content officer of Wondery, a podcast network owned by Amazon. Think: shows that are cheaper to produce than so-called premium streaming content, consumed by audiences used to half-watching television while scrolling their smartphones, in a wide variety of genres. Indeed, although talk dominates among video podcasts, Lewy said he thought the trend for video would lead to more shows about food and travel – categories beloved by advertisers – that weren't ideal when podcasts were audio only. All of which calls into question the basic nature of the term 'podcast.' Riismandel, who runs the research firm Signal Hill, said he thought the category applied to any programming that could be listened to without video and still understood. According to Katz, the YouTube executive, the nature of the podcaster is undergoing a redefinition. It includes both audio-only podcasters moving to video, as well as social media content creators who have realised that podcasts present another opportunity to build their audiences. One concern with the shift to video, according to former Vox and Semafor video boss Joe Posner, is that people who are less comfortable on screen will be left out. This could lead to a deepening gender divide, for example, since women are much more likely to face harassment over their looks, especially from an engaged online fan base – and therefore potentially less likely to want to be on camera for hours on end. Still, for all the eyeballs moving to YouTube, audio remains the way most consumers experience podcasts, according to the April survey, with 58% of people listening to only audio or to a minimised or backgrounded video. And although YouTube is now the most used platform for podcast consumption, per the survey, it's far from monolithic; a majority of podcast consumers say they use a platform other than YouTube most often, whether it's Spotify or Apple Podcasts. That's why at least one pillar of audio-first podcasting doesn't see much to be alarmed about. Ira Glass, creator of the foundational long-form radio show 'This American Life,' said the fact that the podcast tent has gotten bigger and thrown up a projector screen doesn't threaten a program like his. 'That's a strength, not a weakness – that both things exist and are both called the same thing,' Glass said. He stressed that audio-only podcasting has formal strengths that video podcasts don't. 'There's a power to not seeing people,' Glass said. 'There's a power to just hearing things. It just gets to you in a different way. But if people want to watch people on a talk show, that seems fine to me. I don't feel protective of podcasting in that way. I don't have snowflake-y feelings about podcasts.' – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gavin Newsom Calls Trump a ‘Son of a B-tch'
About a month after National Guard troops and federal officers on horseback descended on MacArthur Park, where children at a summer day camp were reportedly present, California Gov. Gavin Newsom slammed Donald Trump for deploying the U.S. military to Los Angeles. 'They're sitting there on horses with American flags, running through soccer fields, scaring kids in the middle of the day at a summer camp. For what? Just toughness,' Newsom said on The Shawn Ryan Show. 'It's a weakness masquerading as strength.' Newsom then slammed Trump, whose administration's ICE raids have devastated many small businesses, particularly those within large immigrant communities. 'That's what I don't like about this son of a bitch,' said the governor. 'He calls me 'Newscum.' How do I explain that to my kid? Now, I have my kids' friends calling my kids 'Newscum.' That I get, because I was called that in seventh grade, but not by a 79-year-old.' He added: 'Model better goddamn behavior.' Last month, Trump mobilized thousands of National Guard troops to L.A. amid anti-Immigrations and Customs Enforcements (ICE) protests in Los Angeles without the request or consent of city and state officials. Newsom has remained vehemently critical of the president, lambasting Trump for inciting chaos, using valuable resources, and militarizing city streets. In a ruling against the Trump administration on Friday, a federal judge temporarily blocked federal agents from using racial profiling to make indiscriminate immigration arrests. For the past month, agents have conducted raids in public and at workplaces across Southern California, showing up at Home Depots, restaurants, and car washes and arresting Spanish-speaking day laborers on immigration charges. 'Justice prevailed today,' wrote Newsom on social media following the ruling. 'The court's decision puts a temporary stop to federal immigration officials violating people's rights and racial profiling. California stands with the law and the Constitution — and I call on the Trump Administration to do the same.' More from Rolling Stone How Texas Bullied Big Banks Into Dropping Their Climate Commitments What Trump Has Said About Jeffrey Epstein Over the Years House Republicans Block Release of Epstein Files Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence Solve the daily Crossword
Time of India
18-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
'Took a page from Elon Musk's book of parenting': Billionaire CEO sparks outrage with sci-fi parenting plan to ‘stay relevant' in AI age
— vitrupo (@vitrupo) The Neuralink Dream, or Nightmare? Silicon Valley's Wild Take on Parenthood Parenting by Plug-In You Might Also Like: Bill Gates predicts only three jobs will survive the AI takeover. Here is why The First AI-Native Generation? Forget diapers, cribs, or college funds. For Alexandr Wang , billionaire CEO of Scale AI and a rising architect of artificial superintelligence at Meta, the decision to have children hinges on something far more futuristic: brain-computer interfaces . Specifically, he's waiting for Elon Musk 's Neuralink—or similar tech—to become advanced enough to merge babies' brains with AI from you read that right. The 28-year-old AI wunderkind is putting off parenthood until brain implants are ready for a recent episode of The Shawn Ryan Show, Wang explained, 'I want to wait to have kids until we figure out how Neuralink or other brain-computer interfaces start working.' He believes that if children grow up with this tech embedded from the earliest years—when the brain is most malleable—they could evolve into a generation that "uses [AI] in crazy, crazy ways."This revelation, which some have called visionary, others outright dystopian, has ignited a social media firestorm—and prompted many to question how far Silicon Valley is willing to push the human-machine reference point is Musk's Neuralink, which hit a major milestone in early 2024 when a paralyzed patient successfully posted a tweet using only their thoughts. Since then, developments like 'Blindsight'—a device aiming to restore vision via neural stimulation—have pushed the boundaries of what brain-computer integration can logic rests on the concept of neuroplasticity—the brain's ability to reorganize and adapt, especially during early childhood. 'Kids born with these technologies will learn how to use them like second nature,' he predicted, drawing parallels to how today's toddlers swipe iPads before they can even even Wang acknowledged the risks, conceding, 'It is potentially dangerous… but we just are gonna have to do it if humans are to remain relevant.'Wang's statement has drawn fierce backlash online. Reddit users were quick to label his reasoning as detached from human reality. 'Holy s**, installing it in a baby is a huge leap and needs to wait until we have thoroughly vetted it,'* one user posted. Others compared Wang's parenting ambitions to Elon Musk's infamous 'legion of children' plan.'He's clearly taken a page from Elon's book of parenting,' one commenter quipped, referencing Musk's goal to populate the Earth with dozens of genetically gifted offspring—often through unconventional or surrogate isn't the first time Wang has raised eyebrows with his philosophical musings about AI. As one of the youngest self-made billionaires, his bold vision often blurs the lines between technological ambition and science fiction. But with this latest comment, critics fear the ambition has crossed into something more troubling—viewing children not as individuals, but as conduits for digital deeper issue critics raise is the underlying ideology: that human biology is too slow to keep pace with AI, and therefore must be 'upgraded' from birth. It's a mindset that seems to ignore the emotional, ethical, and medical complexities of child-rearing in favor of transhumanist Sabat, a nutritionist who has commented on the role of neurodevelopment in childhood, wasn't directly addressing Wang's ideas—but her concerns over early-life tech integration resonate. 'It's important to focus on developmentally balanced exposure,' she noted in a separate USA TODAY report on nutrition and brain health in perspective, on the other hand, reimagines children as native users of superintelligence—born not just to live in a digital world, but to be fused with Neuralink and its rivals—like Synchron and Motif Neurotech—continue progressing, Wang's AI-native child may not remain hypothetical for long. Synchron is already working with Apple to turn brain signals into smartphone inputs. Motif is testing mood-stabilizing implants for mental health bioethicists and tech-watchers warn that the race toward AI-human integration shouldn't come at the cost of consent, safety, or childhood innocence.
Economic Times
15-06-2025
- Science
- Economic Times
'Neuralink babies'? Scale AI's Alexandr Wang says he is waiting for Elon Musk's brain chips before having kids
Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang has revealed he's delaying parenthood until technologies like Elon Musk's Neuralink become widely available. (Screenshot: Instagram/alexanddeer) In a statement that straddles science fiction and near-future reality, Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang has revealed he's putting off parenthood—for now. But not because of career demands or personal timing. His reason? He's waiting for Elon Musk's Neuralink to become mainstream. Yes, Wang wants his future children to be among the first humans enhanced by brain-computer interfaces from birth. During a recent appearance on The Shawn Ryan Show , the 28-year-old tech prodigy shared a vision that feels pulled from the pages of a futuristic novel. 'When we get Neuralink and we get these other technologies, kids who are born with them are gonna learn how to use them in like crazy, crazy ways,' Wang said, explaining that the first seven years of life—when neuroplasticity is at its peak—present the most fertile ground for integrating superintelligence into the human experience. Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk, is currently trialing a brain-chip implant the size of a coin. Though still in early clinical stages, the device has already shown stunning potential: one patient with ALS reportedly edited a video using only his mind. But Neuralink isn't alone. Synchron, backed by heavyweights like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, is collaborating with Apple to help patients with disabilities use iPhones through brain signals. Motif Neurotech, another contender, is developing a neurostimulator that treats severe depression and functions like a pacemaker for the brain. Wang, who is also taking on a new role at Meta to lead its superintelligence initiatives, seems to believe these brain-machine hybrids are not just medical miracles—they are the future of human learning, cognition, and possibly even evolution. His vision hinges on a well-documented trait: the astonishing neuroplasticity of young brains. A 2009 study published in Brain Dev. found that children's brains, particularly in the early years, are primed for adaptation. This plasticity not only helps kids learn languages or recover from injury but, in Wang's vision, could also help them learn how to "think" alongside or even through artificial intelligence. It's a radical idea—one that flips the conventional approach to parenting. Instead of shielding children from screen time or tech overload, Wang imagines a future where babies are born wired for the digital age, quite literally. As startling as Wang's perspective may seem, it's emblematic of a growing mindset in tech circles: that human limitations are solvable problems. But while Wang may be planning for AI-enhanced progeny, ethical concerns continue to hover over Neuralink and its competitors—from long-term brain health to consent, privacy, and the ever-blurring boundary between human and machine. Still, in a world racing toward a post-human horizon, Alexandr Wang's statement isn't just provocative—it might be prophetic. The question isn't whether Neuralink babies will happen. It's who dares to go first. And Wang, it seems, is ready to raise the world's first AI-native child—as soon as the software is ready.
Time of India
15-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
'Neuralink babies'? Scale AI's Alexandr Wang says he is waiting for Elon Musk's brain chips before having kids
In a statement that straddles science fiction and near-future reality, Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang has revealed he's putting off parenthood—for now. But not because of career demands or personal timing. His reason? He's waiting for Elon Musk 's Neuralink to become mainstream. Yes, Wang wants his future children to be among the first humans enhanced by brain-computer interfaces from birth. During a recent appearance on The Shawn Ryan Show , the 28-year-old tech prodigy shared a vision that feels pulled from the pages of a futuristic novel. 'When we get Neuralink and we get these other technologies, kids who are born with them are gonna learn how to use them in like crazy, crazy ways,' Wang said, explaining that the first seven years of life—when neuroplasticity is at its peak—present the most fertile ground for integrating superintelligence into the human experience. Neuralink, Meet Nature Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk, is currently trialing a brain-chip implant the size of a coin. Though still in early clinical stages, the device has already shown stunning potential: one patient with ALS reportedly edited a video using only his mind. But Neuralink isn't alone. Synchron, backed by heavyweights like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, is collaborating with Apple to help patients with disabilities use iPhones through brain signals. Motif Neurotech, another contender, is developing a neurostimulator that treats severe depression and functions like a pacemaker for the brain. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Buy Brass Idols - Handmade Brass Statues for Home & Gifting Luxeartisanship Buy Now Undo Wang, who is also taking on a new role at Meta to lead its superintelligence initiatives, seems to believe these brain-machine hybrids are not just medical miracles—they are the future of human learning, cognition, and possibly even evolution. Born to Compute? His vision hinges on a well-documented trait: the astonishing neuroplasticity of young brains. A 2009 study published in Brain Dev. found that children's brains, particularly in the early years, are primed for adaptation. This plasticity not only helps kids learn languages or recover from injury but, in Wang's vision, could also help them learn how to "think" alongside or even through artificial intelligence. It's a radical idea—one that flips the conventional approach to parenting. Instead of shielding children from screen time or tech overload, Wang imagines a future where babies are born wired for the digital age, quite literally. Ethics, Science, and the Silicon Valley Dream As startling as Wang's perspective may seem, it's emblematic of a growing mindset in tech circles: that human limitations are solvable problems. But while Wang may be planning for AI-enhanced progeny, ethical concerns continue to hover over Neuralink and its competitors—from long-term brain health to consent, privacy, and the ever-blurring boundary between human and machine. Still, in a world racing toward a post-human horizon, Alexandr Wang's statement isn't just provocative—it might be prophetic. The question isn't whether Neuralink babies will happen. It's who dares to go first. And Wang, it seems, is ready to raise the world's first AI-native child—as soon as the software is ready.
