Podcast Pontifications

Back in May of 2020, Twitter started an experiment in changing the tone of the discourse on its service. Twitter was testing to see if the equivalent of a tap on the shoulder or a subtle ahem could get people to be... well, uh, you know... less of an asshole to one another.

The results of that experiment have been announced, and those results are dramatic. 

Nearly a third of people, when prompted to reflect on what they were about to do, actually changed their behavior. Can we do that in podcasting?

Fair warning: this is going to sound like some crazy Big Brother, nanny state, liberal pansy bullshit. Please assume that I'm well aware of that and play this out with me, if you can.

Why can a podcasting hosting company use A.I., Machine Learning, and other advanced algorithms to do something similar before we published a podcast episode?

But that could be too late. Editing a Tweet takes a few seconds. Not true for a podcast episode that took many hours editing and assembling. 

Can we do that earlier? A Yoast or a Grammarly-style plugin that looked over your shoulder as you draft your outline or reviewed the transcribed portions of your in-production episode? 

That's not all that crazy, as we already use those tools to do a similar job to make our content sound better. Is it really a bridge too far to have them look out for accidental misinformation as well?

Before you let loose your anger and point out what a naive dumbass I am for even suggesting such a thing, I want to restate that I do know how Orwellian this sounds. I see the same slippery slope you do. And I know this won't do anything to curb intentional disinformation.

But scrutiny is coming to podcasting. You may think the best course of action is for us to do nothing. And that's your right. But I think that approach is equally as naive as what I just put forth. 

But sure; light me up in the comments. I can take it!

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? You need Riverside.fm!
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Praise is a weird thing, isn't it? We know it makes others feel good to receive it, but many of us get shy or feel awkward when we're the recipients of praise. I'm right there with you. And I need to get over it.  

https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/adding-some-evo-to-the-podcast-hall-of-fame

It was recently announced that I will be inducted into the Podcast Hall of Fame. Which is... kind of cool! The award ceremony will take place this March at Podcast Movement Evolutions in Los Angeles. Good thing I bought a ticket, huh? 

I'm sharing this with you today to say simply... thank you for letting me think out loud about the present and future of podcasting across the nearly 600 episodes of Podcast Pontifications produced since 2018.

Thank you for engaging with me on Twitter, the Advancing Podcasting Community's Discord server, or asking me to be a part of your show to talk about podcasting. 

A big thank you to those who stuck with the podcast 3 Clips as I take over the reins as the new host for Season 2. 

Another big thanks to you if you engage with the various properties of Sounds Profitable, where I serve as the editor and oversee strategic operations. 

And a special note of thanks to the hundreds of authors-cum-podcasters who took a risk by making a podcast version of their books on Podiobooks.com back in the day. 

Finally, a huge thanks to many friends I've made along the way who following my tangled, wandering path through podcasting that started all the way back in 2004.

Thank you very much for following me from show to show, suffering through my months-long hiatuses,  and for putting up with my never-ending existential crises that cause me to change directions on a dime. None of that is conducive to building an audience. But it has certainly made me a lot of friends along the way. 

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? you need Riverside.fm!
• Podcast Hall of Fame to induct me this year!
• Podcast Movement Evolutions in Los Angeles
• Check out the podcast, 3 Clips, that I host! 
• Sounds Profitable
• Podiobooks.com
• Get early access to these episodes on Apple Podcasts or Buy Me A Coffee
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout 
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value, and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Not every podcasting idea is a great podcasting idea. At least not beyond the person who had the idea. How predictable is your next podcasting project’s success (or failure)? And would you bet on it?If your next podcasting project will take serious resources in time, treasure, or talent to get off the ground, is there a litmus test you can put your idea through before you make that investment? 

Not one with any accuracy. But there are four questions you can ask to help triage your idea and to see if it has legs.

1. Is there a benefit to this podcast, or is the podcast just a feature? 

Go beyond the caliber of your guests or the wealth of knowledge you bring to this subject. Those are just features. You must translate those features into clear, obvious, and desirable benefits for the listener.

2. Who will care about this podcast?

You, I hope, because if you don't care about it, you're going to have a hard time finding anyone else who will. And do you have more than just your own passing interest or infatuation to the topic? 

3. How unique will this podcast be?

Do you really want to join a crowded niche where there are already 50, 500, or 5000 podcasts on the same topic? And could someone besides you make a podcast on the same topic that could out-compete yours?

4. How promotable will this podcast be?

Does this podcast idea lend itself to novel promotions? Is your platform big enough? Can you partner with someone with a bigger platform? Do you have the budget to make a big push? And are your prior answers strong enough to justify the spend?

So there you have it, four questions to ask yourself to help you triage your next podcasting project. Again, this is not a litmus test. Neither success nor failure is guaranteed, regardless of what your answers were.

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? You need Riverside.fm!
• Like the show? Buy me a coffee.
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released weekly, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

For as creative a pursuit as podcasting is, it sometimes looks like a math equation with so many numbers being tossed around. Numbers that we're told should be important. But... says who?

As podcasters, we get pretty twisted up by numbers we're told are important to podcasting and to our podcasts. 

Downloads. Listeners. Social media followers. Drop-in audio attendees. Paying supporters. Satoshis streamed. Advertisers. Episodes produced per year. Audience demographics. Creator demographics. And how many podcasters are competing with us. 

Tracking numbers like those is how we measure the success of podcasting, right?

Well... who said? 

Some of them might be important to us. But most are not. 

Some of them shed some light on the health of podcasting. But most don't.

Some of them we can change if we work at making them change. But most are out of our control.

Yet still, we get twisted up by numbers just like these, relying on digits on a screen to determine the worthiness of our podcasts.

That makes sense if we're tracking things like funds received from listeners. But everything else is suspect. 

So if you find yourself getting twisted up in these numbers, my advice is to figure out the rfew numbers that actually matter to you. And then pay as little attention to the other numbers as you possibly can. You'll be a much happier podcast or for it.

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? you need Riverside.fm!
• Like the show? Buy me a coffee.
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout
• Got a podcasting service? Become a sponsor of Podcast Pontifications.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value, and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

There may not be a formula for success in podcasting, but there are many established best practices that we dutifully follow as we work to perfect our craft. But does that come at the cost of our creativity?

I'm afraid I'm making boring podcasts. I'll take it a step further and say that I'm afraid we're all making boring podcasts. By design, actually.

Not that we intended to make boring podcasts. But in our quest to reduce imperfections and increase the consumability of our episodes, we may have introduced boring-ness to our shows.

I struggled with whether or not to talk about this. Please don't assume that I am advocating for no editing. Or worse that I condone the record-and-release style of podcasting. My position is quite the opposite. When in doubt, edit it out. That's my motto.

But I still worried we've embraced boring as we make podcasts.

We intentionally seek out or create "neutral" music to use in our episodes, music not only as an afterthought but as something that won't compete with the words spoken.

We're intentionally perfecting every voice, removing "filler" content, and working to "normalize" tracks.

We select efficient formats and choose pleasing and markedly unchallenging structures to listen to.

None of that screams excitement. None of that allows for the messy, chaotic, and just human nature of how we express ourselves in the real world. 

I don't have a solution to this problem. Heck, I don't even know that this is a problem. It's just something on my mind.

And now, it's on your mind too.

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? you need Riverside.fm!
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

-----

Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

When you started podcasting, things were different. Maybe a little. Maybe a lot. At some point, those differences are going to start adding up and you won't podcast the same way ever again. And that's OK. 

Change comes for all of us at some point, and podcasters like you and me are not immune. Neither are those individuals who run companies that provide services to podcasters like you and me. The same goes for those providing services to podcast listeners. They aren't immune either.

In reality; no aspect of podcasting is immune to change.

Changes to podcasting don't have to be predicated by massive upheaval. And the stabie podcasting world you think you live in is either an illusion or a temporary condition. 

Change is inevitable and has been with podcasting since the beginning. But as I look back at recent months, it sure looks like changes are coming at us a whole lot faster than they were before. Here are 3 indicators:

1. "Inactive" podcasts are swelling, whatever that means. There are many reasons why a podcaster makes the decision to stop podcasting at a certain point. But one commonality is that something has changed for that podcaster from the time they started podcasting to the time they posted their last episode. 

2. Podcast-listener-focused services getting out of the game. It's not just Bello Collective, but they did specifically point to changes to the landscape that led to their halting—or at least pausing—of operations. Changes not only to podcasting, but to how people listen.

3. Podcaster-focused services are consolidating.  Flying under the radar of mergers with envy-inducing price tags are a slew of smaller mergers and roll-ups as interest from creators change.

If there's a takeaway for you in all of this, it's simply a reminder that change comes for us all. In podcasting. In life. In business. 

For those of us who've wrapped all three of those things together, it sure is making for an interesting ride.

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? you need Riverside.fm!
• Tracking "inactive" podcasts, whatever that means
• Bello Collective closing up. For now.
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout.
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value, and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Audience building and community building in podcasting are two very different things, though we use the terms interchangeably. And tend to ignore the latter. But true-community building has its own rewards.

As a podcaster, it's often considered important to grow your audience. And I agree with that. But it's also important to do actual community building, where you and your podcast play an active role in helping build out or support the community in which you and your podcast belong.

Why? Because you live within communities. Not just professionally, but also personally. When you think about community building, think wider. Here are three aspects to consider.

Get Involved With Your Local Communities

The people within a five-kilometer radius of where you podcast from may not be the audience of your show, but you still have to live near them! So play an active role and at least attend local community organization meetings or business mixers.

Get Involved In Podcasting Communities

There are several vibrant and active online communities you can join. Again, not to rake in new listeners, but to support all of podcasting. Like the Bello Collective, Earbuds Collective, The Podcast Academy, and other groups that support, spread, or empower the people who make podcasts. 

Get Involved In Your Trade/Industry Communities

And finally, don't forget the communities in and around the trade or the industry in which you and your podcast belong. Just about every industry or trade group out there has governing bodies or other special interest groups that put on mixers, create publications, host trade shows, and more. 

Podcasters tend to know the importance of community building, but all too often take too narrow of a view. Hopefully, this higher-level picture of how you and your podcast can get involved with the communities in your orbit might be helpful.

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? you need Riverside.fm!
• Bello Collective
• Earbuds Collective
• The Podcast Academy
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value, and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

There's something to be said for making a high-value podcast, which is why many continue year after year. But making a high-concept show can also be rewarding. Do you have time to make both? 

https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/making-high-concept-podcasts-on-a-high-value-budget

Broadly speaking and missing a whole lot of nuance to make a point, podcasts are either news/talk or high-concept. We know listeners like to listen to both kinds of podcasts. But we also know most podcasters only produce one or the other.

Is that because making a high-concept podcast is too difficult for most podcasters? I don't think soo. But I think it tends to be easier to make news/talk podcasts compared to high-concept shows. 

Can you do both? Probably. Your challenge will be keeping your high-value news/talk podcast train running as you devote the time necessary to make a new high-concept show. I have two tips to help you figure that out:

1. Think Big, Smart Small - You're taking the elephant-as-a-meal approach. You've probably lots of research and some things to learn. Prepare yourself for a nights-and-weekends project. Yes,

2. Think Differently - A lot of what you know about production, releasing, and promoting will need to change. The expectations for high-concept podcasts are quite different than what you've learned with your news/talk podcast. Give yourself room to figure those out.

High-concept podcasting is not for everyone. But if you'd like to give it a shot, there's a lot you can borrow from your current high-value news/talk podcast. But plan on learning a few more tricks, so give yourself room to do that.

And if you try your hand at making a high-concept podcast, be sure to let me know about it. I'd love to listen. 

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Links

• Looking for a remote recording solution that handles both audio and video? You need Riverside.fm! - evoterra.link/riverside
• Edison Research's Podcast Consumer Report - edisonresearch.com/the-podcast-consumer-quarterly-tracking-report/
• The proverbial elephant meal - en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eat_an_elephant_one_bite_at_a_time
• 1080p displays in a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses - cnet.com/tech/computing/tcl-new-tv-glasses-actually-kind-of-stylish-ces-2022/
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today! - AdvancingPodcasting.xyz

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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

Spotify has long faced criticism while buying its way into having a larger slice of the podcasting pie. At all levels. But that criticism is reaching a crescendo and podcasters are taking action. Should you?

If you need a catchup on the Spotify-Neil Young-Joe Rogan spat, I recommend Podnews' excellent primmer before you continue. Also: As with any Podcast Pontifications episode, I'm giving you things to think about, not telling you what to think. Groovy? Groovy.

For The "I'm A Podcaster And I'm Very Angry About Spotify" campers: I hear and accept your anger. I'm right there with you. Spotify doesn't have a lot of grey areas to stand in when they pay Rogan's salary. But remember Spotify really is only in it for the money.

If you remove your show from Spotify's directory, will it financially matter to them?

Switch to a different host will have a financial impact on Spotify. Albeit a small one.

You can also ditch Spotify's monetization options, like premium subscriptions or their dynamic ad server. But can you? Or are you under contract?

If the podcast(s) you make are Spotify-exclusive, you have a lot more powerful levers to pull. But only if you can pull them without getting in legal hot water.

Before you take any action, take some time to think about the impact your actions will have on your listeners. Not everyone has the same strength as your convictions, and they may decide its easier to stop listening to you than to switch. 

But not every podcaster is pissed. Some even pro-Spotify camp. If either describes you, I'll repeat what I said earlier. I'm not telling you what to think. 

This situation is very fluid. It's evolving by the day (or faster), and I'm reticent to predict any sort of outcome or how this looks when the dust settles. If the dust settles. There are too many things in flux with lots of outside pressure. 

It's possible that all this is a precursor to something larger that becomes too much for Spotify to bear and they cut their losses. I'm not predicting that. I'm not saying it's likely. But it is a potentiality. And we should at least be aware of potential outcomes and prepared to act if we have to.

So do what you're going to do. My only request is that you do so with your eyes wide open. Choose wisely. 

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Links

• Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! 
•  Podnews has an excellent primmer on Spotify's Rogan problem
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout. 
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value, and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.

The future comes at every industry hard, including podcasting. Should you learn bleeding-edge skills you hope will emerge in the future, or relevant-now skills you hope will still be relevant in the future?

I've made the bold statement that podcasters like you and me are the last generation of podcasters to use DAWs at the center of our creation process. The next generation will take a completely different approach, putting text-based editing tools at the center of their creation process. 

I still stand by that assertion. What worries me is the lack of a middle ground between these two approaches to making audio.

Last month, I decided to take the plunge and go all-in with the new paradigm of using a text-based system to produce episodes for one of my clients' podcasts.

So I sat aside my DAW and produced three episodes of the show using only Descript. It took some time to learn, but I was markedly faster by the third episode. And best of all, those episodes are indistinguishable from others made with a DAW. 

Mission accomplished! My experience proved my assertion that the next generation of podcasters will make content in this text-based way, not the waveform editing way. 

But I stopped after three episodes and switched back to my DAW, which brings me back to my assertion that there isn't much of a middle ground between these two paradigms. 

I had thought—naively—the experience would going to give me two vastly different approaches to making great-sounding audio in my toolkit. But it didn't work out that way. Not for me, at least. I blame it on my brain that had already gone through a paradigm shift to get waveform editing.

But don't let my problem be your problem. If you're relatively new to podcasting or audio work and have a relatively young brain, try out the new, future way of making audio without a DAW. 

I still stand by my assertion that text-based editors will become the dominant way that podcasts are made in the future. How far away that future is rather questionable. 

The good news is that old dogs like us with mad skills to make great sounding audio the DAW-based way won't be displaced by young whippersnappers with their fancy text-based processes anytime real soon. Not as long as the output sounds the same to the ears of our listeners. 

So breathe easy. For now.

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Links

• Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm! 
• The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
• Descript for text-based podcast production
• Serious about podcasting? Join the Advancing Podcasting Community today!

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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. New episodes are released four times a week, providing ideas and questions every serious podcaster should be thinking about.

It's created and hosted by Evo Terra. Follow him on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come. Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show.

If you received value from today's episode of Podcast Pontifications, return some of that! We call it value-for-value, and there are many ways to show your support.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.