While I do enjoy some podcasts, this is an interesting take on the "scourge" of podcasts out there right now. I am inclined to disagree for the most part; I think podcasts have unlocked a lot of great content on very specific areas of interest for people. That said, there is a lot of garbage out there that gets a free pass because of the word "podcast", imo.
https://spectator.us/pod-delusion/
The Podcast Scourge has turned the country into such a nonstop jibber-jabbering wind tunnel that there are more than 700,000 active podcasts (or one per every 471 Americans), and more than 29 million podcast episodes. This, up from 550,000 podcasts just last year. And since Serial took off in 2014, studies I’ve fabricated but that should exist show there are now more true-crime podcasts than criminals. Unless we count the crime of unoriginality — in which case, most podcasters could do true-crime podcasts on themselves, thus achieving the Podcast Singularity.
There is much to hate about podcasts. I hate that every other podcaster thinks they need to sound like Ira Glass on This American Life. If Mel Tormé was ‘The Velvet Fog’, Glass is the Nasal Smog that now pollutes our airwaves, complete with emphatic pauses, cloying uptalk and manufactured whimsy. I hate that everyone who’s already had their say feels the compulsion to say more and more. Bill Clinton has a podcast called Why Am I Telling You This? (Great question!) Rudy Giuliani is reportedly thinking about starting an impeachment podcast, when he’d probably be better served thinking about how to stay out of prison.