What is a podcast?

Debates about what a “podcast” actually is have been going on since the dawn of time. I have no proof, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Roman legionaries were already arguing about whether something that doesn’t come in an RSS feed can really be called a podcast (if you have no idea what I’m talking about, you’re a lucky person).

Today, these debates have completely hit a dead end. Because “podcasts” now include video interviews on YouTube that never were—and never will be—on podcast platforms. And fake TikTok videos with a specific visual aesthetic. And voice messages people publish in Telegram channels.

The question “what is a podcast?” has shifted from a practical one to a philosophical one. Steve Goldstein, founder of Amplifi Media, calls this the Liquid Era of podcasting.

The essence of this era is that an audio-only product is no longer enough (I’d even say this became obvious in the Russian-speaking space a couple of years ago). The linear approach no longer works: record an episode, post an announcement on social media, get listens.

For a “podcast” to live—let alone make money—it has to be everywhere: in short-form videos, on YouTube, in Telegram channels, on Twitter. And it can’t all be the same announcements reposted everywhere. It has to be different formats for different platforms: quotes, clips, visuals, landing pages, articles.

The «Бака!» podcast has two Telegram channels, a chat, TikTok, YouTube, a DTF channel, a VK group, Threads, and Instagram. And almost everywhere, we publish adapted content.

For each episode of «Дар места», we release a photo album from the locations, and by the end of the first season we even published a small-run print magazine. Alongside «Колыма», we launched a stunning website with long reads and character cards.

A “podcast” today is no longer just recording audio into a good microphone and cutting tracks in Audition. It’s also about understanding how to repackage that content into a dozen different formats (and you can safely stop worrying about what an RSS feed is).