328 - Is Streaming Harming the Planet? Podcast News & Industry Commentary

0:05 Good morning podcasting Morning Chat. Today is Wednesday, June 25th, 2025, and today we're unpacking the latest podcasting headlines, from new tools and trends to shifting platforms and policies. Plus, what it all means for you, how to create, promote and grow your show. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button, bottom left hand side of the screen and share it. However, Clubhouse lets you. And if you're listening via podcast, please share this episode with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here. Good morning again, podcasting, morning chat. Thanks so much for being here.

1:24 I am your host, Mark Ronic, and on stage with me currently we have producer Ashley Feller, Nick Nalback, Sid Meadows, Jonathan Howard and Dr. Fay. And thanks to those of you who are already here listening live this morning on Clubhouse and on YouTube. Mike Short, I'm calling you out. Thank you for being in on both platforms. Today we are covering the news around the world of podcasting. Got a lot of cool stories to share, including some from Authonic. You've probably heard me talk about that before, especially if you're a long time listener of the podcasting morning chat. Authonic is an audio enhancement tool, and they've added some new features.

2:10 Also, Apple is requiring some new sizes of your graphics. I'll explain why as well. And all sorts of other stuff, including a story Ashley's going to share with us in a moment about Spotify's environmental impact from video podcasts. So stick around for that. Dr. is going to kick us off with a news story slash icebreaker. It's a light story, but I think it's pretty interesting and I thought we should jump into it. So Dr. Here, let me, I think it's a let me give you the music. It's a good social. Oh, thank you. Yes. Got it. Play the news music OK?

2:50 Now go for it. No ice. Break the music. OK, so I thought this was a great social experiment and the article is headlining as podcasts there. What's for dinner and breakfast and lunch too. So here's the story. Podcasts are officially on the menu. New You Gov survey says almost one in five US adults are now pairing podcasts with their meals, 17% at breakfast, 18% at lunch and 16% at dinner. Seems like all that scrolling that we do at meal time is paying off for podcasters. TV still wins the popularity contest at dinner which is 63%, but podcasts are gaining traction, especially among younger folks and Black listeners as well.

3:41 Guys are turning in in more than women during lunch. That would be 22% compared to 14%. And overall, quick breakfasts, fast lunches, and family style dinners remain the norm with dinner still being the favorite meal of the day. So this article kind of made me take a look at my own habits, habits kind of thing. And you know, my husband and I have known each other since we were 12 years old. We've lived together for the past over 20 years. I. Didn't know you've known each other that long? Yes, how? Did OK I have to stop. How did you guys meet that? Because I met my wife when I was a teenager. So I'm curious, how did you guys meet? Well, my mother was a comedian singer and she would travel from, you know, lounge to lounge and sing and do her thing and she would get this kind of following. And in that following, there was a married couple and they became kind of an the entourage kind of thing. So the the man in that entourage, his name is Maurice. This was his second marriage.

4:50 His first marriage. He was married and had two kids with that wife, and one of them was Brian. So whenever Brian came to visit his father during the summer time, we were both the same age. And so we would naturally, you know, Oh, hi, Brian. Hi, Dr. How are you? Blah, blah, blah, you know, that kind of thing. So. So that's how that's how it started. Yeah. So anyway, what we do, we don't eat together. We. He goes in his man cave and watches his sports. I'm in the living room and I'm I've got the TV turned on, turned on to either Everybody Loves Raymond or the news, but I am.

5:33 Which, by the way, every Everybody Loves Raymond still a great show, holds up really well. So good, so good. So I'm scrolling as well. I mean I'm triple timing it. I'm eating, I'm watching TV and I'm scrolling as well. So yeah, this has forced me to take a look at that. So what is your, what is your setup like at home, Mark? What do you do? For for podcasting and eating specific. Well, for for eating specifically, do you listen to? Yeah, we're usually, we're usually music people. And my wife not too long ago threw down the gauntlet that no phones during any part of dinner, including prep.

6:20 So when we're making didn't we usually make dinner together? And I'm not going to lie, she usually leads that charge. I just do what I'm told, but together we do it. And she recently said, all right, no more phones, admitting that she was just as guilty. And we figured we can use those times to be in the moment instead of focusing on the phone. That said, we're usually playing a lot of music. I feel like it would. It's actually, to me, it would be really challenging to have a podcast on while at any meal time with somebody else. If I'm by myself, sure, no problem. But with somebody else, I feel like I need to be more engaged in that person with that person than staring at a screen or staring off into space listening to a podcast.

7:06 So yeah, for me, it's not part of my eating habits. Yeah, it has become a big part of my eating habit. Anyone. Else, according to the art, I want to see if anybody else does anybody else ever listen to podcasts or watch them during meal time? Sid, Sid, go for it. Good morning everybody, it's great to see you all. No, I do not listen to podcasts well at meal time. So at breakfast, I'm usually in front of my computer responding to emails. At lunch, I'm binge watching TikTok to step away from the crazy world of work, right? And just get a total like disconnect there. And at dinner when, during the summertime when the kid or kids are home, we're having family dinner, the TV is on in the background.

7:56 We're not necessarily watching it. We're catching up and having a chat about our days and stuff like that. So really not a lot of technology in our meal times, especially podcast related. I listen to the podcast in the morning on my walk or I just actually, as I was having coffee, listen to 1. So, you know, I'm more of a listener in my quiet time than I am when something else is happening. Yeah, that's it. Can let me ask you a question because you said breakfast, you're at your computer. Do you have like a plate full of breakfast and at your computer or do you have like one of those handheld fast on the go breakfast and you're at your computer? So my breakfast is usually like yogurt or granola or something like that. They are something relatively healthy with a little bit of extra protein.

8:44 Sometimes I have a smoothie, right, that kind of stuff. So this morning I'm having, I already know because my wife bought it yesterday at the Cursor. I'm having cereal, my favorite cereal. I was out of it. And so I'm having cereal this morning. I'm your favorite cereal, not Chocula. Not Chocula. No, no. No, you guys are going to roll your eyes at me. It's by a brand called Purely Elizabeth and it's a granola based really healthy cereal and I eat it with almond milk. So it's a very boring, sugarless. I really wanted it to be Captain Crunch, but OK. I liked. Your maybe back in the day. I liked your count Chocula reference reference. Any any cereal with marshmallows in it I am a big fan of and I don't do.

9:27 I don't do the sugar cereals anymore unfortunately. Although once in a blue moon if I see an interesting cereal box I might pick it up. Like for example, one time, it's probably been a year or two now, but when I was walking down the cereal aisle, I saw Lucky Charms S'mores. I think it was Lucky Charms S'mores, which was quite good by the way. I just had the most horrific S'mores experience over the weekend. It was ridiculous. S'mores. That's a statement I don't think I hear often. I had the most ridiculous S'mores incidents over the weekend. Some of you might know I'm kind of a foodie. And I saw this recipe where you take the Graham cracker, the little chocolate pieces from the Hershey, you know, Hershey chocolate and a couple of marshmallows. And then you take the chocolate chip cookie dough, you know, from the log.

10:25 And you cut a big piece off and you kind of mold it into kind of a flat sheet. And then you drape it over the whole marshmallow chocolate grape. And then you put it in the oven. And what came out on TikTok was the most amazing cookie I've ever seen. So I did that and it doesn't work. It was horrendous. It was so bad. So I I threw out the entire bag of marshmallows. I just got so pissed off. So yeah. That's hilarious, by the way. I think Jonathan had something as well. So, Jonathan, go for it.

11:08 Yeah, so for me, a lot of my podcasting time was during like, you know, breakfast, I'd do something. So now breakfast I'm podcasting, morning chat, lunch I'm doing something over on Shatter and dinner I usually it's me and the dogs. So you know, whatever I'm doing, it's usually in between either a social audio event or maybe watching some news, but I don't watch much TV. So yeah, it's usually podcasting. Even during your meals. Even during my meals. I think we have to make a distinction between scrolling and actually listening podcast because I, I do all my listening when I'm washing dishes, when I'm driving the car to go shopping, you know, running errands, I do all my listening.

12:04 Or even when I'm putting on makeup, I do all my listening at those times. But when I am sitting for a meal, I'm normally scrolling, reading episode titles, things like that. See, I think that for the most part what I'm hearing and you know, this is a small sampling, but from what I'm hearing from the group and my own experience, it to me, I feel like a lot of podcast listening happens more independently than with somebody else. I'm not saying all the time, but I'm just saying for the most part, I feel like podcast listening happens with one person who hits play. It's not a family experience, it's not a you and your significant other experience.

12:50 It's usually intimate between you and the show. It is very, it's very intimate. These buds are inside of our bodies. They are inside of our ear nails. So it is very intimate, yeah. Yep, for sure. OK, I know you have to go make some breakfast, Dr. which we'll figure out the rest of the flow here while you're doing that. So go ahead and make your breakfast. Thank you for starting us off with that story. I will kick things off with some data for everybody as I clear my throat. OK, there we go. So first podcast data for as of yesterday, thanks to Pod News, the number one podcast.

13:34 And I say by the way, thanks to Pod News because this is where I pulled this information. The number one podcast on Apple, Devil in the Desert. That's an ABC News true crime podcast and of course the number one podcast on Spotify once again, the Joe Rogan Experience. Plus over the last week, 194,463 podcasts published at least one new episode, which is down and we often see that over the summer down 2.1%. Now I will go to D Rs top five YouTube podcasts specifically #5 and this is as of last week because they do their tops.

14:25 They do them based on the week, not on the day. So #5 The Midas Touch podcast #4 Kill Tony #3 is live trials with Emily D Baker #2 rotten rotten tomato, rotten mango, and #1 the Joe Rogan Experience. Of course DRI know you are making eggs right now. Do you want me to take the random charts at in the Spotify Go? Ahead. OK. Yeah. All right, so if I'm looking at the Spotify top five, five is Crime Junkie, 4 is the Daily 3 this past weekend with Theo Von to the Tucker Carlson Show and #1 Joe Rogan Experience and Dr. Chose.

15:17 For this week's random chart of the week on Spotify, we are looking at the science category and the number 5 there is Ologies with Ali Ward. Did I pronounce that right #4 Hidden brain #3 radiolab #2 Science VS and #1 Unwind to Ocean Science? Let's talk about that one for a second. I'm sorry I'm in the kitchen, but it's important. I listened to a couple of these. Now, if you, if you had your eyes on my Facebook feed, my Facebook feed is full of. Well, OK, here we go.

16:01 Yeah, be careful. Dancing. Yeah, I know. Ballroom dancing, podcasting, ocean, anything under the ocean, especially octopuses and stuff like that. So I was really intrigued. This is one of those video slash audio and even in the discussion it says, so you can listen to this, you can watch this, whatever. And so it had me really intrigued. Like the last episode said something about eels. Where do eels really come from? So I thought, oh, I think this is going to be a new obsession for me. So that's what I have to say about it. I would say eels come from female eels, right? Where else do they come from?

16:48 There's the episode. OK, so thank you, Dr. Appreciate that. And Ashley, you're on deck, FYI with your story about Spotify. First, let me share just a couple of events coming up in the somewhat near future, some bigger events. Podcast Movement 2025 that happens starting August 18th in Dallas, TX and also Pod Summit YYC 2025 that happens September 19th and that's in Calgary, Canada. This is a Canada obviously podcast event and it they say will bring together the brightest minds and most innovative voices in Canada.

17:29 Podcast, I should say, in Canadian podcasting for a robust 2 days of networking, learning and inspiration. And that sounds awfully familiar because Empowered Podcasting has a very similar mission. And we're we're kicking things off for our second annual conference September 26th through the 28th in Charlotte, NC Tickets are on sale now. And I'm asking, I don't want to say I'm begging, but I'm asking if you're thinking about going, please do. And more importantly, if you are going to go, please get your ticket. Now, I know that we, a lot of us wait till the last minute for these kinds of things.

18:16 And I don't ask you to support me that much. I don't ask you to give me your money pretty much ever and probably should, of course, in return for some value. And if you want some value, this is the time to do it. So if you want value in for your podcasting experience and you want to support yours truly, now is the time. Ticket sales are not going strongly and that is in line with last year. So I'm not terribly nervous, but as the coordinator, as the person who is fronting the bill for this whole thing, it would really be helpful to know that I've got some ticket sales. And yes, we do have some.

19:01 But again, it's a little, it's a little concerning when I don't have a decent amount. I'd like, I'd like to be half full at this point. We are not half full at this point. So please empoweredpodcasting.com if you want an intimate experience. Last year we had just around 100 people. This year, fingers crossed we're, we're hoping for 150 to 200. And if you want that conference feel, but in an more intimate environment where you have the ability to really truly network with pretty much just about everyone there. I only say just about because I think it would be hard to really connect with 200 other people in a short period of time. But I think it's possible and you're going to get a great experience out of this and learn a lot. And there will be some industry experts, industry long time veterans of podcasting there to rub elbows with, to pick their brains.

20:04 Not just sit and listen to presentations or participate in workshops, but truly sit down and have one-on-one conversations with people of all experience levels. Come to empoweredpodcastingempoweredpodcasting.com. Please get your tickets and especially because this is a chance for us as a community. To get together in person and actually hug one another, actually spend time physically with one another and not virtually on this stage as we do every day. It's awesome that we do it and there's nothing like in person. So come join us this September 26th, empoweredpodcasting.com. Thank you.

20:45 All right, so let's keep going with some news, and we're going to give the the first story to Ashley. This one's about Spotify's rising carbon footprint from turning audio into video. Ashley, you want to take this one? Go for it. Sure. Good morning. This is from Greenlee, which is the specialist on carbon accounting. And before I begin with the story, I want everyone to bear in mind that this story was found on podnews.net. And so the units of measure are written according to the metric system, not the imperial system. So just keep that in mind, OK All right.

21:25 According to the Greenlee report, a new study highlights the rising carbon footprint of music streaming, especially Spotify. This could also include good podcasting because it's audio being streamed. Spotify user base increased by 67% from 2021 to 2025, which is 406 million to 678,000,000 users. The estimated admissions In 2025, Spotify projected to admit 187,040 tons of CO2 E in about 12 times more than the Vatican City's annual footprint. They're thinking the rise is increased to linked energy use from servers, transmission networks, AI and other devices, compounded by Spotify shift into video content. Another thing that has happened is incomplete reporting. Spotify stopped including user device electricity consumption and its carbon reporting after 2021. And if we remember, that seems to be right away when video really started to take off.

22:35 Small person, big global impact 1 user generates about 276g of CO2 E per year, which seems small but adds up across millions of listeners. And I was telling Mark, this is what I'm guilty of because I, I asked some of my friends who like my music to stream my album overnight on mute because we get a few pennies for that. But one of the problems is looping habits. Continuous playback of playlists significantly contributes to the environmental impact. And Greenlee also believes if Prem if all premium users switched to video streaming, emissions would rise by an estimated 3.92 million tons per year.

23:20 Wow, wow. That's crazy. Thank you, Ashley. I think that's an important story because, you know, we're all using all this awesome tech, especially as digital creators, we're using this this tech. We're asking our audiences to use this tech. And oftentimes I think many don't think about the impact that it has on the environment, right? Because we don't see a lot of this tech. And, you know, AI is another big one that really eats up a ton of energy, makes a huge footprint, carbon footprint, and it doesn't look like it's slowing down anytime soon.

24:00 So it is something scary and is something important, I think to stay aware of at the very least. And I think we got to figure something out, not us personally, but maybe, maybe one of us here could, but we got to figure out a way to reduce that footprint. Dr. Did I see you have something? Yeah, and I, I hope I'm in the majority. I don't know how they intersect. How is it that it's connected? Let's go to the source first. Ashley, you want to do, you know, do you want to try to answer that? I'm afraid I don't understand your question. Which is? Which is connected? I'm sorry, they are. My listening habits and the and how the.

24:44 How it impacts the environment, yeah. Oh well, it may not be you personally, but collectively humans, most of us stream audio over Spotify. So collectively, if we're all streaming music or any kind of audio via Spotify, especially ramping up a video, in a way, we're all contributing to just the general use of making all this carbon. I hope that makes sense. But how does that OK? Never mind. I think what she's asking Ashley is why is how are we producing carbon by me listening or watching to Spotify because I don't get it either. So I'm with you, Dr. I guess we're just old. Thank you, Alex.

25:26 Appreciate it. Go ahead, Ashley. I would assume what they mean is the servers it takes to run Spotify. I don't have all the information that I'm assuming has something to do with energy because that's what makes carbon. 100% that's what it has to do with you know what they are. Just ask Joe Rogan. He'll probably tell you. Thank you. Let me go to Amanda and then Dan has joined us on stage and we'll hear from him to go ahead. Amanda, good morning. Good morning, this is maybe going to be an unpopular opinion, but I am one to very much conserve. I turn my lights off, I close the blinds when it's hot, I reuse whatever I possibly can. But one thing I'm going to really put my foot down on is I'm not going to be made Phil to feel guilty to have a radio on or ATV on.

26:13 I feel like it's exactly the same as having background noise or sleeping with a fan. A lot of people are sleeping with like the rain apps now or a rain channel on Spotify. So I think our habits have changed. And to me, this is not concerning at all because it's just one energy to a different energy. And I'm not going to feel guilty for my listening habits when I do my part behind the scenes to make sure that there's as little waste as I possibly can. But this seems like an interesting report. I did, I did read and I can't remember that just by somebody saying thank you to ChatGPT or some sort of AI, it uses X amount of energy.

26:56 And I go, Oh my gosh, I can't believe we're being told to conserve or watch our like usage for data. You know what I mean? It just blows my mind. And listen, I don't want to leave a huge carbon footprint just because I lived, but also I'm not going to feel guilty for a living and using the wonderful tools that we've been gifted in this world. OK, that's a fairpoint. I'm. Passionate. Yeah, and I'm sure you're not alone. I'm sure you. And look, I mean, I think when it comes to how I, my behaviors and how I'm using my technology, I'm certainly not being smart about my carbon footprint. I'm just using them free will and you know, certainly turn them off when I'm not using them.

27:38 I, except there are cases like you're saying, where at night I'm running an app. It's not a white noise app, but it is. It's playing like relaxing music in the background. And I'm playing that all through the night, both for me and my wife. It helps us sleep better. So yeah, I, I hear you. I think it's a pick and choose and do your part as best you can. Let's see. Let's go to Dan, and then we're going to go to Sid. I saw Sid had something to go ahead. Dan, good morning. Hey, good morning. Thank you. Glad to be here. So just a quick answer, you know video requires more energy to create and more energy for output, so the increase in consumption. Because of the focus on video formatting for, well, platforms like Spotify means an increase on server loads, which means an increase in consumption overall.

28:33 And that leads to having a larger carbon slip through. But I mean, I don't think there's anything to necessarily prep over as Amanda pointed out so elegantly. Thank you, Dan, and appreciate the that breakdown. I think that's helpful for those questions about, you know, how is this hurting the environment? Thank you. And Sid, we're coming to you and then we're going to go to Jonathan. Go ahead, Sid. Good morning again everybody. This is a really important conversation for a lot of different reasons. I work in an industry that uses a lot of the world's natural resources in the manufacturing of our products and as well contributes to, you know, carbon emissions in the air and in the environment. But at the end of the day, kind of to Amanda's point, it's literally not about changing your lifestyle or not taking advantage of the tools and resources that are available to you.

29:27 That's about making smart decisions. Like Amanda said, turning the lights off in your house when nobody's in those rooms, I walk through and turn the lights off all the time, right? Turning the air conditioner up just a little bit, like 1° or something like that, all that helps because it's about energy consumption and putting bad carbon into the environment. And a lot of businesses, especially in my industry, have emission goals and, and commitments that they've made to reduce because all of this impacts the environment. And if you just want to see the impact of this, go to a mountaintop somewhere and look at the dead trees. That's what this is about. And so the, the, the whole conversation, that's just one example, by the way, but the whole conversation around doing things better for the environment is a really important conversation that all of us contribute to because we want this earth to be here for our children.

30:18 It's unfortunate and their children, right? It's very unfortunate that this has become a very politicized conversation when it doesn't need to be. And with what's happening currently, this is being devalued in the current administration. And so it's really sad to see some of the things that are happening, especially coming from an industry that it this is at the top of mind from us, not just in what we're manufacturing, but the products that we're using, how much of they are, how much of it is recycled, how much of it can can be recycled. So it's a much deeper conversation, but everybody plays a role in it. So just make smart, simple decisions that will help to contribute to this. Thank you, Sid.

31:00 Yeah, I think that one way we can do that is just being more mindful about how we're consuming content. In other words, like there are times like I'm as Sid was sharing, it was making me think about we'll play music in the house throughout the day. And that's fine if it's actually being consumed, but there are times where we might leave the house and forget to turn off the music, right? So it's it's times like that it, you know, much like running the kitchen sink, you ideally you're not just turning it on and letting it run and, you know, going back and forth, grabbing dishes, cleaning them while the faucet just continues to run. Right. When you're not using it, you turn it off, I hope. And I think the same can be said about our, the way that we're consuming content.

31:47 If we're if it's just running in the background and yeah, sure, if it's helping you sleep, then that counts as consuming it. But if you're just letting it run in the background and you've moved on and you're not even paying attention to it, those are the times to do your part. Turn it off. Yeah. Why not Think it's important to be mindful of that. So, yeah. Thank you, Sid and Jonathan, I think you said you had something. Go ahead. Well, Sid, I don't have any kids, so I'm not worried about it. No joking. But we also have to keep in mind that all of this carbon, we're also sorry, I hate to break it to you, We're also wasting a lot of water with this technology as well.

32:28 Fresh water is being used to cool like AI data centers and that water actually is then polluted and can't necessarily be reused in the way that a lot of other water is reused. So just being smart about how we use things, I know it seems silly, but it actually makes a difference in in how much you know, how much water, how much carbon, all of that is being impacted by this technology. It it, each and every person has an impact on it. Yeah. Thank you, Jonathan. And that's as content creators, digital creators, I think it is important that we talk about these things and that we're mindful of these things and we're doing our part to help reduce the use of carbon, water, etcetera. OK, let's do this, let's keep going. We have a ton of stories to get to, and so we will get to as many as possible.

33:20 And likely we'll end up spilling some of them into tomorrow's episode as well, 'cause like I said, there's a lot and I think there are some important ones. Dr. Let's jump to story #3 about offonics, since I teased that at the top of the show, and then we'll play some samples too. OK, so this one has specific special meaning to me. So the story is, is that coughing happens. That's life. But it doesn't have to show up on your podcast. Offonic just rolled out its new Cut Coughs that's in quotation marks. Cut Coughs feature an algorithm designed to automatically remove unwanted sounds like coughing, sneezing, and throat clearing. They do recommend pairing it up with their remove breathings. Breathings.

34:11 OK, breathings option, especially since there is a fine line between heavy breath and a mild cough. And hey, sometimes these sounds might actually add to your show, keeping it authentic and real. The choice is yours. You can let the algorithm do its thing or edit manually to match your style. Yeah. And we have some samples from Offonics, so you can hear exactly how this works and it's really impressive. And yeah, so they're going to, we'll play the original, at least some of it, it's only 20 seconds. And then we'll play the cough cut version, which they, as Dr.

34:55 pointed out, they, they said in addition to using the cough cut feature, they also activated the noise reduction and the breath removal algorithms that they have. So here is the original. I think this is one of the founders of Authonic speaking. Sometimes when you're trying to record a podcast, you may have a cold or it is simply allergy season. But Authonic catch your back with our new denoising function. No one will ever know. So you could hear the breathing, the extra breaths that come from the coughing, but you don't hear the actual coughing.

35:39 So then this is it. I don't. Even know if that's better I mean. Well here it is. Here's another one where they also denoised the the version with the cough cut. Then hear that. Listen to this one. Sometimes when you're trying to record a podcast you may have a cold or it is simply allergy season, but I'll phonic catch your back with our new denoising function. No one will ever know. Now that was pretty impressive. OK, that was pretty impressive. I agree. That's pretty impressive. This, this story is a particular interest to me because I have a client and she knows this about herself. Every single solitary episode there is a throat clearing happening, an event or a coughing or a something with her.

36:32 And it's just something that we've lived with throughout, you know, our relationship over the past several years. So I always have to keep an ear out for those or you know, and the part, the hard part is, is that sometimes she speaks during that. Anyway, you know that kind of. And those hard ones, so and I see David that is in the audience. So I would like David please tell me how to figure that one out. David also one of the ironic media editors. Yeah. And so he and Dr. often connect. I want to play one more for you here. This is a this is a female. And it says in this audio snippet extracted from the video Late Night Coughing, the cut, cut Cut Coughs feature successfully removes a heavy coughing attack from the female speakers.

37:26 I so it is almost minute. Oh. Gosh, Oh my God. So I know how quiet it is, but what's the effort? It's what Michael gets to deal with all. Right, let's hear the the coughs cut version I. So it is almost minute, so I know how quiet it is. What's the effort is what Michael gets to deal with. I have a St. as a husband. Better. But it was a little weird. It was harder to understand. It was almost too much, too much AI on that for my taste. But overall, I think it's a great feature. Ashley, I'm going to come to you in a second because I wanted to hear from you because you put something in the chat that you still want to manually do it, and I want to find out why. But first, Amanda's been raising her hand. Go for it, Amanda.

38:21 So I think in the first example, it worked so well because he intentionally had that break of and now I'm going to cough and now I'm going to give an example of a sneeze where her, her, her particular one, she was talking to DRS point. Sometimes there's that, that talking into the disruption and that's where it didn't really do much for it made it almost more complicated. Then you're going what's missing? It sounded just like a poor editing job or glitch maybe in your Wi-Fi or something like that. So well, I think it's a really good tool. I don't think we can anticipate how we sneeze and what we do when we're sneezing as far as the conversation keeping on going or laughing or sniffling.

39:04 It can be done while we're actually talking. And I think that's the more human part is that's what we do. We don't go, oh, excuse me, I'm going to pause now, sneeze, you know what I mean? So it could be a great tool, but I think for the normal person who wants to use this, it's going to end up more like the second example that was shown. Yeah, pass. I agree with you. And I think that, I mean, we'd have to test it more, really. I think that it probably is helpful, especially if you say you're doing a show, you're sick, but you're doing it anyway. And yeah, you're coughing a lot. That would take a lot of editing to deal with. And quite frankly, if I sounded like either one of those, I'd want to cut those coughs out because especially that the female one there could. That was really disgusting.

39:52 And if that's what I'm the sounds I'm putting out on my podcast, I want to save my audience the trouble and get rid of it. So if it could automatically do it and still be something that you can listen to and understand, I'm on board with it. But it's got to be just. Having to edit. It that's the problem, you still have to do some editing, I'm sure. Yes. And I still believe that it'll be helpful. It'll save some time having it automatically do that. Yeah. Somebody else had something. Did anyone go ahead, Jonathan? If you ever sound like that, you're losing listeners, so just don't record a podcast because that last one was just gross. Also, just like throwing chili at you. Yeah, it it did sound really gross. I agree, Ashley.

40:40 So tell me, you said you want to just continue to manually edit those out. How come? Maybe it's the control freak in me and also maybe the the lack of trust. Like for example I've noticed with just about any kind of AI infused editor that it doesn't always make the best call. Sometimes it'll do a great job, other times it doesn't. For example, in descript, it often thinks that laughter is coughing and it's not. It's laughter. I just don't trust the technology all the way yet. I think it's great to help, but I'm not going to give it the keys and the steering wheel yet. OK, that's fair. I would use it and I would want to test it before I fully go all in on it.

41:26 But I think that theirs is doing a good job. I think that they, there's something in the article or somewhere I read that they're acknowledging that yes, of course there is a difference between laughing and coughing and they believe that their tool, Offonics tool, can make that distinction. So we'll have to see. I love Offonic. I highly recommend it to people. There are parts of it that's very user friendly. There are some parts that if you really want to take advantage of everything it has to offer it, there's a little bit of a learning curve. And overall, I think it's well worth it because it can save a lot of time and really enhance the audio. And we use it to improve our audio here on the podcasting morning chat.

42:09 We use it every episode. Yeah, Dr. Well, does Alphonic have a free tier that this would be applicable to? They they give two hours free, so if you have two hours worth of content you can do whatever you want with it up to two hours. Anything past that then you have to start paying. OK, well I use AI use an editing tool called resound, resound dot FM and what it does is it flags certain sounds like gaps and and things like that.

42:50 So basically I'm just sitting there listening to the podcast play and occasionally for words that you say like around about anything with that a sound it it sometimes will grab that word and it will cut it off. And so that's why I have to babysit it. I sit there and I go, Nope, don't, don't do that one. You know, so it's I love this platform, but I feel like it's being abandoned. I feel like the creators have like, yeah, gotten kind of meh and lackadaisical and no updates and things like that. But I love this for a first pass and if it's a solo show, it's normally the only one that I use, the only one that I need and. What's the name of it again?

43:37 It's called resound dot FM. Cool. And again, I love it. So yeah. Yeah, it's been around for a little bit. It's kind of sad to hear that maybe they're not keeping up with it as much, but yeah, I know it's been around for a while and a lot of people like it so. They want to yell at someone, I want to yell. So I have a lot of material that I can use to yell at someone with and I really want to let go on someone. All right, here we're going to rattle through a couple more important stories, so stick with us here first. Oh, this is 1 I wanted to share and Jonathan, you're on deck. I want to get some social media news and updates from you.

44:20 First I wanted to bring up because we haven't talked about yet call her Alex. This is the documentary or I should say docu series, docudrama, I don't know. It's a two episode docu series with Alex Cooper. I just started watching it. Call Her Alex Hulu's two-part documentary tracing Alex Cooper's journey from a reserved kid and soccer player. Did you know she was a digit A Division One soccer player to the creator and face of Call Her Daddy, which as we all know, is a podcast phenomenon. Now, as she prepares for her debut tour, Cooper opens up about her early life, college trauma and the business decisions that shaped her empire.

45:09 Critics call it polished, yet promotional. I disagree and I'll explain why. Audiences describe it as inspiring and deeply personal. I air on the audience side. I did not find it promotional. If you watched the Smart, smartless season on what was it, Max? Maybe where they documented their tour, their live tour. I got a very similar feel, similar vibe for Call Her Alex. I have not finished. I'm halfway through episode one of two and I'm really enjoying it, especially as a podcaster. But I really believe a lot of people would enjoy it whether they're into podcasting or not. It's not just for her audience.

45:53 I really think that if you want to see what the life of the content creator who really started from scratch, I mean, she was what I believe is truly an independent podcaster. And the fact that she was able to grow to what she's grown in just a few short years is mind blowing and inspiring. And I encourage any podcaster, especially if you're feeling a little discouraged about where you are in your journey to go check this out because she made it happen. And I believe any one of us could do the same. So check that out. And I was going to let me get let me get some emojis from everybody.

46:34 Give me give me the hot pepper emoji if you want to hear the trailer for call her Alex or so that's 1/2. Do we have enough? All right, three couple more. OK, I will go ahead. Yep, some baza put in the chat, the thumbs up. I will play this for you right now, I'm over. Fixating on making sure every single thing sounds good and looks good and it's perfect, but the imperfections in the shelter would make it even more me. Here we go. She's an astute businesswoman who understood where podcasting was going. It's about intimacy. It's about empowerment.

47:22 Hi, Alex. I'm gonna do that. I was fortunate to grow up in a household where it was normalized to speak your mind. Playing sports and making videos in my basement, those were the two things I really loved. By the time I got to college, it was exciting to start a new chapter of my life. I felt this enormous privilege that I was able to play Division One soccer. And then the whole thing turned. I experienced something extremely painful. It was all taken away from me. It ignited this desperate rush to find my new purpose.

48:05 Call her. Daddy podcasting at that time was a male dominated field. Talking about sex in a way that was so alpha male. It was the biggest show in the world, but the whole thing broke down. The podcast changed as Alex has changed. If me being vulnerable makes people feel connected and seen, then I'm doing my job. I've been at this for 60 years. You're one of the best interviewers I've ever had. This is the first time I've ever going to be on a stage live in front of people. OK, we're slight delay.

48:48 As women, we learn, don't be confident because equals. Cocky if you're allowed to advocate for yourself. You're speaking like my therapist. Let's put on a good show. We're trying to make women feel liberated. We want them to feel like they are respected and seen and heard. I have so much more that I want to do and I'm just getting started. There you go. So that is call Her Alex, available on Hulu right now. And yeah, listen, this trailer is made for video because it's a video documentary, so it doesn't translate as well via audio.

49:30 But I feel like you got you should have gotten the gist of this. And if you, again, if you're a podcaster, it's pretty exciting. And by the way, you might have heard that voice there that said, I've been at this for 60 years and you're one of the best interviews I've ever had. Sounded like Jane Fonda. That's exactly who it was. Jane Fonda. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, then to get that kind of compliment from from a Jane Fonda, that's pretty amazing. So check that out. Let me know if you're watching it. It's something I'm watching too. So let's compare notes if that's of interest to you. OK, Let's keep it moving. Hey, Mark. Yeah. Can I comment? Report, please go ahead So. I've never watched or listened to her show. In fact, I probably had some preconceived ideas about who she was, wrongfully so.

50:21 Right? That's riddled with judgment on my part. And I realized that after listening to that trailer, I actually want to go and watch it. Like I want to go hear her story and which may lead to me actually clicking play on one of her episodes. I don't know. But thank you for playing that because it got me intrigued enough now that I want to go watch that and hear a story. Because the lesson I'm taking away from it is everybody has a story and she's being and we need to share our stories. We all talk about that, but she's being brave enough to share her story in a way that maybe we'll take the critics like me and turn us into fans. I don't know.

51:01 But I can't tell you why. I've never listened to her show, but I just had some preconceived ideas about what the show is about. Yeah, I mean, look, I I appreciate you saying that. And I'm the same. I it wasn't really judgment for me. It just was what I knew that this was a show targeted at women, so I just didn't think of pressing play. Respected her, respect what she's done, respect her show. And I just knew it. I wasn't the target audience, so I didn't think about going to press play on it. And now I am intrigued. And I haven't even finished the two-part series on Hulu, which I will share the link here. And of course, we'll put it in the show notes as well.

51:41 Before I move on and get some social media news from Jonathan. Renee has joined us on stage. Renee, good morning. Did you want to comment on Call Her Alex? Yeah. So here's my marketing hat on. Of course, that's the one I wear all the time. I think that trailer was so moving and it it just hit me. It's a dumb moment is let's grab that transcript and the link and feed it to chat. Find a few other trailers that we love that are talking about people. And then take your content, your bio, all the written words of you of what you do on your podcast and then tell chat to.

52:21 Give you your script. Including images to bring out the same emotion. And you guys all do your own, do your own trailer for a visual trailer so you can put it on your YouTube channels and build your own trailer. And then make that the the featured video on your YouTube channel and use it for all your other social and promote yourself that way. Because that's what we should all be doing for ourselves and our clients. Yeah, what a great thank you, Renee. What a great way to use AI, ChatGPT or your AI preference. I think that's a wonderful idea. Feeding it different trailers that you're drawn to and then have it learn those trailers and then help you write one for yourself.

53:07 I think that's a brilliant idea. The challenge is we're almost there, I think. But the challenge is, is, or at least what would be ideal is that we would be able to upload the video itself and have it analyze it with all the moving pictures, the move, the B roll, etcetera, and be able to learn from that. Because obviously some of that gets lost in translation from a transcript only. But I still think it is something you can do and have it learn from and help you build a more dynamic trailer. Love that idea. Thank you, Renee. All right, Jonathan, we're coming to you for to wrap us up with a little bit of social media news.

53:48 And I think there's some stuff you've got about Blue Sky and of course Chatter, which we're going to have an announcement that one day next week. Just one, at least for now, we're going to do this very show on Chatter just so we can all get to learn a little bit more about it and see what it's like. So with that, Jonathan, take it away. Yes, so I did want to share that the Blue Sky announcement is that Blue Sky and Chatter are actually directly connected. So if you are a Blue Sky user, you don't actually have to sign up for Chatter. You just need to go over to Blue Sky, click on any links that you see in the Chatter feed and enter into a room. You will automatically be assigned your Chatter ID. You can go and engage all, all different ways and then those of you who don't, if you're on Chatter, you can get a blue sky ID set up and your rooms and stuff will automatically be shared over there when you create them. So that is a great way to connect to the Chatter platform if you're looking, if you're new or want to do anything over there.

54:51 And for those of you who like monetization, So if you like making money out of the content you create, even just running rooms, there is that option over on Chatter. I ran a room yesterday actually, and I run my rooms. I'm teaching people. So I think nobody's going to pay me to do this because I've run rooms four years over here. Nobody's paid me to do it. And there there is the monetization over there. I did make $60.00 in that room, which to me was like, whoa, holy, I don't make $60.00 on that room here. You know there is that option and it's a very simple option. They have what's called Rocket Chats, but you also subscriptions and a couple other things that are coming. So Rocket Chats are just chats that people put a little small monetary amount to whether they want to get their thought scene on stage or just support you as as a creator. So that is very cool and over there on chatter. So if you're looking and they are rolling, we're still in beta, but they are rolling out to, it is open to the public now.

55:51 If you want to go sign up, you can. So you don't need to have an invitation. It's just a soft open beta sort of situation over there right now. And you have video, you have audio, you have screen sharing and all that fun. So it is definitely a multi input output type platform, multi streaming and all sorts of fun. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Jonathan, our resident chatter guy and really helpful to have you here and there because we're getting the chance to ease into a potential move. And I mean that when I say it's a potential move. I have not made any decisions and I'm very curious about it.

56:32 I think the monetization feature is awesome. It's cool to hear that. You know, it's something that Jonathan just started doing and instantly started getting paid to do what he always does on these social audio apps. So check out, check it out because you'll also, I think soon, if not already, but soon you'll be able to record your podcast using Chatter, much like what we do here, but it's more streamlined, built into the app. Whereas here I'm recording to my Rd. Caster Pro and doing it all outside of Clubhouse. So check out Chatter. Please download it if you are the listener of the podcasting morning chat, so you can be a part of it when we do occasionally go over there and learn more about it there.

57:19 Thank you, Jonathan, appreciate it. And again, thank you, Renee, for your input this morning. I think that was really helpful. Great insight, and thanks to all of you for participating this morning. We're going to do some more headlines because there's a lot more to cover tomorrow and we'll have more discussions. All things podcasting tomorrow as well. So come join us 7:00 AM Eastern Time live on Clubhouse, live on YouTube. Would love to have you join me there. And until tomorrow, make it a great day. Everybody take care.