Instagram’s New Algorithm Change Podcasters Can’t Ignore

0:05 Good morning podcasting, Morning Chat. Today is Wednesday, December 17th, 2025, and today it's podcast news and comment. And we'll cover things like why add data favors, established podcasts, how the format wars may be ending, and Instagram testing, something podcasters won't ignore. 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 catching us via podcast chatter, YouTube, Facebook, 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.

1:23 I am your host Mark Ronik and currently on stage with me we have producer Ashley Feller, Jonathan Howard, Nick Nolbach, Dr. Faye, Ralph Estep, BC Babbles and Sid Meadows. And as I said today, we are going to be covering lots of different headlines, news stories around the world of podcasting, things that you are going to be interested as a podcaster. And we're going to also talk about other things besides just podcasting, but things that still may be of interest to you, social media news, AI news, things that content creators don't want to ignore, in my opinion. Also, real quick, just to remind you tomorrow, Thursday, December 18th, it's our evaluation episode series. We will be evaluating an indie podcast, this one named Shared Delights, Your True Stories and My Funniest Memories. It's 5 minute episodes, so we may, we're going to try to listen to a couple of them and share those, share our feedback with you.

2:30 So that's tomorrow, Come join us. Links are in the show notes if you want to hear some of those episodes. And I will tell you, I have been working behind the scenes a bit on some at least I've started my research on stingers and bumpers, things to help move the show along, keep it engaging, help create some separation between segments and things that we discuss here. I may change up the news. As you know, that's the the news music and I like it. It's a little long for a quick Stinger. So I'm not necessarily getting a getting rid of this music, but I think maybe it's more of the intro to the show to the news episode.

3:14 And then I think if I want to separate stories or categories within our news episode, I may play Still a little long. Just use the lawn owner thing, Dun Dun. That's right. That's a good one, too. Hello, Alex. Good to have you back here on stage. Yeah. So those are. That's one of the stingers. I've also added some things like a whooshing sound in case that we just need a little quick reset. It's kind of magical, huh? And we have more to come later in the show. Ralph has played along with these bumpers and stingers. And Ralph, as you know, has a quick news segment, business news segment during this episode we started a week or two ago. So we will play around with that in a moment. But first, let's officially kick off the news today. Admittedly, I pressed the wrong button. I wanted to play the new Stinger. Let's dive into some podcast data to kick things off as we do every Wednesday, the total podcasts that are actually active that have recently published at least one new episode 640,194 podcasts that's right, those that 640,000 plus has published at least one new episode and that is up 4.6% from the previous week.

4:45 And if we want to talk about the entire month, third, the past 30 days of active podcasts, that's 2.4 million have at least published one new episode over the past month and that's up 13.3%. So people really putting out that content before the holidays and kudos to them for doing that and not slacking off, staying consistent. Good to see. And also, I like to share with you the number one podcast on Apple podcast that continues to be The Daily by the New York Times. And being that Joe Rogan is always number one, or at least seemingly so on the Spotify top list, Dr. is going to give us the top five on Spotify and then the special top five list that we'll get to after that. Go ahead, Dr. Good morning again. Hi, good morning, good morning.

5:38 OK, so coming in at #5 is a good hang with Amy Poehler. I did a little bit of investigation. So on the 9th of this month, she had Julie, Louisa Dreyfus, Dreyfus on and then two days later she had Maya Rudolph on. So that's why she is now. She's at #5 OK, Yes. She. Does and they're all really really. Good. Yeah. And the interviews are also always always the the ones I see are always really good. Very deep, very good. So #4 is Crime junkie #3 is the Shawn Ryan show #2 is the past weekend with Theo Von and the number one place goes 2. It's the Joe Rogan Experience.

6:26 Yep, there it is. OK. And then this top five that we're going to do next comes from Rolling Stone, and it's their top five podcasts of 2025. That's right, I probably probably won't need the Tempany for this because there's a little explanation that goes along with everything. But #5 is called the Long Shadow Breaking the Internet. So this isn't and exactly a new show. Breaking the Internet is in the fourth season of the Garrett Graff incredible long form series Long Shadow, which explored how we end up in the precarious moments in history. But it is still one of the most impressive podcasts to hit the airwaves this year.

7:08 And #4 this is interesting because this guy has been dead for a while now. So #4 is final thoughts Jerry Springer. And it's hosted by we're just going to call him Leon because his last name makes me think that I'm cussing. So you want you want to take a shot at that last name? Nafak. That's what I'll say. Nafak, Leon. Davon with a long a sound, I think that's good. Let's see. So he takes the listener on a four and a half hour journey into Jerry Springer's Life and Times, talking to those who knew him, worked with him, and battled him. As an audio, as an Audible Original, this isn't available on the regular podcast feed, but nonetheless, it is just is still an excellent example of the way that long form audio can immerse a reader in a story #3 is again, good. Hang with Amy Poehler.

8:11 It's no surprise that Saturday Night Live's alum Amy Poehler gets her guest to open up. She's you just talked about that and she's been a mainstay in comedy for more than three decades. You know what I didn't realize? It's been 3 decades Acting in blockbuster movies and long running sitcoms, capturing our hearts with Girl Next Door Bubbliness cut with a sharp wit now, and the video formats are allowing us to see the smirks and the winks that give extra depth to the conversations. It's like being at a dinner table with some of the brightest and funniest minds of our times #2 is Spotlight Snitch City? The Boston Globe's Spotlight team might be best known for helping to take down pedophiles in the Catholic Church, but that's by no means the only kind of investigation they do. In the six part series, crime reporter Duggan Arnett goes deep into the police corruption in New Bedford, a small fishing town in southwestern southeastern Massachusetts embroiled in a war on drugs.

9:17 And It's a wild ride of fake informants and bad cops, kingpins and the bag men all trying to survive. And the number one spot for what are we on Rolling Stone for 2025 goes to reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky. This is like a second time. Second time we brought up her that's. True, that's you would have thought that and I I've never heard of this show. Has anybody else heard of this show? Oh no. No, no. Yeah, we have. OK, that's great. OK. Monica Lewinsky has been through the ringer. After an affair with Bill Clinton in the late 1990's, the general public including many prominent feminists of her time, scapegoating her for the president's bad decisions, maligning her as a sex praise vixen who pushed him into a relationship.

10:11 For years she struggled to rebuild her reputation and in the mid 2000 and 10s reclaimed herself as an anti bullying advocate. Now with her podcast, she's giving others with complicated backstories, from acquitted murderer suspect Amanda Knox to former child star Molly Ringwald to outspoken comedian Sarah Silverman the room to tell their story fully. You know who would make a good guest on this? Maybe a little Tonya Harding to say, yeah, so. I'm in Paris that I didn't know reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky, but very cool to see that.

10:51 And yeah, very weird that we've mentioned her name twice on this show this week, but that I guess. Yeah, that happens when you're talking about podcasts 'cause there's just a variety of shows and topics being discussed. Yeah, So cool. Thank you for that, Dr. Appreciate it. Let's dive into some events. You like that? All right, cool. Some events for everybody to consider first. Well, Dr. since we've got you and you, it's not time to go make eggs for the hubby. You want to share this first one? Hey, sure. Thanks. OK, so meet up and match up with the podcaster, speakers and authors tomorrow.

11:33 It's free. Oh, this is free every Thursday. Well, it's free for us because we use that discount PMC and that'll get you in for free. But since it's so close to the holidays, tomorrow's topic is actually it's a community holiday mixer, ugly sweaters optional. So come no matter what your topic is, come on and kind of rub elbows with all the people who have podcasts and who want to be on podcasts. This is really, it's really a great networking event and I hope to see you there. Very cool. Thank you, Dr. And of course, links to any of the events we talk about. We will put in the show notes for you.

12:14 And let's see, Pod Fest Expo, as many of you know, is coming up next month. Actually exactly a month from now, January 15th is when it kicks off in Orlando, FL. It's an in person event and it is a paid thing. You can't go for free unless you've score yourself a free ticket or use coupon code Mark Marc and get yourself a 10% off discount. And by the way, tickets go up this Friday, so if you want to get yourself a lower priced Podfest ticket and make it even lower by using coupon code Mark Marc, now is the time to do it 'cause after Friday price goes up and I think it'll, I think that might be the last time it goes up, but who knows, might go up once more.

13:03 Also, I wanted to check in with BC Babbles, who has something for us under the events category. Go for it BC. Good morning. Yes, Sir, thank you so much. So a great opportunity for any podcasters looking to kick off 2026 with a bit of a bang. So PRX and Audio UK and Apple are joining forces to bring us the Creative Sorry Podcast Creator Summit. That'll be happening in London, UK on February 6th. It's a Friday, so this is a pretty cool looking summit. It's free to attend. Of course, the travel itself, you'll have to figure that out, but it's shipping up to be a really cool summit where you have different seminars, talks, workshops led by a bunch of creators and industry experts.

13:47 I looked into some of the more recent caliber of speakers that PRX has had in some more state based events in Austin and Atlanta. We've had people like Brian's stat sorry stand effort, I believe be pronounced the director of audio for Texas, Texas Monthly, Eleanor Kilbenov, the host of Tribecast. You've also had Donald Albright, CEO of Tenderfoot TV and Will Pearson, president of IR podcast, just to name some of the few of the speakers that PRX has gotten into these events. So that by itself I thought was really, really cool. It's London for you to attend, you got to figure out the travel. But there's also been an expansion update for the event where they're now adding a two day in person workshop exclusive to applicants. They are prioritizing people in the UK, but everyone's allowed to apply to this two day workshop, which officially makes the summit a 2 day event.

14:46 You've got to be somebody who loves podcasts. And you got to. Be somebody who has at least some foundational experience in podcasting, you're interested in pursuing podcasting as a career, launching a new show or studying it academically, and you enjoy solving problems and collaborating with others. So that applications also out there. And if you want to keep up with it, there is a link I'll share with Mark where you can sign up. They haven't released the names of the speakers yet for the summit. So if you want to sign up there, keep up with their updates. I believe that list of speakers will come out in January, but otherwise a really cool opportunity following Podfest to help continue kicking off your 2026 with a really awesome bang. Awesome.

15:29 Thank you BC that's in February, so a couple months away. And yeah, BC go ahead and put it in the chat. This way everyone listening live can access it and then Ashley can grab it and put it in the show notes for our podcast audience. Thank you BC. Awesome. This one I heard about from Pod News recently, just days after Golden Globes revealed that their inaugural podcast nominees, there's a new contender that stepped up onto the award stage, the 2026 NYC Podcast Awards. No, you don't have to be in New York to play along. It's presented by Silver Sound in New York City. Unlike many mainstream honors that lean heavily on download numbers, the NYC Podcast Awards, also called the Libby Awards Libby, are built around craft and inclusivity. They celebrate sound design, writing, acting, engineering, diverse voices, and storytelling excellence across craft, creator, and content categories, welcoming creators at all levels and from around the globe.

16:44 Each entrant also gains access to workshops. It seems to be a thing after listening to BC, Designed to help clarify goals and build audience connections. A built in benefit of entry. Submissions are now open and you've got until January 10th, 2026 to enter for a chance to be a part of this celebration of podcasting excellence. I do not have the link handy, and I will make sure that link is in the show notes for you. Now, I would normally just go ahead and play this Stinger for you. However, we've got some to choose from. It's Ralph's content creator business Byte segment, and I guess Ralph got a little inspired after I've been talking about these different bumpers that I'm looking for.

17:32 So Ralph played along using some AI. We have a few of these to hear, so Ralph, I'll play this first one. It's time for the content creators. Business OK, that's your first choice, option A and here is this one. I think might I think this is the one might be my least favorite, but let's see, I'm not sure yet. It's time for the content creators business, right? Yeah, I think that was the one. That one was a little disturbing to me. Here's the next one. There's two more. Quick tip smart move content creators business fight a little long but it made me laugh out loud when I heard it and did it again just now.

18:25 And here's the last one, also one that makes me chuckle. The. Content creators business. Now, Ralph, since this is your segment, which one of these did you prefer the most? Oh man, I think I like the second one the best, but man, I'm I'm listening to those again thinking, but that was fun to do yesterday afternoon. It was a certainly a break from taxes and accounting work. So that was, that was a good distraction, Mark, But I'm listening to it now and chuckling myself. Yeah. So if anyone had any preferences, let me know. I feel like Dr. What did you think? I like #3 And you can cut it off right before that, the ending of that, and then it would be a perfect light. Quick tip, smart move.

19:13 Yeah, content creators, business fight. That's though. Cut it right before that little. OK, we'll play with it. Yeah, I like that one. I got to say I agree with DRI. Think that would be cool if we cut that off right after the spoken part. OK, so that is Stinger #3 I will keep that in mind. Yes, I see Nick's flash and a GIF of Mario. Yeah, does have some of these do have that 8 bit game sound to them. All right Ralph, let's keep things moving. What's the business bite this week? Oh, thank you, Mark. So I got a report from influencer, just influencer.com say that three times and it's making waves in the marketing world. The headline says it all says brands need to start thinking like creators or they'll be left behind. Now, they said that's a big statement, but it makes total sense.

20:07 Right now, audiences are overwhelmed. They're buried under ads and promotions and perfectly polished content. And most of it gets ignored. But creators want attention because they don't sound like brands. They're fast, they're human, and they respond to culture in real time. And here's the best part. Report outlines a simple but powerful shift. First, speed over perfection. Here's the thing they said creators don't wait for approval change. They publish, they learn, and they adjust. And brands that move at quarterly speed can't survive in a daily culture. Here's the second thing. Authentic beats polished. Overproduced content feels distant, but real. Conversational content builds trust. People don't want commercials, they want connection #3 community over campaigns. Creators talk with their audience, not at them. Then they reply to comments.

20:55 They listen, and they build loyalty. 1 interaction at a time. And #4 agility over big budgets, creators test ideas quickly. They pivot without ego and spa experiments outperform massive launches. And finally, trust is a new currency. People follow creators. They believe authority today comes with relationship, not logo size. Now here's the part that creators need to hear. If billion dollar brands are being told to think like creators, then creators must start acting like businesses. Structure matters. Systems matters. Clarity matters. The shift isn't coming. It's already here. And creators who embrace it will be the ones who last. Thank you, Ralph. I saw lots of people flashing emojis agreeing or yeah, just showing that they were appreciating this article.

21:40 And if anybody wants to comment at all, you are more than welcome to share. Thank you, Ralph. Appreciating these business bites. Jonathan, go ahead. I will just say that that is absolutely the direction that social is going. And we're seeing a lot, lot, lot of focus on people weren't influencers getting rolls of influencers because of the way they create. So it's a big switch that's happening, especially in 2026. Thank you, Jonathan, and thanks again to you, Ralph Moore from Jonathan. And some social media news in a moment. Let's first check in with Sid. Hello, Sid. Can we get the link to that research too please? That would be awesome. Absolutely. At the end of the day, people do business with people and we're craving connection. And I think that's what creators offer more than what brands offer because so many brands are just stale and boring and stagnant with their marketing.

22:34 And which is why people are leaning into creators because they're fun, they're energetic, they're exciting, they're changing. And so it's a, it's certainly a lesson for brands. I'm one of those that scrolls past all this boring content and doesn't engage with it because it just doesn't work. And I talk to brands about this all the time and I get blank stares. So this is a great, this is great. Thank you for sharing that, Ralph. Yeah. Thank you, Ralph. And let's check in with Nick. Go ahead, Nick. Hey, good morning, everybody. Yeah, I think we've we've definitely been seeing this more and more. And with TikTok, as TikTok has blown up, brands have gotten on the more kind of like influencer type content more just working with creators to do all of their advertising.

23:18 But what I do find interesting, like I agree with all that. And in the same token, sometimes that creator content, you can tell it seems very forced. It doesn't seem as natural. You have all these influencers that are working on brand deals with these different companies. And it's like within 2 seconds you can spot which videos are sponsored videos. And I think that's going to be the key or the kind of a ticket to making it successful is acting like a creator, but not trying too hard to act like a creator. You know what I mean? Yeah, Nick's right about the ones you can. You can point out that you kind of turn away from right to see force.

24:01 But do any of you follow Amalfi Jets on TikTok? No, I don't anyone. OK, Amalfi Jets. One day I'm going to be able to forward myself a Jet card. This is a company that what they do is they basically secure private jet travel for the wealthy and the rich and the famous. And their content is absolutely amazing. It's a brand they sell high ticket and they are crushing it on TikTok. And just what they do is so fun and so engaging. Colin is the CEO. He's a young guy that started his company when he was in college. He's a pilot himself. I mean, go follow a Mafi Jets. I mean, their content is absolutely hysterical and really, really good. And one day I'm going to be able to call a Mafi Jets and order me a JET.

24:47 I love it. Go somewhere. I like that, I like that vision. I would love to fly in a private jet. Never have would love to do that and I will go check that out. Are they using celebrities in their content? Since they fly celebrities around, no. No, it's just him. He does these videos where he's talking on the phone to people and there's a couple of his regulars that stand out all the time. Like one of them's name is McKenna. You're going to have a love hate relationship with McKenna because she is a spoiled rich brat and the things she asked for are absolutely hysterical. And she and her dad have fights and he's playing the about how much her about how much her allowance is.

25:27 Is it 1,000,000? Is it $2,000,000 a month kind of nonsense? And it's just really funny. It's really, really good. But when you think about what they do and the nits that they're in, serving the elite with private travel. But yet his Tik Toks are just so good at engaging. We will check that out. Thank you, Sid. Let's jump into some AI news. So Nick's got a couple of things for us and Nick and Dr. were joining me playing with one of chat GP TS newer features. It's been there for a a minute, but it's one that I haven't really tested until today. But yeah, Nick, why don't you just take it away for starting with Open A is answer to Nano Banana, Yeah. I feel like we've talked about it, but ChatGPT has kind of gone into that code Red mode with Gemini pushing out some pretty awesome updates.

26:28 So last week we talked about GPT 5.2 and just I believe it was yesterday, this week, GPT came out with their image generator 1.5 to kind of their answer to the Nano banana and the big push with this new image model or the upgrades to it on maintaining image that you upload to it. So editing images is a big piece of what Chachibiki wants to incorporate with their image model. So we were playing with it this morning. Mark uploaded some pictures of him and we were goofing around adding different backgrounds and stuff like that. And I'll say it does do a lot better job maintaining like the person's face.

27:15 Mark generated a couple of them and his his face looked like him regardless of what crazy outfit or background we put behind. Mark. A lot better than Gemini has, and I do find that really interesting in the past when I've. Uploaded a photo say of me and I wanted it to whatever. Maybe change the background. It'll change the background well and it kind of looks like me. It had maintains my features in a way, but it it doesn't really look like me. That's the best way I can explain it. It doesn't really look like me. I have noticed just from. Us like playing with it a little bit as you like. When you upload a picture, say of yourself, and you say put this background in the image, after that initial image generation, I feel like it starts to lose that that power of maintaining the character.

28:07 Yeah, and I should have been more. Clear to the that's the old way that it wouldn't really look like me using ChatGPT. This new way it the first couple of images, it looked just like me as we did a few renditions, but then it started to fade. Then it started not looking like me after we got into the third and fourth round and I had to refresh it by just giving it a picture again of me. And then it seemed to get back on track a little bit, but I also gave it an image of me, Nick and Dr. and I told it to put us on park bent, a park bench in Central Park dressed as clowns. But I specifically told it don't put makeup on us because I really wanted to see if it maintained our faces. We've seen in the past some of this AI image generation. It once you start throwing in multiple faces then it really can get confusing the new Gemini nano nano banana has done a better job of that a much better job of that and now it looks like ChatGPT 1.5 image generator also does a great job of that Sid, did you have something yes I played around with the. ChatGPT image generator.

29:16 Gosh, probably a year ago creating a logo for my newsletter and it spells something wrong and I asked it to re spell the word and then the next image I got was that's all I asked to do was just change the spelling of the word, not change anything else. It changed the entire image and didn't spell the word correctly. So those things been improved in fix where you can do these little simple edits like you really like the image, but you need this one thing tweaked like change the color of the font or whatever. Is that fixed? Yeah, that is kind of like the. Big push with the AI image models right now is it was really cool when we could just generate these images out of thin air and just your mad let your imagination run wild.

29:59 But they got really complex and complicated when you wanted to be able to just make minor tweaks to it. And nano banana I felt did a really good job of that. Just saying, hey, remove the plant in that corner or just change the text of this image to say something else but maintain everything else and that is with this 1.5 ChatGPT image model that is kind of their step in that direction now we didn't play with anything text related. I am curious how ChatGPT handles text. That is something that I know Gemini has approved a lot on, Yeah. And I can say even. Before this new at 1.5 version, I can tell you that it's done a much better job with spelling in graphics. I've done it multiple times.

30:43 If you look at some of my cover art for this very show, there's sometimes text in it, and I don't manipulate or add the text. It it does it for me now. And nine times out of 10, I'd say it sells it correctly. Sometimes it still makes a mistake and also it's big. It was doing a better job of making a little tweak to the image without changing the entire image, but it still had some problems with that. But what I'm seeing so far in my early tests with 1.5 is it's doing a much better job of maintaining the image and only making certain changes. The other part of this is I told you that I Nick, I did an image of me, Nick and Dr. The cool thing that we haven't talked about yet that's been out for a minute with ChatGPT is it now has a group chat feature. So for example, if you start a ChatGPT thread and you ask it to do something and it does it, let's say for example, it's just not working right for you.

31:44 You're not getting the output you were hoping for. And you want somebody that you know, that is more experienced in AI. You want their help to try to figure out what's going on. Well, you can add them to the chat, to that very thread in ChatGPT. And then what happens is it's like a conversation now between you, the users you've invited, and Chat GPTI can literally text something within that thread to Nick, like Nick, you know, I don't think I'm doing this right. What what do you think? And he could respond back. Oh, that's easy here. Let me show you. And then he can prompt ChatGPT, and then we can sit there and wait for the output and see if it works.

32:24 That's one use case, one example, But I find this really fascinating. I'm not sure yet the different ways we can really take advantage of it other than one that way I explained. But I like the collaborative feature. I think that there's going to be something to that. So start playing around with that and see what you think and maybe we can figure out some use cases for it too. I thought it was kind. Of cool because it was very much like a text message chat and I don't think the R and Mark are paying too much attention. I was kind of going nuts in the chat, just kind of testing different stuff. But it is smart enough to understand ChatGPT is when you're talking to it versus when you're talking to other people in the chat.

33:08 And you can like at tag, like I go at Mark Ronic and like message directly to him. And ChatGPT kind of stays out of it entirely. But I didn't notice. Like I would send a message or Dr. would send a message in there and a little bubble would pop up to say ChatGPT is thinking and then it wouldn't do anything. So it would recognize that Dr. was sending the message to us and not ChatGPT itself. And then I went in there. I think this was before you brought Dr. into the chat. And I was like, hey, what can you tell me about Mark or what can you tell me about us? So I was thinking, OK, ChatGPT has got all this information about him. It's got all this information about me. Can I potentially gain information from Chad GBT about Mark that he has on his own account?

33:51 And it refused to give me any kind of information other than what was already in the chat. Yeah, it it specifically. Said that to you, it said. I only know what's going on within this conversation, nothing outside of this specific conversation. I think that is interesting. I think that's definitely a good feature because that was one of the first things I thought about is like if Mark tells ChatGPT all his deepest and darkest secrets and I'm like, hey, ChatGPT, give me that information. Yeah, he just gets exploited. And I'm sure that's why. It has that those guardrails is for that very reason, Yeah. So go check that out. Let us know what you think, obviously. Well, maybe not, obviously, I don't know. But for me, this is something I think that a content creator, if you're already using AI or intrigued by it, this is an interesting feature to start playing around with. Yes.

34:43 BC before we move on from AI, did you have something? Yeah, quick question, just to clarify. So that guardrail only exists if you bring in a third party person to join the conversation. Yes, that's kind. Of a the way you asked it makes it a little tricky, but yeah, so basically it's for it's a guardrail specific to the group feature that we're discussing. Got you. Yeah, Thank you. So in other words, theoretically all of your your private content should remain private, right? Like that's not going out to the public, but this is a specific guardrail if you start inviting people into your ChatGPT. OK, right. But if you're if you're still. On your own you can still and you can still have a draw on other conversations along as it's just you. 100% yes.

35:29 Yep, Yep. Janae, welcome to the stage. What did you want to add? Good morning. Yeah, I absolutely love the group chat feature and I haven't played with anybody else. And it's awesome to hear that you you have been using the group chat feature amongst the PMC. What's cool is it does say as soon as you start it a group chat, it says your personal ChatGPT memory is never used in Group chat. So again, those guardrails are in place and of course they thought about it. OK, what? People start exploiting each other. So they kept that and place. Thanks. Thank you, Janae. So yeah, let us know. Feel free to drop us a line. Let us know what you think of the new image generator, the new group feature.

36:14 Yeah. Janae, if you want somebody to play along with with the group, the group chat feature, let me know. Happy to jump in that with you. Quick heads up before we jump back into news. I want the Podcasting morning chat community to be the first to know. I shared this with you yesterday that we officially released the full Empowered Podcasting Conference 2 Video Library. Every workshop and presentation from EPC 2 is now available on demand. These are practical, real world sessions from people actually doing the work. You can watch what you need, when you need it and come back anytime. If you're serious about growing your podcast with intention and community at the center, this was built for you.

37:01 You'll find the EPC 2 video library in the show notes. There'll be a link there. You can get that for the current sale price of $47 even normally a $99 price tag, but for a limited time yours for 47. And this is partially for paying back Janaid for all of the volunteering he did to capture the video and then put it together as an on demand product like this. So thank you to Janaid and yeah, we want to support Janaid, so that's why we've got the price tag. Yes, Dr. go ahead.

37:42 Can you name? Off a couple of classes that were filmed, maybe that would whet people's appetite about what they're going to be buying. Great question. When I wish you had asked me prior to the show so I felt a little prepared so. So sorry, something I absolutely. Should have on hand here. There were definitely there were a few AI discussions for sure. There were also how to grow your podcast, how to monetize your podcast, several types of discussions like that. And I'm not doing it justice, but if you go to that link, you can see the full quote UN quote, course schedule or presentations, workshops, etcetera there so you can get a glimpse of that before you purchase.

38:32 We'll have all this. Ready for tomorrow's mid? I'm going completely off the order today here because they're just some things I'm excited, more excited to talk about than others. Jonathan shared with me something I knew about and forgot to get to. And did I put, did I get this clip? That's the big question. I thought, Oh yes, I did. I've got the clip here for you. So this is a clip from Adam Missouri, the CEO of Instagram, sharing some news about some changes they've made to the algorithm.

39:13 Ever wish you could see your algorithm? Maybe make some changes. Well, as of this week, you can do so on Instagram, at least for the Reels tab. We've used some of our latest technology and AI to be able to explain what we think you're interested in. So as you scroll through Reels, you'll see in the top right corner a little icon. And if you tap on that, you can see your algorithm, what we think you're interested in. You can add more topics, you can remove the topic, you can add topics you want to make sure you never see anything from in the future. And those changes will be reflected in your Reals tab forever more. We're actually also starting to test bringing this functionality to the search tab to explore. So you can see any interests you explicitly added across the top of explore and dive in there and get back to that same interface. And over the long run, we want to bring this to the main feed to the Home tab as well.

39:59 That's just going to take a little bit more time as well to bring it to more languages, which is coming soon. So check it out and if you are interested, when you go to that algorithm page, there's actually a little share icon and you can share what you're interested in with your friends. So I'm pretty curious to see what you all do with it. Maybe tag me if you shared your stories so I can see how this is being used. But I'm particularly excited about a world where there's transparency and control around your algorithm on Instagram. So it's here. Peace. So what do we think of this now? You can actually customize your algorithm so it's not just spoon feeding you anymore, although it what it sounds like to me. And Jonathan, maybe you have some more insight.

40:41 What it sounds like to me is that they'll still be the default algorithm that makes its decisions for the content you see based on the things that you're looking at and maybe now based on your custom algorithm. But I think that you'll have those two choices. You'll be able to go and basically tap on the tab and say, yeah, this is my custom feed that I want to look at right now, or you could tap on the default. But Jonathan, your thoughts, It's going to be interesting, right? Now the way it's playing is only in the reels tab, although it will extend out from the reels tab as they build. And what you can do is I think the thing that's going to be most impactful is you can block entire like things.

41:23 If you don't want to see social media tips, you can block that section of social media tips. And you can then type in the things that you do want to see and it will include. Because what shows up in your in your tab when you're when you're looking is what you're looking at, what you're seeing a lot of right now, whatever it is that you're watching a lot of. And you can take those things out if you want, like if you're just researching New York City because you're going to New York City this week and you never want to see any more New York City after this week, you can then take that out, which helps you kind of just keep your algorithm to what you want to see. Now, I think the biggest impact is going to be for creators because people are going to be able to block entire sections of topics.

42:06 And if you're in that section, your contents not going to be seen. So I've been recommending to creators to say to get people to hit your bell because they're interested in your content. They hit your bell, then that's going to override us. Like if they don't want to see real estate, but you're a realtor, so I'm going to stop you right there. And and. For those who may not know, what do you mean? Hit your bell so on Instagram. In your profile, you do have the ability to select people that you want to get notifications from all the time. It's a bell at the top of their profile, so you can click on that and click next to their name, there's a bell. You tap that and it'll ask you if you want to see posts, stories, real bills, live live videos and you can select if you want all most relevant or you don't want any notifications from them.

42:54 This means especially. As Adam Missouri said, they want to roll this into other areas besides just reels. And so I have a feeling based on that advice, Jonathan, I have a feeling we're going to start hearing more creators saying that in their content, not just necessarily saying, you know, hit the follow button, but they may also now start saying hit that bell if you want to see more content like this. Thank you, Jonathan, appreciate that and appreciate the tip as well. Important stuff, I think, especially if you're using Instagram as one way to promote your podcast. Speaking of Instagram and Speaking of promoting your podcast, your podcast clips might start making it to the television screen.

43:37 Instagram is officially moving beyond the phone screen and into your living room. Mehta has begun testing a dedicated Instagram for TV app currently exclusively on Amazon Fire TV streaming devices in the United States, marking Instagram's first native television experience. The app centers on short form reels, letting view viewers browse personalized video feeds and topic based channels on bigger screens, no phone required. This initiative is part of Meta's broader strategy to expand video consumption beyond mobile and compete with platforms like YouTube and TikTok for connected TV attention and AD dollars. The Fire TV roll out is currently limited to US users, with plans to gather feedback and potentially expand to additional devices and markets.

44:31 Kind of cool to see some of our content on the big screen. Although if you're doing something like YouTube Shorts, you might already see that. And of course, if you're putting your content, your full episodes out on video, you see that already perhaps on YouTube or other platforms that are streaming through your television. But cool that Instagram is doing that as well. Let's try to get to a couple. Of the main headlines today I will share with you and then Dr. you can take story #2 but first I'll share that Apple's next move for podcast interaction comes with their latest iOS update, giving listeners and creators ways to interact, navigate, and engage more deeply with content. The changes are part of a broader effort to refresh how people discover and use Apple Podcasts on iPhone and related devices.

45:27 For example, one, they are adding, just like Spotify did earlier this year, automatic chapter markers. If you haven't noticed, even if you're putting your own chapter markers time stamped in your show notes, Spotify has already been doing that for you. And they do that based on their AI and what their AI determines is appropriate to highlight. That's why I still put in our own just in case, because sometimes it may want to highlight something that I don't think is necessary to highlight. It has, let's see here, the timed. What was that called? Dr. There was the timed links. Is that what they called those? I think it's timed links. But they are automatically whenever you mention a another podcast or even another episode that you have, they will automatically put a link to that on your screen. Yeah, on your screen.

46:22 So that's cool. And I think that's. Something you can control, although don't quote me on that 'cause I have not seen or used the feature yet. So keep an eye out on that as look, I mean Apple still, at least among most podcasters that I speak to Apple as far as audio listening goes, it tends to be the main platform for most podcast listeners. Again, in my circles anyway, I know that doesn't apply to everybody. All right, Dr. do you want to take the next headline? I do and if I read. This, I want people to realize that this, what I'm reading is all coming from someone by the name of Steve Goldstein, who works at Amplify Media.

47:02 He's a big wig in, in, you know, in this podcasting world. But this is all According to him. And OK, so podcasting finally grows up. The format wars are over. Great, According to Where's the sound effect? According to Steve Goldstein of Amplify Media, 2025 made it official after years of arguing about what counts as a podcast. The industry is blinked and audiences already decided podcasting is no longer a format. It is content that moves. Podcasting has entered its fourth phase, the Liquid Content era. Interesting So.

47:49 I know. So here are some key points. Podcasting is no longer audio only audiences expect audio and video content now flows across YouTube clips, newsletters, live streams and events. The show is no longer the product, it is the engine. That's an interesting, that's an interesting sentence to me. OK. And audience behavior drives strategy, not platforms or feeds. Single format shows can still win, but flexibility now matters more than tradition. So does this help the indie creator or just reward the bigger teams? What do you think in some ways?

48:36 It makes things a little more confusing for creators just as far as well. So what do I say? Is anything a podcast now? And some people might, might argue that I don't know that it affects one side, indie creators or bigger podcasters or yeah, I don't think either way, it's, it's something that affects. And I think people will still argue this point, but I do kind of lean towards what what Steve is saying. I get it that podcasting traditionally means it's part of an RSS feed, It's audio only. But the times are are changing and evolving. And I do believe that consumers end up dictating what we call podcasting and how to define it. We're not going to.

49:20 We can't sit here and bang it into their heads that no podcasting means this. If, if the majority out there is saying, OK, a podcast can be consumed on YouTube, it can be consumed on Apple Podcasts, who are we to tell people, no, you're wrong? Especially, like I said, if the majority is saying it, we can't fight it. We're a smaller crowd than than the audience is. When does it become? True. If like a million people are saying one thing and you and maybe three other people are saying something else, then when is it true? I got to say. Somebody who is a is a Hall of Famer in the podcasting space.

50:04 Rob Greenlee. Oh yeah, Rob. Greenlee, I thought. You. Who did you think I was? Going to mention. Someone else? No, he I thought you. Were going to rob. Greenlee. Was one of the people that had that old school mentality that for a long time was standing on his soapbox saying no it's audio only, it's got to be RSS. And a few months ago, I saw he posted something on LinkedIn basically saying, you know what, I'm changing my mind. And he was recognizing that podcasting has expanded to more than what we used to call it. He's fully on board with the idea that, yeah, could be video too. And in fact, he's always argued video podcasting has been around for quite a while.

50:45 And, and even on Apple podcast, it's just that for whatever reason, on Apple or Apple doesn't really give us a good clear playbook. And they don't really promote the fact that you can actually distribute video through their platform. So I thought you were going. To cite Dave Jackson and Dave Jackson is in the camp of if it doesn't have an RSS feed, it ain't a podcast. He's in that camp. Ralph, I haven't talked to to Dave in quite a while so and you know more than I do about how he has taken this on. But as far as I know, he always used to have a problem. He, there was a hesitancy when he'd have to say, well, there's a podcast on YouTube.

51:30 He'd say, well, there's a, a show on YouTube. So there was always that kind of hesitancy of him referring to something on YouTube as a podcast. And I got to say some of that has rubbed off on me a little bit. I will say that. I'll be honest enough to say that. And that's fair. And yeah, everyone has an opinion and you're welcome to it. I yeah, I think that it, it just depends on you and how you want to define it. But I think that overall, this may be the safer way to say this. If you don't want to say I have a podcast, you could say I have a show, I have a show, I have a show. That's right. Yeah, I sometimes refer. To it that way, not not strategically, just because.

52:11 And I think I think that's a Safeway to hear. I have a show on the Internet. Alf Ralph, did you want to say something? I said Alf Ralph, did you want to say something? I'll go by Alf today. That's. Fine, No, I strategically about nine months ago started calling all of my content shows because I just saw the writing on the Walmart and I said, you know what, let's just start calling it that because I think that's actually the better term. And I hear that more and more now in the content creator realm that they a lot more people are saying the word show. Thank you, Ralph. Appreciate that. And I'm looking at the clock here, gang and I. Think that we're going to. Wrap up the news today and remind you to come back tomorrow, 7:00 AM Eastern live here on Clubhouse, Facebook, YouTube, Chatter, all the places.

52:56 And of course, if you can't join us, you can always pick up the podcast a couple hours later. We are doing our podcast indie podcast evaluation series tomorrow. We'd love for you to be a part of it. Lots that we all can learn from from breaking down these different indie shows. So come join us. And notice I said shows. Come join us tomorrow, 7:00 AM Eastern. And then on Friday for our final episode of 2025, come join us to celebrate the holidays, celebrate the upcoming year, and talk some podcasting while we're at it too. So until tomorrow, make it a great day everybody take care.