It’s lastly time to retire the phrase ‘podcast’
In line with YouTube’s 2025 Recap function, the podcast I consumed probably the most on its platform was Seth Meyers’ recurring section “A Nearer Look” on his present Late Night time.
Final yr, I might have argued that this isn’t a podcast. That it’s, in truth, a clip of a TV present. However in 2025, with nearly each main podcast now having a video part, the definition of the phrase “podcast” has turn out to be fairly meaningless. A decades-old TV present speak present format is now nearly indistinguishable from podcasts like Good Dangle with Amy Poehler, Armchair Skilled with Dax Shepard, Membership Shay Shay with Shannon Sharpe, and different exhibits at the highest of Spotify’s podcast charts. Actually, they’re now on the identical taking part in subject.
The definition of the phrase “podcast” has turn out to be fairly meaningless
Scrolling although my YouTube feed, many of the recommendations within the Podcast tab are late-night speak present interviews, host-driven video essays, meals critiques, and cable information segments — very removed from what we used to make use of the time period for: narrative audio journalism and roundtable discussions.
So in 2026, as a substitute of making an attempt to outline what a podcast is, I feel we have to cease utilizing the phrase altogether. “Podcast” is changing into an outdated or perhaps a probably cringe web relic, just like how the phrase “internet sequence” light from use on-line.
So what will we name these codecs as a substitute? I don’t suppose we’re going to invent a brand new phrase, however as a substitute repurpose an previous one.
Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman observed this variation in her protection of The Podcast Present in London this previous Could:
…two separate panelists made it clear they don’t name their podcasts “podcasts.” Georgie Holt, chief government at FlightStory, the corporate behind Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO , mentioned the group calls their programming “exhibits.” In a dialog on stage with me, Max Cutler, founding father of Pave Studios, mentioned precisely the identical factor.
Anecdotally I’ve heard this variation of nomenclature from “podcasts” to “exhibits” internally right here at Vox Media too, and echoed from my colleagues at different media firms as nicely.
Utilizing the phrase “present” appears to be a extra marketable time period for promoting, particularly when attaching superstar names to the challenge. Pitching podcasts to advertisers sounds limiting and area of interest, however pitching a “present” — hey, that’s a spot the place they’ll get ears and eyes, and a definitive platform the place the exhibits will reside. Podcast creators need that Seth Meyers cash.
Due to this, followers will seemingly start calling them “exhibits” as nicely, the identical method shoppers began claiming inner advertising and marketing phrases like “influencers” and “creators.”
We’re seeing the phrase fade from the hosts, too. There’s a recurring bit on The Adam Friedland Present now the place company name the present a podcast, and the titular host corrects them immediately, claiming it’s a chat present. As a substitute of the cliche “Discover us wherever you get podcasts” sign-off, I’ve observed many hosts at the moment are pivoting extra to the “like-and-subscribe” phrasing of YouTube tradition.
These podcast exhibits are all beginning to reside along with non-podcast exhibits like Scorching Ones, Rooster Store Date, the Criterion Closet sequence, Tonight Present clips, and so on. — so why restrict them to a time period that used to go hand-in-hand with iPods?
Sadly, all this additionally signifies that lots of the openness of podcasting is slowly going away and changing into extra centralized on platforms like YouTube and Netflix. YouTube says a couple of billion individuals watch podcasts on its platform each month. It was reported by Bloomberg that Netflix goes so as to add podcasts to its streaming platform, growing its personal exhibits and dealing with main networks like Spotify, iHeartMedia, and Sirius.
Actually, YouTube is beginning to look extra like Netflix. “Speak present–fashion podcasts” on YouTube are already considered to be the subsequent technology of late evening TV, particularly with CBS signaling an finish to investing within the style by cancelling The Late Present with Stephen Colbert in 2026 (I can think about a cheaper-made podcast going into CBS’s late evening lineup as a substitute) and superstar press excursions prioritizing YouTube over conventional community TV.
Subsequent yr, you most likely received’t be recommending your favourite new podcast to your good friend, however as a substitute one thing you “watched on TV.”
So what about audio-only programming?
Regardless of all this, I nonetheless suppose the audio-only format will stick round. In any case, individuals nonetheless drive automobiles, they usually aren’t sometimes taking a look at a display for the entire three hours of a podcast. Actually, in keeping with Edison Analysis, most podcast listening is completed at residence. It’s seemingly, although, that almost all audio-only podcasts shall be from extra independently run exhibits. Media firms will nonetheless publish audio variations of their video exhibits for the podcatcher apps, however they’re not the precedence anymore.
Consequently (and lengthy overdue from the period of the iPod), I feel the period of the time period “podcast” is ending. Maybe sooner or later, the query “What’s a podcast?” will disappear in favor of “What was a podcast?”