Hi, everyone. Welcome to the A6 and Z podcast. I'm Sonal. So I'm super-duper excited today, even way more than usual, because this episode is all about podcasting. For newer listeners, we actually did an episode called a podcast about podcasts about four years ago, which you can find on our website, A6NC.com. But today, we're focusing this podcast about podcasting since the podcasting

since then. By the way, I had hoped that Roman Mars, who is on that episode, would join us

again, but he lost his voice so couldn't. Our special guest today is Nick Kwa, who writes Hotpod,

a newsletter that I've been following since very early on and has grown to be a go-to source

all about the podcasting industry with analysis, insights, and more. He also publishes and contributes

to Vulture on similar topics. Also joining us for this episode is A6 and Z general partner Connie

Chan, who covers consumer, the future of media and Gen Z social as well as trends from China

and has observed the podcasting

phenomenon there and shares ideas on what more platforms can do here. And the three of us do a

hallway-style jam, taking a longer pulse check on where we are right now in the podcasting industry.

Speaking of, since we do mention some companies, please note that the content here is for

informational purposes only,

should not be taken as legal business tax or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment

or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any A6C fund.

For more details, please also see A6C.com slash disclosures.

So we begin with the latest stats on the industry, touching on structural factors and more for about the first 15 minutes.

Then we do a bunch of lightning round style takes on how other content and entertainment models may or may not apply to podcasting for about the next 30 minutes.

And finally, we go into monetization, platforms,

analytics, and more, which we also touch on throughout the episode, including impacts on creators.

And we end on recent news and moves in the space, such as Spotify Gimlet, how to think about

terrestrial radio, and more. But we begin by defining a podcast, which seems obvious but isn't and is a rather existential

question. So, guys, what is a podcast? So, I mean, the real interesting thing here is we're in

...