When Fifty Shades of Grey caught fire in 2011, many pointed to e-readers like the Amazon Kindle. Self-conscious housewives were more apt to enjoy erotica because no one could judge the book by its cover, the theory went. This would bode well for podcasts.
Twenty-four percent of Americans—67 million people—listened to a podcast in February. That’s up from 17 percent in 2015. Over the last two years, monthly podcast listening has grown by 40 percent, with a growth curve that looks to be steadily pointed upward. And many of these new listeners are finding podcasts through a groundswell of weird, niche topics.
There are now podcasts dedicated to colon cancer professionals and fly fishermen, which is well and good, particularly for the loner fly fisherman in your family. This listening phenomenon might be even more important for once-taboo or ignored communities, like black culture, people interested in transgender rights, and even prisoners. And in the…
