On his Vox.com podcast Today, Explained, Sean Rameswaram explains the news. But on the latest episode of Recode Decode, he sat down with Recode’s Kara Swisher to explain podcasting itself, and how the hit true crime podcast Serial turned digital audio hobbyists into a full-blown industry.
“It’s the freedom of the medium, and it’s the fact that I can listen to it whenever I want,” Rameswaram said of Serial, which debuted in 2014. “It’s not like I needed to tune in on Saturday morning at 10 am to catch This American Life or wait four days for them to post it online. It was this buzzy, well-made thing that I could get whenever I wanted, that didn’t have to play by any rules, that came out at the exact right moment.”
Comparing the current state of podcasting to black-and-white movies, Rameswaram — who got his start in public radio — said he’s excited by the untapped potential of the medium, citing new shows like WNYC’s 10 Things That Scare Me or Jon…
