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• Could you produce an original piece of storytelling audio with just 48 hours notice? Silver Sound announced the results of the third biannual Sonic Dash - an audio storytelling competition held every six months. Entrants must craft a completely original piece within two days of being emailed the theme - which,this time around, was "You’ve Got to Be Kidding Me." Oliver Morris and Jude Hodgson Hann took home the top prize with their piece, "Scapegoat." You can hear it in The Sonic Dash podcast feed.
• Substack, which announced a partnership with Spotify in April last year, is now promoting its Spotify integration on the Substack dashboard. The service also has integrations with Apple, YouTube Music, “Youtube Podcasts”, Pocket Casts and Overcast; but this is the first time that our Podnews reader who spotted this has seen them actively promote it.
• Bossjock, a podcast recorder on iOS, has released a newly rewritten version that adds enhancements to the soundboard, keyboard control, and sharing capabilities. You can grab it here.

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• New York-based production company Shared Manifest Entertainment has relaunched as a creative home for artists, focusing on fiction podcasts, theatre and film. The company produced Tales From The Aether in 2020 and 2021, and plans to produce a third season.
• “Mediocrity is getting crushed”. Amplifi Media’s Steve Goldstein gives us 7 key takeaways from CES.
• The AudioGen 3x3 newsletter published a look back at 2024, and a look forward to 2025 from nine people in the Spanish podcast industry, in six countries. “It is essential to find new distribution methods to expand the audiences of our productions, and thus be able to resist the tyranny of algorithms and the impositions of the big players,” says Argentina’s Natalia Carcavallo, founder and General Director of Wetoker.

The Tech Stuff

• Helipad 0.2.1 is out for Umbrel nodes. It includes a podcast filter, so you can see boosts and streaming payments to specific shows. Update it in your Umbrel App Store.
• If you have discovered a new podcast app and wondered what the user-agent is - no need to wrestle with that man-in-the-middle proxy. We’ve written up how to use OP3 and our own podcast to see the user-agent and other details, live.
• If you use an electronic calendar - us too. Which is why our events calendar is now available as a webcal subscription, so you can see at a glance if you’re missing any podcast events.

Tips and tricks

“The podcast app is generally quite dumb.” Matt Deegan tells us all the details about how to get your video podcast onto Spotify and YouTube - and the problems in doing so.

Podcast News

• With Airwave: abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast This award-winning, ground-breaking immersive sound podcast is back for a third season. The show asks critical questions about American history and culture, community, economics, the environment, and mental health while encouraging folks to activate their imaginations as a tool for healing.


• As a Christian prayer podcast hits #1 in Apple Podcasts once more, Salem Media Group has added Your Nightly Prayer to LifeAudio's lineup. The show joins LifeAudio’s established lineup of faith-based centered resources, devotionals, and inspirational content for an engaged Christian audience.


• The first episode of Virtually Parkinson has been published - where the AI replica of Sir Michael Parkinson interviews the global music sensation Jason Derulo. The AI replica listens to the answers Derulo gives, and teases more information out of him - it's an interesting listen. (For more on the process, you'll want this episode of Podnews Weekly Review.)


• The Wellness Scoop is new from Adelicious today - a concise and engaging dose of health inspiration and the latest wellness news. It's hosted by two of the UK’s most prominent figures in health and nutrition, Ella Mills and Rhiannon Lambert; and inherits the Deliciously Ella feed.


• Mantra with Jemma Sbeg is new today from PAVE Studios' OpenMind. Each week, Jemma will share an empowering mantra—a simple, powerful phrase to help listeners navigate challenges and unlock personal growth.


• That Sinking Feeling is a new podcast today from Elizabeth Rynecki and Tony Kaplan, telling two intertwined stories - Elizabeth’s journey as a mother to a son diagnosed with ADHD, and the history of her father’s career in ship salvage. It's a six-part podcast, releasing weekly.


• The Funny Comics Fan Club is back for a second season, looking through British comics. The first season was named as Podcast Of The Week by The Radio Times and was one of its Top Ten recommended shows. The new season starts with an in-depth look at Cheeky Weekly from 1978.

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