Live Podcasting Goes Big: Festivals, Universities, and Arena Tours with special guest Phil Better
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Live Podcasting Goes Big: Festivals, Universities, and Arena Tours with special guest Phil Better

We're gonna get started in just a few minutes. Welcome, people watching already.

It's going to be a fun, lively show. Phil is our

fourth time returning co host of this show.

Definitely in the lead from everybody else. You know how he does

it. He stays hydrated. Look at that jug of water. Yeah.

Right here, buddy. As big as his head. He's. He's lifting

weights and staying hydrated. So it could be on the dating

profile. It is on my dating profile. This is the one picture on my

profile. It says I stay hydrated and buff by drinking

water. That's. That's the

dye plan. They don't want you. The big pharma is keeping that away from us.

No, it's fast food. Fast food's keeping that secret for me. Oh,

boy. Fast food is taking a lot for me already. Yeah, a couple

arteries. And.

I think what's getting me lately is those Wendy's tendies.

Wendy's has new chicken tenders that are really good with their signature

sauce and scorching hot sauce. I get. You get two sauces

with a thing of four, and it's the scorching hot. Isn't that hot? It's kind

of misleading. It should just be called our signature sauce, but

oranger. Really? With two dabs of Tabasco in it. Yeah.

Wow. All right, well, you ready to officially start the

show? Yeah. Because I'm wondering, what time is it? You want to know what time

is it? I want to know what time it is. It can only be one

time. It's time for what time is it?

Live news podcast about podcasting from the

st.

The only live news podcast about

podcasting from the stage.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the PodutyPodcast Theater at downtown to rent

a Pennsylvania. I'm Jeff. This is Poduty. In the news, I've got

a four timer. Phil Better joining us.

Four time. Four times. Four times.

Co host. That has got me all choked up tonight. It's

Christmas Eve Eve, and what are we doing? We're talking about

podcast news stories, live podcast. In particular,

people who are doing their shows at coffee shops, libraries,

conventions, events all around the world. They're happening

week after week. We have a backlog of 45 stories we're going to try to

get through. So what did I do? What sensible decision did I make?

I decided to record the show two times a week so you can catch

Purdue and the News live Tuesdays and Saturdays

and catch it on your pod catchers. Whatever. I release it.

But without further ado, I'd like to welcome

four timer it's more than the Bulls one in a row. It's Phil

Better. Ladies and gentlemen. I'm so happy to be here

being though you're four time. Yes, four time. Yes. Four time

visitor newscaster here on Poduty and the News.

I'm ready to talk about all the live events because they are awesome.

If anybody knows what time it is, it's definitely Feel Better.

Feel Better Inc. Feel Better in dot com. Is that the correct website?

Yeah. You can go to Feel Better in dot com. It will redirect you to

a calendar link where you can book a time to talk about all

podcasting stuff with me. But if you want to listen to the podcasts, you

go to investing yourself. Pod.Com

that was the smoothest transition to an introduction. I'll put all those

links in the show notes. Are you ready just to go to the first story?

Let's hit that first story, brother. We're going to be opening presents

early tonight. Let's go to story number one. The campus is

becoming the stage. We're going to file this under the category of

Live Podcast Education. Live podcasting is

gaining traction in higher education as universities begin

treating podcasts not just as media projects, but as

live cultural events. At Fordham University,

history professor Ryan Purcell is bringing his award

winning podcast Soundscapes NYC to the stage

with a live show at McNally Amphitheater.

Backed by grant funding, the event blends live music,

academic discussion and student led production, expanding

the podcast beyond the studio and into a shared experience.

It's part of a growing trend where universities are using live

podcasts to engage broader audiences, give

students hands on production experience and turn education

into something people can actually show up for.

You know, I remember when I was in college if I the best elective I

could get into was like meteorology, you know, I could study weather

patterns. You know, I was a business major. But you know, here's

something I think if you're no matter what major you're in,

if we've seen anything from the show and the way people are doing live shows

around the country, almost any industry can benefit from having

some sort of podcast. So no matter what your elective is,

this seems like a great class or even a great club to be a part

of at your local university. That is

an amazing idea. I know with one of my

jobs I work for a company that does podcast production for big brands

and one of the brands that we work with is a big time business

school and they have multiple different types of podcasts

on business. But it's very Very useful

for the students, the teachers, to connect with the

audience, connect with who they're trying to teach. And I think this is great. Doing

live podcasts like this allows more people to

have access to the knowledge that's being shared. And I

love it. I want more universities to be doing stuff like this. Heck, I

want. I want high schools. Like, back when we were in high school, Jeff, we

had. I don't know about you, but did you have, like, the local radio station?

Kind of like in the high school. The high school stadium radio,

they had. An AV club, and we used to have

TVs that were strapped to dollies. And then if

you. If your teacher needed a television, we didn't have them in the rooms. You

had to, like, go to the A.V. club and they would feel a TV into

the room. Yeah, so we had that, but we didn't have an AV club. We

only had. We just use the PA system and kids

would read the news inside the. Like the principal's office or the secretary's

office. And so I would love. Because podcasting is. So.

As we know, it's relatively cheap to go. You just need a couple of microphones

you can get at a shop and you can pretty much run it with free

with Spotify for creators. So I would love to see more,

even high schoolers starting this, doing these AVs, because it's. The cost to

entry is next to nothing. So this is something I would love to see

more students doing. Yeah. No matter what you're studying,

even if you don't even think that you're in the media business, if you don't

think that you'll ever use something like this one,

it's a ton of fun just to network people and be creative and

come up with show ideas. You'll enjoy it just for that aspect of

it. But one of the things you'll learn from listening to the show is

we've covered almost every industry out there. We've had

linemen, we've had sports teams,

we've had all these different segments. Dentists, lawyers,

accountants, they're all doing some sort of live

podcasting, some sort of way to share their craft with other people.

And they're just documenting their stories, they're helping clients.

And no matter what industry they're in, this type of

medium is a great way to share your information, share your knowledge,

and bring new people into what you do. It is.

And it's also talking about schools. There's a school in

England called tws. I can't remember their proper. The full

Name of it, but it's the TWS sports podcast.

This is a school that deals with individuals with special

needs on the spectrum. And they have a podcast

interviewing sports legends in England, around the uk

And I have to say, listening from the first episode and

listening now, it is nearly a night and day

change in the confidence that you can hear in these students

when they're doing these interviews. And they have been given so many

great opportunities. BBC Radio, BBC News,

I believe the Commonwealth Games, they were able to run with the

torch. School should be embracing this because it

gives your students the confidence to be able to,

you know, public speaking and all that. It is

a great, great thing. Yeah, yeah. And no,

again, you know, almost everybody in any industry,

even if you don't have to do large presentations at large conventions,

you probably have to speak in front of, you know, your managers

or your employees, something about your job you'll have to give a

presentation in. And if you had a club like this at your school,

just that little extra confidence boost can make you a rock

star within your organization. If you're able to get up in front of people and

just talk and understand what you're talking about and convey

that message to the group, you're going to be better than 90% of the

people in your organization because you have this extra skill set that

you're able to develop through clubs like this at college. Yeah, it's.

It's amazing. I love it. I want to see more universities, more schools, more

colleges everywhere having these podcasting AV club

because it is the future. We are moving into a creator economy. So we should

start learning earlier and earlier how to, you know, create great

content so that we can up our game. But yeah, I'm. And plus, you

know, like it when schools do this,

it actually can, like, take, take the lessons to the next level.

You know, like, you can go, hey, some

professors or some students can be like, oh, we're learning about, you

know, the American Civil War. What happened during the American Civil War.

I know for a fact there's a podcast out there called 250 and counting,

where they just talk about everything that happened 250 years ago on

the date. So sometimes you hear about how

one of your guys tried to attack Quebec, you know,

during the war of the 1812 and all that. So it goes into a lot

of history about what happened in, in America, and it's a great thing.

That could be an added bonus for history teachers to show share.

Right. So if you think schools have their history

sectors, they can do history podcasts. They can do business podcasts, they can

do, you know, electrical engineering, like hearing stories of how

things were discovered. I don't know about electrical engineering, but

like these are possible. So I want to see more universities do this and

it's up to the like students pretty much to push for it,

but I can't wait. Well, everything

that happened in history, going to transition to everything

now is a TV show.

We're going to file this under platform shifts. Podcasting center of

gravity continues to shift ToWards video, with YouTube

emerging as the dominant force reshaping how shows are produced,

discovered and consumed. On the podcast

Galaxy Brain host Charlie Warzel examines how podcasts

have morphed into something closer to daytime TV,

with NPR's Rachel Martin describing how adding video to her

show Wildcard fundamentally changed audience trust and

engagement. Bloomberg reporter Ashley Carmen connects

the dots from the podcast Gold Rush and Spotify's billion

dollar bets to YouTube's quiet dominance. While

Derek Thompson argues that we've entered an era where everything

is television and podcasts are no longer just something you

listen to, but something you also watch.

And this one is probably going to hit the, it's going

to pull at our strings, I think for Phil and I, because we,

we are die hard podcast people. So

how much credit are we giving YouTube? How much are, are we

counting as a podcast on YouTube? The numbers get really

skewed and the muddy, the waters get really muddy when you start

talking about YouTube's podcast dominance.

I'll let you take this one first, Phil. All right, so here's the thing

I want you to think about. How many video platforms are there out in the

world? How many?

There's, I mean, thousands of. You start counting Vimeo, Facebook,

TikTok, Instagram. Well, right now there's, there's like

three. We'll say there's three. You have

YouTube dominating the market. It has 90 to

99 of the market, right? When someone says, hey, where are you gonna

watch a video? You go to YouTube. You have Vimeo,

which is this close. Like Vimeo is there, but it's not,

it's not at that level because they don't have everything behind it.

And then you, yeah, you have the others, right? And Spotify can play in

there because it does put up videos from time to time with the podcast now

and they're trying to move in there, but

that's it. So when people say YouTube dominates the podcasting space when it comes

to video, it's because it's the only one doing it. Spotify isn't

set up for it, it was set up as audio only. YouTube is the only

video platform out there that exists for people like you and me to use.

So when I. YouTube is,

is okay. If you're going to be able to

like, if, if you have a set like Jeff does and

it, you can beautifully set it up and you have beautiful production and that then

yes, video can work. However, a majority of people don't want to watch two

people, two talking heads. They would rather I

be in person beside Jeff so that they can actually have a more

realistic expression. Yeah. Sitting right. I'm like

literally pointing at the chair that I should be sitting in.

But here's the thing. Podcast is audio. You're. You're

listening to it. It's always going to be audio. There will be video. I believe

YouTube will become the next is. Is already in the process of

replacing standard TV because you can find

sitcoms there. They're not die great. Because it hasn't been set up like that.

YouTube is not made for that. It, it's made more for, you know, something that

catches and changes. But I'm. You're going to be seeing YouTube

moving into that. It's already talking about it. If you, they're already

lightly touching on it to turn it into a more television esque

thing because more people are watching YouTube on their TV.

So for me, a podcast will always be audio

because that's what it started off with. It's, it's your voice.

Video will be an intricate part for promotion and you should have

clips on YouTube. I'm never going to say no to that because that's

necessary. That YouTube is a search search platform

just like Google is a search platform. So for me,

saying podcasting needs video is a lie because audio

does way better at convincing people to buy stuff than video

has. So yeah, I have a problem

with this. But I do agree that everything is becoming tv.

Yeah. And I think that podcasters are

really just laying down and let YouTube

commandeer what the definition of a

podcast is. We just kind of like, okay, you know, about

seven years ago, 2017, 2018, YouTube really started to make

this play for redefining what a podcast is.

And we're like, oh, that's so silly. It's YouTube. YouTube's not really a

podcast platform. Oh, they're going to give us a link or we can connect

our podcast to our channel. Okay, that's great. It's not really

going to bother us. And what we do, we're producing audio content.

You know, YouTube isn't a podcast platform. It's a. It's its own

distribution system for distributing videos. We don't, as

podcasters, we don't really care about that. And

then slowly, YouTube just kept chipping away, chipping away

and chipping away at what a definition of a podcast is. And I've got some

articles coming up where we talk about, like, what has happened

to the real definition of a podcast. The

waters have gotten so muddy of what a podcast is that

you ask Everybody, you ask 10 different people, you're going to get 10 different

answers on what a podcast is anymore. And while

purists have this, it's got to be an

MP3 file Distributed by an RSS feed to some sort of aggregator.

It has to have some sort of distribution method that you're in

control of. That's really the defining core of the podcast.

And if you just upload to YouTube, you have no other

distribution. So we start saying, what is a podcast?

Why does everything have a video now? And

we need to really start to fight back what the definition of a podcast

is if we want to maintain what we're creating

and keep and keep this as our thing. So

this is how I look at it. I think a podcast is.

Is audio, and vodcast is video. If you

have a video version of your podcast, you have a vodcast. Like anything that goes

on YouTube. That, for me, is a vodcast. It's a video podcast,

right? Making things simple, it's a vodcast. If you're just distributing audio,

you have a podcast. If you listen to it on Apple itunes

or Apple podcasts, it's a podcast. When you watch it on YouTube, it's a

vodcast. If you make exclusive content for YouTube and you

don't do the audio versions, then you just have a vodcast. You don't

have a podcast. I think if we start pushing that and

people understand the difference between a podcast and a vodcast,

it's going to help a lot more people understand. Like, if

you have both a podcast, like, you produce the audio and the

video like Jeff does for this show, then you can say you have a

podcast. I will not. I will not be upset if you say, yeah, you can

listen to my podcast on YouTube or on Apple itunes, because you

release both, that is okay for me. It's the people who

only release the video on YouTube that say they have a

podcast. That is where I get upset. And I think we should be putting our

foot down saying, no, you have a vodcast. If you start flipping

tables, I'll flip. A table right now. Well, I won't because I like my

MacBook not being destroyed, but I'll flip a table or two.

At the end of the day. I, and I think Phil will as well.

We'll still support the independent creators. I'm not. I don't want to get

so hung up in the hundred percent, but I do think we have to start

thinking way outside the box of what we're calling a

podcast. And we really have to either relax that

definition and just embrace independent content creation

or get start making fists and start defending

it. Yeah, like look into 100%.

If you're an independent person, you have no team

with you and you're just doing it to do the love of the game

cool. The minute you start putting in money into your

game, that's when you have to decide, am I going? What are

you going to do where you're standing? I personally think if

you're just producing audio, you're a podcaster. If you're producing video

audio, you're a podcaster. If you're doing video only, you're a vodcaster.

That's my thing. Or you're a YouTuber. Why not just call them a YouTuber like

we used to call them before podcasts got into it and people

uploaded on YouTube, they were a YouTuber.

While we're celebrating the definition of a

podcast and independent podcast, why don't we go to

the I love this one. Sobee Whiff. I think that's what they call it. South

Beach Wine and Food Festival. Okay, this is going

full festival mode. Wait till you hear this lineup.

Live podcasting is scaling up into a full day festival

experience as iHeartRadio launches Chew on this.

A live podcast series at the Miami Beach Band Show.

The event brings five major podcasts to one stage with a single

ticket granting access to the entire lineup

plus food and drinks included. I think tickets were about $100.

From comedy and pop culture to food and lifestyle, the series

blends live performance, personality driven content

and experiential entertainment into one immersive

afternoon. This isn't just a live recording. It's a

curated, curated destination event that

positions podcasts alongside music festivals and

comedy showcases. And you have some amazing

like. This is a great lineup. Obviously it's

probably Bert Kreischer being the headliner with Something's Burning being

the big name on this, but they're all relative. I checked out

these podcasts and these, these channels and these people before and there are

relatively big names and it is interesting

to see them Going there. I love how you have

a television network, Food Network, promoting this,

pushing this big thing, bringing, again, bringing the podcast

out of the basement. As you look at me and you listen to me,

I am in like a basement setting with a stone wall behind

me. Yeah, the dungeon. You know, coming out of these dungeon studios

and bringing them to where people can actually interact with the

podcasters and you can actually see because for some reason

people think, oh, only 20 people listen to my podcast.

That's 20 people. You put 20 people in a room. That's a lot of people

in a small room. Right. So I, I love this.

I'm hoping more and more festivals bring out

podcasters that are related to the festival

and do live events. I know just for laughs here was doing a, did a

couple podcast recordings a few years ago. I don't know

if they're still doing it, but I want to see more events like this.

More mid level to 1% podcasters

on it, talking, doing live shows again. I think 2026 going

forward because of the AI scare, I think we're going to be seeing. It's going

to be the age of the live events

100%. And one of the things that we talked about

in the show early on was in the 1980s,

there were all these bands touring around and

you know, the glam rock, heavy metal rock became this thing.

And you could go to a show, you'd see a band and an opening act

and maybe a local band, all in the same genre. But

then they got together and they said, hey, we're filling stadiums.

We could fill more stadiums more often. And they created

this thing called Monsters of Rock Tour and which was like 15

of the greatest heavy metal bands in the world. Then you had things like

Lollapalooza, Lilith Fair, the Vans Warped

Tour. Well, what happened is as people got bigger and as

punk like for the Warped Tour, as the punk bands got bigger and can fill

bigger venues, they started to pull together, right. And

they started to build these events. And we've, we've seen

podcasters who are celebrities and comedians,

we've seen them individually start to fill theaters and fill

arenas. But it's going to come a point where people are going

to want more value for their money. And so those

people will start to pull around each other. If it's a comedian, you might see

two or three comedians on the same ticket doing a live

podcast. And this is kind of what we're starting to see, what we've been talking

about with this south beach wine and food festival

where here's some podcasts that are somewhat centered around

restaurants, local business, food and wine and drinks.

And they're pulling together to make this

massive event all around a single topic. So if

you love these types of shows, if you like these celebrities and their

jokes and you know something's burning, it's a cooking

show that's a, it's a. By a comedian. You're going to get

this experience based around food with all these

other people who also love experiences based around food.

So you're starting to see talent pull together to make

bigger and bigger events. And for, for 100 bucks for a whole night

and including food and drinks, it's not a

bad deal to have, you know, four or five shows presented to you

and be fed and, and get, and stay

hydrated. Yeah, I think this is a, a great thing.

Like you said, it's reminiscence of when the bands got

together for of fair, you know, Van's Warp tour,

all the big ones doing the tours and that. And then yeah, we do, we

have seen podcasts fill out arenas, you have

the shits and gigs, doing the O2 arena, selling

out the O2 arena, but also doing a worldwide tour. Then you

have basement yard, doing the.

Not the Garden. They've done two.

What's the big one in New York? The kill. Madison Square Gardens. They've done

Madison Square Gardens. They sold out there. You know, these are some big

time places and you're seeing

podcasters do this more and more, selling out

small theaters, bigger venues

and yeah, I hope there will be a podcast tour. Like some,

some comedians do that podcast, do a tour, right? Three or

four of them get together, they go and call up a whole bunch of venues

and book a whole bunch of venues. Do that small tour, split

the money together because it's a cheaper ticket. I think podcasters can do

that and it's going to be even more beneficial for them. I'm looking

forward to seeing more and more of them do that.

A win win all around pull together. You probably

have friends in your area, just see if you can put a show together. So

can two or three of you have a night out, plan a podcast,

do it live in front of your friends, have a little party, get a keg

of beer, have some fun putting on a show and just see what

happens and see how much podcasting change for you and your perspective

changes when you see what podcasting can be as a live event, not

just something that you record in your basement. But you don't have to just record

in your basement. You can go to Johannesburg.

We've got Podcasting goes global and

integrated live podcasting is expanding beyond the

standalone conferences and into fully integrated creative

summits as Johannesburg prepares to host

Africa's first integrated Creative Summit in February

2026. It'll be held at the Santon Convention

Center. The three day event brings podcasters together with

filmmakers, broadcasters, content creators, technology

innovators, and they put them all under one roof. The summit

includes live podcast recordings, hands on workshops and

sessions on African storytelling and AI driven

production, positioning podcasting as a core

pillar of the broader creator economy rather

than a niche medium. And this is one of those ones

that is building on and if you can be at this place where

all these other experts at creating content are going to be there,

how much does that help lift podcasting in this

area? Oh, I think this is freaking genius.

This is these the. The Johannesburg's

event in Africa. This is going to give a major leg up to

all the creative podcasters out there because they're going to be connecting with

businesses that want to get into podcasting and there's a chance

for collaborations, understanding the next level of game that's coming down

the route. This is. I am

so jealous of how big this event's going to

be. It's. It's something that is going

to be insane and I, I'm looking forward to hearing more about it. And how

about the experiences at this event. I'll get your passports updated.

You have till February 26. I hope to see you there. I.

I don't think I'll be there though. It's the 9th

to 11th in 2026, so you have a. You have at least a

month or two to get a month and a few days to get tickets to

go. Get your affairs in order. Here we go. So we're going to the end

of the year this year. End of year Podcasts go live. We've been

seeing all the year end recaps, all the remixes

of your past year, but here's one from Tech Guide.

Most podcasters are turning milestone episodes into live

events, including the two blokes Talking Tech

Podcast, which wrapped its year with episode

713, recorded live in front of an audience.

Hosted by Steven Fennec and Trevor Long, the

live show reflected on the year's biggest tech hits and

misses while previewing what's ahead in 2026.

Backed by sponsors Arlo and Netgear, the episode was

recorded once and distributed everywhere. That's a strategy that Phil

and I love. Live audience YouTube and audio

platforms highlighting how live Podcasting, sponsorship

and multi format format distribution now work

together as a single strategy. And because of that

distribution, Phil, I think you should take this one. This is,

this is freaking genius. This is genius. Again, doing your milestones,

it allows you to set the precedent to your audience. They know,

oh, hey, 50, 100, 150, 750,

whatever. Whenever you guys hit a milestone that you guys are going to celebrate with

your audience, allow your audience to have that celebration with you and then

you distribute it afterwards, right? This is, this is insane because it

creates FOMO to the audience. They're like, oh

no, we're missing out hearing and seeing and maybe even getting to ask questions

of our favorite podcast host. Like if I had the opportunity to go see

Kevin Smith live, you know, I'm there. I already have a

standing invitation when one of my friends who

podcasts has Kevin Smith on the podcast, that I'm allowed to be in the audience,

like be there for it. Okay, this

is, this is insane. I, I am,

I, I, I want to see more podcasts do this. They need to understand that

you need to connect with your audience. Again, this is also a reason

why you should be niching or niching down however you want to pronounce

it to. Not only the subject that you're talking

about, but also the location you're talking about can be

your niche down or niche down, right? You can be the number

one podcast in Trenton, Pennsylvania, which

duty and the News is because it's the only news

podcast in the area, right? So it's the number one

podcast news podcast for Trenton Pencil, Pennsylvania.

And you put that in your show notes, you put that on your website, you

put that everywhere. It's going to pick up, it's going to be number one. People

are going to start to believe it. They're going to come out and listen to

you. Right? That's how you can also niche down or niche down and

instead of just being on the topic, it's your location. That's a,

that's why I think celebrating your big

wins by telling your audience where you're going to be, say, hey, I'm going to

be at the PTI Theater in Trenton, Pennsylvania. So you should come

down and celebrate. I know, Jeff, you've had a couple big ones celebrated in

your theater, haven't you? Yeah, we've had some year end wrap ups. We, the

rap parties are the most fun that after they complete a season or

in between seasons one and two, they'll have parties and they'll bring catering

in, they'll bring their Fans and they give out prizes and auction. It's a lot.

It's. It's a tremendous amount of fun. And it's an

aspect of podcasting you don't really think of. And the example in

this story, think about your own podcast, right? These two,

two blokes, they go live. What are they doing? One, they got a

venue. They're selling tickets. They might be selling merchants, they might be

selling a VIP experience where you can come and hang out, have a

couple of beers with them afterwards. You know, they can do all these things

that tease up that ticket value and deliver value to their audience.

But the big thing, this was all part of their distribution

tactic to one, record this live show. So if you're there

in the moment, you get to experience it. But they also record it.

And distributed as their own podcast. They put the video up on YouTube.

So now you can relive that moment if you weren't able to make it. Maybe

you don't live in that town, but you're a fan of these two blokes. You

can listen to it when it gets released through their

podcast, through their MP3 aggregator to their

podcast apps. You'll be able to download that episode when it comes out.

And now they can sell ad space on the podcast. They can get

sponsors for the podcast. They had sponsors for the event, why not sponsors

for it? So start thinking about your content

that you're creating on this much bigger level. Live events add

a whole nother element, a whole other way to monetize that you don't even think

about. It's just another part of that ecosystem

that you're building that you can really tap into over time. Yeah. And

I think

we're starting to see the dominoes start falling.

The bigger podcasts have been doing it, but like, I don't know how big two

blokes talking tech is, but

you're going to be. Start seeing even the smaller ones do these live events like,

you've had a few that I probably wouldn't call major league,

but they've. They've been able to fill out the studio,

the theater with their events. Right. And these are huge,

huge for even a small thing to have 20 people sitting in your theater when

you're doing a podcast, that really shows you the dedication of one, your audience, but

also how crazy it is that you have

20 people listening and you can look at them in the eyes and to actually

talk to them one on one. So I think podcasters

should be building in live events, either networking with

local venues or even Just

trying to get it together and just do a live event somewhere,

either virtually like we're doing here, Jeff, or actually in person.

Because I think it's going to benefit podcasters a lot more because it's going to

create that connection and build that community that is so,

so needed in podcasting, because that's the only way you're going to grow.

Yeah, a lot of podcasters get discouraged because they do

see these other podcasters filling theaters, filling arenas. I tell

people who come in here and sit through the Pittsburgh Podcast

meetup, I do some speeches from the stage. I tell them like 20

people. And some of them are like, oh, I don't know, do I want to

do that for 20 people? And then I said, look at your business model now

look at what you're doing. You're trying to build this podcast and you're trying to

get to host red ads. It's like your big goal. And you don't have

20 people probably listening now. But I'm telling you, you get

20 people, your friends, your family, your relatives, you get them to

come in, you get 20 people. And let's say you make $5 a

ticket in profit. You just made a hundred dollars for one episode

of your podcast for 90% of people.

That is more money than your podcast has ever made. What

happens next time we do a live show? You get 30 people and then 40

people. This is something that scales faster

than trying to just be a person who reads ads.

For $20 per thousand downloads, you can

exponentially surpass that at a smaller scale, which

we know from looking at server logs from Buzzsprout, server logs from

Libsyn. 90% of podcasters aren't even getting a thousand

downloads an episode. So most of you aren't even get to

$20. But with four people in an audience in front of you and you

make $5 per person, those four people equal

what you're chasing with a thousand downloads. So I'm

bullish on live events. And I will give you the money ball math anytime

you call me up, I'll put my cell phone probably not in the show notes,

but you can email me how live

events are for 90% of podcasters.

A much more strategical way to approach this as a

business. So I want to give an anecdotal

piece of evidence here. One of the podcasts that

I help grow through the business I work with,

the agency did their first live event. Okay,

this is a non profit. So they, they're very, they.

They don't do live events. They've been running the podcast for about four years

now. I want to say five years. Sorry, five years. They've done their first.

They did two first this season. They've done their first live event which was

recorded earlier this month. And they also did a Reddit ama.

The Reddit ama. They, they already were like,

it may not be that good. To the credit, we got

about, about a dozen questions in the hour that we ran the

MAM on Reddit, which was great because they had no

expectations. It was amazing. This is something you can do as a podcaster.

You can start promoting it, check with Reddit, check the threads, sub

threads, have your own sub thread and have an AMA there. However,

the live event, they were very worried about the live event. It.

The person, the, the project lead was panicking and it was a

nearly all hands on deck. We did it. They did it

in a. Where the stars. You

go see the stars planetarium room right where you can lean back.

And they were doing it. Something that's music and DNA.

They were so worried it went off with it. There were mistakes, there

were little hiccups, but they had about a hundred to two.

Just under 150 people show up. Now this is a

podcast. Yes. It has the money to do promotions and it's,

it's won awards and it's done really well. But they started

and if I, if I, if ever they can put a case study. They

started with near nobody listening to their podcast and

it took them five years to get to a point where they can do a

live audience and nearly sell out the whole venue.

If you start now, you'll start planting the seeds in

your audience that you are big enough to have live events

and you should be doing it because it's going to be worth it because

you'll be able to get 100 people at a point at a place and

they're going to be celebrating you. So that's what I say, do

it now because the brands are doing it. And before you know it, it's going

to be like, oh, you guys, you guys are just following our trend. You should

be setting the trend. So do it, do it now.

And then soon you'll be able to sell out as much

of a stadium as the girls Group chat. From sold out to

stadium stage. This one comes to us from the Dairy Journal. We'll

file this under live podcast Touring

podcast. Live shows continue to scale at a pace few could have

predicted except on Poduty and the News as the girls

Group chat announces a massive return with a headline

show at the SSE arena in September

2026 following a sold out performance at

Waterfront hall, hosts Diona Doherty, Jordan

Arnold, Shannon Mitchell and Olivia McVeigh are

bringing their unfiltered conversations to a full arena

audience. It's another clear signal that podcasting has evolved

beyond small theaters, with shows now selling tickets

at the same scale as comedy tours and live

entertainment acts. We have arrived. Feel better. I love

it. Like this is again, more proof and more evidence.

When you have good content that connects with an audience,

you can end up going to doing live events and people will come to support

you. This is. Yes,

some of these ladies are actresses and actors, but

once again I. What I love about this is it's proving

the stats right. So it just recently. I don't think it was,

it was Tom Webster. I think I want to. I'm not sure, but it was,

it was an association with sound profits. They

did a, they did a

survey thing study and they said that

females are underrepresented in

podcasting but make up a majority of the listeners

as well as 55 plus age

55 plus. So if you're listening to this and you are

a lady, you should have a podcast because you can, you

can end up being like the dairy Girls. Like we've seen it so often. How

many of these female led podcasts, which I love, love

because they should be represented, you have caller daddy, you have

this one. There's a few others out there, the Mel

Robinson podcast that promote

it and women support women and then you go to a whole

venue. Have you. I've seen some comedians, female

comedians doing kind of like a sit down talk show and the audience

is gobbling it up and loving it. I think this is

huge. We need more of it. I just want more live podcasts. I'll

say bap, bap, bap. For Whitney Cummins.

That's sure, sure, sure, sure. I was like her little catchphrase

for a while. I don't think she does it anymore. But there

is tremendous opportunity. And you're right, I

think it was Tom Webster. It was. A significant amount of

podcasts are produced by men. It was, it's skewed

like 70%, 75%.

So there is opportunity and there is a growing audience

of women who want more women led podcasts.

So that is one of the fastest growing markets right now. There's enough

white guys with microphones. You got two of them right now on a podcast. Like

we don't need more of those. Yeah. So I mean for every two white. Guys

who have at Least one female podcast. No, it's probably like five

to one at this point. Yeah, it's upsetting, but it is a

fast growing segment and when they put

on events like this, Call Her Daddy just had a documentary on Hulu. If you

get a chance to watch it, it is a tremendous testament

to the power of connection that she has from the

stage to her fans. So just watch that. If

you don't think that that's possible for you, you're crazy.

There's such an opportunity to make these connections on deeper levels and

have more meaningful conversations. Watch. I don't know what

the documentary is called, but just search Call Her Daddy on Hulu. It is a

great documentary about her. Guess what she's doing. She's setting up a

tour to take Call Her Daddy on the road. So if there's any more

testament to that. Live podcasting is a thing that is

happening everywhere, all the time, is growing

and growing and growing. Pduti'sPodcast Theater is the small step

for independent podcasters, but we know that it's, it's

way bigger than what we're. We built here outside of Pittsburgh.

It's, it's. I personally think if you're an independent

podcaster in the Pennsylvania area, I think you should

try Poduty Theater first to do your first live event.

Because one, there's very little pressure.

It's very intimate. Jeff is world class. I did my

first ever international speaking gig there and Jeff took

care of me 100%. He will make sure that you have a

banger of an episode. Even if you have five people in the

audience, it's going to be killer because you get to interact with those five people

and those five people will remember meeting their favorite

podcaster. And I love feeding you too. We get

some more of that pizza. Oh, God, that pizza is delicious.

Well, that can mean only one thing. We've come to the

end of this episode of Pduti and the News. I want to hear all about

feel better. How can I connect with you? Listen to your podcast

and book some time. Well, ladies and

gentlemen, thank you so much for listening to Poduty and the News with your special

guest, Phil Better, the podcast Mogul. Now, if you're interested in learning how

to grow or monetize your podcast, you can always check out

the podcast mogul.com or you can search me on

all social media at the Podcast Mogul. Now, there's

multiple podcasts that I do host myself. So if you are listening

to this podcast, I want you to go over to the search feature on Your

podcast player and search the Podcast Moguls

playbook to learn how to grow, monetize, and launch your

podcast. But if you want to learn how to be a business person or understand

the world of business, then you're going to go look for Invest in

Yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur podcast, which has been going for

over 600 episodes. Now. I've done something horribly wrong

as a podcaster and I as a podcast coach. I tell my people only to

have one call to action. So this is what I want you to do. This

is what you will do. You will go on to whatever social media

platform you want. You're going to search for the podcast mogul, you're going to follow

me, then you're going to DM me and I will send you the links for

you. I thank you so much. Jeff. You've been a.

You did the mute thing again. Yeah, it does it automatically, I think. I. I

don't know how it happened. It's magic. It is.

It's magic. I think you did it. It's all. I didn't do anything. I'm sitting

right here. You had the power. You have a. Probably clicked

something. Well,

you said only one call to action and I'll put all those call to actions

in the show notes, but I got, I got more for you. I've got

Poduty shirts. We got them $10, four colors, five

sizes, $10 a shirt. They're gonna go up to $15 at the start

of the year, but the early birds get them for just $10. A tremendous

shirt, 100% caught. And guess what just came in.

Poduty hats. Poduty hats, $15 as well.

And I want you to host your show here. If you liked anything that we

talked about, if you see any potential in our

beautiful Christmas decorated stage, I want to thank my daughters for putting the stage

together. If you think that what I talk about and what Phil talks

about is the future of podcasting is immersive in

person, events, experiences, face to face

conversations with your fans. This is something to consider whether

you're near here in Pittsburgh or in Cleveland, Ohio, or

Las Vegas or Seattle or Miami

or Fort Lauderdale or even Charlotte. I can keep naming cities if

you'd like, but there are ways to produce live

podcasts in your hometown, so figure it out. Is

there a library, a coffee shop? Is there a civic space? Is there

some way that you can put on a live podcast and start

experiencing what we're talking about? Phil just talked about a great story

in a planetarium where they did a podcast and we have a theater space

here. We have. We've. I've done shows in parking lots and

we've given away free tacos and coffee shops. It's

all it is a whole nother level to podcasting that you just

don't know until you experience it. So think about it

and we'll see you on. On a future episode, we'll read your news story. If

you go out and do a news a live podcast, send me the

story. I guarantee you I'll make it one of our six stories on

Poduty News. I will promote the crap out of your event. So

tell us. Tell them old Jeffers sent you.

And also, one last call to action. I'd

love to have a review for the show. We've done 30 some episodes. If you're

following along on your local podcast, you're getting. I've never asked. This

is the first time. And because Phil says I can only have one call to

action at the end of the show, I'm going to ask you. Make sure you

follow on your favorite podcast, the one you're listening that got you here. But

leave us a review. Or if you don't want to type any words out,

just click that five stars and let us know how we're doing.

That only leaves me with one more question for Phil.

Do you know what it is?

What time is it?

What time is it?

The only live news podcast about

podcasting from the stage.

The only live news podcast about

podcasting from the stage.

Poody and the news. Oh, he's off stage. He's back in

backstage. How does he do it? It's like a magic trick. It's

time for. Oh, it was time. If you're tuning in now, you missed it. It's

not time anymore. Go back 50 minutes. Travel back in time

for 50 minutes.