Podcasts are a Problem
Episode 466 of The Lex Fridman Podcast begins with a remarkable “public service announcement” as a prologue to a series of ad reads.
Fridman tells us, among other things, that he often doesn't really talk about the show's sponsors in these ad reads at all. He's just talking about things he's thinking about. He's just giving a “shout out” to his sponsor for being “awesome”.
He says the sponsors often inspire him to think about things. It makes him innovative.
This leads him to wonder, oddly, about the very nature of identity. Who am I? Who are you? He feels he has a real connection with his listeners. He sees them as friends, that his life is better for these friendships, these imaginary friends.
He then returns to his ad reads. “Sign up, get what they are selling”. Oracle. Tax Network USA, Shopify. ELMNT. AG1 (of course, AG1).
It's all very appealing. I mean this with no irony.
Here's a friend you didn't even know you had. He's very smart and astonishingly well-connected. But here we are, hanging out on the stoop, having a beer, shooting the breeze, swapping ideas.
This is a new species of advertising, one that presents itself as a private recommendation rather than an advert.
But this is not its most pernicious feature.
Hitherto, advertisers have never been able to reach you on a walk. Yes, there is the possibility that you take a portable radio with you, and a sizeable outdoor ad might break the horizon. But here with the podcast is someone who says they are a friend whispering recommendations into your ear, just to you, it seems, almost intimately, as you walk through a wood.
Podcast ads can be skipped, but people don't. It’s too much of a hassle. And your VPN won't strip the ads out. These ads are shapeshifters: they change language as you cross borders.
Is the trade-off worth it? That we give up our most private moments to advertising in the hope we learn something new? Really? In the hours and hours of podcasts you've listened to, how much have you retained, found interesting, or life-changing? As you lie dying, will you wish you'd spent more time listening to podcasts or music?
There are precious few human spaces left for advertising to conquer: in the car, in front of the TV, using a browser, in the bathroom, at the cinema, SMS, MMS, junk mail—the list is endless.
Only sleep remains. Those 7 to 8 hours are probably the only genuinely revolutionary act of resistance that remains to humans. In those 7 to 8 hours, your labour is withdrawn. You are offline as far as capitalism is concerned. That’s a third of the day, advertising can’t get to you.
But for how long?
I'm sure there's a mattress ad for that coming to a podcast near you very soon.