Podcast Pontifications

Podcasting is often touted as a way to reach a younger, hipper demographic. But that ignores the millions of people 55+ who listen to podcasts today, with different habits and content preferences.

We tend to think of podcasters as young and hip. And yes, that’s true. But according to Edison Research, 24 million Americans over 55 listen to podcasts, up from just 4 million a decade ago.

I don’t have access to the complete data set, but I’m confident enough (Dunning-Krueger much?) to make some inferences based on the… oh, let’s go with more mature podcast listening audience.

55+ podcast listeners have more discretionary time. 

55+ is a very wide swath, covering more senior employees with more flexible work schedules, plus many retired and semi-retired people. They aren’t forced to follow the listening patterns of those who work a 9-to-5. 

Lots of variance among 55+ podcast listeners.

My hunch is that if you plotted out the percentage of listeners for each age starting at 55, you’d likely see a standard Power Law develop. The “younger ages” on the left would have the biggest percentages, which gradually taper down as the age itself gets higher.

24 million will look small tomorrow.

When The Infinite Dial 2022 report comes out, people who were 54 in the prior report will now be counted in the 55+ bracket. 

55+ podcast listeners like age-specific content

If someone listens to Alan Alda’s podcast, Clear+Vivid, they also tend to like Katie Couric’s show. She’s 64. And the podcast by Rob Lowe who’s 57. And even WTF by Marc Marin, also 57. 

So yes, old people do listen to podcasts. And they’re going to keep listening to podcasts as we become they of whom we speak. 

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Boostagram Corner! 

Much love to Pat Cheung from PodInbox for the virtual coffees and Kevin Patton from Academic Podcasting for the nice review. Links to both are in the next section.

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Links:

• Advancing Podcasting community -  http://advancingpodcasting.xyz

• Edison Research’s The Infinite Dial 2021 - https://www.edisonresearch.com/the-infinite-dial-2021-2

• Ed Asner (IMDB) - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000799

• The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Wikipedia) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mary_Tyler_Moore_Show

• Westwood One 2021 Audioscape - https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/ear-brain-heart-1968391

• Power Law - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_law

• Other shows people who listen to Alan Alda’s podcast listen to - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/clear-vivid-with-alan-alda/id1400082430?id=1400082430#see-all/listeners-also-subscribed

• Pat Cheung on Twitter - https://twitter.com/patcheungfrom 

• PodInbox - https://www.podinbox.com

• Use AZPOD when you register for She Podcast Live to save $100! - https://www.shepodcasts.com/live/

• Kevin Patton on Twitter - https://twitter.com/DrKevinPatton

• Academic Podcasting - https://academicpodcasting.mn.co

• Leave a review for Podcast Pontifications - https://ratethispodcast.com/podpont

• More new podcast apps - https://podcastindex.org/apps

• Support Evo on Buy Me A Coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/evoterra

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A written-to-be-read article and a full transcript of the audio of this episode can be found at https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/do-old-people-listen-to-podcasts-yes-yes-we-do.

Visit https://twitter.com/evoterra for more podcasting insights from Evo Terra as they come.

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Allie Press assists with the production and transcription of the show. Learn more about Allie at http://alliepress.net.

Podcast Pontifications four times a week to provide ideas and ask questions every working podcaster should be thinking about. Subscribe today at https://PodcastPontifications.com.

Photo by Esther Ann on Unsplash

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th. Abortion is a basic healthcare need for the millions of people who can become pregnant. Everyone should have the freedom to decide what’s best for themselves and their families, including when it comes to ending a pregnancy. This decision has dire consequences for individual health and safety, and could have harsh repercussions for other landmark decisions. Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health and independence of all Americans. Even if you live in a state where abortion rights are upheld, access to safe medical procedures shouldn’t be determined by location, and it shouldn't be the privilege of a small few. You can help by donating to local abortion funds. To find out where to donate for each state, visit donations4abortion.com. If you or someone you know needs help, or if you want to get more involved, here are 5 resources: 1. ShoutYourAbortion.com is a campaign to normalize abortion. 2. DontBanEquality.com is a campaign for companies to take a stand against abortion restrictions. 3. Abortion.cafe has information about where to find clinics. 4. PlanCPills.org provides early at-home abortion pills that you can keep in your medicine cabinet. 5. Choice.CRD.co has a collection of these resources and more. We encourage you to speak up! And spread the word.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy