The podcast expert without a podcast: Chris Stone

Chris Stone has spent 13 years making podcasts for major UK publishers including the Telegraph, the Evening Standard and the New Statesman. He writes Podcast Strategy Weekly on Substack and is building Podcast Crew, a vetted hiring marketplace for the podcasting industry. But why doesn't he have a podcast himself? Listen to find out.

In this conversation, Chris challenges some of the most common assumptions podcasters hold: that social clips drive listeners, that video is for young audiences, and that everyone who wants to grow their business should start a show. He also has a lot to say about where podcasting is heading — and why AI and podcasts are good news for live, in-person events.

Listen to this episode to find out:

• Why a man who has spent 13 years making podcasts for a living doesn't have one
• The question Chris asks every podcaster he meets, and why they often can't answer it
• What social clips from your podcast are actually for
• Why AI and podcasts are good for another, more conventional, medium
• The dark web podcast Chris thinks everyone should hear
• Why podcasts might be the most powerful community-building tool available right now

Chapters:

03:10 – The Telegraph, Prince Harry, and Bryony Gordon's Mad World

04:45 – Building the New Statesman's podcast from a cupboard to 200k YouTube subscribers

07:47 – The three skills that make podcasting work

09:46 – Going off-the-cuff at the Labour Party conference

12:08 – Why Chris started writing Podcast Strategy Weekly

16:06 – Why a podcast producer deliberately doesn't have a podcast

20:04 – How B2B podcasts build trust (and why that matters more than reach)

21:30 – The case for video in podcasting

24:37 – What social clips are actually for (it's not what you think)

29:56 – Why hiring in podcasting is broken

32:11 – Building on Airtable and Softr with a developer from Upwork

34:18 – The podcast everyone should hear

38:05 – Three big opportunities in podcasting right now

 

Links:

• Podcast Strategy Weekly: https://podcaststrategy.substack.com/
• Podcast Crew: https://www.podcastcrew.co.uk/
• Connect with Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisstonetv/
• Kill List podcast: search on any podcast app: https://wondery.com/shows/kill-list/

 

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