Podcasting Is Political: Who Profits, Who Gets Erased, and What You Can Do About It (with Sarah Heeter)

Get "Liberate Your Business" by Becky Mollenkamp https://liberateyourbusiness.com/

In this episode of Messy Liberation, hosts Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown sit down with Sarah Heeter — podcast producer, strategist, and founder of PodFox Media — to dig into the deeply political nature of the podcasting world. From who gets to profit and who gets erased by the algorithm, to how podcasts are reshaping elections and what your listening habits actually mean, this is the intersectional feminist media analysis you didn't know you needed.

In This Episode, We Get Into:
• Why podcasting is a political medium, even when the content has nothing to do with politics
• The gatekeeping problem: who profits most from podcasting (spoiler: it's mostly white men) and what that means for independent creators
• How the 2020 celebrity podcast boom reshaped the entire industry, and who it left behind
• The 2024 election strategy of using podcasts as campaign tools, and what that means for democracy and misinformation
• The responsibility of podcast hosts and producers to vet guests, set core values, and decide what they put their name on
• Why podcast listeners are disproportionately persuadable and what top creators are doing with that influence
• How consumers and independent creators can make intentional, values-aligned choices in both what they listen to and who they platform
• The power of community resources like the Feminist Podcasters Collective to amplify marginalized indie voices
• Why 50 loyal podcast listeners means more than 100K TikTok views, and how to think about audience depth vs. follower counts
• The unresolved questions about video podcasting, transcripts, AI, and accessibility that are already shaping who can participate in this space

Resources Mentioned:
• PodFox Media: https://podfoxmedia.com/
• Big Brave Business podcast: https://bigbravebusiness.com/
• Feminist Podcasters Collective: https://feministpodcastcollective.com
• Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/
• Listen Notes: https://www.listennotes.com/

🎤 JOIN US IN THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE: http://feministpodcastcollective.com/