It’s finally time to retire the word ‘podcast’

According to YouTube’s 2025 Recap feature, the podcast I consumed the most on its platform was Seth Meyers’ recurring segment on his show, “A Closer Look.” Late night.

Last year, I would have argued that this isn’t a podcast. Actually, this is a clip from a TV show. But in 2025, with almost every major podcast now having a video component, the definition of the word “podcast” has become pretty meaningless. The decades-old TV show talk show format is now almost indistinguishable from podcasts like Good chemistry with Amy Poehler, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, Club She She With Shannon SharpAnd Other Shows at the Top of Spotify’s Podcast Chart, In fact, they are now on the same playing field.

Scrolling through your YouTube feed, most of the suggestions in the Podcasts tab are late-night talk show interviews, host-driven video essays, food reviews, and cable news segments — a far cry from what we’re used to using the term: narrative audio journalism and roundtable discussions.

So in 2026, instead of trying to define what a podcast is, I think we need to stop using the term altogether. “Podcast” is becoming an outdated or potentially endangered Internet relic, just as the phrase “web series” has faded from online use.

need for new nomenclature

So what do we call these formats instead? I don’t think we’re going to invent a new word, but instead reproduce an old one.

bloombergAshley Carman noticed this change in her coverage of The Podcast Show in London last May:

…two different panelists clarified that they don’t call their podcasts “podcasts”. Georgie Holt, chief executive of Flightstory, the company that produces Steven Bartlett’s CEO diary, said the team calls their programming “the show”. Speaking with me on stage, Max Cutler, founder of Pave Studios, said exactly the same thing.

Anecdotally, I’ve also heard this naming change from “Podcast” to “Show” internally at Vox Media, and have heard the same thing from my colleagues at other media companies.

The use of the word “show” appears to be a more marketable term for advertising, especially when adding celebrity names to the project. Pitching a podcast to advertisers feels limited and niche, but pitching a “show” – hey, it’s a place they might get ears. And Eyes, and a fixed platform where the shows will go live. This is what podcast creators want seth meyers Wealth.

Because of this, fans will likely even start calling them “shows”, in the same way that consumers started claiming internal marketing terms like “influencer” and “creator”.

We’re seeing this term fade away from hosts, too. there’s a recurring bit adam freedland show Now where guests call the show a podcast, and the titular host immediately corrects them and claims it’s a talk show. Instead of the “Find us wherever you find podcasts” sign-off, I’ve noticed that many hosts are now placing more emphasis on the “like-and-subscribe” phrase of YouTube culture.

All these podcast shows are starting to coexist with non-podcast shows like hot people, chicken shop date, Criterion Closet Series, tonight show Clips, etc. – so why limit them to the term that went along with the iPod?

Unfortunately, this also means that a lot of podcasting is slowly losing its openness and becoming more centralized on platforms like YouTube and Netflix. YouTube says that more than one billion people watch podcasts on its platform every month. It was reported by bloomberg Netflix is ​​going to add podcasts to its streaming platform, develop its own shows, and work with major networks like Spotify, iHeartMedia, and Sirius.

Actually, YouTube is now starting to look like Netflix. “Talk show-style podcasts” on YouTube are already considered the next generation of late night TV, especially as CBS signaled an end to investment in the genre by canceling it. Late Show with Stephen Colbert In 2026 (I can imagine a cheaply produced podcast in CBS’s late night lineup instead) and celebrity press tours taking priority over YouTube over traditional network TV.

Next year, you’ll probably recommend not your favorite new podcast to your friend, but something you “saw on TV.”

So what about audio-only programming?

Despite all this, I still think the audio-only format is here to stay. After all, people still drive cars, and they typically aren’t looking at a screen during the entire three hours of a podcast. In fact, according to Edison Research, most podcast listening is done at home. However, it is likely that the majority of audio-only podcasts will be from more independently run shows. Media companies will still publish audio versions of their video shows to Podcatcher apps, but they are no longer a priority.

As a result (and long after the era of the iPod), I think the era of the term “podcast” is coming to an end. Perhaps in the future the question will arise, “What is a podcast?” will disappear in favor of “what” Was A podcast?”