What Podcasts Are New Yorkers Listening To? Are They *Watching* Podcasts?

We took to the streets of NYC to ask passersby about their podcast listening habits

👋Arielle here. This week, Lauren Passell and I got to hang out in NYC doing what we do best, talking to people about their podcast consumption habits. We posted up with signs and mics in Union Square and Washington Square Park, and spoke to as many people as possible while freezing our fingers off. We captured more than 90 minutes of interview footage with passersby of all ages, backgrounds, and podcast preferences.

Shoutout to the people we spoke to who then subscribed to our newsletter <3

💬Welcome to PWTA!

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In This Issue of PWTA:

• Why did we take to the streets to ask people about podcasts?

• What is On Air Fest? (Plus, a discount code to attend)

• A sneak peek of our findings (+ a blooper reel)

• When to expect more interview clips

Arielle & Lauren + our catchy signs

Back in 2023, we declared April Adopt-A-Listener Month, and as part of it, we went to Washington Square Park, held up signs, and beckoned people to talk to us about podcasts (see clips here).

We always dreamt of doing it again. Then, an opportunity came up in the form of a speaking opportunity at On Air Fest, so we pitched a session to the programming team. Here’s the pitch we sent:

• We conduct vox pop interviews with passersby on the streets of NYC, asking them about their podcast habits

  • do they listen to podcasts?

  • what do they listen to?

  • how do they discover podcasts?

  • how do they define “podcast”?

    • + more

• We then conduct similar interviews with attendees at On Air Fest (during the event itself)

• And the finale: we compare and contrast our findings during an on-stage presentation

✅ We got the go-ahead, so we made a plan and headed for the streets, along with our camera person — the incredibly organized and creative Amanda McLoughlin (founder and CEO of Multitude Productions).

We’re scheduled to speak at On Air on February 26th — the title of our presentation: A Hyper-Local, Slightly Opinionated Study of Podcast Listening.

If you want to see the presentation live (and attend the event), use our discount code: w3lcom3-study for 30% off of tickets.

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👀Sneak Peek: Our Initial Findings

We don’t want to give too much away — since we’re premiering our videos, insights, and anecdotal findings at On Air Fest — but we wanted to give PWTA readers the first look.

While this post is free to all (we’re so excited to share, we didn’t want to limit the audience), we ARE going to share more specific initial findings (and some embarrassing bloopers) with our Texters (our paid subscribers) ahead of the official festival reveal. Become a Texter here.

An Overview of NYC’s Podcast Habits

• On discovery of new shows: word of mouth rules the roost, BUT there were other, oft-cited methods that pleasantly surprised us.

• On awareness of podcasting on the whole: everyone we spoke to was familiar with what a podcast is, where to find them, and that they are generally free.

  • ‼️This is different from our 2023 findings

• On the maturity of the podcast industry: we’re getting to the point where people who listen to podcasts were introduced to them by their parents. We love those parents!

• There were fascinating insights on listening vs. watching, how people feel about advertisements, most popular genres, and lots more.

• One of our interviewees happened to be a podcaster who we’d both heard of — and who has almost 1 million followers on Instagram!

  • If you can guess who, we’ll give you a prize. We’ll give you one hint if you message us.

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While we were lucky that every single one of the interviews we reeled in and conducted were pleasant, eye-opening, and made us fall in love with humans (and New Yorkers), we did receive A LOT of rejection. Of course, this is to be expected when you stand on the street with signs yelling questions at people.

Just for you, PWTA-ers (and obviously, anyone that finds this and becomes a subscriber😘), here’s a supercut of rejections, as a lil treat. Enjoy!

Rejection immersion therapy

Aside from the rejections, we spoke to more than 20 people, captured more than 1.5 hours of interview footage, and will have a lot more insights to share with you after our presentation at On Air.

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But, Wait! There’s More!

We’re only 1/3 of the way through this grand experiment. We wrapped on the vox pop, street-style interviews. But next, we’ll tape at On Air Fest, and then present on our findings at the fest. Once we’ve done all that, we’ll come back here and write it all up for you!

Before we bid you adieu, some reminders:

• Come to On Air Fest! Use code w3lcom3-study for 30% off your tickets

• For more early sneak peeks, become a Texter (support us by becoming a subscriber)

• Tell us what you’re listening to!

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💜Ok! That’s it. We hope you enjoyed this look into the podcast consumer population of NYC. And if you are one of those consumers that we spoke to, THANK YOU, WE LOVE YOU.

Chat soon,

Arielle & Lauren