Wow, !
I didn't have this email in my list earlier this year.
A few days ago, a well known podcasting journalist published a story about how listeners are seemingly demonstrating a love for podcasts which take 'deep dives' now.
The suggestion was that shows like Lex Fridman's and Steven Bartlett's (which have had episodes of around four hours long) have done well for audience.
A consulting client of mine referenced this article, and asked me if I agreed that they should be publishing much longer episodes.
The TLdr reply was, "no."
Here's a bit more of an explanation for you.
The 'research data' is biased
As tends to be true of any article that involves Steven Bartlett, the truth is to be found between the lies. This supposed research data comes from Bartlett's own podcast marketing company Flight Studio.
So, that's base one loaded. Bias.
But going even deeper, the episodes they're talking about being longer and still popular aren't just with any old guest.
They're featuring conversations with Elon Musk and Andrew Huberman.
Regardless of your own opinions on either of these two gentlemen, you can't dismiss them as just everyday blokes chatting on a podcast.
Many people take interest whenever Musk is on a show, mostly because they're fascinated to hear what unhinged comments he's going to make this time.
As for Huberman, some of what he says can be quite interesting.
"People seemed to love it more"..
At one point in the article, Carmen quotes Flight Studio's Jack Sylvester as saying "people only seemed to love it more" when he was describing the reaction to these longer episodes.
I find that an odd conclusion, when in the same piece, he's claiming the average listener consumed 68% of the episode.
In my book, that's a very above average consumption rate.
Most successful podcast episodes should be enjoying an engagement rate of at least 70%.
If I saw 68% showing up in my Apple Podcasts dashboard for a four hour episode, I'd be very reluctant to say that suggests the listeners 'loved it more'.
But then I'm not trying to con the world that my podcast marketing agency gets better results than it does.
How he does one thing, he does everything....
How long should my episodes be then?
Sadly, I can't answer that for you.
And if anyone ever claims to be able to, immediately block them.
They're a charlatan.
I always tell people, your episodes need to be as long as they need to be to get your points across clearly, and no longer than that.
Are you following "The Podmaster"?
My advice
Don't try and make your podcast episodes longer for the sake of trying to mimic these epic long conversations.
In most cases, a four hour episode is not going to get you the results you're hoping for.
That said, it all depends on the content.
If you're lucky enough to land a resurrected Jesus Christ on your podcast, then you can confidently publish every single second of that episode and expect a 100% engagement rate.