The Future of Podcasting Is Multicultural
When I first entered the podcast space as a very green indie podcaster in late 2017 I had no idea how to get started. So, I did what comes easy to me, I started asking around about who I should talk to or where I should go to learn more about how to podcast.
I was immediately directed to a couple of well-known podcast groups on Facebook. Both of which I joined, and then almost immediately regretted.
Why? Because in various ways the people in those groups made it clear that I wasn’t welcome. As far as I could tell, they were only friendly to people just like them… young to middle aged white males.
At the time, it was difficult to ferret out places online where someone like me, a mid-thirties woman of color would feel welcomed and be welcomed to learn and grow. A year after becoming a podcaster, I was still struggling to find a community of podcasters.
As a solution, I partnered with House of Pod, a Denver-based podcast production company, to create a local panel event called, Opportunities In Podcasting For Women of Color. I thought, if I couldn't find the community I was looking for, then the least I could do was find a way to encourage that community to grow
I thought maybe 20-30 people would attend, if we were lucky. But, the night of the event came and around 100 women of color showed up to learn, network, and ask questions about podcasting.
There we were, standing room only, packed into the back area of a coffee shop meant to hold about 20 people. Everyone was engaged, taking notes, and asking questions.
I knew then, that the podcast industry was about to get a whole lot more multicultural.
Thankfully, I eventually found my way and not surprisingly, the podcast industry has grown dramatically in the five years since I entered the scene – a lifetime in the podcast world.
While the industry is many times more diverse than it was five years ago, and while there are now several online communities dedicated to supporting underrepresented voices across podcasting, one thing that has been slow to change is the way industry continues to treat multicultural creators and listeners as an afterthought.
In fact, it wasn’t until 2021 that we finally saw the Latino Podcast Listener Report and The Black Podcast Listener Report. Both a first of their kind. It was significant because previous reporting lent very little importance to understanding either the Black or Latino podcast audience, and both reports connect podcast listener growth to the growth of BIPOC creators in the space.
Failing to acknowledge the presence and growth of multicultural creators and listeners in podcasting has led to an industry that lacks representation of key audiences at all levels – from the C-suite to editors, to programmatic and everything in between. That lack of representation means that we have an industry that is tone-deaf AF, despite its obvious multiculturalism.
One does not have to look far beneath the surface to find the indicators of a tone-deaf industry. Here are two of the most common:
Podcast and media company leaders refer to multicultural audiences as “minorities,” when consumer data shows that “minority audiences” are actually quite mainstream or will be very very soon. A 2017 Pew Research Center report showed that the Latino population accounts for most of the population growth in the US, making them the second fastest growing demographic; and US-born Latinos account for the majority of this population growth. Further, Babies in Generation Alpha (born 2010 and beyond) are the first generation where more American-born children are ‘of color’ or non-white at every age from zero to nine. The multicultural audience is very much mainstream.
Industry leaders and journalists consistently state that podcasting is “crowded,” perpetuating the idea that there is no space for additional voices, particularly underrepresented ones from multicultural backgrounds. This constant oversimplified message of a “saturated” industry can be demoralizing to the BIPOC creator or businessperson trying to establish themselves in the podcasting industry. Let’s put it this way, if you genuinely wanted to invite someone over for dinner would you tell them your table was already crowded and they probably would not get to eat if they came?
Overall, the lion's share of growth in the podcasting industry is related to multicultural audiences. As the Good Data series published by Sounds Profitable and created by, Caila Litman, points out the industry saw:
-71% increase in women's share of time spent listening to spoken word audio vs 23% in men.
-83% increase in Black share of time listening to spoken word audio in the past seven years.
-80% increase in Latino share of time spent listening to spoken word audio in the past seven years.
Diversity and equity in the industry is much more complex than discussed here and does have a learning curve for many that are now working to catch up. The fact remains, the industry is going to get more diverse. The future of podcasting truly is multicultural, the only question is – will the industry rise to the occasion and put action behind the diversity talk?
Those companies that fail to meaningfully meet the demand risk irrelevance, which is a death sentence for any company.