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Chris Duffy

How video boosted new follows by 113%.

Featured interviews

Kirbie & Sara

How video drove 62% audience growth.

Blake & Diallo

How one song turns into a story.

Kaelyn Moore

Her secret code for engaging listeners.

Mina Kimes

How she tapped into authentic sports podcasting.

Payne Lindsey

Discover what makes him a standout in true crime.

More advice from creators

How the Sistas Who Kill creators found — and kept — their audience.

Read the interview

How Jack Rhysider turned listener support into loyal subscribers

Slumber Studios never sleeps on big moments for growth.

Tortoise’s slow news approach has a fast-growing audience.

Goalhanger created a winning game plan to engage listeners.

True love meets true crime in Murder With My Husband.

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Kaelyn Moore

Her secret code for engaging listeners.

Kaelyn Moore, the host of Heart Starts Pounding, has redefined the horror and mystery podcast genre. Her show plunges listeners into meticulously crafted auditory worlds, guided by a single narrator and immersive soundscapes. We sat down with Kaelyn to discuss her research philosophy, the evolution of her storytelling format, and how she cultivates a deeply engaged community.

What compelled you to create Heart Starts Pounding?

There was a gap in the market for mystery and horror stories that were told from a single narrator with lots of sound design, music, and world-building. There’s something about the experience of putting on headphones and feeling like I enter a whole different world. That’s really what the show aims to achieve.

How do you approach research and storytelling?

I’m very no-stone-left-unturned for research. I ask myself, is there a reason that this story needs to be told today? Is there an angle on it, an update? Is there something about it that resonates with me that I can inject into the episode?
Using a single narrator and immersive soundscapes, Heart Starts Pounding redefines horror and mystery podcasts.

What was an early challenge, and how did you push through it?

I put out an episode every week, and on weeks where I’m hitting a wall, I still have to put something out. Sometimes I’m not in love with the episode, and someone will reach out and say, “That was my favorite episode.” That really keeps me going, and helps push through the creative blocks.

What skill helped you in the beginning?

My ability to not feel embarrassed by trying things out publicly. I was making stuff and putting it out. The audience was listening, and I wasn’t second-guessing myself.

What advice would you give a creator just starting out?

If you feel like something’s not working at the beginning, you’re not married to anything. You are allowed to play, it’s your show. Try new things and figure out what works for your audience.

How do you engage with your Apple Podcasts subscribers?

I’ve done bonus episodes where there’s like a little tack at the end that only Apple Podcasts subscribers are getting. I told them, “If you leave me a review, include this emoji.” Now when they reach out to me, and I see the emoji, that’s the message I’m going to look at first because I know that person’s engaged in the community and a true fan.

Away from your microphone, what’s one essential habit?

Reading books. It sounds really basic, but there’s so much that hasn’t made it onto the internet from books. There are so many great stories, perspectives, and angles that I’ve gotten from books.
Listen to Heart Starts Pounding on Apple Podcasts.

Mina Kimes

How she tapped into authentic sports podcasting

Mina Kimes, host of the popular podcast, The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny, shares invaluable insights on her approach to sports podcasting. We talked to the writer and broadcaster about nerding out on football, the unique dynamic with her canine cohost, and the power of genuine connection with listeners and guests.

What drew you to podcasting?

I wanted a space to nerd out about football. Podcasting allowed me to dive super deep into the X’s and O’s with friends and create a space with my own name on it. That wasn’t possible in other mediums.

Your cohost is your dog, Lenny. What does that personal, authentic element tell your listeners?

Having Lenny signals it’s a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s a show that takes football very seriously but does so in a fun way. We’re gonna have a lot of jokes, and I’ll weave in elements of my personal life. And you know, he’s a star. He just has the it factor.
With humor and a canine sidekick, The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny takes a unique approach to sports podcasting.

How do you balance preparation with being spontaneous and conversational?

My prep involves studying games and creating dozens of pages of notes combining film and stats. The prep is perhaps the most important part. It’s like studying for a test.

What advice would you give on blending expertise with true personality?

My guiding principle is, “Do I feel good doing this right now? Do I feel like myself?” When I became a little bit looser and more like I am in my day to day, the podcast really started to resonate with people.

How do you approach listener feedback?

There’s so much noise on the internet, and a lot of those people don’t actually consume your work. Two years ago, I did a survey for listeners, asking what they liked, what they didn’t, and it was such a valuable experience. I got over a thousand thoughtful responses. It was a really wonderful way to engage with people who actually love your work.

What is the single most important lesson you’ve learned on your journey?

My listeners like to hear me talking to people that I like. Instead of focusing solely on famous guests, listeners respond well when I bring on people I genuinely enjoy conversing with. I love finding new voices and elevating them with my podcast.
Listen to The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny on Apple Podcasts.

Payne Lindsey

Discover what makes him a standout in true crime.

Payne Lindsey, host of Up and Vanished, found podcasting to be a medium of unexpected power and creative freedom. He shares how embracing audio’s unique constraints led to cinematic storytelling, a captivated audience, and lessons for any aspiring creator looking to make their mark.

When did you realize that podcasting was the right medium for Up and Vanished?

When I became submersed in an audio story, I found myself surprised. I felt like I was engaging with something cinematic, even though I wasn’t watching anything. It dawned on me that it was possible to create a narrative that gave that same feeling without the visual component.

What did audio offer that film couldn’t?

When you don’t have that visual aid, you have to come up with other creative ways to tell the audience something. As a creator, that’s a fun challenge. Finding clever ways to push a story along became addicting to me.
Cinematic storytelling is a hallmark of Up and Vanished.

What is your philosophy for storytelling?

The most important thing is, “make me care first.” I try to envision what it would be like hearing this for the first time. There are interesting ways that you can peel back the layers of the story and create a better experience by remembering that listeners don’t know what you know.

True crime is incredibly popular but also extremely crowded. How do you stand out?

If we can create a podcast where you’re getting the same experience as you would in a 10-part documentary, then we’re doing something right. People are looking for relatability. Relatability isn’t always what everyone else is doing.

What’s been the most surprising lesson about podcasting?

The podcast space feels like one of the last mediums where there aren’t a lot of rules. You can just go make some cool stuff and put it out whenever you want. You can turn that into a book, a movie, a TV show. You can build a career off of that.

How do you think about the relationship with your audience?

They’re invested emotionally in the story that I’m telling, and we have that in common. Unlike a scripted series where the stakes aren’t very high, the stakes are quite possibly the highest here. These stories really poke and pull at every human’s morals. It’s been really special to be able to tell someone’s story that may otherwise be forgotten or pushed aside.

What is the single most important piece of advice for creators?

Stop overthinking it. Hit record.
Listen to Up and Vanished on Apple Podcasts.
Blake & Diallo

How one song turns into a story.

Building a podcast from genuine obsession — not market research — might be the most underrated creative strategy in the medium. Blake “LUXXURY” Robin and Diallo Riddle break down how their unscripted, hour-long phone calls about music became the blueprint for their show, and why the moments that excite them most reliably excite their audience, too. From dividing creative control to embracing the edit, their process offers a practical masterclass for any creator wondering how to turn a niche passion into a must-listen story.

When did you realize you wanted to make a show deconstructing a single song?

Blake: I wanted to share this treasure trove inside songs: what it sounds like to hear just the isolated drums, the vocals, and build a story around it. Then I met my co-host and we’d have these obsessive, hour-long phone calls — deep dives, fact-sharing, “You gotta hear this.” At the end of it, we did that thing: “Dude, we should record this.” The cliché moment.

Diallo: I looked at a few directions but kept coming back to this guy — because every time I called him with one music question, we’d talk for 60 minutes. I thought, that’s a great podcast.

How do your distinct approaches collide and complement each other when you break down a track?

Blake: My circle is making music, living through it, wearing out cassettes. His circle is DJing, watching crowd reactions, obsessively studying what makes a song catchy. As people, it just feels like we complement each other perfectly. When the mics go on and we’re talking as friends about music, it’s playful. It’s hard work, but it’s fun.

Diallo: He makes music and I’ve always wanted to — so I’ll fanboy hard. And because I’ve DJed everything from weddings to the Golden Globes, I’ve been fascinated by what makes any song catchy. We will talk about this stuff for hours.

One Song offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the songs that shaped pop culture.

What’s the hardest part of the process — choosing the song or deciding what to leave out?

Blake: Both. My brain gathers, then compares — and comparing takes five times as long. By the time we’re taping, we’re both thinking, “That was great, but it won’t make the cut.” The whole thing is a lesson in editing as part of the creative process.

Diallo: No hard and fast rules exist, and we both wish they did. We’ve worked out a system where one person has 51% of the call depending on the artist — much more peaceful. And when it’s truly too big, we just make it a double episode.

What’s the trick to translating music into engaging storytelling?

Blake: I only know what I’ve learned by doing it. I can sense when I’m boring myself, and that’s when we cut it. The depth that doesn’t bore me tends to be exactly right for the listener. That’s also where the team is invaluable. Together we find the thread — something that hasn’t been heard before.

Diallo: We go into every episode asking, what is the story of this song? There’s the historical and social context, the story of recording it, and the story of what it changed. Half the show is us genuinely surprising ourselves in real time.

What’s the key lesson about translating your expert-level obsession into a must-listen story?

Diallo: I think the appeal is that it feels like it’s you and your best friend, a record player, stopping the song and saying, “Here’s what’s working.” It’s a global listening party.

Blake: We give listeners a takeaway that means they will never hear a song the same way again. Amaze your friends with music knowledge. That’s always been an idea behind the show.

What’s your advice for a creator who thinks their passion is too niche?

Diallo: If you love it, you’ll find others who do too.

Blake: And, start. Expect it won’t be right the first time — get over that fear. Nine out of ten things won’t hit, but build your next attempt on that tenth one. Make sure you genuinely love it because it will only grow and demand more from you.

Kirbie & Sara

Glowing. And growing their audience by 62%.

Years after launching Gloss Angeles, cohosts Kirbie Johnson and Sara Tan decided it was time to change the formula by going from audio to video with Apple Podcasts. In roughly three months, the duo watched their unique listenership grow by 62%. We sat down with Kirbie and Sara to find out what finally pushed them to go visual, and why they’re now convinced video is no longer the exception — it’s the rule.

What made you want to add video to your show?

Kirbie: We were audio-only for the longest time. We’d clip out video from our computer cameras or do audiograms, but they’re just not shareable. When we felt like we could afford to do video properly, we went for it.

What changed creatively once viewers could see you?

Sara: We treated it like a real production. This is a TV show. We wanted to invest in a good studio, good lighting, good equipment. The sound quality matters.

Kirbie: It also gave us a schedule. Before, it was, “Can you record on this day?” Now it’s, “We record on Thursdays between these two hours.” Having that structure matters, especially when you work for yourself. This is our business now.

Gloss Angeles treats every episode like a TV show.

Your audience grew by 62%. What’s it been like watching that kind of jump?

Kirbie: When we saw our listenership improving with video — something we’d invested real time and money into — we were like, what else can we do? Seven years ago you could listen to a podcast and be fine — but people want to see it now. It’s not the exception anymore. It’s the rule.

Have you noticed a difference in how people engage since adding video?

Kirbie: Apple has always been our number one platform for listenership, and now, viewership. Since we launched video, our Slack community has grown, and on Instagram and TikTok, we’ve grown our followings. Because of video clipping, social platforms promote us more, giving us greater reach and expanding our audience.

Has video brought in listeners who wouldn’t have found you through audio?

Kirbie: Yes, absolutely. When listeners see two people engaging with each other — especially when they have a close professional and personal relationship — there’s something inherently more interesting about it. Video pulls you in, in a way a title alone doesn’t.

What would you tell another podcaster deciding whether to add video?

Kirbie: We’re proof that video can drastically increase your listenership and viewership in a very short amount of time. In roughly three months, we’re up 62%. That’s huge growth for a show that’s been around as long as ours has.

Catch Gloss Angeles — now with video — on Apple Podcasts.

Chris Duffy

How video boosted new follows by 113%.

Chris Duffy, host of How to Be a Better Human, thought video would be a nice touch for loyal listeners. Instead, he drew in a whole new crowd. His unique audience grew by 93%, with more than half of viewers discovering the show for the first time. New follows on Apple Podcasts jumped by 113% as well. Now that he’s on camera, Chris jokes he has to shower before every taping. He claims it’s worth it.
What made you want to add video to your show?
A lot of times when you’re talking to an incredible person, they’ll illustrate a point in a way that doesn’t come across in audio — they’ll raise an eyebrow or point to something in the background. You get to keep more without having to cut. But the most exciting thing was seeing that this opened up a whole new audience. Our internal stats told us the audio version skews majority women, and the video version skews majority men. It’s a totally different group of people who wouldn’t have found us otherwise.
How has video changed the way you think about the podcast?
I really think about it as having a new audience — people who will probably never listen, they’ll only watch. Even my language changed. I used to say, “You’re listening to How to Be a Better Human.” Now I say, “This is How to Be a Better Human.” Because it’s not just listening anymore.
How to Be a Better Human brings thoughtful, face-to-face conversations to Apple Podcasts with video.
What changed creatively once guests could be seen?
You can feel silence in a really different way. In audio-only, when there’s a pause, it can almost feel like a technical problem — did the podcast cut out? But with video, you can have a real moment where someone is genuinely thinking or emotionally moved, and you know they’re in that moment even if they’re not speaking. That’s a really powerful thing to hold.
What did growing your unique audience by 93% mean to you?
It’s incredible to me. I believe the work we’re doing is important, and I want people to hear these ideas. Knowing that we’re reaching new people with those ideas, that’s so exciting.

113%

Increase in new follows on Apple Podcasts

93%

Growth in unique audience since launching video

50%+

Of listeners after launch were new to the show
What would you tell a creator who feels intimidated by video?
If I can make video work and be successful, then definitely anyone can. You do not need a face for video or a space for video. You can just turn it on and it will work. People think they need a fancy studio space, but some of the most connecting moments come from that intimate and real experience.
What’s one thing you wish someone had told you before going visual with Apple Podcasts?
Honestly, the biggest thing is that it’s worth it. I thought of it as a bonus for existing listeners — I didn’t realize that for many people, it’s a completely new way to find the show. It’s almost like a totally new platform. You’re still on Apple Podcasts, but it’s a completely different audience discovering you than before.
What has this experience taught you about being a better creator?
Being willing to laugh at myself and allow for the potential of being embarrassed. The path to success inevitably contains a lot of cringeworthy moments along the way. Trying to be perfect is the number one way you avoid doing anything interesting at all.

Catch How to Be a Better Human — now with video — on Apple Podcasts.