Listening Close: Sounding out Race and Gender in Podcasting

Abstract

"Listening Close" is a genre-based analysis of race and gender within the podcasting industry. The state of race and gender relations has always influenced the development of new technologies in the United States, and podcasting is no exception to this norm. This work isolates three specific genres within the podcasting industry — true crime, improvisational comedy, and talk — to consider the gendered and raced dynamics at play within popular podcasts. The project situates these shows within a historical context, outlining how the formal specifics of the medium allow contemporary podcasting to variously illustrate, amplify, and even subvert the racialized sonic history of the genres they represent. It combines close readings with historiography, considering how the podcast’s portable, smartphone-centric, audio-only format encourages a parasocial relationship with hosts — which makes podcasting particularly powerful as a medium for the dissemination of ideological messaging. According to Edison Research Insights, more than 60% of Americans report having listened to a podcast at least once, and in 2024, nearly 1 in 2 Americans reported having listened to a podcast in the past month. This project is an argument for the importance of podcast studies as a way of understanding our present moment, in which we are simultaneously more isolated and more connected than ever before. Podcasting represents a certain philosophy of rhetoric: one that emphasizes the aural as the space of truth and authenticity, which asserts itself as the ultimate iteration of freedom of speech, with that speech made quite literal.