🗣️4 Ways Interview Podcasts Might Change in 2025🍻

👏We👏Need👏To👏Talk👏About👏Tim👏Ferriss!👏👏👏*

Hello! Lauren, here. Every so often I rip the steering wheel away from Shreya and Wil and force Podcast Marketing Magic readers into a part of my brain, and this is one of those times. Because I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: 👏We👏Need👏To👏Talk👏About👏Tim👏Ferriss!👏👏👏*

*Joke

At the end of the year, Tim Ferriss made a pretty big announcement in a very long blog post: he’d be completely switching up his format and instead focus on four new rules. I cannot say I’ve even heard an episode of Tim Ferriss but it doesn’t matter — these are pretty good rules. And regardless of what I think, I can pretty much guarantee that if someone as big as Tim Ferriss is changing things up, others will follow in his wake. (I have met men who I’m pretty sure would eat their wives if Tim Ferriss told them to do it.)

I mentioned this a little in the in / out issue I co-authored with Arielle Nissenblatt, but I want to pull your attention it and really walk through it with you. So let’s walk through Tim’s new rules together and think about how you can make the most of them:.

👍 Podcast marketing and publishing: what's IN and what's OUT for 2025?🚫

✨1: No more book-launching episodes.

This means that Tim isn’t participating in the author-to-podcast circuit, recycling the same few people through every single top show. If you’re a listener, that’s a great thing! It’s annoying to see the same five people on every single major podcast. If you’re an author, I think it’s a good thing too. Let’s let some other people in the room.

Of course Tim will make exceptions, like if “you’ve stayed at each other’s homes.” Or if the episode can come out three months before the book is out, something publishers will not like. But I love this new rule. If you are a podcast host, be discerning who you ask to be a guest! You don’t have to have the exact same rule, but think about what Tim Ferriss is trying to do, here. He doesn’t want to have people coming on overly prepared to spout out predetermined talking points, he doesn’t want to get bored himself and he doesn’t want to bore his listeners, and he doesn’t want his show to sound like anyone else’s. I think the more you outline who you’re willing to take on as a guest the better. The more thought you put into your list the more thoughtful your show will be. Your feed will excite you and your listeners more and it won’t look like anyone else’s.

Exercise: Make a list of the best interviews you’ve ever conducted or listened to as a fan. What did those interviews have in common and how can you recreate them?

✨2: 90/10 barbell strategy.

The barbell strategy is an approach to investing popularized by past guest, author, and self-described flâneur Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

The metaphor of the barbell is apt because weights are placed at the far ends. In the investing context and in simple terms, the majority of your assets might be in very conservative positions with the remaining assets in very high-risk, very high-reward bets. For instance, municipal bonds and angel investing. The middle is empty.

To be a guest on Tim Ferriss’ show, you have to be either wildly famous (90% of his audience knows you) or a cute little niche indie find (only 10% of his audience does.) This will encourage him to find lesser-known speakers we haven’t heard a million other places, which is more work. But the conversations will be better and the audience will be happier.

I have no idea how you determine if only 10% of your audience knows who Rita Ora is. (I can think of one podcast where that number is like 100%, can you?) But here’s the point: have your guest list reflect what you as a host really and truly care about. Specific to you! You is why your audience is here! If you do that, your show will be a reflection of you (again, the reason people are there) and you will have way more fun making it.

Exercise: Make a list of the kind of qualities you seek in the perfect guest, and accept nothing less.

✨3: Prioritizing living legends.

I mean, if Madonna comes knocking, don’t say no. But don’t wait for Madonna. Make a list of the five biggest people you could get. Build individual altars to each of them and sacrifice mice to the altars daily.

Or if you’re squeamish, just keep them on your radar. You’re more likely to land one or a few of five specific big names you have in mind than one or a few of a million that you haven’t named at all. Who knows who will pop up on the journey to track down your big five.

Exercise: Make a list of your big five.

✨4: Experimental hyperdrive.

Tim Ferriss refers to an interview he had in a hot tub, which sure. Try it. I keep thinking about this episode Alie Ward did for Ologies. She just happened to be at the airport and stumbled upon a bunch of science geeks going to a conference, they were all holding posters they made for these presentations they were doing. She ripped out her mic and started interviewing them about their posters. She also took people along for her colonoscopy and hysterectomy. Be flexible, be curious, carry your mic around. And if you don’t have your mic, use your phone. And if there’s a hot tub, jump inside. We’re following Tim Ferriss’ lead, now. What could go wrong?

Exercise: Bring your mic or phone somewhere, open your mind and see what happens. Just record something! You don’t have to use it!

OK so now I want to hear from you—are you as optimistic about these rules as I am? Will you be trying them out yourself?

PLUS: This week in Podcast the Newsletter:

🎈The Balloonists’ Prayer ☁️ The Sea Witch🚢 weather forecasts 🌊 sonic branding 🎶

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✨More Magic

• Looking to get into creating an audio drama? Do it do it! Gabriel Urbina, creator of extremely beloved audio dramas like Wolf 329 and 2024’s Dracula: The Danse Macabre is offering courses on Writing Stories for Sound. You can get a 101 on audio drama writing on February 2nd or 4th, or you can enroll in a first-of-its-kind course on Masterclass! Find more on Gabriel Urbina’s website.

• Looking to support more audio drama? Do it do it! Jeff Van Dreason, creator of extremely beloved audio drama Greater Boston and collaborator on so many more, has launched an IndieGogo for his innovative new project: The Perfect Sentence: An Audio Drama Concept Album. This is going to be beautiful, and they’re so close to their goal!

• As you receive this, Team Tink will be wrapping up our Podcast Marketing Intensive at Radio Boot Camp! 🎉 Thank you so much to Radio Boot Camp for having us, and be sure to check them out for more upcoming can’t-miss sessions on everything audio!

💖From the Tink Desk

From Holly at Team Tink!: “Healing isn't one-size-fits-all and The Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM) knows it. Hosted by Yolo Akili Robinson and Natalie Patterson, Black Healing Remixed: The Podcast returned this week for season 2 with honest, transformative conversations about Black healing and wellness. It’s the front porch, the kitchen island, and the perfect seat on the couch where stories, wisdom, and tools for healing unfold.

Season 2 features powerful guests like Tabitha Brown, Antonia Hylton, and Courtney B. Vance. Black Healing Remixed celebrates healing in all its forms—messy, joyous, and transformational.”

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Wil returns next week for some musings on community!