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Mike Pesca is host of Slate’s daily podcast The Gist. In _The Washington Pos_t Pesca writes that podcasts are the perfect antidote to the poisonous news environment we are now living in.
Pesca says podcasts, both by design and by accident, tend toward a more elevated — or at least focused — discourse and a more nourishing experience than many of the other news formats that bombard us.
He adds that what makes podcasts such a compelling antidote to the toxic news is that even the most popular shows rarely go viral. “Though podcast producers hate it, I’d suggest that this resistance to virality saved them from falling into the trap of becoming clickbait or, worse, easily weaponized tools of disinformation.”
And, Pesca says because podcasts are opt-in, with self-selecting audiences, they’re typically driven by the hope of thrilling willing listeners rather than the fear of confusing passive ones. “The result is that the medium can be more daring, with an ethos of “come on now, keep up,” as opposed to “we’ll slow down to make sure no one is lost.”
More good news for the medium you love to be involved in. Check out the entire column by Pesca HERE