is an audio and video creator at The Verge since 2015.
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According to YouTube’s 2025 Recap feature, the podcast I consumed the most on its platform was Seth Meyers’ recurring segment “A Closer Look” on his show Late Night.
Last year, I would have argued that this is not a podcast. That it is, in fact, a clip of a TV show. But in 2025, with almost every major podcast now having a video component, the definition of the word “podcast” has become pretty meaningless. A decades-old TV show talk show format is now almost indistinguishable from podcasts like Good Hang with Amy Poehler, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, Club Shay Shay with Shannon Sharpe, and other shows at the top of Spotify’s podcast charts. In fact, they are now on the same playing field.
The definition of the word “podcast” has become pretty meaningless
Scrolling though my YouTube feed, most of the suggestions in the Podcast tab are late-night talk show interviews, host-driven video essays, food reviews, and cable news segments — very far from what we used to use the term for: narrative audio journalism and roundtable discussions.
So in 2026, instead of trying to define what a podcast is, I think we need to stop using the word altogether. “Podcast” is becoming an outdated or even a potentially cringe internet relic, similar to how the phrase “web series” faded from use online.
The need for new nomenclature
So what do we call these formats instead? I don’t think we’re going to invent a new word, but instead repurpose an old one.
Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman noticed this change in her coverage of The Podcast Show in London this past May:
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