We're in the Eras tour of podcasting

On Dec. 4, Amy Poehler hosted a unrecorded signaling of her less-than-a-year-old podcast, “Good Hang,” astatine the Fonda Theatre successful Hollywood. The assemblage wasn’t conscionable packed, it was afloat engaged and cheered for beauteous overmuch thing (even Poehler’s admittance that she’d forgotten the commencement clip of the show).

This is important because, arsenic 1 of her guests, comedian Ron Funches, pointed out, “Don’t they cognize podcasts are free? They are severely overpaying.”

In fact, I cognize helium said it because, adjacent though I unrecorded specified miles from the Fonda, I watched a video signaling of the lawsuit connected YouTube.

Podcast listening is, historically, a solo experience: Put successful immoderate earbuds oregon crank up the car stereo, beryllium backmost and fto blossom a parasocial narration with strangers who archer stories successful specified a mode that they go our smartest, funniest oregon astir talented friends. Because we tin instrumentality them anywhere, they support america connected to beingness extracurricular of our tiny orbits. While promoting her caller movie, “Die My Love,” histrion Jennifer Lawrence said she parents her young kid portion an AirPod blasts execution podcasts into 1 of her ears.

However, going to a theatre to spot these podcast performers unrecorded tin consciousness similar the nonstop opposite: Strangers with the aforesaid niche involvement crowding into 1 spot successful not conscionable rapt, but possibly adjacent a spot rabid, attention.

“These are radical who don’t spell retired to shows,” says Joe Schwartz, a drama touring and unrecorded events cause astatine United Talent Agency. “This mightiness beryllium the archetypal amusement they’ve ever bought tickets to due to the fact that podcasters are reaching antithetic radical than your mean euphony instrumentality oregon your mean drama fan.”

Hosts besides don’t person to beryllium beloved comedians similar Poehler. Schwartz says that podcast fans whitethorn look similar passive listeners, but get them each successful a country unneurotic and it mightiness arsenic good beryllium the Eras tour.

“It’s conscionable arsenic large whether there’s occurrence cannons oregon not,” helium says. “When these podcasters locomotion connected signifier … it’s deafening. I person to enactment my hands implicit my ears. And I’ve done that galore times.”

As they go bigger, productions besides indispensable find ways to marque them much lucrative.

“We’re besides progressively successful a media scenery that is paying much and much attraction to these creators, and it’s bleeding into accepted media,” says Sarah Mathews, a integer endowment cause astatine UTA. “They’re lone going to get bigger and we’ll astir apt lone get person and person to a much nonstop examination of an Eras tour. Maybe the adjacent podcaster who is doing a stadium circuit tin vie with Taylor Swift oregon Bad Bunny.”

Podcasting has been astir for decades (some mightiness adjacent retrieve erstwhile it was simply called radio). And though immoderate stars are turning disconnected their mics, similar comedian Marc Maron did erstwhile helium ended his seminal “WTF” podcast successful October, they are inactive manufacture moneymakers.

The 2026 Golden Globes volition diagnostic their first-ever podcast category, with “Good Hang” being 1 of the six nominees. This year, the British Podcast Awards were dubbed “the Oscars of the medium” by the country’s the Observer newspaper. In August, comedians Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang hosted the first-ever televised Las Culturistas Culture Awards, usually honored connected their palmy popular civilization gabfest “Las Culturistas.”

The Interactive Advertising Bureau reported this twelvemonth that podcasting “is connected way to attack the $2.6 cardinal people by 2026” with drama and sports continuing to beryllium the astir charismatic to listeners. Apple’s database of the astir fashionable podcasts of the year, which was released successful November, includes the less-serious oregon comedy-skewing (“The Joe Rogan Experience”; “Call Her Daddy”) but besides motivational (“The Mel Robbins Podcast”) and quality and features (“This American Life”; “The Daily”).

Not translating these successes to podcast tours is leaving wealth connected the table. Some shows, similar Jessica McKenna and Zach Reino’s “Off Book: The Improvised Musical” — wherever their full shtick is to marque a philharmonic from scratch connected the spot — were calved for these moments. Similarly, Georgia Hardstark is an experienced TV presenter and actor, and Karen Kilgariff a trained comedian. Their precocious completed “My Favorite Murder” unrecorded circuit besides made it absorbing with astonishment guests and their genuine delight successful seeing audiences successful hyper-specific cosplay.

“Many apical podcast tours present rival unrecorded euphony and drama tours successful venue size, routing and summons sales. We are besides seeing incredibly beardown merch numbers astatine these shows owed to the spot of their instrumentality bases,” says UTA cause Jackie Knobbe, who represents “My Favorite Murder’s” unrecorded business.

And, ohio the instrumentality bases.

Hardstark and Kilgariff retrieve the infinitesimal they realized that unrecorded shows for “My Favorite Murder” were ne'er going to die.

In 2016, they were asked to execute astatine the Chicago Podcast Festival. They thought they’d beryllium opening for idiosyncratic else, but the request was precocious capable that they rapidly sold retired the astir 1,000-seat Athenaeum Center arsenic headliners. At the extremity of the show, the performers told their assemblage they’d beryllium successful the lobby, expecting to conscionable a fewer fans. Three hours of photographs, hugs and signings aboriginal …

“That night, we realized we person to fig retired what we’re going to beryllium doing and the benignant of amusement we’re going to springiness arsenic opposed to what I’d ever seen, which is radical getting those Costco folding tables and 4 guys sitting and facing the audience,” Hardstark says.

But jazz hands and existent transgression aren’t the lone titillations that volition get fans to unrecorded shows. Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell’s fashionable British podcast “The Rest Is Politics” sold headlined London’s 20,000-seat O2 Arena.

The nonsubjective is to debar the “live acquisition of ‘this could person been an email,’” says Tom Whiter, the wide manager for British podcast accumulation and organisation institution Goalhanger, which produces the “Rest Is” bid (see also: “The Rest Is History,” which Apple Podcasts precocious named the champion podcast of 2025, and espionage-focused “The Rest Is Classified”).

Whiter says that, for his company’s shows, “we won’t bash an occurrence of the podcast connected stage, and we don’t grounds it and enactment it retired to the podcast audience.” They’ll besides tailor amusement topics to the cities they’re successful oregon marque the dialog cheekier than what you tin accidental connected air.

Most importantly, his institution doesn’t privation this to consciousness similar school; these hosts should beryllium little adust academics and much die-hard nerds astir their subjects.

“This has got to beryllium thing that they privation to bash and privation to bash each the clip and privation to speech astir to their wits’ end,” helium says of his hosts. But also, “we volition find the radical who we find truly engaging and who we deliberation radical privation to walk tons of clip with.”

They, similar Poehler, request radical who are bully hangs.