In the world of gatekeeper-media, unconstrained conversational content didn’t exist. Television shows and radio programs were almost exclusively produced, directed, and edited or planned. You had 22-minute shows split up by commercials and short edited radio segments.
With the birth of podcasts and YouTube, the gatekeepers went away and it created the opportunity for more variety in our content. One of the big results of that (when it comes to the content itself) is the growth of conversational podcasting.
The Joe Rogan Experience is the clearest example of this. Joe and his guests sit down, smoke, drink and talk for 2 to 3 hours. It is clear that Joe has some conversation topics planned, some questions he wants to ask, but he really just lets the conversation flow naturally. The conversations are almost always interesting and provide a unique experience of getting to know the guest.
This is the type of thing that never could exist when there was limited radio space. When you as a radio station have 12 hours of time to work with when people will listen, it makes sense to conserve that space, but many people who are creating content in the world, still create it in the old world formula. They make radio shows on podcasts and tv shows on Youtube. They follow timing conventions and produce and edit away any pause or off-topic tangent.
95% of the time, these efforts at editing content to make it better, end up making it worse. Interrupting the natural flow of a conversation to edit in scripted questions or narrative creates a barrier between the listener and podcast hosts/guests and you cut out content that the guest clearly thought was interesting (by talking about it) for the editors projection of what the listeners would want to hear (which is often wrong).
There is nothing worse than finding a podcast with a guest you are very excited to hear talk and then finding out that the episode is 20 minutes of edited conversation with a narrator forcing in questions instead of an open an unconstrained conversation where you can really get to know that person thinks.
Different people naturally have different preferences and some likely prefer shorter edited types of content. Again living in a world where space isn’t limited, but attention is, there is always an opportunity to share conversational content for those who enjoy it. A great example of this is the Masters of Scale podcast. They release both shorter and highly produced narrative based episodes and also released unedited conversations with the primary guests (Zuckerberg, Chesky, Thiel, etc.)
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