The Media Odyssey Podcast Por Evan Shapiro & Marion Ranchet arte de portada

The Media Odyssey

The Media Odyssey

De: Evan Shapiro & Marion Ranchet
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Each week, two of media’s most influential thinkers, Evan Shapiro & Marion Ranchet, take on the hottest media topics with their hottest takes, helping their audience chart a course through the maelstrom that is today’s Media Odyssey. Based in the US, Evan Shapiro is the Media Industry’s official Cartographer, known for his well-researched and provocative analysis of the entertainment ecosystem in his must read treatises on Media’s latest trends and trajectories. Marion Ranchet, French expat based in Amsterdam, has become the industry’s go-to expert in all things streaming, building a following for turning even the most complex problems into easily digestible and actionable insights. Ranchet and Shapiro are known for their sharp-yet-accessible content on Media consumption, audience trends, and the shifting fundamentals of the business itself. Even during the toughest of topics, they each make talking about Media fun. Together every week, these two will offer entertaining, often humorous, and always educational content on today’s Media Odyssey.(c) 2025 The Media Odyssey Arte Ciencias Sociales
Episodios
  • THE MAKING OF A HIT PODCAST

    THE MAKING OF A HIT PODCAST
    Apr 9 2026
    He helped create the most listened-to podcasts in history and then walked away from the New York Times to start over from scratch. Welcome to The Media Odyssey Podcast!In this episode, Evan and Marion sit down with Brian Reed, documentary podcaster and co-founder of Placement Theory, whose career spans documentary podcasts This American Life, S-Town, and now Question Everything. The conversation traces the origin story of Serial, which was expected to get a few hundred thousand downloads and ended up with hundreds of millions, all the way through to Brian's decision to leave the New York Times and build something new: Placement Theory, a audio production company built to support journalists and creators. Along the way, the episode digs into a question that runs underneath everything Brian makes: can quality, independent journalism survive? As local newsrooms collapse, public media gets defunded, and audiences feel overwhelmed and burned out, Brian makes the case that the desire for truth is still very much there as a market problem waiting for the right solution.Key Takeaways:1. Serial Was Expected to Get "a Few Hundred Thousand Downloads” Before It Got Hundreds of Millions When Sarah Koenig pitched Serial at This American Life, the team budgeted for a few hundred thousand downloads. It became the most listened-to podcast in the history of the format, redefining audio documentary as a medium, with hundreds of millions of downloads for the first season alone. Brian attributes much of this to the fact that they were reporting the Adnan Syed story in real time, week by week so it was breaking news every episode. It is clear the podcast played a direct role in Adnan's eventual release from prison.2. S-Town Was Designed as an Audio Novel and Released All at Once Brian started reporting S-Town before Serial even existed, after receiving a listener email with the subject line "John B. Macklemore lives in Shit Town, Alabama." When the subject died by suicide in 2015, the story transformed. Brian and editor Julie Snyder used novels as their creative model, labeling the installments chapters instead of episodes and releasing all seven at once. It was one of the first times that had ever happened in podcasting. S-Town now has hundreds of millions of downloads and is in development as a TV show at Apple TV+.3. The Economics of Serious Independent Journalism Are Hard, but People Want TruthBrian is direct about the financial reality of running an independent audio production company: they're still figuring out how to make the show profitable. Their current model blends bespoke sponsorships, listener support through KCRW's public radio fundraising, and eventual subscription offerings. The broader state of journalism is rough with thousands of local newspapers diappearing, public trust in journalists is at historic lows, and signs of media capture happening in the US.But there’s an optimistic conclusion from Brian’s on-the-ground reporting across the country: people do want reliable information. The problem isn't demand, it's discoverability and trust. This as a classic market problem that a journalism business should be positioned to solve.4. Audio Is More Intimate Than Video and That's a Strategic Advantage Worth ProtectingBrian's company Placement Theory is an audio-first production company, and that’s deliberate. Creating video versions of their work would essentially require making a documentary — a completely different and far more expensive enterprise. They experimented with video, found that they weren't posting frequently enough to build a YouTube audience, and redirected their energy to where their audience actually was: Apple Podcasts and NPR. He still sees potential in short-form video as a discovery tool, but doesn't want to sacrifice the intimacy that makes audio narrative work.Thank you to Brian Reed for joining the pod!Brian Reed - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-reed-887411166/ Placement Theory - https://www.placementtheory.com/ Question Everything - https://www.kcrw.com/shows/question-everything/all-episodesS-Town - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s-town/id1212558767 Interested in sponsorship? https://forms.gle/2LCWfX2HBNT8mtpx8Connect with us on Linkedin:Evan Shapiro - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshap-media-cartographer/Marion Ranchet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionranchet/The Media Odyssey Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-odyssey-podcast (00:00) - Cancel Culture Cold Open (00:39) - Meet Brian Reed (01:32) - Why Documentary Podcasts Win (03:43) - Podcasting Origins and TV Adaptations (05:54) - Defining Documentary Audio (07:17) - This American Life Apprenticeship (11:12) - How Serial Was Born (17:50) - S-Town and the NYT Era (27:55) - Birmingham Letter Mystery (29:23) - Leaving the Times (29:49) - Building Placement Theory (31:52) - Question Everything Mission (34:04) - Making Podcast Economics Work (37:14) - Journalism in Crisis (44:08) - Creators,...
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    59 m
  • AIVE: EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE, ALL AT ONCE

    AIVE: EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE, ALL AT ONCE
    Apr 2 2026
    AI can't replace your editors, but it can do 80% of their most tedious, repetitive work in a fraction of the time. Welcome to The Media Odyssey Podcast!In this episode, Evan and Marion open with the news that OpenAI is shutting down Sora's B2C offering, unpacking what it signals for the AI and media landscape. They welcome Olivier Reynaud, Co-founder and CEO at Aive, a platform Aive built around the central challenge facing every creator and media company today: how do you produce enough high-quality, platform-tailored video content to keep pace with the demands of social video without burning out your team or blowing your budget? Olivier draws on his background co-founding Teads, where the team broadcast billions of videos daily, to explain how the bottleneck was never video creation itself, but large-scale personalization. The conversation explores how Aive is solving that problem through proprietary meta-learning technology, and what that means for the future of creative work.Key Takeaways:1. OpenAI Shutting Down Sora Signals a B2C Dead EndOpenAI announced it is closing down Sora and stepping back from its deal with Disney to refocus on enterprise. The hosts argue that selling AI tools directly to consumers was never a sound business model. As Evan puts it, AI is best understood as "an arrow in your quiver, not the bow."2. The Real Problem Isn't Making Video, It's Personalizing It at ScaleOlivier, who co-founded Teads and has spent 20 years in video, argues the hard problem isn't producing video content; it's tailoring that content for every platform and audience at meaningful scale. Aive is built specifically to solve this: taking a long-form master and generating hundreds of format-adapted clips in days rather than months.Aive Eliminates ~80% of Repetitive Production Tasks3. Using Match Group's Meetic as a case studyOlivier explains that Aive helped produce nearly 300 campaign variants across a full quarter, cutting production costs by roughly 80%, reducing time-to-market from two months to days, and delivering a 50% performance uplift on paid Facebook and Instagram campaigns. The savings were reinvested into more content, bigger media buys, and team training.4. The Technology Is Proprietary and Built for Enterprise SecurityAive runs on in-house meta-learning and is not trained on OpenAI, Google, or Amazon models. For clients sending unreleased films or large campaign assets, data stays within the platform and never trains outside systems. The platform is SOC 2 certified and currently designed for enterprise and mid-size agencies, not individual creators at a consumer price point.5. Netflix's 1.5 Million Trailer Versions Prove Human Editors Can't Keep Up AloneEvan opens with a striking data point: for the final season of Stranger Things, Netflix created 1.5 million different versions of their trailer for YouTube and social — a volume impossible to achieve through human editing alone. This frames the episode's central question: how do media companies and creators scale social video output to the level the market now demands, without AI doing the heavy lifting?Book a meeting with Aive: https://0icjqan647l.typeform.com/AivexTMOpodcastUse Aive’s exclusive code (NS015504) for a FREE Show Floor Pass and join them at NAB, the event redefining the future of media and entertainment: https://invt.io/1exbuo45cd4Thank you to Olivier Reynaud for joining the pod!Olivier Reynaud - https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivierreynaud/ Aive - https://www.linkedin.com/company/aive/ Interested in sponsorship? https://forms.gle/2LCWfX2HBNT8mtpx8Connect with us on Linkedin:Evan Shapiro - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshap-media-cartographer/Marion Ranchet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionranchet/The Media Odyssey Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-odyssey-podcast (00:00) - Netflix Trailer Explosion (01:35) - OpenAI Shuts Down Sora (02:44) - Why Consumer AI Video Fails (06:44) - Scaling Social Video Challenge (07:50) - Meet Olivier and Aive Mission (16:54) - Aive Platform Demo Reframing and Localization (21:37) - Perfect Platform Formats (22:55) - Creative Score Demo (23:51) - Voice Translation Magic (26:14) - Secret Sauce Video Data (29:03) - Personalization Without Fatigue (33:25) - Security and Who It’s For (39:28) - Industry Moves and Wrap
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    43 m
  • INSIDE THE MIND OF A CREATOR WUNDERKIND

    INSIDE THE MIND OF A CREATOR WUNDERKIND
    Mar 27 2026
    244 million followers and a six-month content calendar: Jordan Schwarzenberger explains why showing up daily is the only strategy that matters. Welcome to The Media Odyssey Podcast!In this episode, Evan Shapiro and Marion Ranchet break down the Nielsen/MRC measurement crisis that rocked the US advertising industry, then sit down with Jordan Schwarzenberger, CEO and co-founder of Arcade Media and manager of the Sidemen. The conversation reveals how the entire US advertising market transacted on flawed data for a year, while simultaneously showing how creator-led media companies are building sustainable businesses by thinking like traditional media. Rather than defending old systems, Jordan makes the case for why daily content and ritualistic consistency combined with treating YouTube channels as distinct brands is the only path forward.The episode is a reality check on how broken measurement has become in traditional media, while creator-led companies are professionalizing their operations, building real media plans, and capturing budgets that were previously reserved for legacy broadcasters.Key Takeaways:1. Nielsen and MRC Hid Flawed Measurement Data for Nearly a Year The Media Rating Council discovered problems in Nielsen's methodology almost a year ago but said nothing to the industry. The entire US advertising industry transacted in the Upfront on data they knew was not properly vetted. Sean Cunningham from VAB stated this cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars.2. BBC Hired Matt Brittin, Ex-President of Google Europe The BBC hired Matt Brittin, former president of Google in Europe, as their new CEO. This represents a shift toward hiring digital natives to lead public service media organizations. Brittin previously worked in traditional broadcasting before a successful career at Google, making him someone who understands both the BBC culture and big tech. 3. The Sidemen Have 244M Followers and a 55-Person Team The Sidemen have 244 million followers across all platforms and employ 55 people in their entertainment team. They plan content six months in advance, which allows them to sell to brand planners who set budgets quarters ahead. Their goal is to be bought like LabBible and Vice were—on media plans with CPMs and economies of scale. Most creators can't access major advertiser budgets because they lack the planning, consistency, and inventory that media planners require.4. Daily Content and Ritualistic Consistency Are Essential for Success Weekly podcasts are no longer enough. Audiences now expect daily content to build ritualistic habits. The Daily Wire built 900,000 paid subscribers at their peak by showing up every day with 20-40 minute shows since 2013-2014. Streamers on Twitch and Kick are "winning the most out of anyone." Getting into people's daily habits is the key to building connection in a decentralized, saturated world.5. YouTube Is Underserved and Users Run Out of Quality ContentYouTube production is hard, time-intensive, and resource-heavy compared to podcasts, so creators default to lower-effort formats. There's a massive lack of consistent, regular, high-quality programming that becomes part of users' daily rituals.6. Netflix and YouTube Combined Create the Strongest Media StrategyJordan states that the combination of Netflix and YouTube together represents the best media strategy. Netflix provides the premium, appointment-viewing content while YouTube delivers daily touchpoints and ritualistic engagement. 7. Individual YouTube Channels Should Be Content-Specific Channel 4's 4.0 made the mistake of aggregating all content on one channel instead of spinning out individual format channels. YouTube wants to find specific audiences over time, so when a viewer watches one video and doesn't watch the next 10 on an aggregated channel, it signals disinterest to YouTube and hurts the entire channel's performance.Thank you to Jordan Schwarzenberger for joining the pod!Jordan Schwarzenberger - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanschwarzenberger/ Arcade - https://www.linkedin.com/company/wearearcade/ Interested in sponsorship? https://forms.gle/2LCWfX2HBNT8mtpx8Connect with us on Linkedin:Evan Shapiro - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshap-media-cartographer/Marion Ranchet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marionranchet/The Media Odyssey Podcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-media-odyssey-podcast (00:00) - Dropping Out for Vice (00:33) - Podcast Intro and Headlines (00:57) - Nielsen MRC Measurement Scandal (02:41) - Dash Panel Shakes the Gauge (07:33) - Why Panels Fail Today (09:25) - UK Media Leadership Shift (10:09) - BBC Picks Ex Google Boss (13:59) - Meet Jordan Schwarzenberger (15:57) - From Vice to LadBible Rise (26:18) - Building Sidemen Into a Company (32:17) - YouTube Audience Ceiling (32:44) - Netflix Editorial Boost (34:04) - Sidemen Netflix Blueprint (34:41) - Funding Risk and New IP (36:39) - Who Really Gets the Lift (38:01) - Monoculture Is Dead (43:04) - ...
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    1 h y 1 m
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