There was a time when “podcast” meant just audio. You pressed play, you listened and no one cared what anyone was wearing. That era is over. Today, podcasts often come with lighting plans, camera angles and YouTube thumbnails—and somehow we’re still calling them podcasts.

For the third episode of Reel Talk: Inside the Business of Entertainment, I sat down with Ben Riskin, principal at Room Tone, a podcast and audio advisory company, to talk about the rise of video podcasts and what that shift is doing to the entertainment content pipeline. Ben has been working in podcasting long enough to have seen multiple “next big things” come and go, which makes him particularly well suited to explain why this one has stuck.

One of Ben’s early observations sets the tone: most people aren’t actually watching video podcasts. They’re listening (while cooking, driving or scrolling), just with a screen on somewhere nearby. And yet, video has become the primary growth engine for podcasts. That dynamic frames much of our conversation, from what the industry actually means by “video podcast” (the answer is still evolving) to why YouTube solved discoverability problems audio-only distribution never quite did. We also talk about the growing gap between simply filming a podcast and producing something that starts to look and cost like a traditional video show.

We then turn to the role that short clips now play in podcast discovery. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts have become the front door for long-form content, even when that content is primarily meant to be listened to. As Ben notes, clips aren’t just promotional anymore—they’re often how audiences find a show in the first place, shaping how podcasts are structured and how creators think about moments that can travel without losing context or control.

From there, the conversation turns practical. Video changes production budgets, timelines and deal structures. It affects advertising models, creative control and whether a project can realistically move into television or other formats later on. As Ben explains, audio can be forgiving; video rarely is.

We also touch on what this moment means as major distributors like Netflix, Amazon and Tubi begin circling the space, and what rights creators should be thinking about before saying yes. It’s a conversation about momentum, leverage and timing, and one that creators would be wise to have before the cameras start rolling.

Episode 3 of Reel Talk: Inside the Business of Entertainment is live now: “Are Video Podcasts Taking Over—and Is Anyone Actually Watching?”

Give it a listen for a candid look at where podcasting is headed and what that means for creators.