The debate that has shaped podcasting for nearly a decade is finally losing relevance. What is a podcast? Is it audio-only? Does video disqualify it? Must it live inside an RSS feed?
According to industry leaders, the question itself is now outdated.
As podcasting moves into 2026, the medium is entering a transformative phase — one that prioritizes audience behavior over format definitions. Media strategist Steve Goldstein, CEO of Amplifi Media and adjunct professor at New York University, believes the industry has crossed a threshold. Podcasting, he says, has entered its fourth and most audience-driven era: the Era of Liquid Content.
For years, podcasting has wrestled with its own definition. Industry conferences, trade publications, and social media debates have circled the same question repeatedly: Does video still count as podcasting?
While professionals argued, audiences moved on.
Listeners — and increasingly viewers — began consuming podcast content across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, newsletters, livestreams, and live events, often without caring how the industry labeled it. The result was a widening gap between how creators defined podcasting and how audiences actually used it.
By 2025, that gap became impossible to ignore.
Goldstein argues that this moment marked a turning point — the year the podcast industry finally aligned itself with real-world consumption behavior, rather than clinging to legacy definitions rooted in technology.
The Liquid Content era represents a fundamental shift in how podcasts are created, distributed, and valued.
In this phase:
Instead of asking “Where does this podcast live?”, creators now ask:
“Where does my audience need this content right now?”
To understand why Liquid Content matters, it helps to look at how podcasting arrived here.
Podcasting’s earliest phase was small, intimate, and deeply personal.
Goldstein refers to this period as the “MeUndies Era”, named after the direct-to-consumer advertisers that helped early shows survive.
Key characteristics included:
Podcasting during this time was driven by connection, not scale. Creators experimented freely, and listeners felt like insiders.
As podcasting proved its potential, major players moved in fast.
This second phase saw:
Creativity surged — but so did risk. Many projects failed. Others thrived. What mattered was that podcasting matured into a serious media business, capable of competing with traditional radio and digital publishing.
Growth brought confusion.
As video podcasts gained popularity — especially on YouTube — the industry began questioning its own boundaries. Was podcasting still podcasting if it included visuals? If it premiered on YouTube instead of an RSS feed?
During this period:
Meanwhile, audiences showed little concern for the debate. Research conducted by Amplifi Media and Coleman Insights revealed a simple truth:
Podcast audiences already consider video a natural extension of podcasting.
To listeners, podcasting was no longer audio or video. It was both.
Unlike previous eras shaped by technology or business models, the Liquid Content era is driven almost entirely by audience behavior.
Listeners no longer consume content in one sitting or on one device. They move fluidly throughout the day:
Liquid Content adapts to these moments.
In the Liquid Content era, a single episode might generate:
As podcasting executive Rob Greenlee has noted, “The show is no longer the product — it’s the engine.”
The value lies not in the file, but in the story’s ability to travel.
One of the defining principles of Liquid Content is a complete inversion of priorities.
Previously, creators asked:
Now, the central question is:
How does my audience want to engage with this content in this moment?
In this model:
Goldstein is careful to emphasize that Liquid Content is not a requirement.
Many podcasts will continue to succeed by:
However, as attention becomes more fragmented and competition intensifies, creators who embrace flexibility will be better positioned to grow.
Liquid Content isn’t about doing everything.
It’s about doing what makes sense for your audience.
As podcasting moves forward, creators will need to think beyond episodes and feeds.
Key strategic shifts include:
The winners of the next era won’t be those who cling to old definitions — but those who design stories that move naturally wherever audiences are already paying attention.
Podcasting doesn’t need to be redefined.
It needs to be accepted as it is now: flexible, visual, audio-driven, platform-agnostic, and deeply shaped by audience behavior.
The Liquid Content era isn’t about abandoning podcasting’s roots. It’s about allowing those roots to grow across new surfaces.
As 2026 approaches, one thing is clear:
Podcasting is no longer a format.
It’s a flow.
