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There are two different podcast listening strategies (which informally seem about equally utilized).

1. Download and listen to every episode of a podcast. For many this would be something like Grubers. Listeners typically keep a much smaller number of podcast subscriptions.

2. Read the title and possibly the show notes for each episode and if it sounds interesting download that specific episode.

My listening habits are very much in mode one here, but for something like software engineering I think it's likely to be much more the second. By producing so much content and on so many topics they optimize their chance of getting at least a download a week.

Most podcasts I listen too (Linux Unplugged, Linux Action News, No Agenda) are no longer relevant after a week to a couple of weeks. The value is very much in the now. That would be a third mode then.

Same with many news/political podcasts. Hearing speculation about things that now have actually happened are 90% pretty boring a few weeks later.

> A daily podcast that lasts an hour? It's remarkable that he can keep up that pace. Could he make just as much money from having fewer podcasts? would the scarcity make the podcast more valuable to advertisers?

As a listener, you're in a good position to judge - do you think that the content suffers from being so frequently produced? So they're making $2k per episode on ads - would they make $15k if they made one podcast a week? On that time scale, is there a better monetisation model?

Scarcity really valuable to me as a listener - I don't have time to listen to an hour a day of a single show. I have an audible subscription (ca 10-30 hours per book, unabridged), shelves of real books, Netflix, Spotify, a list of TV shows and movies, a girlfriend, all vying for ear-time. Some people solve this by speeding up podcasts, but I like listening to real voices. Remvoving silences can work well though.

Consider podcasts like http://moviesbyminutes.com/ - they look fun, but who has time to listen to potentially 100 hours of content about one film? That's more than all of LOST. Would you rather watch every movie on the IMDB Top 250 or listen to people going through every Star Wars movie minute by minute? I once listened to the complete Wheel of Time - it's over 2 weeks unabridged. Took about 4 months listening to nothing else - commuting, exercise, walking to the shops, flights, trains etc.

SED at least offers listeners the chance to skip episodes they don't care about, but podcasts really have to be impressive for me to listen to them.

As a listener, you're in a good position to judge - do you think that the content suffers from being so frequently produced? So they're making $2k per episode on ads - would they make $15k if they made one podcast a week? On that time scale, is there a better monetisation model?

I've never listened to SED and I made no judgements about the quality. I subscribe to a lot of podcasts, but only listen to a few religiously. The others I skim through or just delete.

$2000 a Day is of course not bad - I'm assuming that sales, recording, editing, etc. is a full time job.

I'm going through the Software Engineering Radio podcast now and skipping a lot of them. But I found a few gems from some influential people in software that were relevant then as well as now.

Others, I saved for when I have more time to actually listen to, take notes and maybe blog about.

> A daily podcast that lasts an hour? It's remarkable that he can keep up that pace.

I've also been very impressed with Jeff's pace and consistent quality/depth. Joe Rogan is the only other podcaster that I listen to who comes close to that.

Joe's daily podcast is 3 hours long on average, so he doesn't come close, he exceeds by a factor of 3!

I listen to Joe pretty often, but to be honest the quality of his interviews is hit-or-miss to me. Sometimes it's really great, sometimes he rambles and goes back over the same topic a few times.

I listened to him for a while but I think 3 hours is too long. It gets boring and you know most of the stories and rants already from having listened to 100's of hours of him talk already.