> I think the business model for ad-supported podcasts is tough -- people can only buy so much underwear and so many stamps.com subscriptions.

There are other options for advertising that seem to make more sense to me.

For example, the acquired.fm podcast is sponsored by VCs and investment banks, and their ads consist of a 30 second soundbite interview with one of the advertiser's employees.

risky.biz has a bit longer sponsor interviews, but with sponsors likely relevant to the target audience.

The Skeptics Guide to the Universe advertises for an education video subscription service.

Software Defined Talk advertises for a monitoring company.

And so on.

Yes, it takes work, but it seems to work, more or less. Some of these are hobby projects, but I think risky.biz is the producer's main income.