> And, advertising everywhere. Most podcasts aren't the handsfree experience they used to be, now that I have to seek past ads every 15 minutes.

In some comedy podcasts, I can find the ad reads to be entertaining enough to be worth a listen. In others my heart sinks every time I hear the same pre-recorded ad (that annoyed me the first time) popping up again.

Just how bad is it in general? Feels like there's an opportunity for good content in the ad breaks, even on non-silly podcasts - but that requires effort to generate something interesting / useful / fun that's not the same every time.

OTOH, for some products it seems like spamming out the same content to build recognition does seem to be a rational (or at least popular!) strategy, which is a shame.