How American fan culture is fuelling the podcast boom
REPORT
5 Nov 2024
How American fan culture is fuelling the podcast boom

Fan podcasts are enabling people to fulfill their wildest fantasy: becoming part of the worlds they idolize. Centered on specific celebrities, artists, or TV series, they contribute to the surrounding lore, immerse listeners, and gain fans themselves. But can the fan podcast also build ‘brandom’?

Amelia Ritthaler

Amelia Ritthaler is a Brooklyn-based comedian and a co-host of the Girls Rewatch. She also is the creator of Girl Church, an all-female and non-binary New York-based comedy show.

Jack Conway

Jack Conway is the editor of Podcast Review, an online magazine publishing in-depth reviews, interviews with prominent radio-makers, and best podcast lists.

Kyle MacNeill

Kyle MacNeill has spent the last decade exploring the unexcavated corners of pop culture for The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Independent, The Sunday Times and The New York Times, and for youth platforms including THE FACE, Dazed, VICE and i-D. He’s also the copywriter for Kibbo Kift Agency, a boutique PR and performance agency solely working with sustainable and socially conscious clients and has managed social media for brands including FENDI, Viron, and More or Less. He’s insatiably curious about niche communities, the material history of objects, unusual technologies, and strange phenomena. He's based in Manchester's Northern Quarter, where he writes local recommendations for Time Out, plays a lot of pub games, and makes a devastating mess in the kitchen.