That is Scorching Pod, The Verge’s e-newsletter about podcasting and the audio trade. Join right here for extra.Hiya! I do know a lot of you’re in LA for Podcast Motion Evolutions. I’m not, so be at liberty to achieve out with gossip. Right now, New York Journal publishes a polarizing profile of podcast star Andrew Huberman, Slate takes residence the award for Podcast of the Yr, and Invoice Maher launches a brand new community.New York Journal publishes prolonged characteristic on Andrew Huberman and his messy private lifeI don’t begrudge you if you happen to haven’t had the time to learn New York Journal’s 8,000-word cowl story on Andrew Huberman. Whereas a lot of the piece focuses on how he juggled a number of affairs as he was in a long-term relationship (spoiler: all the ladies turn into buddies!), it additionally appears on the tradition of bro podcasts and the way they’ve turn into surprisingly central, if not precisely dependable, sources of knowledge. Huberman, a neurobiology professor at Stanford, rose to prominence a number of years in the past by making science explainer movies and showing as a visitor on exhibits like The Joe Rogan Expertise and Lex Fridman Podcast. His present, Huberman Lab, launched in 2021 and presently ranks within the prime 15 podcasts on each Spotify and Apple Podcasts. And, in accordance with Chartable, it has the fifth-highest attain of any podcast on the earth.The creator, NYMag options author Kerry Howley, argues that Huberman’s tutorial background offers him a sheen of legitimacy, though his normal pet subjects — health, psychological wellness, and why it’s best to by no means ever have even a drop of alcohol — don’t have anything to do along with his specialty of visual-system wiring.“How comfy one feels with the science propagated on Huberman Lab relies upon fully on how a lot leeway one is keen to provide a person who expounds for a number of hours per week on topics nicely outdoors his space of experience,” Howley writes. I believe we have now realized that listeners will give their hosts of alternative numerous leeway with regards to science.Friends and followers of Huberman have come to his protection. Specializing in the weather about Huberman’s private life, Fridman known as the profile a “hit piece,” and conservative thinkpieces are cropping up claiming he’s being unfairly focused. It goes again to the mindset that unbiased hosts like Huberman, Fridman, and Rogan are extra reliable than mainstream media sources. It appears unlikely that Huberman will lose many (if any) followers over the piece, although it might put him extra on the defensive than earlier than. What did you consider the Huberman profile? Be at liberty to achieve out at ariel.shapiro@theverge.com.Invoice Maher expands podcast operation with a controversial hostAh, a throwback to an easier time when celebrities launched podcast networks. Invoice Maher, who hosts the podcast Membership Random along with Actual Time with Invoice Maher on HBO, introduced in the present day that his podcast operation is launching a brand new present hosted by controversial former ESPN host Sage Steele.Steele, who previously co-hosted SportsCenter, was quickly taken off the air in 2021 after she made feedback on a non-ESPN podcast criticizing the community’s covid vaccine mandate. She settled a lawsuit with ESPN final yr and left the community, saying she did so in an effort to “train my first modification rights extra freely.” Looks like an excellent match for Maher, who relishes pissing individuals off. Membership Random Productions, as the brand new community known as, may even characteristic new exhibits from Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan and Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst, in accordance with Selection. The community may even associate with former basketball star Kevin Garnett on his present KG Licensed.Spotify is testing video programs within the UKI didn’t see Spotify’s personal model of MasterClass coming, but it surely does make a specific amount of sense. On Monday, the corporate introduced that it’s partnering with academic producers like BBC Maestro and Skillshare as a part of a trial for UK customers to entry video classes on the platform. As a part of the trial, free and premium customers within the UK will be capable to entry two classes of a course without cost earlier than being prompted to buy extra classes. Spotify stated in a launch that half of its premium subscribers have listened to academic or self-help podcasts.Evidently the programs would function on an a la carte system much like the primary iteration of audiobooks. Given the issue of navigating customers off the platform to buy merchandise, that a part of the audiobook enterprise has not but taken off. However maybe with new tech rules in Europe and, doubtlessly, the US, that enterprise mannequin might show to be extra fruitful down the road. Gradual Burn: Turning into Justice Thomas will get prime honor on the Ambie AwardsLast evening in LA, The Podcast Academy held its fourth annual Awards for Excellence in Audio (aka The Ambies), honoring a few of the prime exhibits of the yr. Among the many winners have been some buzzy titles, together with Weight For It (Finest Indie Podcast), Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus from Lemonada Media (Finest Interview Podcast), and New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce (Finest Sports activities Podcast… 🤔). For Podcast of the Yr, Gradual Burn: Turning into Justice Thomas from Slate beat out fellow nominees, together with Embedded: Taking Cowl from NPR, Subsequent Yr in Moscow from The Economist, and 50 Years of Hip-Hop from KEXP. Yow will discover the complete record of winners right here.