Why every company wants a podcast now

Hello, and welcome to Decoder! I’m David Pierce, editor-at-large of The Verge. As you may have noticed, we’re dropping some extra episodes in the feed this week. You’ll have Nilay back on Friday and for next week, as we run toward the end of the year.

But I’m really excited to be here with you all today because I’m getting to talk about one of my favorite things: podcasts. There’s something strange happening these days in the podcast world — well...