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TikTok’s podcast boom might be a bust

It’s not the best means of discovery, but Instagram is no better.

“Anecdotally, we do find people come to know about the podcast because of the TikTok (and vice versa) based on emails/comments/surveys/etc.,” Planet Money executive producer Alex Goldmark told Hot Pod in an email. Gary Arndt, an independent podcaster who hosts top-ranking history show Everything Everywhere Daily, has managed to get some of his explainers on topics like the Little Ice Age and the development of Route 66 picked up by the TikTok algorithm. Cristina Lumague, who hosts true crime show Espooky Tales and Latin American history podcast Historias Unknown, has amassed 215,000 followers on TikTok and occasionally produces posts that get more than a million views.

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