Why podcast critics are a game-changer for audience growth 🚀 with Podcast Review’s Alice Florence Orr

Eurowaves #25 Interview

Alice Florence Orr is a writer from Edinburgh. She is the Managing Editor of Podcast Review. Founded in 2018, Podcast Review is an online magazine publishing in-depth podcast reviews, interviews with prominent radiomakers, and best podcast lists.

You can connect with Alice on LinkedIn here.

What’s your podcasting “origin story”?

My podcasting journey began during my time at university. Initially, I felt that my prior schooling hadn’t adequately prepared me, and I quickly felt a little behind my peers. The first year was pretty miserable, actually. I failed a course and had to take double credits the following year.

Then I discovered that if you searched any academic topic into a podcast app, you could instantly find dozens of episodes featuring summaries and expert discussions. I’ve always been an audio person, and this was the extra tuition I needed. Suddenly, my two-hour daily commute was transformed and podcasts quickly became an essential tool for catching up and reinforcing my knowledge.

A few years later my friend Jack Conway asked me if I wanted to start writing reviews for his new website, Podcast Review. I immediately said yes. That was in 2018.

What do you think is the role of a podcast reviewer in guiding listeners to high quality podcasts?

The role of a reviewer depends on the intention behind the criticism. I believe the main role is to provide context. Some critics focus on providing constructive feedback or, at times, harsh criticism. Others are dedicated to connecting future fans with content they will genuinely appreciate. I think there is space for all of these approaches.

What I do not find useful is using harsh feedback merely as clickbait to drive traffic to a website.

A common oversight I see today is that many reviewers fail to consider contextualization. They often don’t think about whether the product—be it a podcast, an album, or a show—is actually enjoyable or will resonate with people on an emotional level. Too much of the criticism is based on whether the artist is “authentic” and the reviewer’s personal gripes, and these factors often don’t translate into the real-world experiences of consumers.

There needs to be more podcast criticism out there. Constructive, playful, exciting. I roll my eyes when I see a weekly column that is just the latest celebrity fodder, or the same BBC show back for a new season.

You’ve written about the need to “cultivate the next generation of audio fans.” What is the most important thing you think the podcasting industry should be doing right now to build that audience?

When people discuss podcast discovery, it’s often framed by turning audio into easily digestible visual clips. This approach forces audio through a visual paradigm cultivated by social media platforms who have invested billions in video for the last decade. I don’t believe this reflects how people inherently prefer to consume content.

Ultimately, I feel that the wider podcasting industry hasn’t fully invested in the power and potential of RSS to genuinely provide an alternative to vertical video today. There are some very passionate people working in this area, but I don’t think it is reflected across the board.

That said, I think a shift is entirely possible. Book sales have made a huge comeback since the rise of the Kindle nearly two decades ago. And that’s despite falling literacy rates. A lot of that success came from changing the marketing: it wasn’t just about fighting eReaders or audiobooks, it was about making reading a desirable activity—a status symbol that many different age groups and demographics aspire to.

With audio, we have a similar potential to not only carve out our own space online (through innovative platforms like the New York Times audio app) but also to make audio itself desirable, a personality identifier, and even a status symbol in an age where knowledge is becoming harder to define.

Crucially, our understanding of what a podcast is for the general public needs to change. Within the industry, we know a podcast can be an interview show, an investigative series, found-footage audio fiction, historical drama, or a table read—a huge variety of formats.

But when I ask general consumers if they listen to podcasts, they often name one or two very common interview shows. They aren’t thinking beyond that specific format. The problem is that not everyone likes interview shows or episodic comedy, and there is so much more content available—for people who like audiobooks, comic books, or niche genres. This variety isn’t connecting with new audiences.

It will take people who genuinely believe in the medium to make that shift, and I hope that the work I’m doing at Podcast Review—investing in quality editorial that covers shows as audio-first experiences—is helping to guide people toward the kind of art and content that really lights them up.

Three European Podcast Recommendations:

I used to live in Copenhagen, but I don’t speak Danish. Still, there are some great English language Danish podcasts, like Archipelago. It’s about arts and culture from a Danish perspective, and interviews interesting Danish artists, academics, and writers. It’s come back for a new season after three years. It’s a super niche interest, but whenever I miss Denmark, I listen to a show like this.

I may appear to lament the unstoppable rise of video, but I still enjoy experimental video podcasts. Gabriel Rippe produces a video podcast called Vlogcast on Spotify that is both visually beautiful and helps me practice my French as a purely audio experience. I hope he makes more.

Finally, I recently spoke to the team at The Mizter Rad Show, a futurist podcast that focuses on new technologies. I was really inspired by his approach to community-based podcasting, and his production is solid. It’s not my personal area of interest, but I can see it appealing to lots of people.