And how dead would podcasts be if the creators couldn't be paid for their work?

We know the answer to this because we’ve seen it. 20 years ago very very few podcasters were trying to monetize. The current ad infrastructure didn’t exist yet. Patreon didn’t exist yet. If people did anything they just had a PayPal donation link on the website.

It was smaller, but far from dead. More of a grassroots hobbyist phenomenon. Production quality was lower, but in some respects content quality was better because nerds nerding out without worrying about whether whatever they’re doing will attract enough listeners meant there was an incredible diversity of voices, perspectives and subject matter.

	▲	carlosjobim 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		20 years ago the entire Internet was "nerds nerding out". The world has moved on, and to return to that is to return to an Internet where only people who are already economically comfortable and with a lot of spare time to boot are allowed to have a voice. Serious podcasters need to treat it like a full time job, so they need to get their income from somewhere.