The Podcast Asylum

Photo by Adam Pengelly

This bizarre condition seems to afflict at least one prominent podcaster or social media pundit every year and has since before the Asylum was founded.

Podcastus Moriturus is easy to diagnose: its primary symptom is the inescapable compulsion to get up and declare “Podcasting Is Dead!” in a public forum. This, in turn, causes the rest of the podcasting community to break out in a rash of scornful denials—all of them repeating the highly contagious and contentious phrase.

Fortunately, Podcastus Moriturus will subside on its own if simply ignored, but it’s guaranteed to break out again.

Here are just a few examples of Podcastus Moriturus in the wild:

• Podcast Alley Forum: Podcasting is DEAD! (2005)
• Marc Freedman, “Podcasting Is Dead! Long Live Podcasting” (2005)
• Chris Coulter, “Why Podcasting Blows” (2006)
• Read/Write Web “Will Podcasting Survive?” (2007)
• Michael Geoghegan, “No More Podcasting in the New Media Expo” (2007)
• Cameron Reilly, “Why Podcasting is Dead in the Water” (2007)
• Alexander Wolfe, “Is Podcasting Dead?” (2008)
• Leesa Barnes: “Unprofitable Podcasters Claim Podcasting Is Dead” (2008)
• Chris Knudsen: “Confirmed: Podcasting Is Dead” (2008)
• Neville Hobson: “Is Business Podcasting Dead?” (2008)
• Joseph Jaffe: “Is Podcasting Dead or Not?” (2008)
• Scott Whitney: “Podcasting Is Dead. Long Live Podcasting?” (2008)
• Michael Geoghegan: “Podango: Bankruptcy Looming?” (2008)
• Leo Laporte, Online News Association 09 Keynote (2009)