The Origin Theatre

Drawing on their collective experience spanning creators, platforms, publishers, and audiences worldwide, the panel will explore how podcasting is evolving at every level, from audience growth and monetisation to discoverability, video, advertising, and the rise of new markets outside the traditional podcast strongholds.

Designed as a big-picture look at the state of global audio, this session will examine what different regions can learn from one another, how listener habits are shifting internationally, and what creators and businesses need to do to thrive in an increasingly connected podcast ecosystem.

Whether you’re an independent creator, a global publisher, a brand, or an industry newcomer, this is an opportunity to hear directly from some of the voices helping shape the international future of podcasting.

Podcasting was built around episodes, feeds, real-life hosts, and audiences. AI may change all of that, and fast.

Jeanine Wright of Inception Point AI - the company making AI-generated personalities and content with a podcast network of more than 11,000 active podcast shows (not episodes!) - and Nicky Birch, the person leading AI in audio efforts for BBC, join Katie Prescott of The Times for a forward-looking conversation about where AI is taking audio next. Are autonomous podcasters coming and, if so, when? Is the BBC's responsibility to be human at all costs? Is AI generated content any good? Are people actually consuming it? 

As synthetic voices, adaptive storytelling, agentic production tools and personalised listening experiences move from experiment to reality, audio is entering a new phase. Shows may become dynamic instead of fixed. Listeners may get versions shaped to their interests, context or language. Creators may build worlds, formats and characters that were impossible to produce at traditional scale. And media organisations will need to decide what still makes audio trustworthy, human and worth returning to.

The panel will explore what happens when production becomes increasingly automated, voices become programmable, and storytelling becomes more responsive, personalised and global.

This session is for anyone who wants to understand not just how AI is changing podcast workflows, but how it may redefine the very format, principles, economics and audience experience of audio itself.

What turns a podcast into a fandom? Dino Sofos is joined by Persephonica hosts, Zoe Ball, Jo Whiley and Alice Levine, to unpack how their shows are built around chemistry, intimacy and community. 

From Miss Me? to Dig It, from Bad Chat to Dua Lipa’s Book Club, the conversation will explore how Persephonica has gone far beyond audio - turning podcasts into cultural brands with fiercely loyal audiences across video, socials and live events — and why the most successful shows now feel less like podcasts and more like worlds audiences want to belong to.