There’s an interesting trend in podcasts.

Whereas the general trend in the modern economy is to produce progressively shorter and easier to digest content, many of my favorite podcasts now last 2 or 3 hours.

One of the enablers for this format is the ease of production. Rather than spending absurd amounts of time and effort to produce a short TV clip, two people can now just sit in a room, hit play, and have an unscripted conversation. A little prep is probably needed, but nothing too extensive.

But the more interesting aspects, is that I think podcasts are getting longer because they need to.

5/10 minute interviews on TV are almost useless. They’re entertaining, but the guest’s pitch is heavily rehearsed so it’s rare for anything novel to come from the discussion.

Even a 30 or 60 minute discussion is typically similar. An author comes on to plug their new book or a celebrity comes to push a new product they’re endorsing, which takes up a good portion of the discussion, and then the rest of the discussion tends to stay at the surface level. Unless the interviewer and the guest already have a close relationship, it’s rare that anything too interesting is uncovered this quickly.

But a longer discussion changes the game.

Sure the first portion is still spent on the standard topics, but then things start to get interesting. It’s hard for any guest to maintain a front for several hours, and inevitably the conversation drifts into topics that the guest hasn’t talked about before in public.

That’s when the listeners get a glimpse into who the guest really is as a person, and all of the interesting things they might do or think about.

A longer podcast by no means assures a better podcast, but it opens the door to a world of opportunities that doesn’t seem accessible in a shorter format.

In some ways it’s similar to catching up with friends.

I can have a nice lunch with a friend I haven’t seen in awhile, but the conversation tends to stay on the surface. We update each other on what’s new in our lives, and then it’s time to move on.

But a longer time span spent with the same friend, or more frequent discussions, makes it possible to get beyond the surface into a much more meaningful discussion and relationship.

-Brandon