The podcast as an intimate medium

Nobody wears a costume and nobody mentions the format, so it never got examined. Researchers eventually measured it and found listeners score high on exactly the traits predicted: novelty-seeking, curiosity, and a need for good conversation.

Application. One-sided attachment put to work on purpose. Creator economies, community, fandom as infrastructure, and the things that genuinely help people. Not automatically good - a tool with an obvious use is a tool that will also get a bad one.

Consideration. The part where somebody stops and thinks. The research, the diagnosis, the ethics, the lawsuits, the regulators. Roughly fifty years of arguing with itself about whether this is a relationship.