When Jamie Morton started making his own podcast, he certainly picked an eyebrow-raising topic – reading out his dad’s attempts at erotic fiction.

For most of us, a lunch break is a laughable prospect that – at its zenith – represents a dashed trip to Pret. But what if we carved out a window of time that symbolised something more than wiping crumbs off the keyboard, or idly browsing Facebook? Here, the experts at Babbel.com present five great apps that will help to make the most of a midday breather.

Podcast culture has flourished, but the technology behind it is desperately in need of an update

Podcasting platform Acast has entered a new partnership with Gleam Futures, a talent management company. The deal will see Acast helping Gleam to expand its efforts in podcasting. Acast will leverage its distribution and advertising technology to broaden the reach for Gleam’s shows and to offer monetization options.

Presidents Day is time to reflect and show appreciation for our nation’s greatest leaders, those who have led the country and lifted the people up with their inspiring words and courageous actions.

The quality of podcasts these days is remarkable. There are more today than ever, from legacy radio productions to new and amateur voices. The number of podcast listeners is growing steadily year over year. There’s more ad dollars, both unique number of advertisers and types of advertisers, than we’ve previously seen. Media entities are earnestly covering the podcast space because their readers are interested and discussing the field. According to most podcast professionals, the industry is thriving.

BIOLOGISTS reckon that most species that have ever existed are extinct. That is true of words, too. Of the Oxford English Dictionary’s 231,000 entries, at least a fifth are obsolete. They range from “aa”, a stream or waterway (try that in Scrabble), to “zymome”, “that constituent of gluten which is insoluble in alcohol”.

It could be time for programmatic audio’s time in the sun. The growing popularity of mobile audio streaming and podcasts, along with the pressures on display advertising, is putting programmatic audio front of mind for both buyers and sellers. “Programmatic is becoming a cornerstone of any audio plan,” said Jo Blake, Havas Media’s head of publishing and outdoor.

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is one of the most notable presidential addresses in history, but that doesn’t mean other U.S. presidents haven’t had their fair share of memorable speeches. The podcast platform Acast gathered up one such speech from each president since John F. Kennedy, collecting audio from some of the most important addresses of the last 50 years.

To remember a time when US presidents made speeches that moved and inspired people in a positive manner, Acast, a global podcasting and on-demand audio platform, has launched a collection of 10 of the most inspiring presidential speeches from the last 70 years.

On-demand audio and podcasting site Acast dove into the archives to take us back to a time when the leader of the free world chose his words carefully and united and inspired his constituents.

Presidents Day is approaching. Though the political climate is a rough one at the moment and you may not be feeling too patriotic — understandably so! — this day is also one for reflection, in a lot of senses. It’s a day to think about the previous presidents who have changed the fabric of history. So, that said, I think listening to some of their speeches is a good way to celebrate President’s Day this year.

It’s fair to say that 2016 was a rollercoaster of a year for politics, and 2017 has gotten off to a pretty volatile start too. A lot of us are lacking faith, feeling a little lost, and are unsure about what to expect of the political landscape over the next few years, but let us not forget that America is a great country with a history of great strength.

Podcast and on-demand audio platform Acast announced the launch of a Recommendations feature. This tool uses machine learning to find new content tailored to a particular listener’s tastes. The beta phase for Recommendations showed a solid performance: users are 52% more likely to follow a show suggested by Acast and 49% more likely to listen to multiple episodes of those shows.

Looking for a new podcast to listen to? Acast wants you to skip browsing categorized lists and try the new Recommendations feature in its podcast app instead.

Poddplattformen Acast har tagit ett stadigt grepp om den engelskspråkiga podcastmarknaden. Nu lanserar de i Australien tillsammans med mediehuset Nova.

Hot on the heels of its brand overhaul Nova has inked a deal with the podcast powerhouse that hosts content from major publishers such as The Guardian and The Financial Times. Read more at http://www.adnews.com.au/news/we-are-going-to-lead-the-industry-nova-inks-major-podcast-deal#wxm7Gg3ATJR1iiAy.99

NOVA Entertainment is ramping up its presence in the podcast space, announcing a new partnership with global platform Acast.

Podcastplattormen Acast värvar Johanna Turner från mediebyrån OMD och Johan Antin som har sin bakgrund inom bland annat Schibsted-koncernen.

”Familjens snille”. Med de orden beskrev den folkkäre artisten Danny Saucedo sin bror Leandro för Dagens Nyheter. Den forne handelsstudenten Leandro Saucedo har ett förflutet på bolag som JP Morgan, Access Partners, 3i Group och Christiansen Stenstierna. På det sistnämnda riskkapitalbolaget var Leandro Saucedo investeringsansvarig.

Slack wants to grow its user base by creating quality editorial content that resonates with audiences which is why it has spent the last year establishing its brand in podcasting as the medium transitions from niche to mainstream.

Poddplattformen Acast får draghjälp av amerikanska mediehus. Nu har bolaget nått 50 miljoner månatliga lyssningar och kan redovisa intäkter på runt en miljon dollar varje månad.

Podcast platform Acast is creating more robust metrics and new revenue models to help podcasts exploit their growing popularity.

Stockholm has produced more billion-dollar unicorn startups per capita than any other city in Europe

The podcast network Acast is attempting to resuscitate endangered terms like bat hide, bonnyclabber, ear screw, fleech, whistle pig, and popskull.

In this week’s episode, Ulvestam and his co-founder Karl Rosander join self-proclaimed “podcast hipster” Jason Abbruzzese and me on Biz Please to discuss the business of podcasting.

The Dictionary of American Regional English, or DARE, has launched a campaign to save fifty words and phrases it deems are dying from lack of use

Fifty words and phrases have been identified as being ‘on the cusp of extinction’ by the Dictionary of American Regional English, which has enlisted podcasters to use them

The longstanding dictionary is turning to a new medium to interject life in a number of regional words

From its first appearance in internet searches 12 years ago to blockbusters such as “Serial”, podcasting has become a popular part of people’s entertainment, but market-watchers believe the medium still has huge room to grow and offers lucrative rewards for content creators.

For most of its short history, podcasting has been a largely amateur business, with few signs that it might become a mass medium that would prove attractive either to advertisers or subscribers. Then Serial changed all that.

Several European technology start-ups with offices or markets in the U.K. appear deeply concerned about the upcoming ‘Brexit’ referendum.

There’s no shortage of podcasts about sports, but The Football Ramble sees an opening to get people to pay for its podcast.

Swedish podcasting company is launching an ad-free, paid option on Monday, allowing show creators on the platform to sell content to listeners without any advertising.

Acast is starting a new subscription service, which will do away with advertising and instead set up a paid model for podcast fans who don’t want to hear about Casper mattresses, Kind Bars, Mail Chimp or Stamps.com.

A Swedish company wants to change the way people make money from podcasts.

Podcast app and ad network Acast on Monday launched a service that will allow creators on its platform to sell content directly to their audience without advertising.

Europe plans tough new rules to make multinationals more transparent on tax. They come in the wake of last week’s Panama Papers revelations on tax evasion, but Heather Self, a tax expert at law firm Pinsent Masons tells us the proposals may be hard to implement. Plus we have a special report from the British Virgin Islands on what authorities in the tax haven are doing to clean up the image of the islands. Also in the programme, the International Monetary Fund has downgraded its forecasts for global growth. Our economic commentator Roger Bootle assesses the implications. And with music streaming services overtaking traditional music sales, we have a report on the digital music sector, amid concerns that artists might be losing out. We discuss the implications with Edgar Berger, head of Sony Music Entertainment.

Join a Mirror man as he attempts to break into the world of online radio with a bit of help from industry experts

Public radio came out with a new “podcast audience metrics” standard last night. The plural there may slightly oversell it: the big guns of public media have come to an agreement on what a “download” is.

The capital of Sweden is an easy place to fly to and it feels almost “un-Swedish” to waste money on a taxi from the airport to central Stockholm when visitors are told the train is so efficient.