“An expert, whether self-invented or fully credentialed, is nothing without an audience, and digital media actually makes that truer than ever.”

I don’t remember how I first found Nick Quah’s newsletter HotPod, but I knew I’d found a kindred spirit when I did.

Nick was someone who, like me, scoffed at everyone who assumed that the podcasting industry started with Serial in 2014. We’d both been listening to podcasts nearly since the industry’s true beginning a decade earlier. But unlike Quah, I worked in the podcasting industry and had been hosting podcasts on and off since 2008, back when I still had to explain to most people what a podcast was.

Read this piece from our sibling publication Marker. It’s a profile of Quah by Rob Walker, who explains how someone who had never made a podcast or worked in the podcast industry could create the most successful newsletter about the business.

How a Malaysian Immigrant in Idaho Became the Go-To Expert on Podcasting