By John Helmer, Moscow
  @bears_with

For roughly half a millennium crows have come together in murders; foxes in skulks; cats in clowders; lions in prides; toads in knots; kangaroos in mobs.

Podcasts appeared by name roughly twenty-one years ago,   and since then the medium, primarily a US one, has experienced a phenomenal rate of increase of listeners and viewers,  concentrated in the audience which is less than 35 years of age, with more college education than average, and whiter. Most of this audience reportedly watches and listens at the same time.

For the time being, the collective noun pod applies to peas and whales, not yet to podcasts. Whales think but don’t read; it’s not yet certain that in the pod of podcasts, reading has been replaced, but the younger the audience, the more this is happening.

So here is a Christmas-New Year holiday experiment – the pod of podcasts aired since December 25 without a Dance with Bears to read beside them.

December 31: Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TchxhIJLhPo 

December 31, 2025: click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nezrMIltqqQ

January 4, 2026: click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhCNl09tRw8 

January 5, 2026: click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ6Vj8FYjeg 

January 5, 2026: click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YQgRRRdgY0

January 10, 2026: click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzl2iYoX6Uk 

January 11, 2026: click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9UAFpmpLWo 

January 14, 2026: click https://gradio.substack.com/p/gorilla-radio-with-chris-cook-diana-7ab -- starting at Min 31:44.

by Editor - Thursday, January 15th, 2026