Podcasting as a tool for thought leadership

Podcasting is a great tool for building audiences and amplifying research. In 2025, just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they’ve listened to a podcast in the past 12 months according to Pew Research. Around four-in-ten U.S. adults under 50 (39%) say they get news from podcasts often or sometimes, compared with 24% of those ages 50 and older. 

Podcasts are an ideal channel for faculty to share their expertise and break down complex ideas through storytelling and personal conversations. For example, University of Minnesota School of Law Professor Daniel Schwarcz broke down how AI and law interact on a legal podcast.

So when thinking about how else to promote your work, consider pitching expertise and findings with a broad, general appeal to podcasts that might reach your target audience.

Additional benefits of podcasts:

• Building authority and visibility — Use your authentic voice to explain your work in a one-on-one setting.
• Audience engagement — Retention rates for podcasts are higher than print pieces. 
• Content repurposing — Consider breaking up clips from a podcast into multiple social media posts,whether for your own pages or your affiliated college social media channels.
• SEO and discoverability.

If you’d like to pitch your expertise to a podcast or explore ways to share your work with non-traditional media outlets, connect with the University Marketing Communications PR team at [email protected]. 

In the meantime, explore all the University of MInnesota podcasts.