Laura Mayer

Laura Mayer has spent her career inside the podcast machine: at WNYC, Panoply, Stitcher, Sony, ABC News, and now Talkhouse. In this conversation with Jeff Umbro, she traces the early days of podcasting, the rise and fall of network strategy, and what it really takes to build shows that people actually want to hear. Laura also reflects on Shameless Acquisition Target, the podcast that became a book and a sharp-eyed look at the business of audio. She explains how the show came out of frustration, why she made herself the butt of the joke, and what she learned from trying to turn her own career into a case study. Jeff and Laura talk through the big shifts that reshaped the industry: the rise of narrative true crime, the economics of branded content, the limits of “build it and they will come,” and why podcasting keeps reinventing itself. It’s a candid, funny, and deeply informed conversation about ambition, burnout, audience, and the future of audio.