Podcasts are one of the most intimate forms of media. Hosts immerse listeners in the story of a college football underdog’s improbable rise, take them into the kitchens of New York’s best restaurants, and reveal the strategy behind history’s most lopsided battle. As listeners return week after week, they form a deep connection to the voices who narrate their daily lives.

But the podcast tech stack supporting these stories has never lived up to its potential.

Hosting platforms distribute podcasts to the world, but they do little to help podcasters know their listeners. Companion newsletters and communities bring hosts and listeners together but are siloed from where audiences follow their favorite creators. Ad marketplaces help podcasters monetize, but they don’t let podcasters reach new audiences. As a result, ambitious podcasters must use multiple tools just to run their business.

Substack has a different vision for podcasting, where community, paid subscriptions, and audience ownership work in concert. Podcasters, including Split Zone Duo, The Dwarkesh Patel Podcast, and Pantsuit Politics, are using Substack to build both their shows and communities that extend beyond the podcast feed.

Subscriptions remain the foundation, but sponsorships give creators another way to fund ambitious work. Substack’s Head of Sponsorships, Dan Robbins, outlined how sponsorships can enable creators to grow sustainable, independent media businesses. As we continue to build our native sponsorships program, we’re excited to share that sponsorships will soon be coming to podcasts hosted on Substack.

Podcasters will remain in control: they will choose whether to participate in sponsorships, what tools to take advantage of, and the types of sponsor partners they are comfortable working with. We’re building our podcast monetization toolkit around creators’ needs, and today we’re offering a preview of that vision, beginning with three capabilities.

Until now, podcasters on Substack have had to record sponsorships directly into episodes. With dynamic ad insertion, podcasters will be able to run campaigns with their own sponsors and update ads across their back catalog without re-editing episodes. Today, we’re announcing signups for early access.

We also recently earned IAB Tech Lab certification for podcast download measurement, giving podcasters industry-standard data they can use to pitch sponsors and report on their shows’ performance.

If you’d rather not find sponsors yourself, you’ll soon be able to tap into third-party sponsorship marketplaces to fill the ad breaks you mark in your episodes. Participation will be completely optional, and you set the guardrails: how many ads run and which types of sponsors you’re comfortable with. Use one approach, the other, or both.

The most enduring podcasts are built on community and subscriptions, which are both central to our podcasting vision. Publishers like Scott Galloway publish bonus and ad-free episodes to their paid subscribers on Substack, while Shea Serrano invites his paid subscribers into the conversation with Substack Chat. And podcasters can now organize those communities into channels, as Drop Your Buffs described.

The days of piecing together a hosting platform, advertising marketplace, newsletter service, independent website, and community platform are over. Podcasters can have it all on Substack.

Request early access