Can Human Critics Improve on Word of Mouth in Podcast Discovery?

On Episode 662 TONIGHT at 6:05pm EST / 3:05pm PST of the Live New Media Show, Host and Podcast Hall of Famer Rob Greenlee talks with Imran Ahmed, Founder of GreatPods.co, about what we can do to make podcast discovery better and why human editorial judgment may matter more than ever in 2026. Great Pods has relaunched as a podcast discovery platform built around professional podcast criticism, named reviewers, critic transparency, user profiles, weekly engagement rankings, editorial award badges, curated collections, and deeplinks that let listeners choose where they want to listen. The platform describes itself as a trusted guide to podcast discovery where professional reviews meet community ratings, with the goal of making podcast discovery easier, more transparent, and more fun. This conversation gets into the bigger question of whether podcasting needs its own critical ecosystem. Film has Rotten Tomatoes. Books have a review culture. Television has critics, awards, and cultural conversation. Podcasting has had charts, algorithms, word of mouth, and platform promotion, but it has rarely had a transparent editorial layer that compounds over time. Imran and Rob will explore why discovery remains one of podcasting’s biggest gaps, what nearly eight years at TuneIn taught Imran about platform behavior, why listeners want to know who is recommending a show, and how Great Pods is trying to support the open podcast ecosystem without becoming another walled garden. Imran Ahmed is a timely guest because he is tackling one of podcasting’s longest-running unsolved problems. Great Pods is not just another podcast directory. It aims to create an editorial infrastructure layer for professional reviews, critic attribution, rankings, badges, and listener engagement. His background also gives him credibility. Great Pods says Imran has more than 15 years of experience in audio apps and startups, including nearly eight years at TuneIn, and hosted one of the first South Asian podcast shows before founding Great Pods in 2020. Guest: Imran Ahmed, Founder of Great Pods Great Pods Website: https://www.greatpods.co Great Pods About: https://www.greatpods.co/about Great Pods Blog: https://blog.greatpods.co Host: Rob Greenlee, Host of The New Media Show The New Media Show: https://newmediashow.com Rob Greenlee Website: https://robgreenlee.com Adore Network: https://adorenetwork.com Podcast Hall of Fame: https://podcasthall.com Rob Greenlee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robgreenlee Rob Greenlee Booking: https://calendly.com/robgreenlee