With 464.7 million podcast listeners as of 2023, podcasts are becoming more popular within the media, increasing 37% since 2020. The cheapness and accessibility of making podcasts has made it an industry run by normal people talking about their interests or educating others. However, the podcast industry is beginning to change with a new trend growing in popularity: celebrity podcasts.
One of the most prominent celebrity podcasts currently is “Anything Goes with Emma Chamberlain.” After leaving the YouTube scene, Chamberlain’s fans were ecstatic to have another form of content where they could tune in with their favorite influencer, but the podcast revealed itself to be not what they expected.
Chamberlain grew her fame off of her relatable YouTube content, but once she reached celebrity status, she lost what connected her to her audience. Fans soon began to realize Chamberlain’s podcasts were no longer relatable as she would give advice to her audience that was out of touch.
This podcast often gave advice which would approve of failing school and taking breaks from work. This advice could work for few, but many do not have the privilege to fail at school or to take breaks. After hearing Chamberlain give tips on how to be successful, many fans were enraged because her unique circumstances of being a celebrity made her successful, not her advice.
Junior Ella Gambong, a longtime Chamberlain fan, found many problems in her podcast. “The basis of her podcast is just her talking about her life and experiences, but the fact that none of those experiences are normal or relatable to the average person makes the podcast feel less interesting,” Gambong conveyed. “She built a fanbase off of her relatability, and then lost what made people like her in the first place.”
Many other celebrity podcasts, like “Hot Mess with Alix Earle” are revealing themselves to be similar in nature to Chamberlain’s. More celebrities are exposing themselves to be out of touch with their average listeners because of the amount of money they have.
It is common knowledge that celebrities are rich and their status means they do not live the same lives as normal people. The influx of celebrities going on podcasts to talk about their struggles that are just not comparable to the average person is further proving their disconnection from a realistic life.
Junior Sara Phipps has witnessed many influencers and celebrities exposing themselves on podcasts. “Celebrities will go on podcasts and complain about their hard day answering emails or going to a PR event, but for a normal person hard days consist of eight hour shifts,” Phipps continued. “They don’t realize how easy their life is compared to the majority of people.”
Another main issue with the increase of celebrity podcasts is they often have no substance. The topics being discussed are not educational and often not entertaining. It is apparent that celebrities simply realized podcasts are an easy way to make revenue and decided to pursue it.
“Most of the time I feel like they talk about the most random, uninteresting, irrelevant things to put out, and they know people will listen regardless because they already have fanbases,” Phipps explained.
This change is affecting the podcasts industry as a whole. What once was an industry that was accessible for people of all backgrounds is becoming oversaturated with celebrities wanting to make more money. This results in non-celebrity podcasters who have substantial things to say or rely on podcasting for income to get overlooked.
Celebrities are using podcasts to appeal to their audiences and push parasocial relationships by acting like they are just friends in a conversation, but it often results in the opposite. Fans are just beginning to realize the out of touch nature of their favorite celebrities, and the social divide between the ultra rich and the average person is becoming more apparent.
