Why the CIA needs a podcast

by Rhys Waters

Yesterday the Central Intelligence Agency released its first episode of its new podcast 'The Langley Files'. You may be wondering why such a secretive institution is getting into the intimate medium of podcasting? And what does this mean for a new era in podcasting?

In the words of the hosts (Who are introduced on a first name basis only), it's to combat distrust and to demystify the agency. And I can understand why they've launched this show- podcasting is certainly not a place where they have a favourable narrative.

I briefly searched for 'CIA' on Listen Notes, Inc. and got over 10k results for episodes featuring the organization, alongside 418 unofficial podcasts listed as specifically about them.

Some offer keen expert analysis, others are produced lovingly by armchair historians. However a huge chunk are conspiracy driven, accusing the CIA of building a fake moon in partnership with Interdimensional beings, for reasons I'm yet to fully understand.

So it's understandable why the first episode makes a real effort to humanize the people behind the acronym. Setting out a goal of education and reasonable transparency.

This is the moment where we 100% know podcasting is mainstream. Smart Institutions now know that if they don't control their podcast narrative, an army of homegrown experts will.

If your organization needs to own it’s podcast footprint. We’d love to help you get on the right track.