Nadia: Substack is paying podcasters two hundred million dollars a year.
Russ: [beat] Right. I'm Russ.
Nadia: And I'm Nadia. It's Sunday, September 20th, 2026, and this is Feed Drop.
Russ: Coming up, we're tracking the money from indie creators all the way to Hollywood blockbusters.
Nadia: Substack is making its biggest play for audio yet.
Russ: Then, we've got a whole country getting into the venture capital game for media. Yes, a country.
Nadia: And we'll get to why an Avenger is assembling to fight a major studio merger.
Nadia: So let's start with Substack. They just rolled out a dedicated podcast tab in their app.
Russ: A tab. Is that it? My podcast player is all tabs. Why is this news?
Nadia: It’s the money, Russ. That's the news. Podnews is reporting that creators on the platform are now pulling in a combined two hundred million a year from podcasting.
Russ: Two hundred million. Okay.
Nadia: It's way more than okay! It's a huge win for direct subscriptions. This isn't ad money—this is listeners paying creators. The new tab is just Substack's way of trying to keep that whole ecosystem inside their app.
Russ: But is it, though? Or does this just mean more podcasts are going to vanish behind a paywall in an app I don't use? Is this good for listeners, or just for Substack and a few top-tier writers?
Nadia: It's great for creators who want to own their audience and get paid. For listeners, it's a way to support the shows you love directly. But yeah, the trade-off is fragmentation. One more app, one more feed.
Russ: So now I have to check Spotify, Apple Podcasts, AND Substack just to see what's new. That sounds... worse.
Nadia: That's the trade. The big platforms aggregate; Substack is betting on the individual. And that two-hundred-million-dollar number says the bet is paying off.
Russ: Alright, let's pivot from the creator economy to... the national economy? Nadia, what is this SETT thing?
Nadia: SETT is a new venture capital fund with a huge twist: it's being launched by the Spanish government. It's a sovereign fund using public money to invest in media and tech.
Russ: Wait, the Spanish government is becoming a VC? To make... TV shows and podcasts? [laughs] What could possibly go wrong?
Nadia: They're taking it very seriously. It’s being unveiled at the San Sebastián Film Festival, and according to Variety, the goal is to boost Spain's media industry into a global player, especially for the Spanish-speaking world.
Russ: I just picture shows being approved by committee. 'The Undersecretary of Digital Infrastructure would like a note on the second act.' No thanks.
Nadia: That's the easy cynical take. But the people in charge, Javier Ponce and María Coronado, are industry vets. The idea is to offer patient capital for big, ambitious projects so they can actually compete with Netflix.
Russ: So for a podcaster, what does this mean? Can I fly to Madrid and get a bag of money from the government?
Nadia: I mean, if you have a killer Spanish-language project with global appeal... maybe! It means a massive new money source just hit the market, and it's looking specifically for Spanish-language content. That's a huge deal.
Russ: I'll believe it when I hear a hit show that came out of it. Until then, it just sounds like a very strange jobs program.
Nadia: Okay, on to another strange crossover: Hollywood activism and antitrust law.
Russ: Ah yes, Mark Ruffalo versus Paramount. Is he Hulking out on a boardroom?
Nadia: You could say that. He's publicly calling on California's Attorney General, Rob Bonta, not to settle the antitrust lawsuit over the sale of Paramount to Skydance.
Russ: Okay, but... why? Does Mark Ruffalo have a law degree I don't know about? What's his stake in this?
Nadia: He's coming at this as a union member. The worry is media consolidation—fewer big studios means fewer buyers for scripts, fewer jobs for actors and directors... less competition just means worse deals for creators.
Russ: Right, but does this actually affect me, the person listening to a podcast on my phone? Paramount makes movies. This feels like a rich-person problem.
Nadia: Oh, it absolutely affects you. Paramount isn't just movies—they own CBS News, Pluto TV, and a huge podcasting arm through Simon & Schuster and CBS. A merger concentrates all that power. Variety quoted Ruffalo telling the AG directly: 'Don't You Dare Settle... Do Not Cave.'
Russ: So the argument is that if Skydance buys Paramount, my favorite CBS podcast might get canceled or the host gets a pay cut?
Nadia: That's the fear, exactly. Less competition at the top trickles all the way down. You get fewer independent voices and more corporate control. Ruffalo's using his platform to make sure the Attorney General—and us—don't forget that.
Russ: I guess when you put it like that... fine. Go get 'em, Hulk.
Nadia: Alright, let's do a quick recap.
Russ: Substack has a new podcast tab, and they're waving around a $200 million annual payout number to get you to use it.
Nadia: The government of Spain is now a venture capitalist, with its sights set on the global media market.
Russ: And Mark Ruffalo is fighting to stop the Paramount merger, arguing it's bad for creators and, eventually, for all of us.
Nadia: One last thing before we go. That Podnews story we mentioned? It was sponsored by The Podglomerate.
Russ: [laughs] The ones with the free guide to 'turn your downloads into dollars'? On a story about a $200 million creator payout? That's not subtle.
Nadia: Not subtle at all. But hey, you gotta respect the hustle. They know their audience.
Nadia: What we're actually listening to: I'm deep into 'The Evaporated,' a new series about the people in Japan who vanish without a trace. It's haunting.
Russ: Adding it to my list. That's our show for today. This has been Feed Drop. Maybe Mark Ruffalo will be my first guest when I launch my antitrust show.
This show is made with AI: the hosts’ voices are synthetic and the scripts are AI-assisted. Every story links to its original source.