Nadia: They’re calling it a ‘dial flipper’ app. As in, you just... turn a knob to find a new podcast.
Russ: So, it's radio. For podcasts.
Nadia: This is Nadia.
Russ: And I'm Russ. It's Thursday, October 29th, 2026, and you're listening to Feed Drop.
Nadia: On the show today...
Nadia: A new app wants to solve podcast discovery by bringing back the good old radio dial.
Russ: Spotify is relaunching its creator subscription tools... again. Is this the one that's finally going to stick?
Nadia: And we'll get into why Jimmy Fallon and Jamie Lee Curtis are spoofing Nathan Fielder and Elizabeth Holmes on The Tonight Show.
Nadia: Alright, let's start with discovery. There's a new app in beta being called a ‘dial flipper’ for podcasts.
Russ: I’m still stuck on this. You just... twist a virtual knob and it plays a random show?
Nadia: Essentially. The idea, according to Podnews, is to bring back serendipity instead of algorithms. No recommendations, no ‘you might also like,’ just pure channel-surfing.
Russ: So I could land on a show with three episodes from 2017 about competitive dog grooming?
Nadia: You absolutely could. That’s the point! It’s for when you want to hear something genuinely new, not just what a platform's algorithm thinks you want.
Russ: But what if what I want is something... good? This feels like a solution for an industry problem, not a listener problem. I'm not actually desperate to find bad podcasts.
Nadia: But for indie creators, this could be huge. It puts them on the same playing field as the big networks, at least in this app. If your show gets served up, you have a chance to hook a listener who would have never found you otherwise.
Russ: So what's in it for me, the listener who actively wants to avoid a ten-year-old dog grooming show?
Nadia: It means if you're feeling adventurous, you have a new toy to play with. A low-stakes way to break out of your listening bubble. Think of it like spinning a globe and just pointing your finger.
Russ: Okay, fine. As long as I can spin it again. Fast.
Russ: Alright, next up... Nadia, please tell me Spotify isn't rebranding their creator subscriptions again.
Nadia: They are, but they swear it’s more than a rebrand. The old Spotify Memberships tool is getting a real upgrade. According to their blog post, they’re adding subscriber-only badges, different access tiers, and a new name they haven't shared yet.
Russ: Badges? Are we in the Girl Scouts? Do I get a badge for 'Listened To 100 Bonus Episodes'?
Nadia: I doubt it. It's supposed to create a visual sense of community. The real news is the tier system. Creators can now offer, say, a five-dollar tier for bonus episodes and a ten-dollar tier for that plus a monthly AMA.
Russ: Right. Like Patreon has been doing for a decade. So Spotify is just… catching up?
Nadia: It's catching up, but on the platform where 400 million people already are. That’s the key. Removing the friction of going to a second site, like Patreon, to pay. Spotify is betting that convenience will unlock a lot more money for creators.
Russ: And Spotify gets a cut of that, I assume?
Nadia: Of course. The rates haven't changed, but yes, they get their piece.
Russ: So what's the bottom line for me? Is my favorite indie podcaster going to be forced into this?
Nadia: Nobody's forced. But if you listen on Spotify, supporting your favorite shows might get a lot easier. For creators, it's another big decision: do you bet on Spotify's massive audience, stick with an open platform like Patreon, or try to do both?
Russ: Doing both sounds exhausting.
Nadia: It is. But that's the creator economy.
Nadia: Okay, for our last story, podcast culture had a very weird moment on The Tonight Show this week.
Russ: Okay... is this another celebrity-reads-a-script podcast deal?
Nadia: Not quite. According to Variety, Jimmy Fallon and Jamie Lee Curtis did a whole sketch spoofing the A24 documentary 'You Can See Everything.'
Russ: Wait— Fallon played Nathan Fielder, and Jamie Lee Curtis played Elizabeth Holmes? The Theranos founder?
Nadia: Exactly. They recreated the whole look and feel of that documentary, which itself is about Fielder interviewing people from his own show. It's just layers on layers of meta.
Russ: That sounds... incredibly weird and specific for a mainstream late-night show. Did it actually land?
Nadia: Apparently, yes! The clip is going viral. And what's wild is that the joke only works if the audience knows who Nathan Fielder and Elizabeth Holmes are, and gets the whole A24 documentary vibe. That's all stuff that grew directly out of podcasting and streaming.
Russ: So this is proof that our weird little audio world has officially infected the brains of network television producers.
Nadia: That's one way to put it. It just means your niche obsessions are now officially mainstream comedy. The wall between 'podcast culture' and just 'culture' is basically gone.
Russ: I don't know if I'm ready for a primetime parody of my favorite history podcast, but I am definitely going to watch Jamie Lee Curtis do the Elizabeth Holmes voice.
Nadia: Alright, to quickly recap...
Russ: A new app wants you to find podcasts by spinning a virtual radio dial.
Nadia: Spotify is, once again, upgrading its tools for creators to earn money directly from fans.
Russ: And Jimmy Fallon and Jamie Lee Curtis are doing performance art about podcast-adjacent celebrities on late night TV.
Nadia: And before we go, Russ, what are you actually listening to?
Russ: I just started 'The Rest is History' deep dive on the fall of the Roman Empire. It's about a hundred parts, it is totally un-discoverable by a 'dial flipper,' and it's fantastic.
Nadia: I'll add it to the list. And that's our show!
Russ: Thanks for listening to Feed Drop. We'll be back tomorrow. Try not to get stuck on one station.
This show is made with AI: the hosts’ voices are synthetic and the scripts are AI-assisted. Every story links to its original source.