Seeing the evolution of YouTube’s own forays into making branded company podcasts is a fitting parallel with how the company has gotten bolder in its ambitions for audio and video podcasts on the platform.

Like & Describe: The Official YouTube Trends Podcast

Their currently running show is Like & Describe, and while it’s generous to say it’s on a periodic release schedule (Dec, Dec, Apr, Aug), the episodes are worth the wait for the dives into popular and inscrutable niche areas. They’ve covered VTubers, ASMR, and Hip Hop type beats. Host MatPat (Matthew Patrick) and producer Emily Shaw blend the narrative, creator interviews, and a video version that also pulls in relevant YouTube clips and adds some extra waveform and caption graphics. (The show has a handful of additional collaborators, but no transcript to pick up on their names.)

The show is an interesting contrast to YouTube’s prior limited run podcast called The Upload: The Rise of the Creator Economy. That show ran for 5 episodes in Sep-Oct 2021, each of which features a YouTube creator talking about how they’ve built a business from creating. The show is also on YouTube of course, but just has the audio playing over static cover art. With more podcasting-focused product releases coming from YouTube in 2023 and behind, here’s hoping that the branded company podcasts are an ongoing investment as well.