Guy Raz

It’s hard to keep up with all of the tools for creating content. One week, there’s a new AI editor. The next, someone is building entire online communities. On Friday’s Podcasting Morning Chat, our roundtable shared the tools we actually use and love right now, both AI and traditional. Here are some favorites and what they do well: 🎙️ AI Tools We’re Loving... ChatGPT → our go-to for brainstorming, sponsor deck ideas, and podcast email drafts. Claude → great for structure, logic, and content generation. Resound → a first-pass audio editor that saves hours of cleanup time. Sora → an easy way to create AI-driven video clips and b-roll Sobol Audio Bundle → simple AI plugins for cleaning up sound on a budget. 🎧 Non-AI Tools Still Going Strong... Audacity → free, reliable, and getting a big 2025 upgrade. Go High Level → an all-in-one hub for community, automation, and marketing. School and Kajabi → solid options for paid communities and membership spaces. TextExpander → use hotkeys for repeated text and outreach templates. E-Camm Live and Stream Deck → an ideal combo for creators who go live. The biggest takeaway from this chat was the reminder that tools are only as useful as the intention behind them. When you know what you need, it’s easier to find what actually helps. What’s one podcasting tool you rely on every week, and why? #Podcasting #CreatorTools #AIPodcasting #ContentStrategy #PodcastTips

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No phones. Chatham House Rule. Ben Affleck was the star attraction. A private group of executives, lawyers, agents, producers and technologists recently gathered at AFI in Los Angeles to discuss the state of AI. I wasn’t invited. Neither were you. But the meeting raised a question I can’t shake: Everyone in legacy media says they’re using AI—but few can explain how. Which systems? Which tools? What does the actual workflow look like? I’m more interested in AI-assisted filmmaking than purely generative AI, especially following Netflix’s purchase of Affleck’s InterPositive and the launch of Ryan Kavanaugh’s new company, Acme. So I looked under the hood. I examined how these systems work and spoke with an independent filmmaker building an indie version of the assisted-AI production stack. The gap between the public conversation and what’s actually being built is revealing. Here’s what I found—and where this may be headed -- link in the comments!

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Do you know "the math?" The math shows up in every area of funding, making, marketing, and distributing a movie. Let's take marketing as an example: Say you want to get 100,000 people to see your movie in theaters opening weekend (a $1M+ box office, likely in the top 10 for the weekend). If 5% of the people who heard about your movie bought a ticket, that would be a huge win. This is across all channels - social and ads will likely be < 1%, where your email list could be as high as 20%. If you're relying *strictly* on social media followers and ads to get people to theaters, you'll need TEN MILLION PEOPLE to know your movie exists. That can be anything from an engaged follower to someone who flicks past your ad on Instagram or Facebook. Yes. 10. Million. People. Now, maybe you lean more towards the email end of the spectrum and build an engaged email list. To get 100,000 people out opening weekend, at a 20% conversion rate (being *very* generous here...), you'll need 500 THOUSAND people on your email list. Yes. Again. 500 Thousand. That's if every single one of them sees your marketing. It's more likely that only 30-50% of your list sees each message you send out, so you'll need to send many many messages over many many months to get 20% of your people to want to come see the movie in theaters. We haven't even talked about the actual marketing campaigns, the imagery, the content, the messaging or positioning. That all speaks to *why* someone would want to see your movie in theaters. But if you have ALL of that stuff and ignore THE MATH, then you won't get the outcome you're looking for. We implemented this thinking on day one of Brotherhood. We know we need to reach TENS OF MILLIONS of people. We don't have the budget to do that in the month before the film comes out, so we're spending almost a YEAR marketing the film. We don't start filming until mid-April, but already we have hundreds of thousands of impressions and thousands of people that we're reaching with each of our posts. Playbill, Broadway World, and Reforma have all shared our press releases or articles about our actors and our movie. That's what marketing from day one buys you - a longer runway, more time to build relationships with media outlets, and more time for word of mouth to work it's magic. Now, you may have guessed I/we have a bigger goal for Brotherhood. I don't know if I've publicly shared it, but I want 1 MILLION people to see the film in theaters opening weekend. (So multiply all that earlier math by 10...) That's going to take a lot of focus and effort and leverage, but we have time and we have an amazing team. If you set big goals, that helps you focus on the actions and activities that will actually get you there. We can already see how our work is compounding week over week, and how the word is spreading on this amazing project. Can't wait to see how it all comes together this year.

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Bill Magnuson, CEO of Braze, says the "SaaSocalypse" fears are overblown. Braze closed its fiscal year with over 50% bookings growth, driven by an AI roadmap launched at its Forge conference. He argues that agentic AI workflows require high-performance, reliable platforms — Braze's decade of scale infrastructure now accelerates those workflows. He highlights cultural moments like the World Cup as proof that real-time agility can't be DIY'd. Full Fortt Knox conversation linked in the comments:

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If you wonder why so much content sounds the same these days, and why the system has broken incentives, try running your posts through #AI. Here is ChatGPT’s helpful feedback on my Substack account: --- The problem: Low engagement velocity (comments/notes/restacks) → Substack doesn’t amplify. Posts are being consumed privately, not socially. You’re writing like an essayist; Substack rewards instigators. What’s missing: A reason to respond. Most posts end thoughtfully, not provocatively. Fewer moments that say: “argue with me / add your example / pick a side.” Why “A great year ahead…” stalled Smart, generous, sane — but not polarizing. --- Ha - I’m making that my new bio- I will take smart, generous, sane over polarizing every time. Wanna fight about that? Of course, not every opinion has to be polarizing, but this is the basis of discoverability and engagement on social media. Study after study has confirmed this - and what it does to discourse. What if we all hovered over slightly less controversial posts - and commented positively a bit more often? Would the algorithms change? #social #algorithms #discoverability #rage

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If you need REAL API access to Seedance 2.0 or are exploring it seriously, feel free to connect or message me, and I will connect you directly with the ByteDance API Team! We've seen the drama with Seedance's release and it's back and forth revocations. Turns out it requires vpns, region locks and less than ideal workarounds, which isn't a sustainable strategy. Talking directly to the Bytedance API team is the right move. My experience has been excellent so far. Strong support, and a real focus on helping creators and studios integrate it properly. One thing I’ve noticed while using it in real production is that Seedance is often misunderstood when people compare pricing or generation counts. In practice, it behaves much more like a cinematography engine than a simple clip generator. In my workflow, it’s become one of the tools I’m comfortable placing alongside the top models in terms of quality. The visual consistency, camera movement, and the way it handles multi-shot sequences fit naturally into a production pipeline instead of feeling like isolated clips that need heavy patchwork afterward. Where it really surprised me is the native audio. The native voice and sound generation are genuinely impressive. When you’re building narrative scenes, that changes the workflow in a meaningful way, fewer steps, fewer tools, and a process that feels closer to filmmaking rather than stitching together fragments across multiple systems. Something else I’ve learned while integrating these tools: They work best when used at the right moments in the pipeline. Not every shot needs the same system. What I’m seeing more and more …and what’s working well for me….is a hybrid approach: 
• Higher-cinematic models for hero shots and dialogue scenes 
• Other models for coverage, extensions, or transitions 
• Bringing everything together in post When you approach it this way, the cost, time, and output quality start to line up. From my experience so far, this has been one of the most useful tools available right now. It’s saved me a significant amount of time in production and has quickly become something I rely on regularly. Wolf Mike Mozart, Message Me! PS: this is me at 16 years old with my Yamaha Enduro SD 175 in Rural Maine

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New Episode! "Where Podcasting Scales: AI Clips, Ira Glass, and TYT’s Next Chapter" Headliner is pushing podcast automation forward with its new YouTube Video Clips Automation, turning any YouTube Podcast Playlist into nonstop, styled, captioned, auto‑published clips — freeing creators from the busywork and keeping shows growing on their own. At Podcast Week’s kickoff, Ira Glass reminded the Sounds Profitable crowd of “what podcasts do better,” arguing that deeper storytelling creates deeper listener connections — and stronger ad performance. And TYT is making a major business move, naming Airwave its exclusive ad‑sales partner across key podcast, video, and live inventory, including GAM360 on YouTube. With Airwave scaling its sales team and TYT entering a new commercial chapter, both companies say the partnership is built for ambitious growth. A fast hit of the tools, the craft, and the deals shaping podcasting right now.

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