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Ryan
Flashback to about five weeks ago—Michael, Steve, and I were asking ourselves: What can we do to further distribute our content?
AI has introduced some creative solutions over the past year, and we wondered: Can we train a model to produce what we often spend a lot of time writing—content at scale?
So, we did just that. We created a model that produces two AI-generated voices discussing marketing news five days a week. It’s essentially a daily marketing newsletter—in podcast form.
Today, we’re breaking down why we did it, what it means, and what a botcast could be for those listening and watching.
Michael, unpack that a little bit. Can you talk about the why behind this and your vision when we first started?
Michael
Yeah, we’re at an interesting time where we’re trying to find practical use cases for all this new technology. It’s evolving every day.
For the last ten years, I had a weekly podcast, so I knew how much work it was—writing a script, recording, editing, mixing. It’s time-consuming.
We had a podcast before, but we stopped. We were in this in-between period where we knew we should have one, but none of us had time to produce a weekly show. Audio is a tough medium to scale.
One of the biggest factors in growing an audience is volume. If we were only publishing weekly, I knew it wouldn’t pay off in terms of investment. But if we could publish daily? Now, we could start compounding growth—looking more popular to the algorithms, climbing the charts, and building momentum.
But there was no way we were going to record a daily podcast. So, the challenge became: Can we use AI to automate not just the scriptwriting, but the entire production?
And that’s where you came in and figured out how to make it happen.
Stephen
It was definitely a team effort. Between you, Ryan, and Travis—it was a real collaboration.
And huge shoutout to Travis, our copywriter. Every single day, he’s gathering the latest marketing news, sometimes within hours of major events happening—like lawsuits breaking the same day.
We’ve even had moments where we’re able to put out content before traditional news sources. The whole goal is to make sure our listeners get timely, relevant news every morning. There’s no way we could have done that with a traditional podcast model.
Michael
Yeah. I think we should walk through exactly what we’re doing behind the scenes—what we do, and what the robots do.
Stephen
Right. So, Travis is collecting and curating news daily. He runs everything through a set of AI-powered tools that distill the information into key insights and takeaways.
From there, we input that data into our AI model, which generates a fully-produced podcast with two AI hosts having a natural-sounding conversation.
It’s funny—I played some of the early episodes for friends, and they couldn’t tell the difference between the AI voices and real people. If you listen closely, you can pick up on some minor robotic elements, but overall, it’s seamless.
Each of us spends maybe 30 minutes each morning refining and publishing the episode. Then it goes live. It’s a quick, 5- to 8-minute podcast that keeps people informed on the latest marketing news before they even start their workday.
Ryan
And the exciting part for our listeners and viewers today? We’re going to prove that they can do this themselves.
It doesn’t take a huge team to pull off something that seems impossible. People hear "daily podcast" and assume it requires a massive operation. But no—we’ve structured this so that every episode is live by 11:00 AM CST every single day.
Consumer behavior has changed—some people watch, some read, some listen. Why not give them another way to consume content?
We’ll break that down today. But first, let’s talk about the album that inspired this whole project.
We picked it mostly because of its strange cover art—it’s futuristic, foreshadowing, and honestly, a little eerie.
We’re talking about Queen’s News of the World.
Ryan
Musically, the tie-in here is interesting. Michael, this album has incredible songs, but also a really distinct visual. Where do you see the connection between this record and what we’re doing?
Michael
The album art is very robots taking over the world. You open it up, and there’s this massive robot digging into a hole, lifting humans. On the surface, it looks kind, almost innocent.
But the record itself is about the triumph of the human spirit.
You see that theme woven throughout—almost asking: What if the human element disappears? What happens when automation replaces core parts of society?
That’s a question Queen was playing with in the 70s, and it’s a question we’re actively confronting today, in 2024 and 2025.
Ryan
Yeah.
Stephen
Well, what’s interesting is that the artwork actually comes from a sci-fi novel. The band’s drummer—do you remember his name?
Ryan
Oh, this is going to kill me… but go on.
Stephen
So the drummer was a huge sci-fi fan.
When they were recording the album, he remembered the cover of a magazine featuring a short story. The original artwork was very similar to the album cover, but with just one person instead of multiple. The story itself was about humans and robots coexisting.
At the end, there’s a scene where a human is in a spaceship with a robot, flying into deep space. The robot isn’t listening—it’s just following its programmed instructions. The human is unable to move or speak, lying there helplessly. As they drift further into space, the human sees a sign that reads:
"Robots do not care."
That was the story that stuck with the drummer during recording. He insisted they get the same artist to create a version for News of the World, and of course, they did.
Ryan
Wow. That’s a fantastic anecdote. I didn’t realize just how much synergy there is between the album’s concept art and its themes.
Some of the songs on this record are deeply empowering, championing the human spirit. But the visuals? They lean into this fear of the future—of machines taking over.
And let’s not kid ourselves—we’re kind of creating a new category here. By producing a fully AI-generated podcast, we’re saying that "botcasting" could be a competitor to traditional podcasting.
That terrifies a lot of people.
People are asking: Do we even like this? Is this ethically right? Is it taking jobs away?
We’ll tackle those questions today. But first, let’s shift from the big picture to the music itself.
Michael, let’s break down the album.
Michael
What surprised me most is that I wasn’t super familiar with this record before.
We all know Queen’s biggest hits, but I never realized that News of the World starts with "We Will Rock You"—followed immediately by "We Are the Champions."
Like, where do you even go from there?
These songs became so much bigger than the album itself. They don’t even feel like they belong on a single record.
Ryan
Yeah, they feel like their own entities.
Michael
And then the album totally shifts gears.
It takes all these unexpected turns—so many different musical influences. It’s almost like a concept album, but at the same time, it’s a bit of a hodgepodge.
Stephen, you dug into the history of how this record was made. Can you walk us through that?
Stephen
Yeah, so Queen typically spent eight to twelve months recording an album.
Think about something like Bohemian Rhapsody—it had layers upon layers of vocals and instrumentals, and at the time, that kind of multi-tracking was incredibly difficult to pull off.
But with News of the World, they only had a four-month window between tours to record the entire album.
That completely changed their process.
Instead of their usual elaborate arrangements, they stripped things way down.
They had a couple of key goals. One, make their live shows even bigger – They wanted to amplify the audience experience. That’s where "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" come in. Those songs are made for crowd participation. And two, experiment with new influences – At the time, British punk and disco were exploding in popularity. So, you hear these different influences across the album—punk energy in some tracks, disco grooves in others.
They were really throwing everything into the mix.
I mean, I think what’s great, though, is they still have some of their bluesy stuff, you know. They have, like, a piano ballad at the end, which is Freddie Mercury with just his piano and his voice.
So yeah, I know that especially for Queen fans, this one is a little divisive.
It has two of their most popular songs ever, but at the same time, there’s that kind of weird hodgepodge where some people love one or two tracks and don’t care for the others.
Ryan
It’s a fantastic record, because eventually Queen did—if you remember listening to the radio, they would actually put these songs together, right?
They would crossfade between "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" because, to your point, they almost stand independent of the album. They’re so prolific that they exist outside of News of the World as their own thing.
I don’t know how you come back from that. It’s one of the greatest starts to any album—when your first two tracks travel across decades and still resonate. How many artists can say that?
And then it ends with such beauty and depth.
There’s a track called All Dead, All Dead that felt like a variation of We Are the Champions.
I thought it was cool because it wasn’t a straight-up attempt to replicate a hit single, but they knew they could stay within these creative guardrails. It fits in naturally with the rest of the record.
I admire that. It didn’t feel like one of those gimmicky, "Let’s rewrite our last hit song and cash in" moves. Instead, they stayed true to themselves and to the moment.
There’s one little anecdote I wanted to share—
My dad was a former athlete, and his team won a state championship. What was the first thing they did? They called into the local radio station and requested We Are the Champions.
Imagine these small-town kids, living this incredible, emotionally charged moment, and then that song comes on.
Think about the impact We Are the Champions has had—not just for my dad, but for so many others. It became an anthem for triumph, celebration, and human resilience.
That’s the power of a song.
Michael
So I wonder—did they know what they had with these two tracks?
Because if they did, wouldn’t they have put one of them at the end of the album?
If We Will Rock You or We Are the Champions had been a closer, it would have given people something to look forward to. Instead, you start with these two absolute giants, and then the rest of the album has to follow that.
I just wonder if they realized the impact these two songs were going to have. If they had, maybe they would have structured the album differently.
Stephen
Yeah, like, why not make one of them a closer?
Ryan
Yeah, that would have been a smart move.
Stephen
It would have been just as epic—probably even more so.
And at that time, albums were listened to in full. You weren’t skipping around like people do now. So it could have been a great way to get listeners to go through the whole record.
Ryan
That’s a prime example of the old-school A-side/B-side experience.
Flip the record over and suddenly, We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions are on opposite sides. That would have been incredible.
And you asked if they knew what they had—well, going back to Bohemian Rhapsody, Freddie Mercury knew immediately.
He wrote it, he finished it, and he said, "This is the song."
The record label didn’t agree with him at all. They didn’t believe in it. But Queen stood their ground. They said, "This is the song, and if you don’t back it, we won’t move forward together."
So I actually give them credit. I bet they did know what they had with We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions.
They chose to front-load the album with them, for one reason or another. But hey, here we are, still talking about it.
And if the 1.44 billion streams on We Will Rock You are any indication—it worked.
Ryan
All right. That was a fun music breakdown. The album is as much about its visuals as it is about its sound.
But let’s get back to botcasting vs. podcasting. We’re here today, producing a podcast for marketers by marketers. But we’re also creating a side project—robots talking about the biggest marketing news of the day.
Steve, do you think this is the right format for the future?
Do you think this is the best way to communicate with our audience—and maybe even for others to do the same?
Stephen
Yeah, it's definitely a tool. I mean, that for me is really kind of how I view AI in general. I mean, obviously being a video guy, there's the whole editing debate—Final Cut or Premiere? DaVinci? You know, those types of things. And to me, I've always viewed those things as a tool, and you pick the right tool to get the job done.
And so I would say it's really the same with podcasting. I mean, again, there's no way—we’re human people talking on a podcast right now, encouraging people to maybe create a botcast.
But there is something very different about us as humans talking about our experiences, our opinions, and that resonating with another human versus a botcast that can take large or small amounts of information and distill it down very quickly.
I can see all sorts of applications for something like this. Even on a website, if someone doesn't have time to read a full article, or if you need to simplify a very complex topic.
Even for accessibility reasons, I could see this being valuable. So I think it's definitely a tool you should have in your tool belt, and then find a way to make it work for you.
Michael
Yeah.
Ryan
Similarly, I’m curious about your thoughts as we talk about the expansion of content and its consumption. Does it have a place?
Michael
Yeah, yeah. I mean, we might be creating like a digital wasteland here, but—
Ryan
To be determined.
Michael
But I think the medium we approached this with was the right one.
We kept human involvement at the strategic level—deciding what news is important, what news needs to be in today’s morning podcast. That part we have not automated away.
But where we did automate was the delivery.
What used to take four hours to write a script, another hour to record, and another to mix down—now takes 30 minutes of processing time. And during that processing time, we don’t even have to do much other than check it.
It feels like this is where parts of work will go—where we have human input at the top, quality control at the bottom, and automation in the middle.
And this isn’t something that would have existed otherwise. We don’t have the bandwidth to do a daily marketing podcast. But now we do.
Could this be as good as The Daily? Probably not. Stiff competition.
But can you learn something from it? Can you get the information you want in the medium you prefer, faster than yesterday? Absolutely.
So it feels like the right tool for what we’re trying to accomplish.
Ryan
Yeah, I wouldn’t disagree.
And it’s hard to argue with the numbers—back in 2023, we saw the digital audio medium grow by almost 19% year over year.
The way people consume content has fundamentally changed. It’s about meeting them where they are.
Are they on a run? On a walk? Doing something else?
This gives them an opportunity to interface with our content at a time that works for them.
And that’s what’s most important for the listener or viewer—this is a way to connect with your audience, both active customers and future customers, in a way that matches their needs.
It helps build trust.
Even though we have robots speaking on our behalf, like you said, we’re running the information through filters. We’re making sure everything is accurate, factual, and not hyperbolic.
It’s done with the right intent, so we can do it programmatically every day. And with a small team—this isn’t some massive operation. A lot of our customers, and future customers, could do this as well.
Digital audio is continuing to grow, and for those investing in it, it could be the forefront of a really bright future.
Stephen
Yeah.
Michael
And we keep hearing more about smaller teams, one-person companies, and the value of doing more with less.
These types of initiatives enable that. You don’t need to outsource everything or have a large team to still meet your customers where they are.
Ryan
Yeah.
Michael
And hopefully, that’s the capability this opens up.
I don’t think we’re replacing human podcasting. If this was an advice show, or if the format was different, it wouldn’t work the same way.
And that’s why we’re doing both. We’re doing this—a human, conversational podcast. And we’re doing the informational botcast. We’re using AI for what it’s actually good at today.
Hopefully, it expands human potential in a way that enables smaller companies to reach their audience in a more scalable way.
But I don’t think it replaces what they do. It’s not the core of the business, but it can be complementary.
Ryan
I agree.
And in a world that’s so noisy, the frequency of communication is critical.
This gives us a way to connect with our audience daily or weekly, depending on business needs.
That’s a huge advantage over some other content formats. No offense to video, but it has a longer production cycle.
Here, we have something that’s almost instant—something that gives you a daily or weekly touchpoint with your audience.
It’s a connected experience. And for businesses that rely on lead acquisition through social channels—what a great asset to put in front of that lead ask.
"Let’s share information. But first, let me give you something valuable in return—something that makes your day easier."
If they keep coming back to consume, the relationship fundamentally changes. So I think one of the greatest advantages of AI is not just how we use it, but how frequently we can deploy it.
Michael
I think we've leaned into it a bit, too. I don't know how you feel when you listen to it. Sometimes there are imperfections, right? Little glitches, and you’re like, oh yeah, there it is. Yep. Do you want to edit those out when you hear them?
Stephen
I would love if we got to a point where there were two separate audio channels for each speaker so I could clean some of that up. But yeah, honestly, part of it used to annoy me right away. And now I’m like, you know what? It’s part of the charm.
You kind of just expect it. And in a way, I think of it as a watermark—like how people talk about AI-generated art or video and say, "Well, we need a way to identify it."
This is the watermark. You hear these two voices stumbling over each other, little quirks in how the AI is processing. I kind of love leaving it in there. But yes, the audio editor in me is like—
Ryan
Oh, I wish I could fix that.
Michael
I was curious because I feel the same way. It’s like a little nod to what this really is.
Stephen
Yeah, exactly.
Michael
Yeah. It’s just an algorithm piecing everything together. And it glitches too—thus, The Glitch Report.
Ryan
Yeah, the title of it. You’ve actually sent me some funny outtakes where it just freaks out—like these weird cackles and artificial-sounding moments.
But we laugh at those. Like you said, it’s kind of the fun in this. If you take this work too seriously, I think you’re going to get it wrong. AI technology is here to stay, but it’s still evolving. If you embrace it and allow for some rough edges, your success can actually be more viable.
Michael
Yeah.
Stephen
And to your earlier point, I think it’s part of the fun of being on the leading edge of these tools.
Yeah, they’re not perfect. We see the imperfections. But at the same time, we’re also problem-solving and finding where they can be useful faster than others.
Anyone who waits too long to experiment with this is going to fall behind.
We had Thomas Nolan here earlier, and he was talking about how they’re trying to figure out safe ways to use AI—not spending too much time on it, but using it to become more efficient.
And if you’re not doing that, you’re going to miss out.
Like you both said, this botcast is something we wouldn’t have been able to produce without these tools.
And it is creating value. Without the tool, we couldn’t do it. Now that we have it, if we weren’t investing in this, we wouldn’t be putting this piece out. So I think anyone who’s not at least dipping their toes in is going to feel left behind.
Michael
Yeah.
Ryan
Yeah. I mean, the word "progress" lives inside of "progressive," right?
We talk about that a lot. Do you see this as progress, or do you see this as vanity work, Michael?
Michael
I mean, right now, it’s a little bit of both.
Ryan
We don’t know yet.
Michael
I think part of it is pushing ourselves. Part of it is experimenting. And from the start, we said—this might fail. People might hate it. I don’t think it would ruin the brand.
Ryan
Right. Yes.
Michael
But it felt like enough of a risk that there could be a payoff—where podcasting could become huge, where we’re able to get information almost instantly in whatever medium we want. So to play around at the forefront, to your point, seemed worth it.
But it absolutely could fail. And I think we’re okay with that. Let’s try this, let’s push ourselves, and maybe we’ll learn something along the way—maybe even things we don’t realize yet.
I think there are different elements to this. We tried to push it to the extreme—what’s the minimum human effort we can put in and still get an output we’re satisfied with? But you could break this down in other ways. You could write the script yourself and have AI voice it. If you don’t have a co-host, you could automate that. There are different pieces you could swap out to automate.
What we tried to do was create the most extreme version we could actually put into production today—and still be okay with. And we’re learning in real time. What’s working? What’s not? What types of stories hit? How much editing do we actually need to do? What are we satisfied with?
So it’s a bit of an unknown. I don’t think I have a clear answer yet. But part of it is about experimenting and seeing where it takes us. Maybe we’ll discover something new. And part of it is just raw efficiency. We’re really automating daily marketing news. I don’t know of another podcast that can deliver real-time news by 11 a.m. that isn’t from a major news outlet.
Ryan
Yeah, yeah, I think that’s a credit to the idea itself. And it’s about creating scalable processes. Small, mighty teams can accomplish what we’ve done.
And as much as we want to sit here and talk about it, we’ll put a bow on this conversation by saying—try it for yourself. It’s The Glitch Report. You can find it on any podcasting platform.
Challenge yourself—does it break what we think of as a podcast? Where does it work? Is it enough? Does it cross the morality line too far? We think we’ve found a nice little sweet spot. But at the end of the day, we only know so much. The audience will tell us more over time.
Steve, thanks for coming from behind the camera to in front of the camera. Your anecdote about Queen was fantastic. And more importantly, thanks for showing that any team can do what we’re doing today. It might work even better for them than it does for us. Or maybe it won’t work at all. Time will tell.
Stephen
Absolutely.
Get The Latest Marketing Insights With a Musical Twist
Subscribe to On the Record, the hard-hitting podcast that combines valuable marketing insights with classic music with surprising results.
