Driven to Discover Podcast

This quarter, Driven to Discover produced two episodes and achieved 296 downloads. In all, nine episodes of the podcast have been produced since the show’s launch in Jan 2023, for an average download rate of 125 per episode.

The Driven to Discover podcast demonstrates the global impact of UB faculty researchers, builds internal pride, and raises awareness among researchers at peer institutions through candid conversations with UB researchers about their inspirations and goals.

Our hosting platform, Buzzsprout, is one of the biggest in the world, with 123,000+ active shows on their platform. Per their data, any podcast that achieves 33 downloads within the first seven days of launch is within the top 50% of podcasts. Every episode of Driven to Discover surpassed that benchmark by a wide margin, including the two launched in Q2. The top-performing podcast this quarter, AI for Social Good, achieved 68 downloads in the first seven days.

Episode 8 (Cannabis Legalization), which launched two months before the end of Q2, achieved 103 downloads by the end of Q2 and was listened to in nine countries. Episode 9 (AI for Social Good), which launched one month before the end of Q2, achieved 109 downloads by the end of Q2 and was listened to in 13 countries. Overall, Driven to Discover achieved 1,127 downloads by the end of Q2 and was being listened to in 36 countries on six continents.

Driven to Discover reaches listeners through 12 apps (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Buzzsprout, Podcast Index, Amazon Music, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, Pocket Casts, Deezer, Listen Notes and Player FM) in addition to UBNow. The top apps/platforms this quarter, in order, were UBNow (46%), Apple Podcasts (19%), Buzzsprout (9%) and Spotify (7%). The top device was Apple iPhone (41%) and top category was mobile (50%).