The corporate podcasting boom may be ending, not with a too-long preamble before the guest, but a whimper. Spotify announced yesterday that it will lay off about 600 employees, or 6% of its workforce, in the latest Big Tech recession hedge. The shakeup could signal a pivot in the company’s podcast strategy.

Like most of the other major tech companies making cuts, Spotify cited overly ambitious pandemic growth as the primary cause, and CEO Daniel Ek took “full accountability.” Along with the layoffs, Ek announced a major departure from the audio streamer: Chief Content Officer Dawn Ostroff, who was the driving force behind the company’s $1+ billion podcasting arms race to sign deals with companies like Gimlet and high-profile talent like Barack and Michelle Obama, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and Joe Rogan.

Although the layoffs don’t specifically target Spotify’s podcasting staff, the departure of Ostroff is yet another sign that the company is slowing down its full-steam-ahead approach to the space. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Spotify froze its US budget for new podcasts. The company also didn’t re-up its exclusive deal with Brené Brown, and back in October it pulled 11 originals from the platform.

Overzealous for pods

The podcast megadeals of the pandemic may have been premature—podcasting made up just 7% of total listening on Spotify in Q1 2022, the company said, despite the massive investment in tentpole shows. And the exclusive show model that makes popular shows available only to subscribers of a given streamer hasn’t proven wildly successful. The Gimlet and Parcast unions announced that making certain shows Spotify exclusives reduced their listenership by as much as 75% in some instances.

Zoom out: Sirius XM and Amazon Music have also hit the brakes on pods, reducing signing offers and increasing their share of advertising revenue. On the whole, 2022 just wasn’t the best year to talk into a microphone. According to data compiled by Chartr, the number of new shows created last year dropped 80% from 2020.—MK

Another mass shooting in California leaves seven dead. In the second mass shooting in the state in three days, seven people were killed yesterday in California’s Half Moon Bay. The victims were Chinese farmworkers, according to a local official, and 67-year-old Half Moon Bay resident Zhao Chunli was arrested in connection with the attack. The incident came as authorities continued to investigate the motives of the 72-year-old shooter who killed 11 people at a ballroom dance studio in Monterey Park during a Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday night before being disarmed by an employee at a second dance studio and dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Covid shots might get more like flu shots. The FDA released a proposal yesterday to streamline the immunization schedule for Covid-19 that would treat the jab like your annual flu vaccine. As with the flu, a group of experts would meet yearly to determine which variants should be targeted, and then a once-a-year shot would be made available to the public. The agency is mulling the shift at a moment when only 15% of Americans who are eligible for the most recent Covid booster shot have gotten one. On Thursday an FDA committee will vote on whether to recommend the plan.

ChatGPT passes one business school exam, gets billions in investment. Microsoft announced yesterday that it had made a “multiyear, multibillion dollar investment” in OpenAI, the company behind the ChatGPT chatbot whose latest accomplishment is getting a grade in the B range on a Wharton Business School test. The Windows-maker—which recently laid off 10,000 humans and wants to use the AI to make Bing a real competitor to Google, among other things—didn’t give an exact figure for how much its sinking into the business, but earlier reports said it was looking to invest ~$10 billion on top of the $1 billion it already gave OpenAI in 2019.

A murder trial fit for a true crime podcast began yesterday (those are still a thing, right?). Alex Murdaugh, a prominent lawyer and the scion of an important South Carolina legal dynasty, is accused of murdering his wife and son. The trial is happening in Walterboro, SC, a small city located in the jurisdiction where three generations of Murdaughs had served as prosecuting attorneys.

Murdaugh’s alleged crime resume

In 2021 Murdaugh’s wife and son were shot and killed at the family’s hunting property, and a year later prosecutors charged him with the crime. They contend he committed the double murder to win sympathy and divert attention from his shady financial dealings and legal troubles stemming from a fatal boating accident involving his son. Murdaugh maintains his innocence.

But it doesn’t stop there: In total, Murdaugh is facing over 100 charges. Besides the alleged murders, he has also been accused of a litany of financial crimes, including:

• A multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that siphoned money away from his family law firm and its clients
• Diverting funds from the estate of his housekeeper who died at his home from a “trip and fall accident”
• Insurance fraud related to an alleged attempt to have his cousin murder him so his older son, Buster, could claim a $10 million life insurance payout

Looking forward: Murdaugh faces life behind bars if convicted of the murder charges.—SK

Layoffs are hitting the confectionary industry: M&M’s announced yesterday that it’s sending its colorful cast of candy characters into “indefinite” retirement.

In explaining why it cut its “spokescandies,” brand owner Mars didn’t point to a looming recession or hiring too many candy spokespeople during the pandemic. It appears these characters became too much of a PR headache for the company over criticism that they had lost their sex appeal.

The backstory: Last year, M&M’s began to make changes to its candy spokespeople to be more “representative of the customer” and to keep up with cultural trends—for instance, by replacing the green M&M’s high heels with sneakers.

To some right-wing commentators, these changes reflected the “woke” movement’s hijacking of American culture. Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been the most vocal critic of the M&M’s makeover, saying on his show last January that “M&M’s will not be satisfied until every last cartoon character is deeply unappealing and totally androgynous. Until the moment you wouldn’t want to have a drink with any one of them.”

In its statement, a defeated-sounding M&M’s acknowledged “even a candy’s shoes can be polarizing.” It said it will replace its spokescandies with former SNL star Maya Rudolph.—NF

Stat: If you’ve been seeing even more spandex-clad people than usual lately, they might actually be going to work out rather than making dubious fashion choices. Fitness studios are seeing 40% more foot traffic this January than in 2021, according to retail analytics firm Placer.ai. Still, gym traffic remains 3% below pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

Quote: “There is some karma around 420 although I should question if that is good or bad karma at this point.”

Elon Musk insisted in front of a jury yesterday that in his 2018 tweet saying he had funding secured to take Tesla private at $420 a share, the number was “not a joke” but instead a 20% premium over the stock price. Testifying as he defends himself against a lawsuit from shareholders who claim the tweet cost them money, the Tesla CEO maintained that any other association was mere coincidence. Still, it wouldn’t be the only time Musk sneaked an apparent marijuana joke into his business dealings: His offer to buy Twitter was for $54.20 per share.

Read: The many ingenious ways people in prison use (forbidden) cell phones. (The Marshall Project)

Connecting the dots: See how corporate power is intertwined with this interactive visualization of boardroom overlaps.

Tiny, slimy models: If you’ve ever wondered what snails living in a miniaturized human world would look like, this artist has you covered.

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Name those cities

Can you identify the following North American metropolitan areas from the light they emit at night?

Telehealth, tripledemics, online pharmacies—the healthcare world is moving fast. Luckily Healthcare Brew, the Brew for health industry pros, is here to be your guide.

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A: Las Vegas

B: Salt Lake City

C: Denver/Front Range

D: Oklahoma City

E: Dallas/Fort Worth

F: Minneapolis

G: St. Louis

H: Indianapolis

I: Nashville

J: Ottawa