This week, the Media Roundtable is giving you an all-access pass to one of the most talked-about sessions from this year’s Chief Audio Officer Summit: Flipping the Script: Feedback From Hosts to Brands.

Our own Dan Granger (CEO, Oxford Road) sat down with three powerhouse hosts: Ashley Flowers (Crime Junkie), Nick Viall (The Viall Files), and Kim Komando (The Kim Komando Show) to share what they really need from advertisers to create great ads that actually work!

“Brands, I understand you want to be safe and risk-averse... but know your audience. My audience wants to talk about dating, and there's a little bit of raunchiness and just a little bit of honesty... [an unconventional ad read] worked with that audience. It's memorable; it made them laugh. It also connected what the brand was trying to get across.”

—Nick Viall (The Viall Files)

The panel delivered a playbook of what works—and, crucially, what doesn’t—when engaging top creators. Let's dive in!

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This week on the Media Roundtable, we’re bringing you inside the opening fireside chat from the 2025 Chief Audio Officer Summit, featuring two of the most influential independent voices in media today: Steven Bartlett (Host of Diary of a CEO, Founder of FLIGHTSTORY) and Ben Shapiro (Host of The Ben Shapiro Show, Co-Founder of The Daily Wire).

In conversation with Dan Granger (CEO, Oxford Road), and with a stunning oceanfront sunset as their backdrop, our guests get into the real trade-offs of staying independent, even and especially in the face of nine-figure offers; the discipline behind their respective growth; and how brands can unlock outsized results when they lean into creator-led partnerships.

“Independence, in this moment, is a good marker for a lot of listeners and audiences of authenticity. People want to feel like they're not just tuning into an institution. They want to feel like they're turning into a person.”

—Ben Shapiro (Host of The Ben Shapiro Show, Co-Founder of The Daily Wire)

The fireside chat covers: Experimenting for Exponential Growth, Striking the Right Ad Load Balance, and Letting Creators Cook.

Let’s dive in.

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This week on the Media Roundtable, we’re taking you inside Podcast Movement 2025, where the industry gathered in Dallas just as breaking news hit the scene: Sounds Profitable has merged with Podcast Movement.

On this episode, host Dan Granger (CEO, Oxford Road) recaps the event with team members Courtney O’Connor, Julia Palermo, and James Ingrassia—plus a special guest appearance from Bryan Barletta, the founder of Sounds Profitable and newly named President of Podcast Movement. Together, they unpack what the merger means for creators, advertisers, and the future of industry events–and everything else they took away from this year’s Podcast Movement.

Bryan shares how he plans to evolve the conferences, balance creator and advertiser needs, and bring new focus to content and measurement. The team reflects on hot topics and perennial trends from the week: rising podcast consumption, the video surge, programmatic momentum, and frequency as the new buzzword. These topics are not going away–so get the scoop from those with boots on the ground.

““The [podcasting] space changes every two years. It feels like a brand new industry.”

—Bryan Barletta, founder of Sounds Profitable and President of Podcast Movement

The recap covers: the Sounds Profitable + Podcast Movement deal, why the flagship event is moving to New York, for good; what advertisers should expect next year; and our team’s takes on the evolving conversations on video, attribution, and programmatic.

Let’s get into it.

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