Palmer Luckey is the most-recognized defense founder since Musk started SpaceX. Anduril is the fastest-growing defense company in the US. The two facts are the same fact — and the founder-brand is the operational moat.
The canonical Everything-PR entity profile for Spotify Technology S.A. — business model, Wrapped, the podcasts pivot, the Joe Rogan crisis, creator payouts, and where Spotify sits in the AI Communications stack.
Podcasts have become one of the more substantial marketing and PR channels in modern American business. Spotify's $200M Joe Rogan deal, Apple Podcasts as historical platform of record, the Rogan single-host phenomenon, and what brand and marketing teams considering podcast investment should be thinking about.
Ad CPMs are the floor. The real podcast economy in 2026 runs on four stacks layered together: ads, premium subscriptions, commerce, and licensing. $2.06B ad market, $250M Rogan deal, $20M Sussex collapse — which stack to pick at every audience scale.
The successful podcast in 2026 is a YouTube show with an audio feed attached. YouTube leads with 40%+ of US monthly listeners. Apple Podcasts has declined every year since 2022. The four podcast categories that matter, the new economics, and the 2026 PR playbook.
The U.S. podcast economy crossed $2B in advertising revenue in 2024. Joe Rogan, Acquired, Lenny, Pivot, All-In, The Daily. Podcasts are reputation infrastructure. The EPR Podcast Influence Index.
Joe Rogan averages 11M listeners. MrBeast has 400M subscribers and a $5B holding company. Alex Cooper, Emma Chamberlain, Dude Perfect — five creators with audiences larger than most metro dailies, and the trust to match.