The Audiences Podcast

About The Audiences Podcast

The Audiences Podcast is the audience discovery show. We talk to guests who build audiences for a living. And as we discuss what it takes to build an audience, we explore new emerging audiences in fashion, tech, media and many other industries. Subscribe to never miss an episode. Host: Francesco D’Orazio Producer: Sal Morton Music: Manfredi Romano aka DJ Tennis https://www.audiencespodcast.com/ (https://www.audiencespodcast.com/) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Publisher

The Audiences Podcast

Category

business · society & culture · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Oct 2023

Latest episode

5 Aug 2025

Latest episodes

20 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 Aug 2025

   Simulating Audiences with James He of Artificial Societies

   What if you could talk to your audience and ask what it thinks of your next product? What if you could test your ads or social content with a simulated version of 200 to 1,000 members of your audience in less than 1 minute? In this fascinating conversation, James He, founder of Artificial Societies, reveals how AI-powered audience simulation is transforming the way we experiment with ideas before putting them into the world. From his journey as a Cambridge social science researcher frustrated by the difficulty of running human experiments, to building a platform that creates "artificial societies" from real social media profiles, James walks us through the technology that's making market research faster, cheaper, and more experimental than ever before. We explore the mechanics of how chatbots can mimic real human behavior patterns, the surprising 82-83% accuracy rates in predicting content performance (beating the founders themselves at 57-67%), and the philosophical implications of giving everyone the power to experiment without real-world consequences. What You'll Discover: • How AI chatbots trained on real social media profiles achieve 82% accuracy (beating human experts at 57%) • The exact process from start to finish • Why traditional surveys miss the crucial element of social influence • Real examples of testing 10x more content variants than ever possible • The ethics of modeling people through AI The Bigger Picture: James's vision goes beyond marketing optimization. Could giving everyone "experimental superpowers" help us find our individual and collective "golden path"? We explore the implications of a world where anyone can test ideas without real-world consequences Perfect for: Product managers, marketers, social scientists, AI enthusiasts, and anyone curious about the future of human experimentation Guest: James He, Founder of Artificial Societies, Cambridge social science researcher, former misinformation researcher Key Topics: AI simulation, behavioral science, social influence, content optimization, research ethics, democratization of experimentation Subscribe for more conversations where AI meets human behavior and emerging technologies shape how we understand ourselves. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

2. 

   19 Jun 2025

   The Audience of Magic - with AX Mina and Dorothy R Santos

   Host Francesco D’Orazio interviews cultural strategist A.X. Mina and media scholar Dorothy R. Santos about how audiences use magic to redefine identity and resist restrictive systems.

3. 

   22 May 2025

   The Audience of Romance - with Stephen Follows, film data analyst

   Film data analyst Stephen Follows joins Francesco D’Orazio to investigate the evolution of romance storytelling and its audience, revealing why the genre thrives on TV and in books but struggles in cinemas; this is an interview.

Who has been a guest on The Audiences Podcast

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• AX Mina
• Dorothy R Santos
• Stephen Follows

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

1,365

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

15 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 40 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

25

Social presence

0

YouTube

65

Engagement

71

Contact The Audiences Podcast

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.