In the fall of 2014, a young and largely unproven talent agent in Hollywood found himself listening intently to Serial, the breakout, true-crime podcast from This American Life. While the hit series left countless listeners questioning the myriad uncertainties of the criminal justice system, 20-something Oren Rosenbaum fixated, instead, on something else — a deep and universal enigma just then gaining currency. Was podcasting a good business?

Rosenbaum suspected it could be. After all, the show’s sponsor, Mailchimp, was thoroughly log jammed in his brain waves. Somebody, he thought, was getting paid something.

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