Obama's a Book Podcaster, Libro.fm Raises the Stakes, 2025 Book Sales, and more.

Obama's a Book Podcaster, Libro.fm Raises the Stakes, 2025 Book Sales, and more.

From Book Riot - The Podcast by Book Riot

August 16, 2026 · 1h 26m

About this episode

The episode discusses President Obama's upcoming book podcast, the implications of Libro.fm selling ebooks, and explores AI's role in publishing.

Jeff and Rebecca open the show by discussing President Obama's forthcoming book podcast, before digging into the ramifications of Libro.fm selling ebooks, triaging 2025's book sales, talking some more about AI. And then in Frontlist Foyer, Jeff workshops his INSIDE OUT theory of reading personalities. Follow the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Join The Book Riot Podcast Patreon for bonus content and ad-free listening. Subscribe to The Book Riot Newsletter for regular updates to get the most out of your reading life. The Book Riot Podcast is a proud member of the Airwave Podcast Network. Discussed in this episode: Final number: publishing sales increased 2.5% in 2025 Libro.fm to introduce ebooks Barack Obama is releasing a books podcast An interesting data point: AI use is not disqualifying for the Pulitzer, provided it is disclosed and assistive -- and 5 of the 2026 winners disclosed it And Hank Green has rolled out a personal AI policy that is very reasonable Study shows AI-generated stories have bias to male characters Claude is rolling out watermarks on AI-generated text Certified human writing panopticon gymnastics A 30-day protocol/bootcamp for reading more NYT…

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Hosts: Jeff, Rebecca

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Organizations: Libro.fm, Airwave Podcast Network

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