Number of podcasts worldwide

NASA's budget and the worldwide podcast count, both climbing through the 2010s and 2020s. Two unrelated industries that have spent the decade scaling: one toward the Moon, one toward the listener's earbuds. Both more numerous than they used to be.

NASA's annual budget grew from about 18.7 billion dollars in 2010 to over 27 billion by 2023 as the Artemis programme moved from concept to development and the broader space-science portfolio expanded. The number of podcasts worldwide grew from about 100,000 in 2010 to over 5 million by 2023 as Spotify's 2019 podcast pivot and falling production costs lowered barriers to entry. Two completely unrelated lines sharing a window because the same thirteen years scaled both a federal lunar-return programme and a personal-audio-content infrastructure.

Two completely different productions both scaled. The Moon mission and the morning audio, both more invested in.