Interesting conversation! I'm relatively new to Steemit and pretty much from the start saw the bots as a different name for advertising - which has its ups and downs, like everywhere.

Speaking of quality - I have some feedback about your post (based on my own experience). If you're making a podcast by uploading audio from an internet call, you might want to edit out the blank spots where your call was interrupted. It makes for a better listening experience. I have done it myself and typically, it's easy to edit it out because you need to restart the conversation anyway after you've reconnected. Anyway, just my 5 satoshis ;)