
Are We Trying Too Hard? Laura Mayer on Podcasting’s Next Chapter
The Podcast Advertising Playbook with Heather Osgood

September 2, 2026 · 50 min
Laura Mayer has spent her career inside some of podcasting’s most influential companies. Now, she’s looking back at the ambition, anxiety, and relentless drive that came with building a career in a fast-moving industry. In this episode, Heather sits down with Laura, podcast executive and author of T…
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The Podcast Advertising Playbook with Heather Osgood
Laura Mayer has spent her career inside some of podcasting’s most influential companies. Now, she’s looking back at the ambition, anxiety, and relentless drive that came with building a career in a fast-moving industry.
In this episode, Heather sits down with Laura, podcast executive and author of Tryhard: A Cautionary Tale of Clocking In and Spinning Out, to talk about what happens when professional ambition becomes impossible to turn off, and what she learned when she finally did.
They also take a candid look at where podcasting stands today: the industry’s obsession with video, what audio lovers should actually be worried about, what the business still isn’t paying enough attention to, and whether podcasting has outgrown some of the culture that defined its early years.
It’s a conversation about ambition, burnout, podcasting’s identity crisis, and figuring out what success looks like when you stop trying quite so hard.
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