---
title: "Thursday is Podcast Day"
description: "Analyzing hundreds of tech \u0026 VC podcasts through MotherDuck's serverless data warehouse reveals mid-week publishing dominates \u0026 content depth has converged."
categories: ["data","AI"]
keywords: ["MotherDuck","DuckDB","podcast analytics","data warehouse","content analysis","serverless","SQL"]
ai_summary: "Analysis of hundreds of tech \u0026 VC podcasts using MotherDuck reveals publishing patterns, content depth variations, \u0026 frequency."
date: 2025-12-18
lastmod: 2026-07-31
canonical_url: https://www.tomtunguz.com/thursday-is-podcast-day/
author: "Tomasz Tunguz"
---


Thursday is the new Monday for podcast producers. Analyzing hundreds of tech & VC podcasts over six weeks this fall through [MotherDuck's MCP server](https://motherduck.com/blog/motherduck-answering-machine-mcp-server/), I found 42% of episodes drop mid-week, between Thursday & Friday. Sunday? A publishing desert at just 3%.

Here's what else the data reveals.

## When Episodes Drop

**Prompt:** Count the number of podcasts published on each day of the week with %



{{< email_image src="v9aldatwudahaswtznj9" alt="motherduck_podcast_dow_v2" width="540" height="407" >}}



The pattern makes sense : listeners consume podcasts during commutes & workouts early in the week, so publishing mid-week ensures fresh content when people are ready to listen.

## Content Depth Varies Dramatically

**Prompt:** Calculate the average, minimum, & maximum word count of the podcast summaries.



{{< email_image src="pkvybdmjzkyfof7w0j7v" alt="motherduck_podcast_word_count_v2" width="540" height="180" >}}

The summary length is quite narrow. Between the 25th & 75th percentile, there's only a paragraph worth of difference, suggesting the market has discovered an optimal length.



## A Typical Podcast Releases At Least Three Episodes Per Month

**Prompt:** Show me the number of podcasts per month.

{{< email_image src="pahwczsk0dutrysdl10y" alt="motherduck_podcasts_per_month" width="540" height="152" >}}

The median podcast releases three episodes per month. The outliers? Daily shows publishing multiple episodes per day.

If you're thinking about launching a podcast, it's probably worth testing releasing episodes on Sundays, perhaps early in the morning or around coffee time.

These types of analyses are becoming simpler & simpler with technologies like MCP.