Just since the beginning of this year, Spotify has bought podcast producer-distributor Gimlet Media for $230 million and a $100 million startup called Luminary is developing a paid-subscription-only lineup of 40 new podcasts. As one exec said, “The capitalists are here!” Yet, asks Boris Kachka, “What distinguishes a boom from a blip — the beginning of a golden age from a spike of irrational exuberance?” – New York Magazine