Conan O'Brien's hit podcast is going to full video episodes

Alright, this may take some unpacking. Purportedly, YouTube is the number-one place people get their podcasts. That's even though podcasts began as, and effectively still are, audio content. Clips of "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend" episodes have been dropped on YouTube since basically the beginning, but invariably on every clip you would see multiple comments along the lines of "Release video of full episodes!" It is increasingly common for podcasts to not only have YouTube pages, but to have every episode be accompanied by a full video as well. Yes, even if it is just people sitting there and talking.

A mix of people wanting to have something on passively in the background while they work and a younger generation of people who inexplicably grew up watching strangers play video games online have made video a valuable element of the podcast landscape. Do Conan and his guests really need video to be compelling? Does it add much, if anything? Well, you can always watch a clip like this one and decide for yourself:

The horse has bolted from the barn door, though. Podcasts are really just lo-fi talk shows at this point, and people clamor for video content. O'Brien is essentially just doing a different version of his old talk show but with a worse set and no band. And yet, there is real hype for this among "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend" fans. At this rate he'll end up hosting the next five Oscars.