But, in the past few years, podcasts have trended toward what we can loosely call professionalization, which made CNN’s recent effort even odder. The COVID-era signature of bookshelves in the background and plug-in USB microphones in the foreground has slowly given way to generic studios featuring some decent wood panelling and a couple of plants. Webcams, which produced a washed-out and slightly pixelated image, have been replaced by stand-alone video cameras that capture podcasters in deeper and richer tones. (This is one reason that so many of the big podcasts you see these days look like they borrowed the dark and moody interview sets of “Wild Wild Country.”) I doubt that these production changes will erode the supposed authenticity of an already beloved podcaster, but I also don’t see any likely benefits. Kylie Kelce, who hosts the enormously popular podcast “Not Gonna Lie,” splits her time onscreen between a standard Zoom square with her kids’ art on the wall behind her and a studio where she sits on a beige couch and talks to her guest in person. To someone who watches her clips on Instagram, there’s no meaningful difference.