[3dprintscanner]

I listened to a podcast which mentioned a relatively obscure topic in passing using the basic samsung music app on my phone which didn't have a SIM card in, location turned on or an internet connection.

Later that day I see an advert for said obscure topic served on a web page.

Is it possible that there is someone transcribing podcasts or at least scraping databases of their RSS feeds and somehow my music player app is broadcasting that I've listened to a particular file(after receiving an internet connection)? The alternative is that the machines really are listening.

[wallmountedtv]

Its most likely paranoia paired with the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon[1] rather than a big conspiracy of "the machines are listening".

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion

[convolvatron]

but...we actually know they are, just not how much

[krackpot]

You would have had to at some point download the podcast, so at that point before they served the download to you, they would have used your IP to serve you a relevant ad based on that location data and inserted it into the podcast. A lot more podcasts are doing this unfortunately. I don't remember the name of major platform or company enabling this.

[mmiyer]

More likely it is the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon [1]

1.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion