[morsch]

I guess it depends on what relationship is supposed to mean. Clearly you aren't in a sexual relationship with a podcast. In an abstract sense, it's obviously true that any listener is going to have a listener-relationship with a podcast. But beyond the most abstract of senses I suppose it entails things like loyalty to a certain show.

But I don't think it's nonsense. Podcasting is -- not per se, but currently and for the most part -- a serial, subscription medium. The loyalty is currently built in, because like a newspaper or magazine, you subscribe to it and get it delivered -- often directly to your ears, without further interaction. Loyalties are much more fleeting for other kinds of online content delivery. (Some YouTube and streaming channels are an exception and the same is true for them. They're a very similar medium.)

Beyond mere loyalty, many podcasts I listen to feature recurring speakers, and are very focused on pure voice content, with no music, no audio clips, etc. You basically listen to the same people talk for hours. I also subscribe to a couple of radio news programs that don't do this to the same degree. At this point I'm very used to Marc Maron's entire way of speaking (on his podcast, obviously I can't know how he talks in real life). I hear more from him than I hear from my relatives who live at the other end of the country. This brings about a sort of faux-intimacy, for lack of a better word.

And now I ought to call my mom. :)