Mark Cuban and Faron Fatemi's latest is, according to Cuban's on-the-ground profile, "the future of podcasting." While there is no shortage of apps that have made such claims in the past, The Verge has been investigating what Fireside could bring to the table, and it certainly looks like it could shake things up.

Currently in beta on iOS and used primarily by podcasters and venture capitalist testers, the app is a live conversation platform from Clubhouse and podcasting distribution like Anchor (acquired by Spotify in 2019) It appears to be a cross between the platforms.

Like Clubhouse, it's all about live conversation where listeners can drop in and listen. Audience members cannot contribute directly unless they are invited on stage, but they can respond to what is said with emojis, comments, and "applause," which is designed to help gauge the reaction of audience members who are not physically nearby. as The Verge notes, this audience participation seems to be Clubhouse's main differentiator and allows users to enter comments and questions without having to participate directly in the conversation, making for a more social experience.

Past recordings are stored for posterity and can be accessed at any time. Here, the creator can highlight important parts of the conversation, which can be easily skipped. The moderator will see a gavel, as shown below.

Blurring the line with the podcast is the intro music that automatically welcomes people into each room, which apparently is considerably more uncomfortable than a fully edited podcast at this point.

As for the comparison to Anchor, the app's creators have apparently heard that Fireside can distribute recordings via RSS feeds to all the usual places, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Whether this is sufficiently different from existing solutions is an open question, and it is quite possible that Clubhouse's sudden and massive success is a product of unique circumstances and coincidence. It is hard to imagine that the app would have caught on in the same way if the world had not been deprived of real-world events thanks to pandemic regulations, and if celebrities like Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, and Mark Zuckerberg had not made numerous appearances.

Likewise, it would be foolish to rule out anything Cuban and Fatemi, especially with the ever-growing popularity of podcasts. It will be interesting to see how things develop when the app leaves beta and becomes available to all.