How to advertise on This Podcast Will Kill You: what it costs, who buys, and how to book

Nearly all reads on This Podcast Will Kill You are direct-response, roughly 98 percent of them by Spotsnow's read, and the show sells its host-read inventory the way most podcasts of its size do: quoted per campaign through a named network, not off a public rate card. Its anchor advertiser, Quince, has run roughly 15 to 18 ads here. That mix, coded offers stacked behind two working epidemiologists, tells a buyer this feed is built to move product, not just to be seen next to it. Spotsnow estimates all of this from tracked advertiser activity, not audience surveys.

Full show profile: This Podcast Will Kill You on Spotsnow.

Why This Podcast Will Kill You is built for host-read direct response

The show is co-hosted by Erin Welsh, PhD, a disease ecologist, and Erin Allmann Updyke, MD/PhD, an epidemiologist and physician-scientist, who recently gave a keynote at the Infectious Diseases Institute Annual Meeting at Ohio State. It sits in the science category, and its advertiser base leans heavily on retail brands like the one spending most here.

With direct-response reads at roughly 98 percent of the mix, Spotsnow data shows this is a coded-offer feed: promo codes, vanity URLs, and attribution a brand can actually trace back to a read. Spotsnow estimates reach at roughly 335,000 listeners per episode, an estimated figure rather than an audited count. The format argument matters more than any rate here. Each episode is a long, narrative deep dive on a single disease, so listeners settle in for the whole thing instead of skimming. That sustained attention is exactly what a host-read borrows. When two epidemiologists hand off to a sponsor mid-story, the trust they've built carries into the read, and the audience doesn't check out at the break.

Influence here is concentrated in the feed and on Instagram, where the show counts roughly 101,000 followers who show up for infographics and episode promos. The audience skews female, sits mostly in the young-to-mid adult range, runs middle-to-upper income, and is concentrated in the US with a meaningful Canadian and UK tail. It's a listenership that reads, buys, and follows the hosts closely.

Who is advertising on This Podcast Will Kill You

Spotsnow tracks over 120 brands on the show in the trailing window, a blend of DTC, tech, retail, auto, and higher-ed and health institutions. Recognizable names include Quince, Audible, LinkedIn, Samsung, and Virgin Voyages.

The anchor advertisers, broken down

Quince

Quince sells affordable-luxury essentials direct to consumers, cashmere, washable silk, bedding, and leather goods at prices it pegs well below traditional retail. Spotsnow data shows Quince has run roughly 15 to 18 ads here for an estimated total spend of over $90K, classified direct-response. A female-skewing, comfortable-income audience that already trusts the hosts is the exact shopper Quince wants reaching for a promo code.

Audible

Audible sells audiobooks and spoken-word titles on a subscription model. Spotsnow attributes roughly 13 to 15 ads to the brand here, an estimated over $40K in total spend, also direct-response. A show that runs its own book club and interviews authors gives Audible a room full of readers who already buy the thing it's selling.

New York Presbyterian

New York Presbyterian is a major hospital system, and its presence is the useful outlier on this roster. Spotsnow data shows roughly 4 to 6 ads for an estimated over $20K, still classified direct-response. A health system advertising to an audience of epidemiology fans is a tight fit, and proof that an institutional objective can work on a feed dominated by DTC.

All spend figures are Spotsnow estimates.

Why retail brands cluster here

Retail and DTC keep coming back because the authority is real and it transfers. These aren't generalist hosts reading copy off a card. They're a disease ecologist and a physician-scientist, and when they endorse a cashmere sweater or an audiobook subscription, the audience extends the credibility it grants them on epidemiology to the product in the break. Pair that with a listenership that skews female, sits at comfortable income, and settles in for a 60-minute narrative, and you get a shopper primed to act on a coded offer. That's why Quince has spent over $90K here and keeps renewing. The math on a trusted, high-attention audience works, and the roster shows brands have run it more than once to be sure.

What makes a show like this convert

1. The format holds attention through the break. Long single-topic episodes keep listeners in their seats, so a host-read lands instead of getting skipped.
2. The hosts carry real credentials. A PhD disease ecologist and an MD/PhD epidemiologist lend a read the same authority they bring to the science.
3. The audience buys. An estimated 335,000 listeners who skew female and comfortable income are the shopper DTC brands chase.
4. Advertisers come back. Quince alone has run roughly 15 to 18 ads here, and repeat buying at that level is a brand telling you the attribution math checks out.

This Podcast Will Kill You in a nutshell

The audience is an estimated 335,000 listeners who skew female, sit in the young-to-mid adult range, run middle-to-upper income, and cluster in the US. Quince, Audible, and New York Presbyterian already buy here, mostly on host-reads, and nearly all reads on the show are direct-response. Inventory is sold on a quoted, per-campaign basis through the Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts network. If you're a DTC or retail brand chasing coded conversions from a trusted, high-attention audience, this feed fits direct response cleanly.