Do you know something that is really simple? Really Simple Syndication (aka, RSS). Did you know that RSS is the backbone of podcast delivery? Well, aren't you clever! What's NOT really simple is effectively measuring podcasts when a key underlying component is a glorified text file that tells an app how to download an audio file. Advertisers, publishers, and content producers the world over have been stuck with "downloads" as their key -- and pretty much only -- metric for years. That's like just counting "hits" on a website! But, NPR is leading an initiative to change all that through Remote Audio Data, or RAD. Stacey Goers, product manager for podcasts at National Public Radio, joins the gang on this episode to discuss that effort: how it works, how it's rolling out, and the myriad parallels podcast analytics has to website and mobile analytics! “For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.