Why Brands Are Moving Beyond Keyword Blocking and Podcast Movement Takeaways with Tamara Zubatiy

Where is the real money in podcasting, and how can AI bring radical transparency to brand suitability?

In this episode of PodBiz, Norma Jean Belenky and John Kiernan speak with Dr. Tamara Zubatiy, CEO and Co-Founder of Barometer, about brand safety, brand suitability, and the rapid rise of programmatic advertising in podcasting. Tamara shares how she transitioned from researching Human-Centered AI at Georgia Tech to building an engine that processes 50 years of media content weekly—giving major brands the confidence to invest in podcasting while protecting content creators from indiscriminate keyword blocking.

As she puts it: “Brand safety is a binary property of content... but brand suitability is about context. A word isn't the same word in every context.”

Here are some insightful moments within the episode:

• Why programmatic advertising is the fastest-growing revenue channel in podcasting

• The critical difference between brand safety and brand suitability

• How blunt keyword blocklists accidentally defund news and premium journalism

• Opening programmatic monetization opportunities for smaller and mid-tail creators

• Navigating the industry measurement debate: downloads vs. impressions

• How podcasting has evolved into the foundational anchor for creator content strategies

Dr. Tamara Zubatiy is the CEO and Co-Founder of Barometer, an AI-powered brand suitability and contextual targeting platform for podcasting and emerging media. With a PhD background in Human-Centered AI from Georgia Tech, Tamara and her team analyze tens of thousands of hours of audio content weekly to build trust between enterprise advertisers and podcast publishers.

Connect with Tamara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tzubatiy