I did similar but with one main difference! I bought a block of Overcast adverts in a relevant category. (https://overcast.fm/ads https://overcast.fm/ads) It w

I did similar but with one main difference! I bought a block of Overcast adverts in a relevant category. (https://overcast.fm/ads https://overcast.fm/ads) It was still doing hundreds of downloads per month a year after the last episode (podfaded unfortunately, my co-host didn't have any more free time after having a kid). The folks clicking the ad seemed to enjoy the show and from there word of mouth took over. Like you say not everything needs to make money, but that worked for me(tm) in terms of growing the audience. YMMV ofc, could have just been lucky. The biggest thing I got out of it (aside from dopamine in the moment of course) was the speaking skills. Just being able to project my voice better, better formulate my thoughts, etc. Well worth doing in hindsight.