I started listening to the podcast, but first they made me listen to several ads. One was for a company that survives by selling ads - basically this was an ad

I started listening to the podcast, but first they made me listen to several ads. One was for a company that survives by selling ads - basically this was an ad selling ads! Given the title of the podcast, I assumed this was some sort of meta-joke, but evidently not. So the sponsors of this podcast apparently believe that internet advertising works.