Perfect length for a podcast?

has anyone ever come out with documented research on what the perfect length for a podcast? I am noticing more and more podcasts cut down to the 45 min mark.

How long is your podcast ?

That's a great question. I concur with what you are seeing with regard to most podcasts being 45m or less. In fact many seem to try to make the ~30m mark the cutoff. Personally I listen at home so a long podcast doesn't bother me as I leave it on and listen while I work. For many that's not an option so they listen in the car or during lunch etc.

We are a society of ADD individuals...either correctly diagnosed or self inflicted :) so a podcast better get to the point fast and not ramble to keep many people interested. Again personally I love to hear rambling as I find it amusing. I read a post on the Google+ Podcasting Technology Resources group that discussed a topic somewhat related. That was, having long or well produced intro/outro sections. Basically the consensus was that it was jarring to have a long intro that was well produced only to be followed up with a lower energy set of content. It relates due to the fact that some people would have up to 90s of intro which was too long...also what was said in the intro was often repeated by the podcaster.

It would be very interesting to see if there has been any real research into this topic. I suspect other generic research regarding attention spans would relate to this area as well.

I agree, it can be a very A.D.D. audience on the Internet. Our show is exactly one-hour long each week so our audience knows exactly what to expect each show time wise, and it's just kind of fun to set a time limit (how much content can we squeeze into an hour?).

For us here in Egypt it is not less then 5 minutes and not longer then 45 minutes

I am starting a new podcast called the Rapid Fire Report. The show is quick format(1-5 mins) and keep listeners up to date on the latest in gaming and tech news. We launch on Monday the 10th, And will be producing it daily. After I run the show for a while I should have some better stats.

I had a cigar review show (Cigar Snapshot) before that was a quick 15-20 minute cigar review. I picked that format because all of the other shows at the time were 1 hour plus... some over 2 hours long. I was really starting to get some industry traction when I had to shot that one down.

My current show runs about 40-45 minutes. It just feels right to me I guess... I talk that long without getting tired or having my voice go to hell, so that is good. I would certainly consider going shorter - say to 30 mins or so - if that is what my listeners were really wanting...