CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—The average podcast episode, which runs 47 minutes, contains roughly 11 seconds of substantive content and could have been conveyed in a single sentence, according to a study released Tuesday by researchers who then spent 14 hours listening to podcasts to be sure.

The paper, published in the Journal of Applied Audio Redundancy, examined 212 episodes across genres including true crime, business, wellness, and “two guys, one microphone.” Researchers found that 94 percent of runtime was devoted to what the authors classify as “preamble, tangent, sponsor-adjacent banter, and the phrase ‘so, yeah.’”

“In nearly every case, the core insight could be expressed as a declarative sentence of fewer than 15 words,” said Dr. Priya Vandermolen-Okafor, senior fellow in Conversational Padding at the Institute for the Quantitative Study of Throat-Clearing. “For one episode, it was ‘Sleep is good.’ For another, it was ‘The butler did it.’ We did not need the butler’s backstory. We were given the butler’s backstory.”

The team said it adopted the 14-hour listening protocol after an initial pilot found the result so implausible that it demanded replication. Researchers described the experience as “formative” and, in one case, “a lot.”

Among the study’s other findings, 31 percent of episodes opened with a host promising to “get right into it,” a statement that preceded the actual content by an average of nine minutes. Another 22 percent concluded with a promise to “dive deeper next week,” which researchers said was “technically a threat.”

The authors proposed a “Single Sentence Standard,” under which any podcast failing to justify its runtime would be required to display its conclusion at the start of each episode. Industry representatives pushed back on the idea.

“Listeners don’t come for the information,” said Declan Fairweather-Pruitt, chief vibes officer at the podcast network Longform Adjacent. “They come for the journey. The journey is 52 minutes, and we sell ads in it.”

“We did not need the butler’s backstory. We were given the butler’s backstory.”

Vandermolen-Okafor acknowledged that the study had limitations, chief among them that its own findings could be summarized as “Podcasts are long.” She said the team considered publishing it that way but felt a one-sentence paper would be “thin.”

Asked whether the research itself had been bloated, she paused.

“I should disclose that this study was originally a podcast,” she said. “We recorded the first draft as a weekly show called Hear Me Out, Science. It ran for 11 episodes. We cut it down to a paper after an early listener, a retired actuary, emailed to say he had followed the whole thing and the main point was that podcasts are long.”

The team said it plans to follow up with a study on whether the average research paper could have been a podcast. Early results suggest it could not, but that it would be longer.

Vandermolen-Okafor said she hopes the findings will encourage creators to value their listeners’ time. She added that anyone interested in the methodology can find a 3-hour deep dive on the institute’s website, with a bonus episode available to subscribers.