A friend of mine said something along the lines of "We have this cosmic technology of v4v splits, and we use it to send each other $0.01".

Yes, we can't change the paradigm from "zero cost, pay with your attention" to "value for value" by rewarding creators $0.01 per episode. All of us are more or less guilty of this.

The ransom model seems to work a bit better: "Full podcast available after paying $10". What I don't like about the ransom model is it is often on fiat platforms and it is often a monthly subscription. There is hardly ever any podcast that I want to pay for monthly. I would gladly pay for some single episodes.