Alaskan Podcaster to Take Spotlight at Podcast Movement 2026
WILLOW, AK, USA- Podcast Movement, the largest podcast conference in the United States, will hold its annual gathering in New York City on September 16–18, 2026. Every year since 2014, Podcast Movement has brought thousands of podcasters and industry professionals under one roof to learn, grow professionally, and strengthen the podcast community.
Longtime Alaskan podcaster Dr. Robert Forto of First Paw Media will speak at the conference in the Marketing & Growth track. His session, Don’t Sell Your Soul to Social Media, is a 20-minute presentation followed by Q&A on Thursday, September 17.
Forto has produced podcasts since 2009, when he and co-host Michele Forto set up two microphones in the lobby of their dog training center after Saturday group class. He first attended Podcast Movement in 2017, came home with a notebook, and changed how the shows were built. He has returned almost every year. This year he is on the agenda.
The session argues that the most valuable audience is the one a creator owns. For years, podcasters have been told that success depends on social media: create more content, chase more followers, feed the algorithm. Forto will walk attendees through what happens when the algorithm changes, an account is suspended, or a platform decides the audience belongs to it rather than to the host, and the systems he has used to grow shows and businesses through email, websites, newsletters, and community instead of vanity metrics.
“You do not own the people who follow you,” Forto said. “You own a login until you don’t. Social is a front door. It is not the house. I am not asking anyone to delete Instagram. I am asking them to stop living there.”
Attendees will leave with a listener path—show, site, offer, list, home—and three moves they can make before their next episode: turn that episode into a ten-minute magnet, put one URL in the open and the close, and deliver it by email.
A companion episode of Dog Works Radio, hosted by Michele Forto, airs the same day. The session one-pager is at DogWorksRadio.com/soul.
About Robert Forto
Dr. Robert Forto is a podcaster, educator, and the founder of First Paw Media, Alaska Dog Works, and Dog Works Radio. He holds a Doctor of Strategic Leadership from Liberty University and teaches outdoor leadership and dog mushing at the university level in Alaska. He has produced thousands of podcast episodes, built businesses through content marketing, and advises creators and organizations on audience growth and brand development. He lives in Willow, Alaska.
About First Paw Media
First Paw Media is an Alaska-based production and coaching company that helps creators and businesses put a podcast at the center of a durable brand. Its family of shows includes Dog Works Radio, Mushing Radio, and Peak Experience.
Media Contact
Michele Forto
First Paw Media
firstpawmedia@gmail.com
https://firstpaw.media
https://dogworksradio.com/soul