People feel like they know them because they've been listening for so long. They adopt the slang and little things they say and they know old stories they've told about themselves and all that. The podcast phenomenon overall is kinda weird, it just highlights how bored/lonely people are, they have 3 hours out of a day that only has 24 hours to give to some people who are just sitting there talking about nothing really, lol, I respect the hustle tho. I listen to Rogan sometimes (when he has physicists or learned individuals on) and sometimes I check Neil Tyson's too, but I'm actually learning something from those...to just listen to people gossiping or talking about their lives for hours tho is craziness, why? Check the compilation clips of Budden's podcast on YouTube, its way way shorter and its only the funny highlights, you will like those a lot more. I would recommend Gillie's podcast too, it's usually not even an hour and its basically all jokes, but one of the hosts is gone now so that shyt is trash