But a funny thing has happened during the reign of the eye: once again, the ear has begun to make itself heard. The podcast renaissance is, by now well established, part of a broad trend of audio becoming an increasingly key part of online experience. Nowhere has this trend been more evident than the meteoric rise of the real time voice based app Clubhouse, which has quintupled its users in the last month, even as it remains invite-only, and available solely via Apple’s iOS software. The concept is simple: you join a “room,” or conversation, based on a subject of interest. (Options range from politics to tech culture to karaoke auditions — really!) Once there, you can either hang out and listen to the conversation, or choose to speak up. You exit with a simple “leave quietly” button.