Full article published at The National Desk

The production of podcasts has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $8.5 million since early 2020, according to a report by the government watchdog OpenTheBooks.

Through a combination of grants and other funding, the federal government provided a total of $8,535,556 to produce podcasts between February 2020 and September 2023. The overarching projects responsible for the podcasts received a staggering $323 million over the same time period.