I searched for two podcasts; one failed with an error ('Error: could not handle the request) [No Agenda]. I tested another one, [eggchasers], and that worked reasonably well. My main criticism is that, when a search returns something meaningful, there is not a lot there to compel me to create an account and drill in deeper. If I were designing this, I would seed the 'sign up' presentation to new users with some relevant bits from the conversations which are happening on your site. If there are no current conversations, then some message which would spark my desire to start one.

Also, what value does the acast privacy link for each episode provide that wouldn't alternatively be provided by some header element?