Enjoyed the talk, Droops.  I haven't seen too many people doing filler lately, but granted, I did trim down my podcast listening quite a bit.

I notice it more from the more professionally done shows, where the people have a background in radio, such as the TWiT network and such.

I do agree that a lot of the simply informative podcasts do need to cut the chitchat. If the purpose is to get a message across or teach something, do it and end it.  I'll be thinking about this from now on when I'm recording something.

I think the most powerful statement you made was when you talked about every minute you waste is possibly 1000 minutes wasted around the world due to all the people's minutes you just wasted.  You said this very well, and I thank you for making the point.