Great article, and I think the visions you describe are closer than we think. In a moment of rare (honest!) self-promotion and arrogance, I'd like to throw my company Bwlb's invention into the mix - 'Accordion'.

Using a mix of human and AI interactions it can adjust the duration of any podcast without losing structure, tone or listenability. It recently completed a pilot with Europod's 10 part series about Angela Merkel:

www.accordion.live

Reach out if you'd like to know more, I'd love to get your thoughts.