Love the podcast but personally wouldn't pay even a dollar for the "experience". There's so much free quality content on the internet it just steers me to something else saying "see you guys Monday". To get people to pay for content straight out of the gate, you have to open Netflix status, and even then it wasn't instant for them.
You have to really want said content the second it comes out to justify paying for it - either that or you just really want to support a project. Otherwise someone will put it up somewhere on the internet a couple of days later.
Things have changed dramatically with the evolution of tech. I mean, even musicians know they're not going to get rich from spotify or downloads - they have to sell merch and tour. Then there's sponsorship's, ads, and various other things. So basically, in my opinion, you have to put in a shit ton of time to make money off of a sole podcast. Otherwise you have to be developing it as a business which comes with putting all of these other things in place. If they don't want to sacrifice their voice, they should be looking at how they can develop some solid merchandise to sell along with it. Advertise their own product.