I don't see why not. My podcast grew from 0 to 35 listeners in less than four months with no advertisement, and I'm just some nobody. Two of the guests we have had went on to start their own podcasts afterwards. It seems inevitable that podcasts would grow, as they're a more convenient way to access talk entertainment that doesn't necessarily have a corporate overlord.
I hate to sound like an ad, but anchor has made it really easy to put our podcast on every platform and start running ads right away (even if they are just ads for anchor atm).
https://accidentallyfasting.com/
