The show title, "Sporadic Phantoms" is an anagram of "Animorphs Podcast".
Someone going in blind would figure out early on that the show is about a conspiracy theory rather than environmental scandal, but it's not until The Sharing is name-dropped that the world the show is set in (Animorphs) becomes clear.
As Sporadic Phantoms focuses on the Original Characters of Robyn, Stevie, and Kyle, much of the Early-Installment Weirdness (and regular weirdness) of Animorphs has no presence within the narrative. The show also takes inspiration from real-life cults such as Synannon in its portrayal of the Sharing, and rarely shows characters that are obviously infested by Yeerks, distilling much of the silliness of Animorphs into an atmosphere of pure paranoia.
Season 1 ends with Stevie and Robin infested, everything suspicious about the Sharing successfully covered up, and the podcast turned into Sharing propaganda. On top of that Kyle is still missing and Robin is preparing to locate and find him along with the Share the Truth hackers...aka the Animorphs.
The podcast presents itself as real, to the point that the website has no information about the creators and the characters encourage listeners to talk to them on their social media accounts. The only acknowledgment that this is an Animorphs fanwork is K. A. Applegate being mentioned in the "special thanks" at the end of each episode.