both things are true. The decision to include an ad is made by the podcast producer, but the dynamic ad is facilitated through Spotify’s dynamic ad platform. Podcast producers have been including paid sponsorships in podcasts in addition to inserting ads in their podcasts. For the inserted ads, they will work with the podcast platforms to insert dynamic ads if the platform supports it (like spotify) or generic baked-in ads if the platform doesn’t support it. Either way, inclusion of these ads is controlled by the producer, not the platform, so paying to remove platform-controlled ads won’t remove these ads. If you want your podcast with no ads at all, you may need to see if the producer offers an ad-free version (possibly through a proprietary paid platform like patreon).