How To Find the Most Popular Podcasts

This is an interesting time of year for podcasts. This month, rather than posting new shows, many of them have been introducing listeners to other podcasts.

Many of them announced in January that they are “hard at work on new shows for 2022, but in the meantime, we think you’ll enjoy this podcast made by” another production team.

Part of the reason seems to be that podcasts these days are much more heavily produced than back in the Wild West days, when a show was just two people sitting by a microphone and discussing a topic of very narrow interest.

Contemporary podcasts increasingly follow the excellent National Public Radio model of doing a lot of research, a lot of interviews and then writing/editing it all into an audio-only documentary.

Sometimes a topic is discussed at length in a single episode; sometimes there is a kind of mini series in which a topic (or person) is the subject of several episodes in a row.

Even conversational podcasts these days perform at a much higher level, where you can have knowledgeable and well-known people taking a couple hours out of their day to have a long conversation about a topic of interest.

That can be actor Rob Lowe (unexpectedly super smart, funny and interesting and a great interviewer) talking to other entertainers, and in the process creating an oral history of 20th century film and theater (“Literally! With Rob Lowe”).

It can be former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New  York Preet Bharara having a detailed conversation with Alabama prosecutor Joyce Vance about the most compelling national legal issues of the week (“Cafe Insider”).

Or it can be Pres. Barack Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, being timely, lively, funny and insightful with Republican political consultant Mike Murphy as they dissect elections, Donald Trump and more (“Hacks on Tap”).

Finding the top shows

I am a podcast junkie and I apologize to everyone to whom I say, “I just heard on a podcast that (fill in the blank).” It’s a bad habit.

But the fact remains that I listen to a lot of podcasts and therefore am always on the lookout for new ones.

If you are too, I’ve just discovered a gold mine of podcast information. There is a website called Chartable (www.chartable.com) that tells you the most popular podcasts in the world on every subject in order of popularity.

It is actually a website for podcast industry professionals but it’s easily used by the non-pro who just wants to see what’s interesting. You can search worldwide favorites or you can specify a particular nation. You can search “all podcasts” or you can look for the most popular shows (and episodes) in specific genres.

The two podcast providers that they chart are Spotify and Apple.

The top three global podcasts, according to Chartable, are (in order from one to three) Crime Junkie, Dateline NBC and Stuff You Should Know.

The top three podcasts in the U.S. on the Apple list are (in order from one to three) Crime Junkie, Welcome to Our Show and Smartless (with actors Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett).

The top three in the U.S. from Spotify are The Joe Rogan Experience (as we know from the recent Neil Young protest), Call Her Daddy and Whistleblowers.

A few of
my favorites

In case you’re wondering, Crime Junkie is number seven among Spotify listeners. And while I’m not specifically a true crime podcast fan, apparently this is a huge global podcast trend.

Since we’re sharing, here are just a (very) few of my favorites, in no particular order. Feel free to email me with your own list of favorites and we can post them online.

• Anything by, with or about Malcolm Gladwell, especially his own shows: Revisionist History; and Broken Record with buddha-like music producer Rick Rubin.

• Hit Parade with music chart analyst Chris Molanphy

• Anything with behavioral economist Tim Harford

• Bloomberg Law, short reports on top legal issues (including information about cases involving, for example, Elizabeth Holmes, Ghislaine Maxwell and Britney Spears)

• Up Against the Mob with prosecutor Elie Honig

•Barron’s Streetwise Podcast with Jack Hough

• The Great James Bond Car Robbery, eight episodes narrated by the sultry and amusing Elizabeth Hurley, about the theft of the iconic James Bond Aston Martin from an airplane hangar in Florida.

Latest News

School budgets pass amid strong turnout in May 20 polling

With robust voter turnout throughout the region, proposed 2025-26 education budgets passed handily, along with their additional propositions, in the polling held on Tuesday, May 20.

Webutuck Central School District

By a margin of 173 to 103, voters approved the 2025-26 budget totaling $28,665,850, an increase of 5.96% over the current year. After expected revenues are factored in, the amount to be raised by local taxes is $19,403,307, a 5.27% increase over the current year.

Keep ReadingShow less
Amenia gathers at Fountain Square

A traditional Memorial Day observance to honor the fallen was held Fountain Square on Monday, May 26. The ceremony included an Honor Guard from the Wassaic Fire Company standing by the Veterans’ Memorial Wall.

Photo by Leila Hawken

AMENIA — The community gathered at Fountain Square under sunny skies on Monday, May 26, for a Memorial Day ceremony to honor the fallen who bravely served their country. Remembrances, tributes, prayers and music combined to create the fitting annual tribute.

An Honor Guard from VFW Post #5444 of Dover Plains presented the colors at the start of the ceremony that began promptly at 11 a.m. with a welcome from VFW Commander Nick Woodard to the more than 100 who had gathered.

Keep ReadingShow less
Looking at America
Photo by Aly Morrissey

Jay Dacey of the United Kingdom’s Channel 4 took an unexpected detour to the Village of Millerton on Friday, May 23 to capture footage of a rural American town.

The stop was one of the last on a 10-day trip to the United States to film a piece on American politics.

Keep ReadingShow less
Townscape’s flower power

Red, white and blue Memorial Day planting by Townscape’s volunteers ahead of Memorial Day ceremonies.

Photo by Leslie Farhangi

The Townscape team was out in force in time for Memorial Day in its 25th year of flower planting.

Planting were place throughout the village, and they can be found at the War Memorial in Veterans Park, in the boxes and planters on the bridge on Main Street, and at the Rail Trail crossing. As always, Tracy Hanselman and Jim Lambertson gave Townscape assistance with their expert horticultural direction, and they will maintain and water the plants throughout the season.

Keep ReadingShow less