Most Influential Podcasts: Eight Shows That Set the Defaults

Chart rank tells you who listens, not who changed how shows are made. As people who produce podcasts for a living, we judged influence by one question: did the show set a default others now copy?

The table puts each show’s default side by side, along with recent episode length.

Influence means other shows copied you

Popular and influential aren’t the same thing. A show can top the charts and change nothing, so we ask one question of every show: what default did it invent that others now repeat?

A default is a habit that listeners and makers now treat as normal. Think of a weekly theme, a season built like a mystery, a two hour guest talk or a daily news show built around one story. Once a show sets one, every later show works inside it or pushes against it.

The biggest show on this list is far from the most original. The Joe Rogan Experience has about 225,800 ratings on Apple, over twice as many as This American Life, yet its main invention was length. The older shows invented structure.

An earlier version of this page named four influential podcasts. We think the honest number is eight, because each show owns a different default. The eight below pass the test, and we explain what we left out.

How we picked the eight

For each show, we noted the publisher, hosts, score, episode count and length of recent episodes. Where a famous claim could have changed, such as an exclusive deal or an award, we confirmed it with a news source.

Three corrections to older lists matter:

• This American Life won the first Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting in 2020, according to NPR’s report.
• Spotify ended Joe Rogan’s exclusive deal in 2024, and in October 2026 the two announced a new multi-year deal, as TheWrap reported.
• WTF with Marc Maron has ended, with Barack Obama as the final guest, per NPR.

We also left out the download totals the old page quoted for Serial and My Favorite Murder. They had no date and no source we could confirm today. Influence is a judgment call, and we’re upfront that this is ours.

Eight shows and the default each one set

Treat these figures as a rough guide. They’ll drift.

The structure inventors

1. This American Life

This American Life taught radio how to tell a theme. Ira Glass hosts the weekly nonfiction show, produced with WBEZ Chicago. Its default is the theme episode: several true stories around one idea.

It has a 4.5 score from about 87,600 ratings, and recent episodes sit near the one hour mark. It won the inaugural Pulitzer for audio reporting in 2020.

Best for: anyone who loves stories with a point. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

2. Radiolab

Radiolab proved that sound can carry a story. Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser host this WNYC Studios show, known for its sound design. Its default: music and effects do narrative work, just like the words.

Listeners score it 4.6 across about 870 episodes. Weekly episodes ran from about 21 minutes to just over an hour in the recent list.

Best for: curious listeners who love sound design. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

3. Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History

Hardcore History is history told with drama, and nobody else runs this long. Dan Carlin narrates with a point of view, and he’s upfront that he isn’t a historian. His default is the multi-hour episode, often released as a series with months between parts.

It scores 4.8 from about 64,100 ratings. The three newest parts of a series ran from just under four hours to just over four hours. The feed lists only 13 episodes.

Best for: history fans who want one subject, told at length. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

The conversation inventors

4. WTF with Marc Maron

WTF made the long, honest interview feel like a chat in your kitchen. Marc Maron talked with comedians, actors and writers in his home. The show ended after about 16 years, with Barack Obama as the last guest.

WTF released nearly 1,700 episodes over its run, and it holds a 4.5 from about 28,900 raters on Apple. The last episodes ran from 38 minutes to over two hours, and the archive is still a rich model for interview craft.

Best for: anyone who wants to learn how a good interview works. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

5. The Joe Rogan Experience

The Joe Rogan Experience showed that a podcast can run as long as the guest wants. Joe Rogan hosts open conversations that often run close to three hours, across about 2 thousand episodes.

It carries a 4.5 from about 225,800 raters, the most on this page. Recent episodes ran 2 hours 8 minutes to 2 hours 55 minutes. Spotify ended exclusivity in 2024, so older notes about an exclusive deal are out of date.

Best for: long drives and listeners who like open, rambling conversation. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

The format inventors

6. Serial

Serial made the season-long investigation a thing. Sarah Koenig and Dana Chivvis host narrative seasons from Serial Productions. The show grew out of This American Life in 2014, and the company joined the New York Times Company in 2020.

It has 18 seasons and 135 episodes, with a 4.5 from about 75,200 raters. The newest season, METRO with Sarah Koenig, so far lists one preview episode of about 17 minutes.

Best for: binge listeners who like one story told well. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

7. My Favorite Murder

My Favorite Murder made true crime feel like a community. Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff pair crime stories with jokes and tales from fans, and Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts publish it.

Listeners score it 4.6 across about 1.2 thousand episodes and about 171,100 ratings. Main episodes run near an hour, with shorter minisodes and longer rewind shows in the feed.

Best for: true crime fans who want company, and jokes, with their cases. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

8. The Daily

The Daily made one big story a day the standard for news audio. The New York Times Company is the publisher, with Michael Barbaro, Natalie Kitroeff and Rachel Abrams as hosts.

It has about 106,000 ratings at 4.3. Recent episodes ran 29 to 44 minutes, longer than the twenty minutes in its own tagline.

Best for: news fans who want one story explained each day. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

International Podcast Day: when it is and how to use this list

When is International Podcast Day? It’s usually held on September 30, according to Awareness Days. Podcaster Steve Lee founded it, and it began in 2014 in the United States as National Podcast Day before going international in 2015.

Podcast day celebrates the whole medium instead of one show. It’s a good time to play one episode from each group and notice how each show opens.

Largest podcast networks: reach and influence differ

Curious about the largest podcast networks? Edison Research ranks them each quarter by average weekly reach. In its Q2 2026 ranking, Spotify is first, SiriusXM Podcast Network is second, iHeartPodcasts is third and Red Seat Ventures is fourth.

Edison surveyed 5,006 weekly podcast consumers aged 13 and older. The ranking uses average weekly network reach.

A network can be huge while its shows copy defaults others set. Among our eight, only My Favorite Murder lists iHeartPodcasts as a publisher.

Greatest, most successful and famous podcasts: three ways to count

Lists of the greatest podcasts of all time tend to mix three kinds of proof. Reach is how many people listen now, which is what Edison’s network ranking measures. Recognition covers awards and ratings: This American Life won the first audio Pulitzer in 2020, and on Apple, Rogan has about 225,800 ratings and My Favorite Murder about 171,100. Influence is whether other shows copied the format, and that’s the question this list asks.

Each kind of proof answers a different question, so a list that blends download claims, chart ranks and awards into one ranking can’t compare shows fairly.

A show with a huge rating count may never have set a default, and a show that set one may be modest in reach today. We picked the third kind.

How to use this list as a listener

You don’t need to play all eight. Choose by the default you want to understand:

• Stories with a point: Start with This American Life.
• Sound: Try Radiolab.
• One subject, deep: Pick a Hardcore History series.

Then listen like a maker for ten minutes. Notice how the first minute earns your attention, how often the host speaks versus the guest, and where the music comes in. These small choices explain why a show feels like itself.

Try the same with a show that isn’t on this list. What default does it follow, and what does it add? After a few tries, you’ll spot formats in the wild, and you’ll know which ones your own audience would welcome.

What we left out, and why

Many strong shows follow these defaults. A panel comedy show can be excellent and still use the Rogan or Maron model, and a newsroom daily is a Daily-style show. We kept the originals and left out the many shows that inherited their shape.

Want shows by topic? Our lists of true crime podcasts, comedy podcasts, history podcasts and political podcasts go deeper.

Three ways to misuse a famous format

The most common one is copying the runtime: a new show borrows a three hour length without the audience that makes it work. Length is a promise, and you need something to say for the whole time. Another is cloning a theme episode or a daily briefing step for step, when the better move is to keep the structure and bring your own source of stories. The last is calling a run of episodes a season when nothing connects them. Build the arc first, as Serial did.

All three copy the surface and skip the discipline. The shows above kept a strict format for years, and that’s the part worth borrowing.

What producers notice about these shows

Each of these shows has a sound you can name within ten seconds, whether it’s a theme episode opener, a Radiolab sound bed or Carlin’s voice. That identity comes from choices about music, pacing and editing that repeat in every episode.

They also trust you, the listener. The edits leave room for pauses and for ideas to land, and each point gets said once. That restraint is a skill, and our notes on podcast editing and recording a podcast cover it.

And they have a team behind the host. Shows like Serial and Radiolab depend on producers, editors and sound designers. For the job titles involved, see what a podcast producer does.

Want to build a story-led show of your own? Our narrative podcast production service is built for that. An agency can also plan the format with you through our podcast launch service.

What we can’t tell you

We can’t prove influence. We can’t count how many shows copied each default, and picks like these are a judgment call. Reasonable producers would add or drop a show.

We left out download totals and chart rank because they change and the old figures weren’t sourced.

Conclusion

Influence shows up as a habit other shows repeat. Start with one episode from the structure group and one from the conversation group, and notice what each does in its first minute.

Want to plan a format for your own show? Book a call and bring your best idea.