Apple Podcast Rankings - USA - Documentary

Discover the Top 100 Podcasts in USA

Explore the latest data-driven rankings of the top 100 podcasts in USA. Our comprehensive analysis covers the best Apple Podcasts across various categories, providing insights into the most popular shows, episode lengths, publication frequencies, and leading hosting services. Whether you're a podcast creator or an avid listener, find the top-ranked podcasts that everyone is tuning into right now.

Podcast charts from 05 Oct 2026

Country

Main category

Sub category

Date

10/05/2026

Average data

Episodes: 172

Frequency: every 32 days

Duration: 00:44:54

Top 5 authors

1. iHeartPodcasts (5 shows)

2. Tortoise Media (2 shows)

3. BBC Radio 4 (2 shows)

4. Audible (2 shows)

5. Sony Music Entertainment (2 shows)

Top 5 hosting

1. Megaphone (18 shows)

2. Acast (16 shows)

3. Omny Studio (10 shows)

4. Simplecast (9 shows)

5. ART19 (7 shows)

Rank	Name	Artist	Main Category	Eps	Hosting	Score
1	Freakonomics Radio	Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher	Society & Culture	940	Simplecast	38
2	Sold a Story	APM Reports	Society & Culture	24	American Public Media	62
3	The Telepathy Tapes Details temporarily unavailable	Ky Dickens	Society & Culture	88	Acast	84
4	Paper Trail	ProPublica	Society & Culture	14	PRX	69
5	The Why Files: Operation Podcast	The Why Files: Operation Podcast	Society & Culture	308	Megaphone	42
6	I’m Not a Monster Presents… Where is Austin Tice?	BBC Sounds	Society & Culture	37	BBC	58
7	Otherworld	Otherworld	Society & Culture	263	WideOrbit	48
8	This Is Actually Happening	Audible	Society & Culture	353	ART19	68
9	Reaching Out	Futuro Media	Society & Culture	4	Acast	79
10	Embedded	NPR	Society & Culture	193	Simplecast	58
11	Danny Jones Podcast	Danny Jones \| Daylight Media	Society & Culture	437	Megaphone	32
13	Adrift	Apple TV / Blanchard House	Society & Culture	9	ART19	69
14	A Very British Cult	BBC Radio 4	Society & Culture	9	BBC	49
15	The Rewriting Humanity	Jim Walsh	Society & Culture	20	Podbean	48
16	Lights Out Library: Sleep Documentaries	Olimpia Pérez	Society & Culture	143	Megaphone	68
17	The Hidden Third	Mariana van Zeller	Society & Culture	50	Megaphone	48
18	Dalton Fischer Podcast	Dalton Fischer	Society & Culture	23	Buzzsprout	42
19	Personally: Agent Layla	CBC	Society & Culture	71	Triton Digital	63
20	Johnathan Walton Media	Johnathan Walton	Society & Culture	50	RedCircle	63
21	Focus: We Keep Us Safe	KUOW News and Information	Society & Culture	22	Omny Studio	73
22	The Birth Keepers	The Guardian	Society & Culture	6	Acast	58
23	Theories of the Third Kind	Theories of the Third Kind	Society & Culture	303	WideOrbit	68
24	The Speaker	KQED	Society & Culture	4	PRX	59
25	Ear Hustle	Ear Hustle & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	190	PRX	79
26	Symptomatic: A Medical Mystery Podcast	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	48	Omny Studio	48
27	What It Was Like	Superreal	Society & Culture	97	Acast	79
28	Uncanny	BBC Radio 4	Society & Culture	105	BBC	38
29	Where the River Took Us	Texas Monthly	Society & Culture	10	Spreaker	64
30	World of Secrets	BBC	Society & Culture	99	BBC	53
31	Sweet Bobby	Tortoise Media	Society & Culture	3	Acast	79
32	Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World	Jimmy Akin	Society & Culture	300	Unknown	42
33	The Documentary Podcast	BBC World Service	Society & Culture	2000	BBC	33
34	Black Box: The Chatbots	The Guardian	Society & Culture	51	Acast	68
35	Better in Person with Stephen Dubner	Freakonomics Radio	Society & Culture	11	Simplecast	62
36	Wind of Change	Pineapple Street Studios / Crooked Media / Spotify	Society & Culture	16	Megaphone	53
37	Question Everything	Brian Reed	Society & Culture	86	Unknown	63
38	JFK The Enduring Secret	Jeff Crudele	Society & Culture	406	Buzzsprout	83
39	Decoder Ring	Slate Podcasts	Society & Culture	163	Acast	69
40	Flightless Bird	David Farrier	Society & Culture	214	Megaphone	38
41	The Paranormal Podcast	Jim Harold	Society & Culture	14	Megaphone	52
42	The Crux True Survival Stories	The Crux True Survival Stories	Society & Culture	266	Spreaker	69
43	Radio Ambulante	My Cultura, Radio Ambulante and iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	369	Omny Studio	73
44	Stories from a Stranger	Higher Ground	Society & Culture	23	ART19	73
45	Real Life Ghost Stories	Real Life Ghost Stories	Society & Culture	1196	Acast	59
46	The Consciousness Cassettes (Season 2 of The Telepathy Tapes)	TTT Media	Society & Culture	15	ART19	52
47	Dispatches from the Divide	BYUradio	Society & Culture	176	Unknown	83
48	ChannelB پادکست فارسی	Ali Bandari	Society & Culture	105	Acast	69
49	Latino USA	My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	706	Omny Studio	53
50	OnlyFantasy	Audible	Society & Culture	29	ART19	63
51	Unquiet Realities	Winchester	Society & Culture	7	RedCircle	69
52	Noble	Wavland	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	63
53	The Secret World of Roald Dahl	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	14	Omny Studio	78
54	SuperHuman	iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	12	Omny Studio	53
55	Careless \| Tortoise Investigates	The Observer	Society & Culture	117	Acast	73
56	The Shrink Next Door	Audible \| Bloomberg	Society & Culture	4	ART19	63
57	Our American Stories	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	2004	Omny Studio	43
58	Lucky Boy	Gary Marshall	Documentary	6	N/A	N/A
59	Campus Files: Scandals, Secrets & Crimes at American Universities	Audacy	Society & Culture	95	WideOrbit	68
60	Heretics \| Andrew Gold	Andrew Gold	Society & Culture	702	Megaphone	53
61	Hyperfixed	Alex Goldman & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	55	PRX	64
62	Target Intelligence: PSYOP with Shawn Ryan	IRONCLAD	Society & Culture	12	Megaphone	83
63	Scene on Radio	Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University	Society & Culture	141	PRX	59
64	Call Sign Condor: Latino Soldiers Fighting in Ukraine	DW, LA Times Studios, Futuro Studios	Society & Culture	3	Simplecast	68
65	Fighting Crime	Arnold Ventures	Society & Culture	11	Megaphone	58
66	The Poet	Sony Music Entertainment	Society & Culture	6	Megaphone	73
67	Artifacts: Stories from the Emotional History of the Internet	Danny Brown	Society & Culture	22	Captivate	73
68	What I survived	Jack Laurence	Society & Culture	66	Acast	83
69	The Missing Cryptoqueen	BBC Sounds	Society & Culture	25	BBC	33
70	Sound, Light & Frequency	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	35	Omny Studio	83
71	Strangers on a Bench	Tom Rosenthal	Society & Culture	100	Acast	59
72	Hysterical	Audible \| Pineapple Street Studios	Society & Culture	4	ART19	63
73	The Underworld Podcast	The Underworld Podcast	Society & Culture	281	Megaphone	43
74	The Commune	Stuff Audio	Society & Culture	13	Megaphone	63
75	Belief Hole \| Paranormal, Mysteries and Other Tasty Thought Snacks	SpectreVision Radio	Society & Culture	155	Megaphone	63
76	Alien UFO Podcast Details temporarily unavailable	Simon Bown	Society & Culture	423	Simplecast	63
77	Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down A Drug Lord	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	26	Omny Studio	63
78	HABITUAL	Colorado Radio for Justice	Society & Culture	6	Transistor	69
79	pepe&chema podcast	pepe&chema	Society & Culture	207	Megaphone	32
80	Conspiracy Theories and Cover-Ups	Forbidden Knowledge Network	Society & Culture	84	Spotify for Podcasters	52
81	The Powers of Darkness Podcast	Or Whatever Movies	Society & Culture	8	Libsyn	52
82	Into the Mix	Ben & Jerry's and ABF Creative	Society & Culture	51	Megaphone	59
83	Jungle Prince	The New York Times	Society & Culture	3	Simplecast	63
84	5CAST w/ Andrew Callaghan	Andrew Callaghan	Society & Culture	31	Buzzsprout	38
85	Conspiracy Files with Paige Carter	Forbidden Knowledge Network	Society & Culture	151	Spotify for Podcasters	52
86	Revisiting The Gay Life	David Boyer	Society & Culture	15	PRX	79
87	The Know Rogan Experience	Cross Pond Productions	Society & Culture	90	Libsyn	62
88	Everyday Abundance: The hidden stories behind everyday technologies	Virginia Postrel and Charles C. Mann	Society & Culture	8	Castos	52
89	Haunted UK Podcast: History, Hauntings and the Unexplained	Haunted UK	Society & Culture	228	Acast	43
90	The Crimes of Margo Freshwater	Sony Music Entertainment	Society & Culture	7	Megaphone	63
91	Chameleon: Dr. Miracle	Sony Music Entertainment / Campside Media	Society & Culture	3	Megaphone	63
92	Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage \| Global Issues \| Current Affairs	Secrets & Spies	Society & Culture	350	Simplecast	78
93	Not Special: A Liberty Speaks Show	Liberty Speaks	Society & Culture	48	Buzzsprout	72
94	The Brohio Podcast	Aliens, Conspiracy Theories, Paranormal, Famous Murders, Cryptozoology, Strange Occurrences, Monsters, UFOs, True Crime, Demons, Occult, Urban Legends, Comedy	Society & Culture	526	Spreaker	43
95	Radio Marz \| پادکست فارسی رادیو مرز	Marzie	Society & Culture	90	Acast	52
96	Hoaxed	Tortoise Media	Society & Culture	9	Acast	74
97	Inconceivable Truth	audiochuck	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	63
98	How I Survived	That's Life!	Society & Culture	44	Omny Studio	53
99	The Whispering Woods : Real Life Ghost & Paranormal Stories	True, Scary, Paranormal, Folklore and Ghost Stories	Society & Culture	650	Acast	69
100	History's Great Mysteries	Nick	Society & Culture	20	Spotify for Podcasters	28

Understanding Podcast Rankings and Trends in USA

The podcast landscape in USA is constantly evolving, with new shows emerging and established ones climbing the ranks. Our data reveals intriguing trends in podcasting, such as the average number of episodes produced, typical episode lengths, and the most consistent publication schedules. These insights can help listeners find their next favorite podcast and give creators a deeper understanding of what resonates with their audience.

For those interested in podcast creation, knowing the best hosting services and the most successful authors in your category can provide a competitive edge. Whether you're looking to start your own show or just want to see what's popular, this ranking offers a valuable snapshot of the podcasting world in USA.
Explore more data on podcast rankings by diving into other categories and countries, and stay ahead in the ever-changing podcast scene.

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