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 12 Aug 2026

Country

Main category

Sub category

Date

08/12/2026

Average data

Episodes: 189

Frequency: every 30 days

Duration: 00:49:13

Top 5 authors

1. iHeartPodcasts (7 shows)

2. BBC Sounds (2 shows)

3. The Guardian (2 shows)

4. Tortoise Media (2 shows)

5. The Telegraph (2 shows)

Top 5 hosting

1. Megaphone (18 shows)

2. Acast (17 shows)

3. Omny Studio (15 shows)

4. Buzzsprout (7 shows)

5. ART19 (7 shows)

Rank	Name	Artist	Main Category	Eps	Hosting	Score
1	The Why Files: Operation Podcast	The Why Files: Operation Podcast	Society & Culture	310	Megaphone	42
2	Freakonomics Radio	Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher	Society & Culture	1011	Simplecast	38
3	The Telepathy Tapes Details temporarily unavailable	Ky Dickens	Society & Culture	88	Acast	84
4	This Is Actually Happening	Audible	Society & Culture	356	ART19	68
5	Otherworld	Otherworld	Society & Culture	266	WideOrbit	48
6	Careless \| Tortoise Investigates	The Observer	Society & Culture	115	Acast	73
7	Danny Jones Podcast	Danny Jones \| Daylight Media	Society & Culture	440	Megaphone	32
8	Paper Trail	ProPublica	Society & Culture	15	PRX	69
9	Focus: We Keep Us Safe	KUOW News and Information	Society & Culture	25	Omny Studio	73
10	Embedded	NPR	Society & Culture	205	Simplecast	58
11	Adrift	Apple TV / Blanchard House	Society & Culture	9	ART19	69
12	Lights Out Library: Sleep Documentaries	Olimpia Pérez	Society & Culture	144	Megaphone	68
13	Flightless Bird	David Farrier	Society & Culture	217	Megaphone	38
14	Better in Person with Stephen Dubner	Freakonomics Radio	Society & Culture	11	Simplecast	62
15	Where the River Took Us	Texas Monthly	Society & Culture	11	Spreaker	64
16	OnlyFantasy	Audible	Society & Culture	31	ART19	53
17	The Secret World of Roald Dahl	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	14	Omny Studio	78
18	Wind of Change	Pineapple Street Studios / Crooked Media / Spotify	Society & Culture	16	Megaphone	53
19	Sold a Story	APM Reports	Society & Culture	26	American Public Media	62
20	Stories from a Stranger	Higher Ground	Society & Culture	24	ART19	73
21	Sweet Bobby	Tortoise Media	Society & Culture	8	Acast	79
22	The Crux True Survival Stories	The Crux True Survival Stories	Society & Culture	269	Spreaker	69
23	Question Everything	Brian Reed	Society & Culture	88	Unknown	63
24	The Rewriting Humanity	Jim Walsh	Society & Culture	20	Podbean	48
25	Johnathan Walton Media	Johnathan Walton	Society & Culture	52	RedCircle	73
26	5CAST w/ Andrew Callaghan	Andrew Callaghan	Society & Culture	31	Buzzsprout	38
27	Decoder Ring	Slate Podcasts	Society & Culture	263	Acast	69
28	What It Was Like	Superreal	Society & Culture	225	Acast	79
29	Hyperfixed	Alex Goldman & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	56	PRX	64
30	The Documentary Podcast	BBC World Service	Society & Culture	2000	BBC	33
31	Ear Hustle	Ear Hustle & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	234	PRX	79
32	The Hidden Third	Mariana van Zeller	Society & Culture	52	Megaphone	48
33	Noble	Wavland	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	63
34	Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World	Jimmy Akin	Society & Culture	300	Unknown	42
35	Radio Ambulante	My Cultura, Radio Ambulante and iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	369	Omny Studio	73
36	The Know Rogan Experience	Cross Pond Productions	Society & Culture	92	Libsyn	62
37	The Diamond King \| Telegraph Investigates	The Telegraph	Society & Culture	52	Acast	78
38	What I survived	Jack Laurence	Society & Culture	70	Acast	83
39	The Underworld Podcast	The Underworld Podcast	Society & Culture	375	Megaphone	43
40	The Paranormal Podcast	Jim Harold	Society & Culture	982	Megaphone	52
41	Our American Stories	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	2004	Omny Studio	43
42	Strangers on a Bench	Tom Rosenthal	Society & Culture	100	Acast	59
43	World of Secrets	BBC	Society & Culture	104	BBC	53
44	ChannelB پادکست فارسی	Ali Bandari	Society & Culture	105	Acast	69
45	Swingers	BBC Radio Wales	Society & Culture	7	BBC	43
46	Mind Games	Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	11	Omny Studio	53
47	The Shrink Next Door	Audible \| Bloomberg	Society & Culture	19	ART19	63
48	Campus Files: Scandals, Secrets & Crimes at American Universities	Audacy	Society & Culture	98	WideOrbit	68
49	Skyline Drive: How to Live Forever	iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	23	Omny Studio	68
50	pepe&chema podcast	pepe&chema	Society & Culture	209	Megaphone	32
51	JFK The Enduring Secret	Jeff Crudele	Society & Culture	406	Buzzsprout	83
52	SuperHuman	iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	12	Omny Studio	53
53	Artifacts: Stories from the Emotional History of the Internet	Danny Brown	Society & Culture	23	Captivate	73
54	Leaving Eden Podcast	Leaving Eden LLC	Society & Culture	343	Acast	64
55	Real Life Ghost Stories	Real Life Ghost Stories	Society & Culture	1200	Acast	59
56	The Birth Keepers	The Guardian	Society & Culture	6	Acast	58
57	Army of Normal Folks	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	494	Omny Studio	68
58	Uncanny	BBC Radio 4	Society & Culture	115	BBC	38
59	Inconceivable Truth	audiochuck	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	63
60	Hoaxed	Tortoise Media	Society & Culture	9	Acast	74
61	The Crimes of Margo Freshwater	Sony Music Entertainment	Society & Culture	7	Megaphone	63
62	Relatos Forenses Podcast	pepe&chema	Society & Culture	274	Megaphone	32
63	All My Relations Podcast	Matika Wilbur & Temryss Lane	Society & Culture	78	Buzzsprout	62
64	Scene on Radio	Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University	Society & Culture	141	PRX	59
65	Hysterical	Audible \| Pineapple Street Studios	Society & Culture	11	ART19	63
66	To Catch a Thief: North Korea On Our Payroll	Rubrik \| Nicole Perlroth \| Pod People	Society & Culture	19	Megaphone	63
67	Debt Heads	Jamie Feldman & Rachel Webster	Society & Culture	16	Transistor	73
68	Heretics \| Andrew Gold	Andrew Gold	Society & Culture	705	Megaphone	53
69	The Missing Cryptoqueen	BBC Sounds	Society & Culture	25	BBC	33
70	The Commune	Stuff Audio	Society & Culture	13	Megaphone	63
71	Bed of Lies	The Telegraph	Society & Culture	33	Acast	69
72	The Obit Project	Jad Abumrad and Jule Banville	Society & Culture	13	Omny Studio	59
73	Stealing Superman	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	11	Omny Studio	53
74	Fighting Crime	Arnold Ventures	Society & Culture	11	Megaphone	58
75	Belief Hole \| Paranormal, Mysteries and Other Tasty Thought Snacks	SpectreVision Radio	Society & Culture	156	Megaphone	63
76	Concrete Mama: An Unincarcerated Podcast	Unincarcerated Productions	Society & Culture	25	Buzzsprout	51
77	Conspiracy Files with Paige Carter	Forbidden Knowledge Network	Society & Culture	153	Spotify for Podcasters	52
78	I’m Not a Monster Presents… Where is Austin Tice?	BBC Sounds	Society & Culture	37	BBC	58
79	Black Box: The Chatbots	The Guardian	Society & Culture	51	Acast	68
80	Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down A Drug Lord	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	26	Omny Studio	63
81	Target Intelligence: PSYOP with Shawn Ryan	IRONCLAD	Society & Culture	12	Megaphone	83
82	The Brohio Podcast	Aliens, Conspiracy Theories, Paranormal, Famous Murders, Cryptozoology, Strange Occurrences, Monsters, UFOs, True Crime, Demons, Occult, Urban Legends, Comedy	Society & Culture	528	Spreaker	43
83	Latino USA	My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	709	Omny Studio	53
84	The Missing Sister	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	7	Omny Studio	53
85	Dalton Fischer Podcast	Dalton Fischer	Society & Culture	27	Buzzsprout	42
86	Alien UFO Podcast Details temporarily unavailable	Simon Bown	Society & Culture	423	Simplecast	63
87	Lucky Boy	Gary Marshall	Documentary	6	N/A	N/A
88	WTF is on my Mind?!	Mark Vicente	Society & Culture	125	Buzzsprout	53
89	The Vanguard Wall Podcast	The Vanguard Wall Podcast	History	56	Buzzsprout	32
90	搞钱女孩	搞钱女孩小辉	Society & Culture	191	Ximalaya	53
91	Sound, Light & Frequency	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	37	Omny Studio	83
92	Curse of: America’s Next Top Model	iHeartPodcasts and Glass Podcasts	Society & Culture	18	Omny Studio	58
93	HABITUAL	Colorado Radio for Justice	Society & Culture	6	Transistor	69
94	The Consciousness Cassettes (Season 2 of The Telepathy Tapes)	TTT Media	Society & Culture	15	ART19	52
95	Boomtown	Imperative Entertainment and Texas Monthly	Society & Culture	15	Megaphone	64
96	History's Great Mysteries	Nick	Society & Culture	20	Spotify for Podcasters	28
97	Affaires sensibles Feed not publicly shared by the creator	France Inter	Documentary	137	N/A	N/A
98	Stuff Matters with Ed Conway	Sky News	Society & Culture	9	Captivate	42
99	The Slow Newscast	The Observer	Society & Culture	463	Acast	74
100	Radio Marz \| پادکست فارسی رادیو مرز	Marzie	Society & Culture	91	Acast	52

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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