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 18 Aug 2026

Country

Main category

Sub category

Date

08/18/2026

Average data

Episodes: 174

Frequency: every 29 days

Duration: 00:48:49

Top 5 authors

1. iHeartPodcasts (5 shows)

2. Tortoise Media (2 shows)

3. The Guardian (2 shows)

4. pepe&chema (2 shows)

5. Audible (2 shows)

Top 5 hosting

1. Megaphone (18 shows)

2. Acast (15 shows)

3. Omny Studio (14 shows)

4. ART19 (7 shows)

5. Simplecast (7 shows)

Rank	Name	Artist	Main Category	Eps	Hosting	Score
1	Freakonomics Radio	Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher	Society & Culture	944	Simplecast	38
2	The Why Files: Operation Podcast	The Why Files: Operation Podcast	Society & Culture	312	Megaphone	42
3	The Telepathy Tapes Details temporarily unavailable	Ky Dickens	Society & Culture	88	Acast	84
4	This Is Actually Happening	Audible	Society & Culture	357	ART19	68
5	Danny Jones Podcast	Danny Jones \| Daylight Media	Society & Culture	442	Megaphone	32
6	Paper Trail	ProPublica	Society & Culture	15	PRX	69
7	Lights Out Library: Sleep Documentaries	Olimpia Pérez	Society & Culture	145	Megaphone	68
8	Otherworld	Otherworld	Society & Culture	269	WideOrbit	48
9	Focus: We Keep Us Safe	KUOW News and Information	Society & Culture	25	Omny Studio	73
10	Spiral \| Tortoise Investigates	The Observer	Society & Culture	115	Acast	73
11	Adrift	Apple TV / Blanchard House	Society & Culture	9	ART19	69
12	Embedded	NPR	Society & Culture	196	Simplecast	58
13	Hyperfixed	Alex Goldman & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	57	PRX	64
14	Where the River Took Us	Texas Monthly	Society & Culture	10	Spreaker	64
15	The Rewriting Humanity	Jim Walsh	Society & Culture	20	Podbean	48
16	Sold a Story	APM Reports	Society & Culture	27	American Public Media	62
17	The Secret World of Roald Dahl	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	14	Omny Studio	78
18	OnlyFantasy	Audible	Society & Culture	30	ART19	53
19	The Crux True Survival Stories	The Crux True Survival Stories	Society & Culture	270	Spreaker	69
20	Better in Person with Stephen Dubner	Freakonomics Radio	Society & Culture	11	Simplecast	62
21	Sweet Bobby	Tortoise Media	Society & Culture	3	Acast	79
22	What It Was Like	Superreal	Society & Culture	103	Acast	79
23	The Hidden Third	Mariana van Zeller	Society & Culture	54	Megaphone	48
24	The Documentary Podcast	BBC World Service	Society & Culture	2000	BBC	33
25	Wind of Change	Pineapple Street Studios / Crooked Media / Spotify	Society & Culture	16	Megaphone	53
26	Stories from a Stranger	Higher Ground	Society & Culture	25	ART19	73
27	Decoder Ring	Slate Podcasts	Society & Culture	166	Acast	69
28	Ear Hustle	Ear Hustle & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	192	PRX	79
29	Question Everything	Brian Reed	Society & Culture	89	Unknown	63
30	Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World	Jimmy Akin	Society & Culture	300	Unknown	42
31	What I survived	Jack Laurence	Society & Culture	69	Acast	83
32	Flightless Bird	David Farrier	Society & Culture	218	Megaphone	38
33	JFK The Enduring Secret	Jeff Crudele	Society & Culture	408	Buzzsprout	83
34	Radio Ambulante	My Cultura, Radio Ambulante and iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	371	Omny Studio	73
35	Real Life Ghost Stories	Real Life Ghost Stories	Society & Culture	1204	Acast	59
36	The Diamond King \| Telegraph Investigates	The Telegraph	Society & Culture	52	Acast	78
37	Campus Files: Scandals, Secrets & Crimes at American Universities	Audacy	Society & Culture	98	WideOrbit	68
38	The Birth Keepers	The Guardian	Society & Culture	6	Acast	58
39	5CAST w/ Andrew Callaghan	Andrew Callaghan	Society & Culture	31	Buzzsprout	38
40	Heretics \| Andrew Gold	Andrew Gold	Society & Culture	707	Megaphone	53
41	Latino USA	My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	711	Omny Studio	53
42	Johnathan Walton Media	Johnathan Walton	Society & Culture	53	RedCircle	73
43	World of Secrets	BBC	Society & Culture	101	BBC	53
44	Our American Stories	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	2004	Omny Studio	43
45	Noble	Wavland	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	63
46	ChannelB پادکست فارسی	Ali Bandari	Society & Culture	105	Acast	69
47	Mind Games	Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	11	Omny Studio	53
48	Strangers on a Bench	Tom Rosenthal	Society & Culture	100	Acast	59
49	Bailey Sarian	Bailey Sarian	Society & Culture	158	Spreaker	43
50	Uncanny	BBC Radio 4	Society & Culture	124	BBC	38
51	All My Relations Podcast	Matika Wilbur & Temryss Lane	Society & Culture	78	Buzzsprout	62
52	SuperHuman	iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	12	Omny Studio	53
53	The Paranormal Podcast	Jim Harold	Society & Culture	15	Megaphone	52
54	Dalton Fischer Podcast	Dalton Fischer	Society & Culture	23	Buzzsprout	42
55	Swingers	BBC Radio Wales	Society & Culture	7	BBC	43
56	The Shrink Next Door	Audible \| Bloomberg	Society & Culture	5	ART19	63
57	Scene on Radio	Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University	Society & Culture	141	PRX	59
58	Skyline Drive: How to Live Forever	iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	23	Omny Studio	68
59	Black Box: The Chatbots	The Guardian	Society & Culture	51	Acast	68
60	Fighting Crime	Arnold Ventures	Society & Culture	11	Megaphone	58
61	Belief Hole \| Paranormal, Mysteries and Other Tasty Thought Snacks	SpectreVision Radio	Society & Culture	156	Megaphone	63
62	Missing Debbie \| Bed of Lies	The Telegraph	Society & Culture	28	Acast	83
63	Relatos Forenses Podcast	pepe&chema	Society & Culture	276	Megaphone	32
64	pepe&chema podcast	pepe&chema	Society & Culture	210	Megaphone	32
65	Artifacts: Stories from the Emotional History of the Internet	Danny Brown	Society & Culture	25	Captivate	73
66	Radio Marz \| پادکست فارسی رادیو مرز	Marzie	Society & Culture	91	Acast	52
67	To Catch a Thief: North Korea On Our Payroll	Rubrik \| Nicole Perlroth \| Pod People	Society & Culture	19	Megaphone	63
68	Alien UFO Podcast Details temporarily unavailable	Simon Bown	Society & Culture	423	Simplecast	63
69	Target Intelligence: PSYOP with Shawn Ryan	IRONCLAD	Society & Culture	12	Megaphone	83
70	The Commune	Stuff Audio	Society & Culture	13	Megaphone	63
71	Curse of: Miss America	iHeartPodcasts and Glass Podcasts	Society & Culture	19	Omny Studio	63
72	The Missing Cryptoqueen	BBC Sounds	Society & Culture	25	BBC	33
73	The Vanguard Wall Podcast	The Vanguard Wall Podcast	History	56	Buzzsprout	32
74	Sumud Podcast: Inspired by Palestine	Dr. Ed Hasan	Society & Culture	116	Megaphone	68
75	The Brohio Podcast	Aliens, Conspiracy Theories, Paranormal, Famous Murders, Cryptozoology, Strange Occurrences, Monsters, UFOs, True Crime, Demons, Occult, Urban Legends, Comedy	Society & Culture	529	Spreaker	43
76	Army of Normal Folks	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	494	Omny Studio	68
77	The Underworld Podcast	The Underworld Podcast	Society & Culture	284	Megaphone	43
78	Sound, Light & Frequency	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	38	Omny Studio	83
79	Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down A Drug Lord	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	26	Omny Studio	63
80	Hoaxed	Tortoise Media	Society & Culture	9	Acast	74
81	Hysterical	Audible \| Pineapple Street Studios	Society & Culture	5	ART19	63
82	Conspiracy Files with Paige Carter	Forbidden Knowledge Network	Society & Culture	154	Spotify for Podcasters	52
83	Concrete Mama: An Unincarcerated Podcast	Unincarcerated Productions	Society & Culture	25	Buzzsprout	51
84	Debt Heads	Jamie Feldman & Rachel Webster	Society & Culture	13	Transistor	73
85	Stuff Matters with Ed Conway	Sky News	Society & Culture	9	Captivate	42
86	Inconceivable Truth	audiochuck	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	63
87	Affaires sensibles Feed not publicly shared by the creator	France Inter	Documentary	139	N/A	N/A
88	How I Survived	That's Life!	Society & Culture	47	Omny Studio	53
89	Radio Diaries	Radio Diaries & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	274	PRX	43
90	The Crimes of Margo Freshwater	Sony Music Entertainment	Society & Culture	7	Megaphone	63
91	The Consciousness Cassettes (Season 2 of The Telepathy Tapes)	TTT Media	Society & Culture	15	ART19	52
92	Investigation Chancla	Mama Chancla	Society & Culture	5	RSS.com	68
93	The Know Rogan Experience	Cross Pond Productions	Society & Culture	93	Libsyn	62
94	I’m Not a Monster Presents… Where is Austin Tice?	BBC Sounds	Society & Culture	38	BBC	58
95	Lucky Boy	Gary Marshall	Documentary	6	N/A	N/A
96	HABITUAL	Colorado Radio for Justice	Society & Culture	6	Transistor	69
97	The Obit Project	Jad Abumrad and Jule Banville	Society & Culture	13	Omny Studio	59
98	Jungle Prince	The New York Times	Society & Culture	3	Simplecast	63
99	History's Great Mysteries	Nick	Society & Culture	20	Spotify for Podcasters	28
100	Be Amazed	Be Amazed	Society & Culture	504	RedCircle	43

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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