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 sept. 2026

Country

Main category

Sub category

Date

09/18/2026

Average data

Episodes: 169

Frequency: every 38 days

Duration: 00:43:32

Top 5 authors

1. iHeartPodcasts (6 shows)

2. pepe&chema (2 shows)

3. audiochuck (2 shows)

4. Sony Music Entertainment (2 shows)

5. The Guardian (2 shows)

Top 5 hosting

1. Megaphone (19 shows)

2. Acast (14 shows)

3. Omny Studio (13 shows)

4. PRX (8 shows)

5. Simplecast (8 shows)

Rank	Name	Artist	Main Category	Eps	Hosting	Score
1	Freakonomics Radio	Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher	Society & Culture	938	Simplecast	38
2	Paper Trail	ProPublica	Society & Culture	13	PRX	69
3	The Telepathy Tapes Details temporarily unavailable	Ky Dickens	Society & Culture	88	Acast	84
4	The Why Files: Operation Podcast	The Why Files: Operation Podcast	Society & Culture	303	Megaphone	42
5	This Is Actually Happening	Audible	Society & Culture	349	ART19	68
6	I’m Not a Monster Presents… Where is Austin Tice?	BBC Sounds	Society & Culture	33	BBC	58
7	Otherworld	Otherworld	Society & Culture	259	WideOrbit	48
8	Embedded	NPR	Society & Culture	190	Simplecast	58
9	The Rewriting Humanity	Jim Walsh	Society & Culture	20	Podbean	48
10	The Speaker	KQED	Society & Culture	2	PRX	59
11	Adrift	Apple TV / Blanchard House	Society & Culture	9	ART19	69
12	What It Was Like	Superreal	Society & Culture	94	Acast	79
13	Danny Jones Podcast	Danny Jones \| Daylight Media	Society & Culture	432	Megaphone	32
14	Lights Out Library: Sleep Documentaries	Olimpia Pérez	Society & Culture	141	Megaphone	68
15	Ear Hustle	Ear Hustle & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	188	PRX	79
16	Better in Person with Stephen Dubner	Freakonomics Radio	Society & Culture	11	Simplecast	62
17	Skyline Drive: How to Live Forever	iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	22	Omny Studio	68
18	Focus: Adults in the Room	KUOW News and Information	Society & Culture	17	Omny Studio	68
19	The Hidden Third	Mariana van Zeller	Society & Culture	48	Megaphone	48
20	Sold a Story	APM Reports	Society & Culture	23	American Public Media	62
21	Black Box: The Chatbots	The Guardian	Society & Culture	51	Acast	68
22	OnlyFantasy	Audible	Society & Culture	29	ART19	69
23	Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World	Jimmy Akin	Society & Culture	300	Unknown	42
24	Sweet Bobby	Tortoise Media	Society & Culture	9	Acast	79
25	Where the River Took Us	Texas Monthly	Society & Culture	10	Spreaker	64
26	Flightless Bird	David Farrier	Society & Culture	212	Megaphone	38
27	5CAST w/ Andrew Callaghan	Andrew Callaghan	Society & Culture	31	Buzzsprout	38
28	Wind of Change	Pineapple Street Studios / Crooked Media / Spotify	Society & Culture	16	Megaphone	53
29	Sound, Light & Frequency	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	33	Omny Studio	83
30	Question Everything	Brian Reed	Society & Culture	83	Unknown	63
31	The Poet	Sony Music Entertainment	Society & Culture	6	Megaphone	73
32	Reaching Out	Futuro Media	Society & Culture	2	Acast	79
33	The Documentary Podcast	BBC World Service	Society & Culture	2000	BBC	33
34	Decoder Ring	Slate Podcasts	Society & Culture	162	Acast	69
35	Heretics \| Andrew Gold	Andrew Gold	Society & Culture	698	Megaphone	53
36	Theories of the Third Kind	Theories of the Third Kind	Society & Culture	301	WideOrbit	68
37	The Secret World of Roald Dahl	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	14	Omny Studio	78
38	Careless \| Tortoise Investigates	The Observer	Society & Culture	120	Acast	73
39	Johnathan Walton Media	Johnathan Walton	Society & Culture	48	RedCircle	73
40	The Crux True Survival Stories	The Crux True Survival Stories	Society & Culture	262	Spreaker	69
41	Radio Ambulante	My Cultura, Radio Ambulante and iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	369	Omny Studio	73
42	The Birth Keepers	The Guardian	Society & Culture	6	Acast	58
43	The Paranormal Podcast	Jim Harold	Society & Culture	14	Megaphone	52
44	Hyperfixed	Alex Goldman & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	54	PRX	64
45	Noble	Wavland	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	63
46	SuperHuman	iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	12	Omny Studio	53
47	Belief Hole \| Paranormal, Mysteries and Other Tasty Thought Snacks	SpectreVision Radio	Society & Culture	155	Megaphone	63
48	World of Secrets	BBC	Society & Culture	97	BBC	53
49	Scene on Radio	Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University	Society & Culture	140	PRX	59
50	The Consciousness Cassettes (Season 2 of The Telepathy Tapes)	TTT Media	Society & Culture	15	ART19	52
51	pepe&chema podcast	pepe&chema	Society & Culture	205	Megaphone	32
52	Campus Files: Scandals, Secrets & Crimes at American Universities	Audacy	Society & Culture	93	WideOrbit	68
53	Uncanny	BBC Radio 4	Society & Culture	170	BBC	38
54	Stories from a Stranger	Higher Ground	Society & Culture	20	ART19	73
55	Our American Stories	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	2004	Omny Studio	43
56	ChannelB پادکست فارسی	Ali Bandari	Society & Culture	105	Acast	69
57	Revisiting The Gay Life	David Boyer	Society & Culture	15	PRX	79
58	Target Intelligence: PSYOP with Shawn Ryan	IRONCLAD	Society & Culture	12	Megaphone	83
59	Fighting Crime	Arnold Ventures	Society & Culture	10	Megaphone	58
60	Relatos Forenses Podcast	pepe&chema	Society & Culture	266	Megaphone	32
61	What I survived	Jack Laurence	Society & Culture	64	Acast	83
62	Artifacts: Stories from the Emotional History of the Internet	Danny Brown	Society & Culture	20	Captivate	73
63	How I Survived	That's Life!	Society & Culture	42	Omny Studio	53
64	JFK The Enduring Secret	Jeff Crudele	Society & Culture	400	Buzzsprout	83
65	The Underworld Podcast	The Underworld Podcast	Society & Culture	279	Megaphone	43
66	Reflector	Longview	Society & Culture	33	Megaphone	48
67	Conspiracy Files with Paige Carter	Forbidden Knowledge Network	Society & Culture	149	Spotify for Podcasters	52
68	Real Life Ghost Stories	Real Life Ghost Stories	Society & Culture	1190	Acast	59
69	Lucky Boy	Gary Marshall	Documentary	6	N/A	N/A
70	The Brohio Podcast	Aliens, Conspiracy Theories, Paranormal, Famous Murders, Cryptozoology, Strange Occurrences, Monsters, UFOs, True Crime, Demons, Occult, Urban Legends, Comedy	Society & Culture	523	Spreaker	43
71	The Commune	Stuff Audio	Society & Culture	13	Megaphone	63
72	The Shrink Next Door	Audible \| Bloomberg	Society & Culture	3	ART19	63
73	The Know Rogan Experience	Cross Pond Productions	Society & Culture	87	Libsyn	62
74	A Whole Other Country	Marfa Public Radio	Society & Culture	7	PRX	59
75	All My Relations Podcast	Matika Wilbur & Temryss Lane	Society & Culture	77	Buzzsprout	62
76	HABITUAL	Colorado Radio for Justice	Society & Culture	6	Transistor	69
77	Symptomatic: A Medical Mystery Podcast	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	46	Omny Studio	48
78	The Missing Cryptoqueen	BBC Sounds	Society & Culture	25	BBC	33
79	Hysterical	Audible \| Pineapple Street Studios	Society & Culture	4	ART19	63
80	Jungle Prince	The New York Times	Society & Culture	3	Simplecast	63
81	Inconceivable Truth	audiochuck	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	63
82	Strangers on a Bench	Tom Rosenthal	Society & Culture	100	Acast	59
83	Debt Heads	Jamie Feldman & Rachel Webster	Society & Culture	13	Transistor	73
84	To Catch a Thief: North Korea On Our Payroll	Rubrik \| Nicole Perlroth \| Pod People	Society & Culture	19	Megaphone	63
85	Radio Marz \| پادکست فارسی رادیو مرز	Marzie	Society & Culture	91	Acast	52
86	History's Great Mysteries	Nick	Society & Culture	20	Spotify for Podcasters	28
87	Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down A Drug Lord	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	26	Omny Studio	63
88	Army of Normal Folks	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	482	Omny Studio	68
89	The Obit Project	Jad Abumrad and Jule Banville	Society & Culture	13	Omny Studio	59
90	Latino USA Details temporarily unavailable	My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	702	Omny Studio	53
91	Swingers	BBC Radio Wales	Society & Culture	7	BBC	43
92	Hoaxed	Tortoise Media	Society & Culture	9	Acast	74
93	The Crimes of Margo Freshwater	Sony Music Entertainment	Society & Culture	7	Megaphone	63
94	搞钱女孩	搞钱女孩小辉	Society & Culture	188	Ximalaya	53
95	The Redefector	audiochuck	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	69
96	Conspiracy Theories and Cover-Ups	Forbidden Knowledge Network	Society & Culture	82	Spotify for Podcasters	52
97	Falling Tree	Falling Tree	Society & Culture	1	Unknown	63
98	Alien UFO Podcast Details temporarily unavailable	Simon Bown	Society & Culture	423	Simplecast	63
99	Affaires sensibles Feed not publicly shared by the creator	France Inter	Documentary	135	N/A	N/A
100	Radio Diaries	Radio Diaries & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	272	PRX	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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