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 20 Sep 2026

Country

Main category

Sub category

Date

09/20/2026

Average data

Episodes: 176

Frequency: every 39 days

Duration: 00:46:39

Top 5 authors

1. iHeartPodcasts (7 shows)

2. Sony Music Entertainment (2 shows)

3. iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope (2 shows)

4. Tortoise Media (2 shows)

5. The Guardian (2 shows)

Top 5 hosting

1. Megaphone (18 shows)

2. Acast (16 shows)

3. Omny Studio (14 shows)

4. Simplecast (8 shows)

5. PRX (7 shows)

Rank	Name	Artist	Main Category	Eps	Hosting	Score
1	Freakonomics Radio	Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher	Society & Culture	938	Simplecast	38
2	The Why Files: Operation Podcast	The Why Files: Operation Podcast	Society & Culture	303	Megaphone	42
3	The Telepathy Tapes Details temporarily unavailable	Ky Dickens	Society & Culture	88	Acast	84
4	Paper Trail	ProPublica	Society & Culture	13	PRX	69
5	This Is Actually Happening	Audible	Society & Culture	349	ART19	68
6	Otherworld	Otherworld	Society & Culture	259	WideOrbit	48
7	I’m Not a Monster Presents… Where is Austin Tice?	BBC Sounds	Society & Culture	33	BBC	58
8	Danny Jones Podcast	Danny Jones \| Daylight Media	Society & Culture	432	Megaphone	32
9	Embedded	NPR	Society & Culture	190	Simplecast	58
10	The Rewriting Humanity	Jim Walsh	Society & Culture	20	Podbean	48
11	Lights Out Library: Sleep Documentaries	Olimpia Pérez	Society & Culture	141	Megaphone	68
12	Adrift	Apple TV / Blanchard House	Society & Culture	9	ART19	69
13	What It Was Like	Superreal	Society & Culture	94	Acast	79
14	Ear Hustle	Ear Hustle & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	188	PRX	79
15	Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World	Jimmy Akin	Society & Culture	300	Unknown	42
16	The Speaker	KQED	Society & Culture	2	PRX	59
17	Better in Person with Stephen Dubner	Freakonomics Radio	Society & Culture	11	Simplecast	62
18	The Hidden Third	Mariana van Zeller	Society & Culture	48	Megaphone	48
19	Black Box: The Chatbots	The Guardian	Society & Culture	51	Acast	68
20	Focus: Adults in the Room	KUOW News and Information	Society & Culture	17	Omny Studio	68
21	Sold a Story	APM Reports	Society & Culture	23	American Public Media	62
22	Belief Hole \| Paranormal, Mysteries and Other Tasty Thought Snacks	SpectreVision Radio	Society & Culture	155	Megaphone	63
23	Question Everything	Brian Reed	Society & Culture	83	Unknown	63
24	Sweet Bobby	Tortoise Media	Society & Culture	9	Acast	79
25	OnlyFantasy	Audible	Society & Culture	29	ART19	69
26	The Documentary Podcast	BBC World Service	Society & Culture	2000	BBC	33
27	Wind of Change	Pineapple Street Studios / Crooked Media / Spotify	Society & Culture	16	Megaphone	53
28	Flightless Bird	David Farrier	Society & Culture	212	Megaphone	38
29	Skyline Drive: How to Live Forever	iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	22	Omny Studio	68
30	Reaching Out	Futuro Media	Society & Culture	2	Acast	79
31	Where the River Took Us	Texas Monthly	Society & Culture	10	Spreaker	64
32	Sound, Light & Frequency	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	33	Omny Studio	83
33	World of Secrets	BBC	Society & Culture	97	BBC	53
34	The Secret World of Roald Dahl	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	14	Omny Studio	78
35	Careless \| Tortoise Investigates	The Observer	Society & Culture	120	Acast	73
36	5CAST w/ Andrew Callaghan	Andrew Callaghan	Society & Culture	31	Buzzsprout	38
37	Decoder Ring	Slate Podcasts	Society & Culture	162	Acast	69
38	The Poet	Sony Music Entertainment	Society & Culture	6	Megaphone	73
39	Theories of the Third Kind	Theories of the Third Kind	Society & Culture	301	WideOrbit	68
40	Heretics \| Andrew Gold	Andrew Gold	Society & Culture	698	Megaphone	53
41	The Crux True Survival Stories	The Crux True Survival Stories	Society & Culture	262	Spreaker	69
42	Johnathan Walton Media	Johnathan Walton	Society & Culture	48	RedCircle	73
43	Radio Ambulante	My Cultura, Radio Ambulante and iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	369	Omny Studio	73
44	SuperHuman	iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	12	Omny Studio	53
45	Noble	Wavland	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	63
46	ChannelB پادکست فارسی	Ali Bandari	Society & Culture	105	Acast	69
47	Hyperfixed	Alex Goldman & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	54	PRX	64
48	Real Life Ghost Stories	Real Life Ghost Stories	Society & Culture	1190	Acast	59
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	Our American Stories	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	2004	Omny Studio	43
52	The Paranormal Podcast	Jim Harold	Society & Culture	14	Megaphone	52
53	Uncanny	BBC Radio 4	Society & Culture	170	BBC	38
54	Campus Files: Scandals, Secrets & Crimes at American Universities	Audacy	Society & Culture	93	WideOrbit	68
55	Inconceivable Truth	audiochuck	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	63
56	Fighting Crime	Arnold Ventures	Society & Culture	10	Megaphone	58
57	JFK The Enduring Secret	Jeff Crudele	Society & Culture	400	Buzzsprout	83
58	What I survived	Jack Laurence	Society & Culture	64	Acast	83
59	pepe&chema podcast	pepe&chema	Society & Culture	205	Megaphone	32
60	The Birth Keepers	The Guardian	Society & Culture	6	Acast	58
61	Latino USA Details temporarily unavailable	My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	702	Omny Studio	53
62	The Know Rogan Experience	Cross Pond Productions	Society & Culture	87	Libsyn	62
63	Stories from a Stranger	Higher Ground	Society & Culture	20	ART19	73
64	Reflector	Longview	Society & Culture	33	Megaphone	48
65	Artifacts: Stories from the Emotional History of the Internet	Danny Brown	Society & Culture	20	Captivate	73
66	Lucky Boy	Gary Marshall	Documentary	6	N/A	N/A
67	The Shrink Next Door	Audible \| Bloomberg	Society & Culture	3	ART19	63
68	Target Intelligence: PSYOP with Shawn Ryan	IRONCLAD	Society & Culture	12	Megaphone	83
69	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
70	Strangers on a Bench	Tom Rosenthal	Society & Culture	100	Acast	59
71	The Underworld Podcast	The Underworld Podcast	Society & Culture	279	Megaphone	43
72	Relatos Forenses Podcast	pepe&chema	Society & Culture	266	Megaphone	32
73	Revisiting The Gay Life	David Boyer	Society & Culture	15	PRX	79
74	Conspiracy Files with Paige Carter	Forbidden Knowledge Network	Society & Culture	149	Spotify for Podcasters	52
75	Radio Diaries	Radio Diaries & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	272	PRX	43
76	How I Survived	That's Life!	Society & Culture	42	Omny Studio	53
77	Army of Normal Folks	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	482	Omny Studio	68
78	HABITUAL	Colorado Radio for Justice	Society & Culture	6	Transistor	69
79	Alien UFO Podcast Details temporarily unavailable	Simon Bown	Society & Culture	423	Simplecast	63
80	Hysterical	Audible \| Pineapple Street Studios	Society & Culture	4	ART19	63
81	The Missing Cryptoqueen	BBC Sounds	Society & Culture	25	BBC	33
82	The Commune	Stuff Audio	Society & Culture	13	Megaphone	63
83	Debt Heads	Jamie Feldman & Rachel Webster	Society & Culture	13	Transistor	73
84	Radio Marz \| پادکست فارسی رادیو مرز	Marzie	Society & Culture	91	Acast	52
85	Hoaxed	Tortoise Media	Society & Culture	9	Acast	74
86	The Obit Project	Jad Abumrad and Jule Banville	Society & Culture	13	Omny Studio	59
87	Dalton Fischer Podcast	Dalton Fischer	Society & Culture	22	Buzzsprout	42
88	Swingers	BBC Radio Wales	Society & Culture	7	BBC	43
89	The Crimes of Margo Freshwater	Sony Music Entertainment	Society & Culture	7	Megaphone	63
90	The Legend of SwordQuest	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	12	Omny Studio	48
91	Symptomatic: A Medical Mystery Podcast	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	46	Omny Studio	48
92	Affaires sensibles Feed not publicly shared by the creator	France Inter	Documentary	135	N/A	N/A
93	Más Allá del Rosa	Jessica Fernández	Society & Culture	232	Acast	79
94	Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down A Drug Lord	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	26	Omny Studio	63
95	Signal Hill	Signal Hill	Society & Culture	34	Buzzsprout	62
96	All My Relations Podcast	Matika Wilbur & Temryss Lane	Society & Culture	77	Buzzsprout	62
97	Into The Fog with Peter Laws	Peter Laws	Society & Culture	84	Spotify for Podcasters	32
98	Haunted UK Podcast: History, Hauntings and the Unexplained	Haunted UK	Society & Culture	224	Acast	43
99	Jungle Prince	The New York Times	Society & Culture	3	Simplecast	63
100	Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage \| Global Issues \| Current Affairs	Secrets & Spies	Society & Culture	348	Simplecast	78

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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