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 30 Sep 2026

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Main category

Sub category

Date

09/30/2026

Average data

Episodes: 177

Frequency: every 29 days

Duration: 00:44:58

Top 5 authors

1. iHeartPodcasts (6 shows)

2. The Guardian (2 shows)

3. BBC Sounds (2 shows)

4. BBC Radio 4 (2 shows)

5. iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope (2 shows)

Top 5 hosting

1. Megaphone (18 shows)

2. Acast (14 shows)

3. Omny Studio (13 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	939	Simplecast	38
2	Paper Trail	ProPublica	Society & Culture	13	PRX	69
3	The Why Files: Operation Podcast	The Why Files: Operation Podcast	Society & Culture	306	Megaphone	42
4	Embedded	NPR	Society & Culture	193	Simplecast	58
5	This Is Actually Happening	Audible	Society & Culture	353	ART19	68
6	The Telepathy Tapes Details temporarily unavailable	Ky Dickens	Society & Culture	88	Acast	84
7	I’m Not a Monster Presents… Where is Austin Tice?	BBC Sounds	Society & Culture	36	BBC	58
8	Otherworld	Otherworld	Society & Culture	261	WideOrbit	48
9	Danny Jones Podcast	Danny Jones \| Daylight Media	Society & Culture	435	Megaphone	32
10	Symptomatic: A Medical Mystery Podcast	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	48	Omny Studio	48
11	Reaching Out	Futuro Media	Society & Culture	4	Acast	79
12	Lights Out Library: Sleep Documentaries	Olimpia Pérez	Society & Culture	142	Megaphone	68
13	Adrift	Apple TV / Blanchard House	Society & Culture	9	ART19	69
14	Personally: Agent Layla	CBC	Society & Culture	70	Triton Digital	63
15	The Speaker	KQED	Society & Culture	4	PRX	59
16	The Rewriting Humanity	Jim Walsh	Society & Culture	20	Podbean	48
17	Focus: We Keep Us Safe	KUOW News and Information	Society & Culture	20	Omny Studio	73
18	Johnathan Walton Media	Johnathan Walton	Society & Culture	50	RedCircle	63
19	Sold a Story	APM Reports	Society & Culture	23	American Public Media	62
20	World of Secrets	BBC	Society & Culture	98	BBC	53
21	Flightless Bird	David Farrier	Society & Culture	214	Megaphone	38
22	The Documentary Podcast	BBC World Service	Society & Culture	2000	BBC	33
23	What It Was Like	Superreal	Society & Culture	95	Acast	79
24	OnlyFantasy	Audible	Society & Culture	29	ART19	63
25	Sweet Bobby	Tortoise Media	Society & Culture	7	Acast	79
26	Better in Person with Stephen Dubner	Freakonomics Radio	Society & Culture	11	Simplecast	62
27	Ear Hustle	Ear Hustle & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	190	PRX	79
28	Decoder Ring	Slate Podcasts	Society & Culture	163	Acast	69
29	Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World	Jimmy Akin	Society & Culture	300	Unknown	42
30	Black Box: The Chatbots	The Guardian	Society & Culture	51	Acast	68
31	Theories of the Third Kind	Theories of the Third Kind	Society & Culture	302	WideOrbit	68
32	Noble	Wavland	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	63
33	The Crux True Survival Stories	The Crux True Survival Stories	Society & Culture	265	Spreaker	69
34	Where the River Took Us	Texas Monthly	Society & Culture	10	Spreaker	64
35	The Hidden Third	Mariana van Zeller	Society & Culture	50	Megaphone	48
36	The Secret World of Roald Dahl	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	14	Omny Studio	78
37	The Birth Keepers	The Guardian	Society & Culture	6	Acast	58
38	Wind of Change	Pineapple Street Studios / Crooked Media / Spotify	Society & Culture	16	Megaphone	53
39	Stories from a Stranger	Higher Ground	Society & Culture	22	ART19	73
40	Question Everything	Brian Reed	Society & Culture	85	Unknown	63
41	A Very British Cult	BBC Radio 4	Society & Culture	9	BBC	49
42	Hyperfixed	Alex Goldman & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	55	PRX	64
43	SuperHuman	iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	12	Omny Studio	53
44	Dispatches from the Divide	BYUradio	Society & Culture	174	Unknown	83
45	JFK The Enduring Secret	Jeff Crudele	Society & Culture	404	Buzzsprout	83
46	Uncanny	BBC Radio 4	Society & Culture	170	BBC	38
47	Heretics \| Andrew Gold	Andrew Gold	Society & Culture	701	Megaphone	53
48	Everyday Abundance: The hidden stories behind everyday technologies	Virginia Postrel and Charles C. Mann	Society & Culture	8	Castos	52
49	Radio Ambulante	My Cultura, Radio Ambulante and iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	369	Omny Studio	73
50	Fighting Crime	Arnold Ventures	Society & Culture	11	Megaphone	58
51	The Poet	Sony Music Entertainment	Society & Culture	6	Megaphone	73
52	Careless \| Tortoise Investigates	The Observer	Society & Culture	121	Acast	73
53	Our American Stories	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	2004	Omny Studio	43
54	The Consciousness Cassettes (Season 2 of The Telepathy Tapes)	TTT Media	Society & Culture	15	ART19	52
55	ChannelB پادکست فارسی	Ali Bandari	Society & Culture	105	Acast	69
56	The Paranormal Podcast	Jim Harold	Society & Culture	14	Megaphone	52
57	The Know Rogan Experience	Cross Pond Productions	Society & Culture	90	Libsyn	62
58	The Underworld Podcast	The Underworld Podcast	Society & Culture	281	Megaphone	43
59	Real Life Ghost Stories	Real Life Ghost Stories	Society & Culture	1194	Acast	59
60	pepe&chema podcast	pepe&chema	Society & Culture	207	Megaphone	32
61	The Shrink Next Door	Audible \| Bloomberg	Society & Culture	4	ART19	63
62	Scene on Radio	Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University	Society & Culture	141	PRX	59
63	Lucky Boy	Gary Marshall	Documentary	6	N/A	N/A
64	Hysterical	Audible \| Pineapple Street Studios	Society & Culture	4	ART19	63
65	Relatos Forenses Podcast	pepe&chema	Society & Culture	269	Megaphone	32
66	Belief Hole \| Paranormal, Mysteries and Other Tasty Thought Snacks	SpectreVision Radio	Society & Culture	155	Megaphone	63
67	Sound, Light & Frequency	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	34	Omny Studio	83
68	Latino USA	My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	704	Omny Studio	53
69	Campus Files: Scandals, Secrets & Crimes at American Universities	Audacy	Society & Culture	95	WideOrbit	68
70	5CAST w/ Andrew Callaghan	Andrew Callaghan	Society & Culture	31	Buzzsprout	38
71	An Arm and a Leg	An Arm and a Leg	Society & Culture	171	Omny Studio	89
73	The Commune	Stuff Audio	Society & Culture	13	Megaphone	63
74	Revisiting The Gay Life	David Boyer	Society & Culture	15	PRX	79
75	Artifacts: Stories from the Emotional History of the Internet	Danny Brown	Society & Culture	21	Captivate	73
76	Inconceivable Truth	audiochuck	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	63
77	Strangers on a Bench	Tom Rosenthal	Society & Culture	100	Acast	59
78	Target Intelligence: PSYOP with Shawn Ryan	IRONCLAD	Society & Culture	12	Megaphone	83
79	Alien UFO Podcast Details temporarily unavailable	Simon Bown	Society & Culture	423	Simplecast	63
80	Unquiet Realities	Winchester	Society & Culture	7	RedCircle	69
81	Conspiracy Files with Paige Carter	Forbidden Knowledge Network	Society & Culture	151	Spotify for Podcasters	52
82	Conspiracy Theories and Cover-Ups	Forbidden Knowledge Network	Society & Culture	84	Spotify for Podcasters	52
83	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
84	Debt Heads	Jamie Feldman & Rachel Webster	Society & Culture	13	Transistor	73
85	The Crimes of Margo Freshwater	Sony Music Entertainment	Society & Culture	7	Megaphone	63
86	What I survived	Jack Laurence	Society & Culture	66	Acast	83
87	HABITUAL	Colorado Radio for Justice	Society & Culture	6	Transistor	69
88	Reflector	Longview	Society & Culture	34	Megaphone	48
89	Jungle Prince	The New York Times	Society & Culture	3	Simplecast	63
90	Army of Normal Folks	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	488	Omny Studio	68
91	Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down A Drug Lord	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	26	Omny Studio	63
92	Skyline Drive: How to Live Forever	iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	23	Omny Studio	68
93	The Missing Cryptoqueen	BBC Sounds	Society & Culture	25	BBC	33
94	Al Jazeera	Al Jazeera Network	Society & Culture	75	Spreaker	43
95	How I Survived	That's Life!	Society & Culture	44	Omny Studio	53
96	Leaving Eden Podcast	Leaving Eden LLC	Society & Culture	343	Acast	64
97	Más Allá del Rosa	Jessica Fernández	Society & Culture	234	Acast	79
98	All My Relations Podcast	Matika Wilbur & Temryss Lane	Society & Culture	77	Buzzsprout	62
99	搞钱女孩	搞钱女孩小辉	Society & Culture	189	Ximalaya	53
100	Stuff Matters with Ed Conway	Sky News	Society & Culture	9	Captivate	42

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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