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 31 Aug 2026

Country

Main category

Sub category

Date

08/31/2026

Average data

Episodes: 173

Frequency: every 22 days

Duration: 00:45:24

Top 5 authors

1. iHeartPodcasts (5 shows)

2. BBC Sounds (2 shows)

3. The Guardian (2 shows)

4. Sony Music Entertainment (2 shows)

5. iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope (2 shows)

Top 5 hosting

1. Megaphone (19 shows)

2. Omny Studio (15 shows)

3. Acast (13 shows)

4. Simplecast (9 shows)

5. ART19 (7 shows)

Rank	Name	Artist	Main Category	Eps	Hosting	Score
1	Freakonomics Radio	Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher	Society & Culture	939	Simplecast	38
2	The Why Files: Operation Podcast	The Why Files: Operation Podcast	Society & Culture	305	Megaphone	42
3	Otherworld	Otherworld	Society & Culture	260	WideOrbit	48
4	Focus: We Keep Us Safe	KUOW News and Information	Society & Culture	19	Omny Studio	73
5	The Telepathy Tapes Details temporarily unavailable	Ky Dickens	Society & Culture	88	Acast	84
6	This Is Actually Happening	Audible	Society & Culture	351	ART19	68
7	Danny Jones Podcast	Danny Jones \| Daylight Media	Society & Culture	434	Megaphone	32
8	Paper Trail	ProPublica	Society & Culture	13	PRX	69
9	Lights Out Library: Sleep Documentaries	Olimpia Pérez	Society & Culture	142	Megaphone	68
10	Adrift	Apple TV / Blanchard House	Society & Culture	9	ART19	69
11	Theories of the Third Kind	Theories of the Third Kind	Society & Culture	302	WideOrbit	68
12	Hyperfixed	Alex Goldman & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	55	PRX	64
13	Where the River Took Us	Texas Monthly	Society & Culture	10	Spreaker	64
14	The Birth Keepers	The Guardian	Society & Culture	6	Acast	58
15	Careless \| Tortoise Investigates	The Observer	Society & Culture	121	Acast	73
16	Sold a Story	APM Reports	Society & Culture	23	American Public Media	62
17	The Documentary Podcast	BBC World Service	Society & Culture	2000	BBC	33
18	The Rewriting Humanity	Jim Walsh	Society & Culture	20	Podbean	48
19	Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World	Jimmy Akin	Society & Culture	300	Unknown	42
20	Better in Person with Stephen Dubner	Freakonomics Radio	Society & Culture	11	Simplecast	62
21	Sweet Bobby	Tortoise Media	Society & Culture	9	Acast	79
22	Embedded	NPR	Society & Culture	192	Simplecast	58
23	What It Was Like	Superreal	Society & Culture	95	Acast	79
24	OnlyFantasy	Audible	Society & Culture	29	ART19	69
25	The Secret World of Roald Dahl	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	14	Omny Studio	78
26	Heretics \| Andrew Gold	Andrew Gold	Society & Culture	700	Megaphone	53
27	Decoder Ring	Slate Podcasts	Society & Culture	163	Acast	69
28	The Crux True Survival Stories	The Crux True Survival Stories	Society & Culture	264	Spreaker	69
29	Wind of Change	Pineapple Street Studios / Crooked Media / Spotify	Society & Culture	16	Megaphone	53
30	The Hidden Third	Mariana van Zeller	Society & Culture	49	Megaphone	48
31	Flightless Bird	David Farrier	Society & Culture	213	Megaphone	38
32	Question Everything	Brian Reed	Society & Culture	85	Unknown	63
33	Stories from a Stranger	Higher Ground	Society & Culture	21	ART19	73
34	Campus Files: Scandals, Secrets & Crimes at American Universities	Audacy	Society & Culture	94	WideOrbit	68
35	Ear Hustle	Ear Hustle & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	189	PRX	79
36	Lucky Boy	Gary Marshall	Documentary	6	N/A	N/A
37	JFK The Enduring Secret	Jeff Crudele	Society & Culture	404	Buzzsprout	83
38	Our American Stories	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	2004	Omny Studio	43
39	Radio Ambulante	My Cultura, Radio Ambulante and iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	369	Omny Studio	73
40	The Poet	Sony Music Entertainment	Society & Culture	6	Megaphone	73
41	Real Life Ghost Stories	Real Life Ghost Stories	Society & Culture	1193	Acast	59
42	Noble	Wavland	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	63
43	ChannelB پادکست فارسی	Ali Bandari	Society & Culture	105	Acast	69
44	Black Box: The Chatbots	The Guardian	Society & Culture	51	Acast	68
45	World of Secrets	BBC	Society & Culture	98	BBC	53
46	The Paranormal Podcast	Jim Harold	Society & Culture	14	Megaphone	52
47	Belief Hole \| Paranormal, Mysteries and Other Tasty Thought Snacks	SpectreVision Radio	Society & Culture	155	Megaphone	63
48	Uncanny	BBC Radio 4	Society & Culture	170	BBC	38
49	Hoaxed	Tortoise Media	Society & Culture	9	Acast	74
50	Latino USA	My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	704	Omny Studio	53
51	The Shrink Next Door	Audible \| Bloomberg	Society & Culture	3	ART19	73
52	The Obit Project	Jad Abumrad and Jule Banville	Society & Culture	13	Omny Studio	59
53	Johnathan Walton Media	Johnathan Walton	Society & Culture	49	RedCircle	73
54	The Missing Cryptoqueen	BBC Sounds	Society & Culture	25	BBC	33
55	Bailey Sarian	Bailey Sarian	Society & Culture	158	Spreaker	43
56	Strangers on a Bench	Tom Rosenthal	Society & Culture	100	Acast	59
57	What I survived	Jack Laurence	Society & Culture	65	Acast	83
58	Scene on Radio	Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University	Society & Culture	141	PRX	59
59	Alien UFO Podcast Details temporarily unavailable	Simon Bown	Society & Culture	423	Simplecast	63
60	Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down A Drug Lord	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	26	Omny Studio	63
61	Debt Heads	Jamie Feldman & Rachel Webster	Society & Culture	13	Transistor	73
62	Skyline Drive: How to Live Forever	iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	23	Omny Studio	68
63	I’m Not a Monster Presents… Where is Austin Tice?	BBC Sounds	Society & Culture	35	BBC	58
64	pepe&chema podcast	pepe&chema	Society & Culture	206	Megaphone	32
65	How I Survived	That's Life!	Society & Culture	43	Omny Studio	53
66	Fighting Crime	Arnold Ventures	Society & Culture	10	Megaphone	58
67	Mind Games	Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	11	Omny Studio	53
68	Artifacts: Stories from the Emotional History of the Internet	Danny Brown	Society & Culture	21	Captivate	73
69	Hysterical	Audible \| Pineapple Street Studios	Society & Culture	3	ART19	63
70	The Crimes of Margo Freshwater	Sony Music Entertainment	Society & Culture	7	Megaphone	63
71	The Know Rogan Experience	Cross Pond Productions	Society & Culture	89	Libsyn	62
72	The Commune	Stuff Audio	Society & Culture	13	Megaphone	63
73	Revisiting The Gay Life	David Boyer	Society & Culture	15	PRX	79
74	Bed of Lies	The Telegraph	Society & Culture	33	Acast	69
75	SuperHuman	iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope	Society & Culture	12	Omny Studio	53
76	Sound, Light & Frequency	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	34	Omny Studio	83
77	The Underworld Podcast	The Underworld Podcast	Society & Culture	280	Megaphone	43
78	The Witch Farm	BBC Radio 4	Fiction	13	BBC	49
79	5CAST w/ Andrew Callaghan	Andrew Callaghan	Society & Culture	31	Buzzsprout	38
80	Inconceivable Truth	audiochuck	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	63
81	Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage \| Global Issues \| Current Affairs	Secrets & Spies	Society & Culture	349	Simplecast	78
82	The Brohio Podcast	Aliens, Conspiracy Theories, Paranormal, Famous Murders, Cryptozoology, Strange Occurrences, Monsters, UFOs, True Crime, Demons, Occult, Urban Legends, Comedy	Society & Culture	525	Spreaker	43
83	All My Relations Podcast	Matika Wilbur & Temryss Lane	Society & Culture	77	Buzzsprout	62
84	Jungle Prince	The New York Times	Society & Culture	3	Simplecast	63
85	Relatos Forenses Podcast	pepe&chema	Society & Culture	268	Megaphone	32
86	The Consciousness Cassettes (Season 2 of The Telepathy Tapes)	TTT Media	Society & Culture	15	ART19	52
87	The Flood	The Australian	Society & Culture	5	Omny Studio	74
88	Swingers	BBC Radio Wales	Society & Culture	7	BBC	43
89	Affaires sensibles Feed not publicly shared by the creator	France Inter	Documentary	139	N/A	N/A
90	Army of Normal Folks	iHeartPodcasts	Society & Culture	486	Omny Studio	68
91	WTF is on my Mind?!	Mark Vicente	Society & Culture	124	Buzzsprout	53
92	History's Great Mysteries	Nick	Society & Culture	20	Spotify for Podcasters	28
93	To Catch a Thief: North Korea On Our Payroll	Rubrik \| Nicole Perlroth \| Pod People	Society & Culture	19	Megaphone	63
94	Boomtown	Imperative Entertainment and Texas Monthly	Society & Culture	15	Megaphone	64
95	Target Intelligence: PSYOP with Shawn Ryan	IRONCLAD	Society & Culture	12	Megaphone	83
96	The Redefector	audiochuck	Society & Culture	12	Simplecast	69
97	Dalton Fischer Podcast	Dalton Fischer	Society & Culture	22	Buzzsprout	42
98	Curse of: America’s Next Top Model	iHeartPodcasts and Glass Podcasts	Society & Culture	18	Omny Studio	58
99	Radio Diaries	Radio Diaries & Radiotopia	Society & Culture	272	PRX	43
100	Conspiracy Files with Paige Carter	Forbidden Knowledge Network	Society & Culture	150	Spotify for Podcasters	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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