Nearly one-third of Americans listen to or watch podcasts weekly — but most of the voices they hear are men. A new study from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative analyzed data from more than 600 of 2024’s most popular podcasts using Spotify metrics and found podcast hosts and guests skew heavily male.
Within the top 100 shows, almost two-thirds of hosts were men, and nearly three-quarters of guests were male. Women were especially underrepresented in business, tech, sports, fitness and comedy. Genres where women appeared more often as hosts included true crime, arts, society and culture, news and education.
The report also found racial disparities: over 77% of top-100 hosts were white. Only 11 female hosts in that group were from racially underrepresented backgrounds, several of whom are current or former NPR anchors.
Researchers say the gender and racial imbalances in podcasting are larger than those they’ve documented in film, TV and music. According to their comparison data, just 22.3% of podcast hosts come from underrepresented groups, compared with more than 44% of regular TV series actors and popular music artists, and 25.2% of film lead or co-lead actors.
“Podcasting’s power lies in its potential as a democratized medium, where anyone with an idea and a microphone can find an audience,” said Stacy L. Smith, lead author and founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. “As the format matures, that accessibility can help challenge the old patterns of entertainment and pave the way for a more inclusive audio landscape.”
This is the Annenberg team’s first study focused on podcasting.
Jennifer Vanasco edited this story.
