Nearly one in three Americans tune in to or watch podcasts each week, but most of the voices on those shows are male. A new USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative analysis of more than 600 of 2024’s most-followed podcasts, using Spotify audience metrics, finds hosts and guests skew heavily toward men.
Looking at the top 100 podcasts, almost two-thirds of hosts were men and roughly three-quarters of guests were male. Women were particularly scarce in business, technology, sports, fitness and comedy programs. By contrast, women showed up more often as hosts in true crime, the arts, society and culture, news and education genres.
The report also documents pronounced racial imbalances: more than 77% of hosts in the top 100 were white. Only 11 female hosts among that group came from racially underrepresented backgrounds, several of whom are current or former NPR anchors.
Researchers say the gender and racial gaps in podcasting are wider than those found in film, television and popular music. Their comparison data indicate just 22.3% of podcast hosts belong to underrepresented groups, versus more than 44% representation among regular TV series actors and popular music artists, and 25.2% among film lead or co-lead actors.
Lead author Stacy L. Smith notes that podcasting’s strength is its potential to democratize audio — anyone with an idea and a microphone can reach listeners — and argues that as the medium matures it should be able to break old entertainment patterns and foster a more inclusive audio landscape.
This is the Annenberg team’s first study focused specifically on podcasting. Story edited by Jennifer Vanasco.