Technology
Mapped: The Top Podcasts on Spotify Across Countries
The Top Spotify Podcast Across Countries
We are amidst the breakout era of podcasts. Since the beginning of the smartphone revolution, the digital audio format has picked up serious traction with audiences all over. In the U.S. alone, it’s estimated that there will be 132 million podcast listeners by 2022.
Today, there are 850,000 active podcasts available in 100 languages, with over 30 million episodes to tap into—perfect if you have an afternoon to yourself.
Worldwide Podcast Chart-Toppers
The data in this infographic comes from Spotify, the top global streaming service in the industry by paid users. How do the top podcasts fare on a per country basis?
Country | Top Podcast | Honorable Mention (Second Highest) |
---|---|---|
Canada | The Joe Rogan Experience | Call Her Daddy |
France | Choses a Savoir | Mythes et Legendes |
UK | The Michelle Obama Podcast | The Joe Rogan Experience |
Germany | Gemischtes Hack | Fest & Flauschig |
Italy | Blu Notte - Fisteri Italiani | Mushio Selvaggio |
U.S. | The Michelle Obama Podcast | Call Her Daddy |
Japan | kemioの耳そうじクラブ | Hapa英会話 Podcast |
Australia | From The Newsroom | The Joe Rogan Experience |
India | The Michelle Obama Podcast | Purijagannadh |
Ireland | The Joe Rogan Experience | The 2 Johnnies Podcast |
Mexico | Leyendas Legendarias | La Cotorrisa |
New Zealand | The Joe Rogan Experience | Call Her Daddy |
Argentina | Concha Podcast | Entiende Tu Mente |
Austria | Verbrechen | Fest & Flauschig |
Brazil | NerdCast | Café da Manha |
Chile | Tomas Va A Morir | Matriarcalmente Hablando |
Colombia | DianaUribe.fm | Dani 3Palacios Podcast |
Denmark | Morkeland | Her Gar Det Godt |
Finland | POKS | Jaliila |
Indonesia | Rintik Sedu | PODKESMAS |
Norway | Friminutt med Herman og Mikkel | G-punktet |
Philippines | Sleeping Pill with Inka | Adulting With Joyce Pring |
Poland | Kryminatorium | Ja I moje przyjaciółki idiotki |
Spain | Nadie Sabe Nada | Entiende Tu Mente |
Sweden | P3 Dokumentar | Sommar & Vinter i P1 |
Netherlands | Zelfspodcast | Man man man, de podcast |
Many of the top shows around the world follow a familiar interview or conversational format, but there are trends that deviate from that formula. In particular, there are a number of podcasts focused on health and wellness as well as current events.
The early beginnings of podcasting were dominated by upstart content creators, but as the market has matured, big media outlets and A-list personalities have been vying for listeners’ attention in an increasingly crowded field. As it stands now, two podcasts from America carry a large presence in foreign markets, and the two big personalities—Michelle Obama and Joe Rogan—stand a notch above the rest.
The Rogan-Obama tug of war in the podcast realm has had its back and forths. Obama pulled ahead in many countries in August, but in September the pendulum swung in favor of Rogan.
Follow The Money
In 2015, ad revenue in the podcast industry was a minuscule $69 million across the board. It’s expected to reach over $1 billion by 2021, and to grow further from there.
The podcast boom is powered by younger generations, and both millennials and Gen Z represent a sizable portion of the total podcast audience globally. In particular, demographic listenership numbers experience a big drop after the 35-54 age bracket.
Flexibility and variety are key features that are helping fuel the growth of the medium. One can keep up with serious world affairs or listen to Call Her Daddy—a podcast on sex and relationships by Barstool Sports, another podcast that frequently tops the charts.
Top Podcast Publishers by U.S. Audience
When it comes to key participants in the industry, National Public Radio (NPR) sits on the top spot with over 26 million unique monthly audience members. In close second, iHeartRadio holds a whopping 494 shows.
Podcast Publisher | U.S. Unique Monthly Audience | Global Downloads & Streams | Active Shows |
---|---|---|---|
NPR | 26,933,000 | 219,716,000 | 49 |
iHeartRadio | 26,182,000 | 234,417,000 | 494 |
New York Times | 13,102,000 | 145,961,000 | 15 |
Barstool Sports | 10,228,000 | 67,569,000 | 43 |
PRX | 9,035,000 | 82,245,000 | 87 |
Wondery | 8,794,000 | 57,261,000 | 98 |
ESPN/ABC | 8,472,000 | 66,685,000 | 96 |
NBC News | 6,751,000 | 44,219,000 | 26 |
Cumulus Media/Westwood One | 6,473,000 | 40,912,000 | 115 |
Warner Media | 6,350,000 | 33,503,000 | 113 |
This American Life/Serial | 5,924,000 | 22,722,000 | 2 |
Kast Media | 5,319,000 | 30,353,000 | 46 |
Daily Wire | 5,212,000 | 43,342,000 | 5 |
WNYC Studios | 5,209,000 | 35,381,000 | 52 |
All Things Comedy | 4,890,000 | 28,770,000 | 58 |
TED | 3,739,000 | 51,696,000 | 10 |
American Public Media | 3,362,000 | 17,997,000 | 50 |
Fox News Radio | 2,518,000 | 13,633,000 | 34 |
Slate | 1,951,000 | 13,812,000 | 97 |
WBUR | 1,105,000 | 6,758,000 | 18 |
If you’re bullish on podcasts, many in the top 20 are publicly traded entities who either stand alone, or are part of a larger corporation. Notable stocks include the New York Times, ESPN as part of Disney, and Warner Media as part of AT&T.
Spotify Today and Tomorrow
Spotify’s direct listing IPO was initially met with a lack of confidence, due to Big Tech’s entry in the space, as well as the profitability and monetization concerns that typically plague the music industry as a whole. However, the company has done well in abating those concerns, especially if you consider Spotify’s stock price, which has doubled in the last year. An impressive 21% of Spotify’s monthly active users engage with podcast content.
In addition, a wealth of personalities have entered the podcasting space. These big names suggest that the competition is dialing up.
In recent months, an exclusive deal between Spotify and Joe Rogan, valued at over $100 million took the podcasting world by storm. This is quite a monumental step for the podcast timeline, and one that suggests more deals could follow as Spotify looks to lock people into their platform with exclusivity deals.
Technology
Infographic: 11 Tech Trends to Watch in 2023
This infographic highlights eleven exciting areas within the world of technology worth keeping an eye on in 2023.

Infographic: 11 Tech Trends to Watch in 2023
It can be tough to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation.
Each new year delivers the full spectrum of progress from game-changing breakthroughs to incremental advancements in a wide variety of fields.
In a noisy media landscape fueled by hype and speculation, it can be tough to know where true value is being created. The infographic above, which draws from CB Insights’ recent report on 11 Tech Trends To Watch Closely in 2023, helps narrow down some areas of focus:
- Immortality-as-a-service
- The secret invasion of super apps
- Fintech’s rapid regeneration
- Bots in the house
- Virtual power plants
- Healthcare’s invisibility trick
- Smell goes digital
- Femtech turns to menopause
- The bio-based materials boom
- India’s tech ascent
- Regenerative agtech takes root
The report draws information from earnings transcripts, media mentions, investment activity, patents, and more to arrive at the trends listed.
We’ll examine three of these trends below in a bit more detail.
Setting the Stage: Clash of the Super Apps
The concept of a super app—an all-in-one smartphone application that integrates a wide range of services—is far from new. In fact, for years now, WeChat has been the go-to app for many Chinese citizens to chat, order services, pay bills, and more.
A natural question comes to mind: why doesn’t an app like that exist in Western countries yet? Well, there are a couple of key reasons:
- Consumers and regulators alike are wary of providers holding so much personal information and power. In China, WeChat actually had government support, integrating public services into the app. As well, expectations of personal privacy are completely different in China than in Western countries
- Unlike China, which rapidly adopted digital payments, North America and Europe had preexisting near-ubiquitous financial networks in place. Super apps were a game changer for millions of unbanked consumers in China and beyond.
The situation is changing rapidly though, and 2023 could be the year that the foundations are laid for a clash of various Big Tech incarnations of the super app.
In late 2022, Microsoft was rumored to be building a super app using Bing as the foundation, and recent investment into ChatGPT adds fuel to that fire. Even Elon Musk hinted at his ambitions to turn Twitter into a one-stop-shop for just about everything.
There are still significant barriers to bundling a plethora of services into a single app, but that isn’t stopping companies from racing to be the one to do it. To the victor go the spoils.
The Resiliency of Life Extension
The concepts of immortality and age reversal have been a preoccupation of mankind since the dawn of time, so it stands to reason that technology that promises extra lifespan and quality of life continues to be compelling for individuals and investors alike.
Players in this space can approach life extension and anti-aging from a number of different angles, from supplements to tinkering at the cellular level.
Two high-profile examples in this space are Calico, which is a subsidiary of Alphabet, and the Jeff Bezos-backed Altos Labs. Other billionaires have expressed an interest in life extension as well, including Peter Thiel, who has definitive views on mortality.
I believe if we could enable people to live forever, we should do that. […] I think it is against human nature not to fight death. – Peter Thiel
In 2023, look for more investment and news from startups focused on gene therapy, genome analysis, regenerative medicine, or “longevity in a pill”.
Beyond Plastic: The Bio-Based Materials Boom
Public pressure is mounting for producers of consumer goods to change the way they manufacture their products.
The good news is that many of the largest producers of consumer packaged goods and apparel have some kind of plan in place to use more post-consumer recycled plastic in their products. The bad news is that not enough plastic is recycled globally for companies to source enough material to produce their products more sustainably. As a result, many companies are exploring the option of ditching plastic entirely.
For example, materials derived from seaweed are an active area of innovation right now. Mushrooms and algae are also commonly-used materials from nature that are being used to create biodegradable products. In one particularly interesting example, a company called MycoWorks recently began working with GM Ventures to explore the use of mycelium-based leather alternatives in GM’s vehicles.
While researchers and companies are just scratching the surface of what’s possible, consumers are likely to see more tangible examples of bio-based materials popping up in stores. After all, brands will be very eager to talk about their increasingly plastic-free product lines.
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