Bros Really Are Dominating Podcasting

Nearly a third of all Americans listen to or watch podcasts every week — but far more often than not, it’s men’s voices that they’re hearing. According to a new study from researchers at the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, podcast hosts skew heavily male, and so do their guests.

The researchers dug into data from over 600 of the most popular podcasts of 2024, using data from Spotify. They found that within the top 100, nearly two-thirds were hosted by men — and nearly three-quarters of all guests were male, too. Women are particularly underrepresented in the business, tech, sports, fitness, and comedy genres.

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The researchers also found that over 77% of the top 100 hosts were white — leaving a lot of communities out of the conversation.

The Annenberg research points out that within the Top 100 podcasts from 2024, only 11 female hosts were from racially underrepresented backgrounds. Several of them are current or former NPR anchors.

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