The Top 20 Ranked Podcasts For November 2020: Who? Why?

Podtrac is the most widely accepted tracking and ratings measurement company in the podcast industry. Much like the Nielsens for TV ratings, Podtrac uses a proprietary measurement and can provide podcasters and podcasts fans with granular data surrounding listener habits.

In the first days of December, Podtrac released its top 20 podcasts for November 2020, and we at Podcast Reports thought we could read the tea leaves and garner some insights into why these podcasts are in the top 20. 

From the perspective of podcast genres, a few trends stand out right away. First, even though true crime is the most popular genre in podcasting, only one individual true-crime podcast cracked the top 20. 

Dateline NBC is a true-crime podcast much like the TV version, logging over 100 million downloads since launching as a podcast in early 2019. Dateline, the TV show, is the longest-running prime-time show on NBC, premiering in 1992. The podcast's format models that of the TV show with the TV hosts crossing over into the podcast space.

 Of course, one reason that more true-crime podcasts haven't cracked the top 20 could be that the sheer number of true-crime shows has simply diffused the large audience. 

 Here’s just an appetizer of the true crime podcasts that rank high – The Dating Game Killer (Wondery), Missing in Alaska (iHeartRadio), The Piketon Massacre (iHeartRadio), Motive For Murder (NBC News / Wondery), and Billionaire Boys Club (Wondery). 

A new true-crime podcast that holds promise is The Murder Sheet with a miniseries about the unsolved murders of four Burger Chef employees near Indianapolis in 1978.

Second, listeners do use news podcasts to keep informed during the day. According to podcast consultant George Witt, news podcasts do a better job of delivering timely news than TV networks.

Witt explains: "TV news networks like CNN, MSNBC and Fox broadcast 24/7 and there simply is not enough breaking news to fill that volume of air time. Therefore, TV news viewers are subjected to hours of talking heads, self-described experts and politicians auditioning for their post-government career blabbing incessantly over the same small crumbs of news."

By contrast, the news briefing podcasts that ranked in the top 20 -- NPR News Now, Up First, Fox News Radio 5 Minute Newscast and CNN News Briefing -- offer listeners the ability to keep informed during the day with a small investment of time.

NPR Politics podcast runs about 15 to 25 minutes long and straddles that line between hard news and analysis of the news.

Moreover, these popular news briefing podcasts reveal an underlying strength of podcasts over conventional radio. While radio news briefings broadcast at specific times during the day -- at the top and bottom half of the hour -- and force listeners to schedule their day around the time-specific news flashes, podcasts are time-flexible and enable listeners to download, stream and listen at times convenient for them. 

In addition to news, millions of hyper-partisan Americans are politics junkies and the success of  two conservative talk show hosts -- Dan Bongino and Ben Shapiro -- reveals the bottomless pit of demand for partisan palavering. Both hosts have loyal audiences, are articulate and swim the familiar and safe waters of conservative politics. Shapiro's recent episodes do his listeners proud with Biden's recent CNN interview that proves his mental decline, election fraud conspiracy theories, and the familiar complaint that the media goes easy on Biden.

There's no doubt that Shapiro delivers for his audience as does conservative counterpart Dan Bongino, who is courageously battling Hodgkins lymphoma after the surgical removal of a tumor in his neck. Bongino, who just interviewed recently pardoned Michael Flynn on his show, is an admittedly "owning the libs" guy and has grown his loyal and enthusiastic audience with his podcast since its launch in 2019.

By contrast, the 2oth ranked podcast, FiveThirtyEight Politics, takes a more data-driven view of politics. Nate Silver and his acolytes typically avoid partisan mudslinging in favor of using data to measure the impact of issues on the political barometer. For example, a recent episode explored the durability of Georgia's "blue-shift" in politics, evaluating the staying power of such a shift.

Of course, the top 20 must contain at least one podcast about sports and one about sex. In a salute to symmetry Barstool Sports produces both of them. Pardon My Take mixes sports with comedy like a well-made martini and Call Her Daddy, which has given us more drama than TV's The Bachelorette. The podcast lost one of its two creators, Sofia Franklyn, who left during a contract dispute in early 2020 to start her own podcast, but that departure hasn't hurt the ratings of Call Her Daddy.

As a whole, podcast listeners are an intellectually curious group and three of the top 20 podcasts -- Stuff You Should Know, Hidden Brain, and Short Wave -- tickle our frontal cortex with information available in digestible portions with a side of inquisitive hunger.

Short Wave is a National Public Radio (NPR) podcast that gives us a sneak peek behind the science headlines — all in about 10 minutes, every weekday. It's science for everyone, using a lot of creativity and a little humor.

Host Maddie Sofia is an actual scientist with a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Rochester Medical Center, which is ideal background for a host during the pandemic.

Short Wave can do a sub -10-minute deep dive because Sofia is so fluent in science and communicating key concepts. Recent episodes include a tale of swarming locusts in Africa and how scientists in Tempe, AZ are using a low-carb diet to minimize crop damage.

Or a truly troubling episode about a condition called silicosis, and it's been known about for decades. So why is it now emerging in new numbers among workers who cut kitchen counter tops? NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce explains in such a way you’ll say a prayer that you kept your old Formica counter tops. 

Stuff You Should Know is a grandfather in the podcast world around since 2008 and benefits from excellent host chemistry with Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant who educate listeners on a variety of topics with a blend of humor, feigned ignorance and explanations that "go down easy."

Hidden Brain began as an NPR podcast but in 2019, host Shankar Vedantam  launched Hidden Brain Media "to allow us to connect more deeply with our audience and to experiment with new ways of telling Hidden Brain stories across a range of different platforms," according to Vedantam. 

The episodes range from an investigation into the Halo Effect and the dangerous Ford Pinto, an exploration into the blurred line between the real and the imaginary, and a primer on how to exercise "our empathy muscles."

Then there are the traditional podcasts that began on radio on NPR stations and now thrive in the podcast world, setting records for longevity and sustained popularity. These NPR shows embody the NPR fragrance -- cerebral tranquility tinged with a hint of closeted superiority. 

This American Life, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, Fresh Air, Planet Money and Radiolab all deliver exceptional quality to their podcast listeners, constantly refining their successful formats. For example, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! has added more contemporary celebrities to its panel like Jessi Klein, Negin Farsad, and Maeve Higgins.

Finally, the number one podcast consistently has been The Daily with host Michael Barbaro from The New York Times. For the Times, The Daily, as well as with other successful podcasts like the Book Review podcast and the papers' digital subscription success, has enabled "the Gray Lady" to improve its bottom line. The Times has survived the dark ages of the print apocalypse a decade ago and has built a model for other print-based organizations to copy so that they can survive and even thrive in the digital world. 

If a media format can be judged by its top shows then the podcast industry has much to be proud of. By contrast, TV now relies on The Masked Singer, The Real Housewives... and a bunch of Chicago... procedurals to generate eyeballs. Radio finds itself with Rush Limbaugh with the most weekly listeners as he spins a never-ending tale of election fraud conspiracy theories and then satellite radio crowns Howard Stern as its champion since salacious gossip never falls out of favor.

Personally, I'll relax with an enjoyable 20 minutes listening to Planet Money, as the hosts explore the qualitative difference between expensive and cheap vodkas. That's a show I can drink to. "Salute."

By

Frank Racioppi