The Podnews Ranker Top 30: February 2026
- updated monthly
Who’s in the podcast news? Here’s a list of the people we mentioned most in the three months between December 1 and February 28, and how they’re trending.
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Gender balance
Overall, in this 90-day period, Podnews gave 49 mentions (25%) to women, and 147 mentions to men. In the previous period, the gender split was 30%.
Context: Sounds Profitable’s The Creators says that only 29% of podcast creators are women, in comparison to 51% of the US population. McKinsey report that women form just 24% of senior US executives (2021). The Wrap reports that only 21% of top-charting shows have a female host (2020); Quartz puts the figure at one in three (2019); data produced for AT&T says 27% of top-rated podcasts are hosted by females (2020), a further 12% by a gender-balanced team.
Our aims
Our submissions page highlights our wish to achieve a healthy gender balance, cover news from outside the USA, and amplify the under-represented. This data is one way to keep an eye on our efforts.
People
| 1 | ↑ 2 | Rob Walch |
| 2 | ↓ 1 | Joe Rogan |
| 3 | → 3 | Bill Simmons |
| 4 | ↑ 19 | Dave Jackson |
| 5 | ↑ 21 | Mark Asquith |
| 6 | → 6 | John McDermott |
| 7 | ↓ 4 | Jay Shetty |
| 8 | ↓ 7 | Steven Bartlett |
| 9 | ↓ 8 | Dave Jones |
| 10 | ↑ 18 | Arielle Nissenblatt |
| 11 | ↑ 24 | Mathew Passy |
| 12 | ↑ 13 | Taylor Swift |
| 13 | ↑ 82 | Kara Swisher |
| 14 | ↑ 28 | Dan Bongino |
| 15 | ↑ 16 | Eric Nuzum |
| 16 | ↑ 17 | Ashley Flowers |
| 17 | ↓ 9 | Dan Misener |
| 18 | ↓ 10 | Elsie Escobar |
| 19 | ↑ 113 | Rob Greenlee |
| 20 | ↑ 22 | Tom Webster |
| 21 | ↑ 23 | Chris Stone |
| 22 | ↓ 5 | Donald Trump |
| 23 | ↓ 11 | John Wordock |
| 24 | ↓ 12 | Ben Shapiro |
| 25 | → 25 | Josh Widdicombe |
| 26 | ↑ 59 | Frank Racioppi |
| 27 | ↑ 62 | Malcolm Gladwell |
| 28 | ↓ 14 | Stephanie Wittels Wachs |
| 29 | -- | Siobhán McHugh |
| 30 | ↓ 15 | John Lee Dumas |
Source: We match names mentioned in Podnews’s main newsletter editorial (stories, tips, tech and podcast news) between December 1 and February 28, and compare these figures with mentions between November 1 and January 31. Jobs, events, press releases or separate articles are not included in the above data. Where two or more people have the same number of mentions, we bias newer entries to our database. Our data does not include racial or sexual diversity.