The Podnews Ranker Top 30: October 2026
- updated monthly
Who’s in the podcast news? Here’s a list of the people we mentioned most in the three months between August 1 and October 31, and how they’re trending.
We currently have 33,311 subscribers, all across the world. Here’s more about Podnews.
Gender balance
Overall, in this 90-day period, Podnews gave 48 mentions (23%) to women, and 160 mentions to men. In the previous period, the gender split was 23%.
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 | → 1 | Tom Webster |
| 2 | ↑ 6 | Ira Glass |
| 3 | ↓ 2 | Steven Bartlett |
| 4 | → 4 | Dave Jackson |
| 5 | ↑ 38 | Steven Goldstein |
| 6 | ↓ 5 | Rob Walch |
| 7 | ↓ 3 | Dan Granger |
| 8 | -- | Keke Palmer |
| 9 | ↑ 10 | Max Cutler |
| 10 | ↑ 11 | Dolly Parton |
| 11 | ↑ 26 | Dan Snow |
| 12 | ↓ 7 | Gordon Firemark |
| 13 | ↓ 12 | Elon Musk |
| 14 | ↓ 8 | Sam Sethi |
| 15 | → 15 | Ashley Carman |
| 16 | → 16 | Joe Rogan |
| 17 | ↑ 142 | Adam Curry |
| 18 | ↑ 43 | Marina Hyde |
| 19 | ↓ 9 | John Wordock |
| 20 | ↑ 51 | Dustin Bluck |
| 21 | ↓ 19 | Alex Cooper |
| 22 | ↓ 20 | Paul Riismandel |
| 23 | ↓ 22 | Neal Veglio |
| 24 | ↓ 23 | Frank Racioppi |
| 25 | ↑ 79 | Steve Wilson |
| 26 | ↑ 82 | Sarah Koenig |
| 27 | ↑ 92 | Pat Flynn |
| 28 | ↑ 101 | Elizabeth Day |
| 29 | ↑ 31 | Daniel J Lewis |
| 30 | ↑ 104 | John C Dvorak |
Source: We match names mentioned in Podnews’s main newsletter editorial (stories, tips, tech and podcast news) between August 1 and October 31, and compare these figures with mentions between July 1 and September 30. 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.