A new top 50 US podcasts ranker for Q4/2025

• Edison Podcast Metrics released the top 50 Podcasts in the US for Q4/25. No change in the top five, but new entries from, among others, The Diary of a CEO, Dumb Blonde, and Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce. Serial, which had been in the chart forever, has finally dropped out of the top 50, more than 11 years since its release.

  • The top 5 differs from Podtrac’s global multi-channel ranker announced last week; of course, it’s US-only rather than Podtrac’s global list. Podtrac placed The MeidasTouch podcast at #1; Edison places it at #18. The MeidasTouch’s numbers in Podtrac includes video clips.

• Kia-ora, podcasters in New Zealand: Aotearoa’s podcasting community will be meeting once more at The NZ Podcasting Summit on Sat May 9 in Auckland, which has announced its first set of speakers. This time round, there’s a session about AI, and one about video. Tickets are available now.

• Voting is open until Feb 5 for The Ambies, which is available to all TPA members. Cast your vote at The Ambies website.

  • Also, watch for another email today - TPA is switching membership platform to a tool called Glue Up, and you’ll need to re-register.

• In an article that we can’t find online, The Washingtonian Magazine tried the Washington Post’s AI “podcast”, and calls it “ridiculous”, “stilted” and where “mistakes and mispronounciations were the norm”.

• The MediaLeader published “Predictions for audio in 2026 from industry experts”.

• Netflix signed Last Podcast on the Left to its video podcast service, which remains US-only for now.

  • Why is the new Pete Davidson show, produced by Netflix, described as a “video podcast” by the company, despite having no audio component and not being on any podcast platform? Puck suggests in a paid article that it might be a way to avoid union contracts. SAG-AFTRA are “continuing to have discussions” with Netflix about the show.

The Tech Stuff - with RSS.com

• Mentioned on Friday - Earsay, a podcast app that uses Apple’s on-device AI model to work out where the ads are, skip them if you choose, and also extract the information about the advertisers so you can see them and act on them yourself. What’s interesting about this app is that it still downloads the audio, so counts as a download; and while the audio may not be listened-to, perhaps the user will act on the ad information that’s visible in the app (which they’d not do if it was skipped). The inbuilt AI model also does smarter speed playback and voice cleaning to make it easier to hear poorly-recorded shows. It’s the first time we’ve seen a podcast app using Apple’s on-device AI in this way.

• Here’s that proposal for comments within podcast apps that was mentioned this time last week. The irony: it’s not on a page with comments, so you can’t leave any comments about it. But, it’s a start. Your thoughts would be welcome.

Podcast News - with Airwave

For your Ambies Consideration: NerdWallet’s Smart Money Podcast, nominated for Best Business Podcast. With Airwave, the show is hosted by NerdWallet’s trusted finance journalists, who answer real-world money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions with confidence.

Does your healthcare organization have an effective compliance program? Captain Integrity is here to save the day! Stark Integrity has just released episode 200. The show is produced with MaxPodcasting, and the show mixes up the format with both solo episodes and expert guest interviews, aimed to help employees and physicians.

In the latest School of Podcasting, Dave Jackson talks about his experience at Podfest. He says he heard less about video this year; and discusses the costs of putting on an event like this.

New from AudioAlways today - Tonsil Hockey is an Unofficial Fan Podcast dedicated to the TV sensation Heated Rivalry. Hosted by comedians Olga Koch and Catherine Bohart, Tonsil Hockey is daily comedy podcast dedicated entirely to their rapidly escalating obsession with the wildly popular “gay hockey show” that has completely taken over their lives.

Grant CEO is the podcast for experienced grant-writers and grant consultants who have mastered their craft but are now struggling to run a grant-writing business that feels true to their values, goals, and dreams. Each week, host DeaRonda Harrison ($45M+ in grant awards) helps listeners ditch their freelance bad habits and step fully into the CEO seat of their grant writing business.