What type of content do you primarily create?
Want to start your own podcast but have no idea what it should be about? You’re not the first.
There are currently around 2.5 million podcasts uploaded to Apple Podcasts — but only about 20% (nearly 500,000) of them are active. But don’t let the numbers deter you: if you’ve got a burning desire to make a podcast, go ahead and make a podcast.
Just know that there are a few things you’ll want to have nailed down before you start. One, obviously, is the topic. A successful podcast topic should check at least one, but preferably all three of these boxes:
- You have some sort of expertise in it, whether professional or otherwise
- It lends itself to at least a year’s worth of episode topics
- You love it enough to keep talking about it week in and week out
Ideally, you already have a concept of what you want your new podcast to be about. But if you don’t, we’ve put together 50+ podcast topic ideas to inspire your own. Some of these could be singular episodes while others can help you formulate your entire podcasting strategy.
Take a look at each idea and the similar podcasts that exist to figure out which topic is the right fit for you.
50+ best podcast topic ideas
Most of these topic ideas are broad enough to put your own spin on them. For example, your “recap” podcast could recap Law & Order reruns with a legal scholar as your co-host, or your beauty podcast might focus on only sustainably made products. Think about how you can bring a unique point of view to your show.
1. True crime
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True crime podcasts have taken the world by storm—in fact, they’re listed as one of the top five podcast genres as of Q3 2022. However, there are so many different ways to take this podcast idea.
Research and share true crime stories, interview people, focus on cold crimes, tell paranormal stories, or come up with your own theories.
Podcasts to explore:
2. Entrepreneurship
If you’ve successfully created your own business, why not start a podcast to share your tips and tricks so others can do the same?
Your podcast could be a case study in launching a new business, using each episode to share what steps you’re taking to create and grow this business and how it’s performing. You could also interview business owners to get their tips for new entrepreneurs.
Podcasts to explore:
3. Short stories
Narrating short stories on a podcast can be simple — just you, a story, and a mic — or incredibly expensive and complicated — a cast of voice actors, foley sound effects, a composer, and original stories on a theme. It all depends on your desire and abilities.
Podcasts to explore:
4. ASMR
ASMR stands for “autonomous sensory meridian response,” and essentially refers to a specific type of sound that’s meant to elicit a physical response from your body, like goosebumps or shivers.
This is a fun and unique type of podcast, but you have to get creative for it. Various types of ASMR include whispering (consider lightly narrating stories—one of our examples below softly narrates episodes of The Office), tapping, humming, and crinkling.
Podcasts to explore:
5. Book reviews and recommendations
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If you love to read, this could be the perfect podcast topic for you. Use your podcast to review books you’ve read, interview authors, share book recommendations from various genres, or talk about what listeners are reading.
Podcasts to explore:
6. Behind the scenes
Take listeners behind the scenes of an industry — whether it’s the film industry, investing, agriculture, or something else that you’re well-versed in. This can be a fun way of educating your audience about how various industries work.
Podcasts to explore:
7. A day in the life
Build empathy by letting listeners walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. You can interview people in various jobs, cultures, or ways of life to see how different people live, or if you have a particularly compelling life (maybe you’re a C-list celebrity, you live on the road, or you have a ridiculous number of pets) you could even share days in your own life.
Podcasts to explore:
8. Latest news/current events
There’s a reason most news shows come from huge corporations — it takes a lot of time, effort, and money to report on breaking news. But if you’re a journalist — or, preferably, a team — with a point of view to share, you could try producing a daily or weekly update podcast.
Share some of the top breaking news stories with your listeners or focus on topics that are more off the beaten path. Or, choose to focus on a very specific topic for a short-term podcast, like a specific election or a current war.
Podcasts to explore:
9. Recaps
Recap podcasts tend to have very specific subject matter — but they speak to a very specific target audience, who are easy to turn into loyal listeners. While some recaps might cover a number of movies and TV shows, others hone in on one specific show/movie or type of show/movie.
If you’ve become obsessed with a show (like Ted Lasso — check the third podcast example below), creating an episode-by-episode recap podcast might just be the way to go.
Podcasts to explore:
10. Tutorials
If you’re an expert at something in particular, you might consider creating a podcast that offers tutorials, tips, tricks, and how-tos for that specific skill. Maybe you talk about ways to overcome challenges with backyard gardening, how to manage your personal finances, steps to improve your singing voice, or anything else you think would bring value to an audience.
Another way to take this is to use each podcast episode for a different tutorial, sort of like a DIY podcast with a number of different step-by-steps.
Podcasts to explore:
11. Hacks
Rather than long tutorials, you could put out short, snappy episodes about a single hack — quick tricks to make various tasks easier. Kitchen hacks, mental health hacks, sales hacks, cleaning hacks — do whatever you know how to do. Shortcuts that make life or work easier are always welcome.
Podcasts to explore:
12. Audio drama
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Audio dramas, also known as fiction podcasts, are a huge genre with a modest but devoted fanbase. Audio dramas also take a lot of resources, including voice actors, sound design, and usually a custom score — but if you’re a writer with a story to tell, there are crowdfunding platforms that can help you build up the resources to make your audio drama happen.
Podcasts to explore:
13. Celebrity interviews
If you have the connections, doing celebrity interviews can attract a huge audience (and potentially huge sponsors). People love to hear about their favorite celebrities’ lives, and doing so through a podcast form can be a great way to share.
Podcasts to explore:
14. Comedy
Comedy is one of the most popular podcast categories — and can be a great option if you’re a comic yourself or you’re trying to make it in the comedy world. The best thing about creating a comedy podcast is that the options for the topics you cover are endless. You just have to be funny doing it.
You might create your own sketches for each episode, do a standup routine, or just riff with your also-funny friends.
Podcasts to explore:
15. Funny stories
Another option is to use your podcast to share funny stories. Write your own funny stories, have listeners and guests share funny stories, or read funny stories you find online.
Podcasts to explore:
16. Topic deep dives
Some of the most popular podcast topics teach listeners something new. If there’s something you think more people should know about, do a deep dive: go in-depth on a single topic or a number of different topics to help listeners gain a better understanding. Keep in mind that you’ll either need a high level of knowledge in a lot of topics or you’ll need to do a lot of research — but often both.
Podcasts to explore:
17. Mental health
Mental health podcasts aren’t just for licensed therapists — anyone can open up about their struggles or interview people who do the same. But if you are a licensed therapist, creating a mental health podcast can be a great way to bring your expertise to a bigger audience.
Podcasts to explore:
18. Personal finance
Are you good with money? Share it with the world through your own personal finance podcast. You might have a broad podcast all about how to be better with money, or you might focus on something specific, like how to get the best credit card rewards, how to pay down debt, or how to create and stick to a budget.
Podcasts to explore:
19. Pop culture review
Love keeping up with the latest celebrity drama and other hot topics? Create your own podcast reviewing the latest pop culture updates. Talk about reality TV shows, the latest fashion trends, or celebrity updates.
Podcasts to explore:
20. Travel guides
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If you’re a big traveler, consider morphing that into a podcast! Create a new travel guide for each episode, or use certain seasons to do deep dives into various cities and countries. Help your listeners be able to afford to travel more. Share the best places to go in each new city you visit.
Podcasts to explore:
21. Mysteries
Love mysteries and seemingly unexplained, interesting stories? Or do you want to craft your own episode-by-episode mystery? Then a mystery podcast could be perfect for you. Brainstorm new ideas for each episode or write out your season-long mystery before you even start recording.
Podcasts to explore:
22. Sports
As podcast host, you can essentially become your own sports announcer, narrating live sporting events — but in podcast format. However, you can also use your podcast to analyze a specific team’s progress, depending on which sports, teams, or leagues you’re most interested in.
Podcasts to explore:
23. Politics
Politics is an incredibly popular— though divisive — podcast genre. Just know that depending on the political stances you take, you’ll be targeting a very specific podcast audience. Talk about an upcoming election, hot political debates, or statistical odds for election results.
Podcasts to explore:
24. Coaching
No matter whether you’re a life coach, small business coach, mental health coach, any kind of coach, if you have some specific know-how, share it via your own coaching podcast. Help your podcast listeners become a better version of themselves, thanks to your guidance.
Podcasts to explore:
25. Movie/TV show reviews
If you love the big or small screen, creating a podcast around movie or TV show reviews could be the perfect option for you. Each new episode can focus on a different movie or show, and you can choose to review them seriously or be funny about it. Take a look at some existing podcasts to see how you could take a unique angle.
Podcasts to explore:
26. Location-based
If you love to travel, do a travel podcast. But what if you just love where you live? Create a location-based podcast that provides an in-depth view into what makes your city, state, or country so great. Each episode can focus on one attraction — a new restaurant, a family friendly landmark, or an event going on.
Podcasts to explore:
27. Fashion
Fashion is a wealth of podcast potential. You can choose to focus on new fashion trends and how people are wearing them, look back in time to talk about fashion history, or zoom in on the fashion industry and the creation of new clothing items.
Podcasts to explore:
28. Beauty
If you’re a dermatologist, a makeup artist, or just a beauty fan, start a beauty podcast. Talk about how products are made, which products are best for which skin type, brands that are making really stellar products, and anything else that would appeal to a beauty-interested audience.
Podcasts to explore:
29. History
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History podcasts are also popular. Make history fun with a comedic angle, or examine a specific topic like the Civil War, the Moon landing, or ancient Greece. There are billions of years of history to choose from, so you’ve got plenty of options.
Podcasts to explore:
30. Clueless newbie
Clueless newbie is a name given to podcasts where someone documents themselves doing something for the first time — usually to humorous effect, though it can also be used as a serious learning experience for the audience.
For example, the podcast Potterless, mentioned below, documents someone’s very first time reading through all of the Harry Potter books and his reaction to them. But the second one below, The First Time, is more of an educational process of publishing a book for the first time.
Podcasts to explore:
31. Documentary
Create a documentary in podcast form. Use an entire season to cover all aspects of a topic, or choose to do a deep dive documentary of something new in each episode.
Podcasts to explore:
32. Music
You can also create a music-focused podcast. Interview musicians, talk about how to make an album, explore the history of a genre of music, or put together playlists of recommended songs.
Podcasts to explore:
33. Animals
Create an animal-centric podcast. This might be focused on one animal — like dog training — or you might instead create episodes educating listeners on different wild animals.
Podcasts to explore:
34. Tech
Talk technology and gadgets on your own tech podcast. Review new tech, share updates and news, or focus on a specific type of technology.
Podcasts to explore:
35. Freelancing
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Many podcasters are freelancers themselves, so it’s no wonder that this is a popular podcast topic. If you’re a successful freelancer — or if you just want to document your journey as a new freelancer — you can create a podcast with everything you’ve learned and tips for others who want to do the same thing.
Podcasts to explore:
36. Advice
Want to give people life advice? Consider doing so in your own Dear Abby–style podcast. Start off by getting advice questions from people you know, then eventually your listeners will start sending in their own questions.
Podcasts to explore:
37. Life skills
Create a podcast sharing some basic life skills with your listeners. Similar to the “Dad, how do I?” YouTube channel, you can share some basic tips and tricks targeted to younger audiences learning how to do things like file taxes or fill out job applications for the first time.
Podcasts to explore:
38. Stock market
Are you an expert at stocks and investing? Share the wealth with the rest of us. Create a podcast dedicated to learning how the stock market works, tools to use for investing, and how to tell which stocks to choose.
Podcasts to explore:
39. Listicles
Listicles are always popular—in video form, in article form, and, believe it or not, in podcast form. Create random Top 10 lists in each new episode, or choose to focus on a specific niche. The podcast example below, All Time Top Ten, creates a new Top 10 list of songs in each of its episodes.
Podcasts to explore:
40. Video games
Create a podcast focusing on your favorite video game(s). Or all of them. You could talk about new video games and updates in the industry or use your podcast as a game walkthrough.
Podcasts to explore:
41. Board games
Similarly, you may choose to focus on board games instead. Use your podcast to talk about one single board game, like Woodland War Machine does with strategy-heavy board game Root, or talk about any and all games, like The BoardGameGeek Podcast.
Podcasts to explore:
42. Cooking/baking
Are you big on cooking or baking? Turn that love into a podcast. Share recipes, talk with other cooks, or talk about different ingredients and where they come from.
Podcasts to explore:
43. Outdoorsy
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Create an outdoorsy, adventure, or camping podcast. Share tips for staying safe on trails, cooking while camping, or foraging for food.
Podcasts to explore:
44. Astrology
Are the stars aligning on your new podcast idea? An astrology podcast can be a fun way to talk about your love of the zodiac and all of its signs.
Podcasts to explore:
45. Marketing
If you’re a marketer, creating your own podcast could be the perfect way to share your expertise. Focus on a specific type of marketing, like social media marketing, or just share your tips for helping brands reach a bigger audience.
Podcasts to explore:
46. Interviews
We’ve covered celebrity interviews — but why not also interview regular people? You could focus on a niche and interview people within that industry, like influencers, musicians, chefs, or landscapers. Just be sure to craft interesting interview questions to keep your listeners engaged.
Podcasts to explore:
47. Dating and relationships
Dating and relationships podcasts can be fun and silly, serious and full of advice, or heartwarming. Decide which angle to take if you want to create a podcast focusing on dating and relationships.
Podcasts to explore:
48. Meditation
If you have a lot to say about meditation and mindfulness, why not turn that into a podcast? Create episodes with tips or a new daily guided meditation episode to help your listeners hone in on their meditation skills.
Podcasts to explore:
49. Science
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Share your scientific knowledge via podcast. Report on the latest studies, talk about space or the deep sea, or focus on another area of science that you enjoy.
Podcasts to explore:
50. Motivational
Use your podcast to motivate people to do better in their everyday lives. Who your target audience is, what you motivate them to do, and how you achieve that is all up to you.
Podcasts to explore:
51. Lifestyle
Talk about your life and experiences. Bring guests on or start the podcast with a friend to keep the dialogue interesting for your audience. This can be a fun way to simply relate to listeners and share the parts of your life that you want to with them.
Podcasts to explore:
Gather inspiration from these podcast topic ideas
Ready to create your own podcast? Gather inspiration from these podcasts and topic ideas that you’re passionate about. Then learn how to create a chart-topping podcast with a loyal audience and fanbase.
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