It wasn’t too long ago that if you wanted to hear or experience an interview, you were either turning into a TV special, the radio, or even picking up a magazine in the checkout line of the grocery store.
And then, podcasting came along and changed everything.
With significantly less time and schedule constraints than other media formats, podcasting allowed its hosts and their guests two very important things: the ability to record interviews in a relaxed atmosphere, as well as the ability to edit and release the interviews at a pace more preferable to the 21st century’s appetite for content.
Of course, with the new ease of creating an interview podcasts, came several new shows and interviews of varying quality and consistency. With over 1,000,000 podcast shows and 30,000,000 episodes out there, it might be hard to find the podcast with interviews that appeal to you.
To make things a tad bit easier for those of you that love listening to interview podcasts, we’ve pulled a list of the current 15 best interview podcasts of 2023—listed below (in no particular order) and just for you. We hope you enjoy and find one (or two) that you love!
Quick Tip–A Better Way To Run Your Own Interview Podcast
As the number of awesome interview podcasts continues to explode, so does the amount of podcast software tools available to help showrunners and hosts get the job done smoothly. Here are three tools we can’t recommend enough for those with their own shows:
- Castos – You know we’re biased here. Simple and easy hosting & analytics for interview podcasts
- Simply Schedule Appointments – Guest scheduling plugin for interview podcasts
- Headliner – Turn your interview podcast highlights into shareable social media posts
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Meet The Best 15 Interview Podcasts Of 2023
1. Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Expert is a weekly podcast hosted by American actor, director, and writer Dax Shepard and Emmy-nominated Monica Padman. Each podcast features Shepard and Padman interviewing celebrities as well as journalists and academics about “the messiness of being human.”
Listen to Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
2. The TED Interview with Chris Anderson
Head of TED Chris Anderson speaks with some of the world’s most interesting people to dig into the provocative and powerful ideas of our time.
Listen to The TED Interview with Chris Anderson
3. The Griefcast with Cariad Lloyd
Griefcast is a podcast that examines the human experience of grief and death – but with comedians, so it’s cheerier than it sounds.
Listen to The Griefcast with Cariad Lloyd
4. How I Built This with Guy Raz
Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world’s best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.
Listen to How I Built This with Guy Raz
5. My First Million with Shaan Puri and Sam Parr
Unlike other business podcasts, hosts Shaan Puri and Sam Parr aren’t here to criticize entrepreneurs or tell you why making money or business building is evil. My First Million aims to do the exact opposite. Celebrate builders, even if they fail. And give you the tools to help you turn your scheme into a reality.
Listen to My First Million with Shaan Puri and Sam Parr
6. WTF with Marc Maron
Marc Maron welcomes comedians, actors, directors, writers, authors, musicians and folks from all walks of life to his home for amazingly revealing conversations. Marc’s probing, comprehensive interview style allows guests to express themselves in ways listeners have never heard.
7. The Joe Rogan Experience
The Joe Rogan Experience is a free audio and video podcast hosted by American comedian, actor, sports commentator, martial artist, and television host, Joe Rogan. It was launched on December 24, 2009, by Rogan and comedian Brian Redban, who also produced and co-hosted. By 2015, it was one of the world’s most popular podcasts, regularly receiving millions of views per episode, and includes a wide array of guests.
Listen to The Joe Rogan Experience
8. Fresh Air with Terry Gross
Fresh Air from WHYY, the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, is one of public radio’s most popular programs. Hosted by Terry Gross, the show features intimate conversations with today’s biggest luminaries.
Listen to Fresh Air with Terry Gross
9. Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin
From WNYC Studios, award-winning actor Alec Baldwin takes listeners into the lives of artists, policy makers and performers.
Listen to Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin
10. Desert Island Discs
Eight tracks, a book and a luxury: what would you take to a desert island? Guests share the soundtrack of their lives.
11. Song Exploder
Song Exploder is a podcast where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. Each episode features an artist discussing a song of theirs, breaking down the sounds and ideas that went into the writing and recording.
12. Knuckleheads with Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles
Totally unguarded conversations about sports, culture and basketball nostalgia.NBA veterans Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles are lifelong friends and bona fide truth-tellers. Listen as they invite special guests, high-profile athletes, musicians and entertainers to get brutally honest about everything from current events to untold stories from the golden era of sports and culture. Named for the on-court celebration they made wildly popular, this unfiltered, hilarious and surprising podcast is like playing NBA 2K with no fouls.
Listen to Knuckleheads with Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles
13. The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss is a self-experimenter and bestselling author, best known for The 4-Hour Workweek, which has been translated into 40+ languages. Newsweek calls him “the world’s best human guinea pig,” and The New York Times calls him “a cross between Jack Welch and a Buddhist monk.” In this show, he deconstructs world-class performers from eclectic areas (investing, chess, pro sports, etc.), digging deep to find the tools, tactics, and tricks that listeners can use.
Listen to The Tim Ferriss Show
14. The Jordan Harbinger Show
The Jordan Harbinger Show (Apple’s Best of 2018) is where self-motivated people, just like you, dig deep into the untapped wisdom of the world’s sharpest minds- from legendary creators to intelligence operatives, iconoclastic writers to visionary change-makers. We bring amazing stories and brilliant personalities to the table, and help you demystify what they do and how they do it. You’ll learn new strategies, perspectives, and tactics you won’t find anywhere else, then take these valuable insights into your own life and live what you hear.
Listen to The Jordan Harbinger Show
15. Without Fail with Alex Blumberg
Candid conversations with entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, visionaries of all kinds—about their successes, and their failures, and what they learned from both. Hosted by Alex Blumberg, from Gimlet Media.
Listen to Without Fail with Alex Blumberg
Summary
And there you have it—our 15 best interview podcasts of 2023.
We hope you found our list helpful, and if you have any other interview podcasts you’d like to recommend, feel free to drop a reply in the comments and we’ll check it out and consider adding it to this list.
P.S. With the exception of the Joe Rogan Experience, all of our show links in this list are to Spotify, however, most of these shows are available across all major streaming platforms—definitely feel free to use whatever player you prefer.
Can you recommend any podcast interviews led by women?
Hey Deborah! This is Miguel Pineda from GovSight. Our interview driven podcast called “CheckIn by GovSight” features our staff of both men and women interviewing the experts, representatives and strategists driving politics in America. We would love for you to check us out. Find us anywhere you listen to podcasts 🙂