The first-ever Golden Globe Award nominations for podcasting will be announced this month, as the medium continues its growing popularity across the entertainment landscape. As podcasts audiences have grown, a new study asks just who is behind the mic on the most popular programs.

The report, titled Inequality in Popular Podcasts, was authored by Stacy L. Smith and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, based on podcast data from Spotify and additional podcast industry reports. The first-of-its-kind study examines the top 100 podcasts of 2024 and a total of 592 popular podcasts. The gender and race/ethnicity of hosts is assessed. For the top 100 podcasts, the study also evaluates the gender of guests appearing in 2024.

“Podcasts have become an essential platform for information, entertainment, and connection,” said Smith. “This study underscores both the reach of podcasting and the opportunity to ensure the voices behind the mic reflect the audiences they serve.”

“Podcasting’s power lies in its potential as a democratized medium, where anyone with an idea and a microphone can find an audience,” Smith continued. “As the format matures, that accessibility can help challenge the old patterns of entertainment and pave the way for a more inclusive audio landscape.”

Across the top 100 podcasts, 64.1% of hosts were men and 35.9% of hosts were women. This trend extended to the top 592 podcasts, where 66.3% of hosts were men and 33.2% of hosts were women. Podcasts remain the low point for women’s participation when compared to other media — 50% of the top 100 films in 2024 had a female lead/co lead, 44.9% of series regulars of the top 100 TV series were female, and 37.7% of popular music artists were female in 2024.

Women were most likely to host podcasts in the genres of true crime (53%); arts, society, and culture (43.3%), news (41.2%), and education (40%). Women were least likely to host programs focused on business and technology (7.7%) and sports and fitness (18.9%). 

The study also examined the race/ethnicity of hosts. Across the top 100 podcasts in 2024, 77.1% of hosts were white and 22.3% were from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group. This was similar to all podcasts, where 79.2% were white and 20.8% were from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group. Similar to the findings on gender, podcasts trailed other parts of the entertainment industry. Across the most popular TV series of 2024, 44.9% of series regulars were from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group, as were 44.6% of popular music artists and 24.6% of film leads/co leads in 2024.

Women of color were least likely to host podcasts — 6.6% of the top 100 podcast hosts were women of color, as were 8.1% of the 592 popular podcasts examined. Podcasts fall behind other forms of entertainment, as 12.7% of leads/co leads, 22.6% of series regulars, and 15.4% of popular music artists in 2024 were women of color.

In addition to hosts, the study also explored the gender of guests across the top 100 podcasts of 2024. Nearly three-quarters of the guests appearing across available episodes were men (72.8%) and 27.2% were women. The ratio of men to women guests was 2.7 to 1.

The disparity between men and women guests extended to episodes — nearly two-thirds (62.6%) of the more than 4,000 episodes evaluated did not feature a woman guest. A total of 37.4% of the episodes featured at least one woman as a guest.

Women were most likely to appear as a guest when a podcast had a woman host. When a podcast had at least one woman host, 54.7% of guests were men and 45.3% were women. When a podcast had no women hosts, 82.1% of guests were men and 17.9% were women.

The study is the first from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative to explore podcasting. The report includes suggestions for future research and solutions for change. Read the study summary here and the full text here.