The 14 Best High School Students Podcasts (2026)

This Teenage Life is one of the few podcasts actually made by teenagers rather than about them from an adult perspective. The show operates as a global youth dialogue program with roughly 50 teen contributors spread across different countries, and it has built an audience of hundreds of thousands of listeners since launching in 2019. Each episode gives teens the microphone to share their own stories, opinions, and experiences on topics that matter to them right now.

The range of subjects is broad and honest. Episodes cover anxiety and self-doubt, friendships that are falling apart, diet culture pressure, family dynamics, independence, and what it feels like to publish your own creative work as a teenager. The conversations feel unscripted and genuine, not like adults coaching kids through talking points. That authenticity is the show's biggest strength. You hear real hesitation, real laughter, and real vulnerability.

With 200 episodes in the catalog and a monthly release schedule, there is a deep archive to browse. The show holds a 4.7 star rating from 228 reviews on Apple Podcasts. Episodes run on the shorter side, making them easy to fit between classes or on a bus ride home. If you want a podcast that actually sounds like the teen experience instead of an adult's memory of it, This Teenage Life is the real thing.

Podcrushed takes the most embarrassing, awkward, and painfully relatable moments from middle school and turns them into something you can actually laugh about. Penn Badgley (yes, the actor from You and Gossip Girl) hosts alongside Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari, and the format works like this: listeners submit their own cringe-worthy adolescent stories, and the hosts read them on air, react, and then bring in celebrity guests who share their own teenage horror stories.

The genius of the show is that it normalizes all the stuff that felt world-ending at the time. First crushes that went sideways, body hair panic, schoolyard fights, the social hierarchy of the cafeteria. Famous guests sit down and admit they went through the exact same things, which strips away the illusion that successful people had it all figured out as kids. The chemistry between the three hosts is strong, and Badgley in particular brings a thoughtful energy that keeps conversations from becoming just another comedy riff.

Distributed by Lemonada Media, the show has 197 episodes and a 4.7 star average from over 1,000 Apple reviews. New episodes drop regularly, and the tone walks a smart line between funny and genuinely vulnerable. For any high school student who still winces at memories from a few years ago, Podcrushed is proof that everyone has those stories.

Joey Mascio is a teen and young adult life coach who also works as a middle school teacher and counselor, and that dual perspective shows in every episode of Secrets for an Awesome Life. He trained under Master Life Coach Brooke Castillo and holds an advanced certification through Jody Moore's program. The show focuses on practical life skills that school curriculums tend to skip entirely: managing emotions, building confidence, handling peer pressure, understanding money, and figuring out who you actually want to be.

One framework Mascio returns to often is what he calls the "Sidekick vs. Hero" mindset, encouraging teens to stop waiting for someone else to fix their problems and start making their own decisions. He also tackles cognitive distortions and unhelpful thinking patterns in a way that feels accessible rather than clinical. Some episodes are full-length deep conversations; others are short "Message 4 Monday" segments that deliver a single actionable idea in just a few minutes.

With 209 episodes and a 4.9 star average from 189 Apple ratings, the audience is loyal and vocal about how much the show has helped them. Episodes drop bimonthly and cover everything from financial literacy for teens to building self-sufficiency. Mascio talks to his listeners like a coach who genuinely believes they can figure things out, not like an authority lecturing from above.

Mallory Grimste is a licensed mental health therapist with over a decade of experience working specifically with adolescents, and her podcast takes that clinical background and turns it into something a teenager can actually use on a Tuesday afternoon. The show is structured as guided mental health content: episodes walk through coping strategies for anxiety, techniques for managing depression, alternatives to self-harm, guided meditations designed for teen brains, and communication frameworks like the DEAR MAN method.

What makes this stand out from generic self-help content is the specificity. Grimste knows what high school anxiety actually looks like because she has spent years in rooms with teens who are living it. She covers things like how to cope with test anxiety mid-panic, what to do when a friendship group implodes, and how to build emotional regulation skills when everything feels out of control. The advice is concrete and actionable rather than vague encouragement.

The show has 152 episodes and a perfect 5.0 star rating on Apple Podcasts. Episodes are released regularly and most run under 20 minutes, which is a smart length for the audience. Grimste is clear that the podcast is educational and not a substitute for actual therapy, but for teens who want practical mental health tools they can start using immediately, this fills a gap that very few other shows address directly.

Shankar Vedantam has a gift for making behavioral science feel personal. Hidden Brain is routinely the number one science podcast in the United States, and after listening to a few episodes you will understand why. Vedantam takes research from psychology, neuroscience, and economics and turns it into stories about real human behavior, the kind of stuff that makes you rethink your own decisions.

The format is typically Vedantam in conversation with researchers and experts, but it never feels like an interview show. He weaves narrative throughout, using individual stories to illustrate broader scientific findings. An episode about procrastination might start with a woman who cannot bring herself to open her mail, then pivot to a study at a major university, then circle back to the personal story with new understanding.

Episodes arrive biweekly and tend to run between 50 minutes and an hour and a half. There are now over 660 episodes in the archive, rated 4.6 stars by more than 41,000 listeners. The pacing is deliberate. Vedantam does not rush through ideas, and he is not afraid of silence when a point needs to land.

What sets Hidden Brain apart from other psychology podcasts is its emotional range. Some episodes are genuinely moving. Others are unsettling in the best way, forcing you to confront biases you did not know you had. It is smart without being smug, and that balance is harder to pull off than it looks.

Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant have been explaining how the world works since 2008, and somehow they keep finding new things to talk about. With over 2,000 episodes under their belt, SYSK covers everything from the history of champagne to chaos theory to the Stonewall Uprising. The format is beautifully simple: two curious guys sit down, research a topic, and walk you through it like they're catching up over coffee.

What makes the show stick is the genuine friendship between Josh and Chuck. They interrupt each other, go on tangents about their weekends, and occasionally get things hilariously wrong before correcting themselves. Episodes run about 40 to 55 minutes for the main show, with shorter "Short Stuff" episodes around 10 minutes when you just need a quick knowledge fix.

The research is solid without being academic. They pull from books, interviews, and historical records, but deliver it all in plain language. You will never feel talked down to. One episode might cover satanism, the next Rosa Parks, and then suddenly you are learning about LSD. That unpredictability is part of the charm. The show drops twice a week and has earned a 4.5-star rating from over 76,000 reviews, which tells you it has staying power. If you want a podcast that makes you smarter without making you feel like you are back in school, this is the gold standard.

Radiolab is the podcast that made sound design an art form. Hosts Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser carry forward the legacy that Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich built, and the show remains one of the most sonically inventive programs in audio. Episodes layer interviews, music, and ambient sound in ways that genuinely make your ears perk up.

The topics range across science, philosophy, law, and culture. One week you might hear about the ethics of CRISPR gene editing. The next, a courtroom drama about a forgotten civil rights case. The common thread is curiosity taken to its logical extreme: the team follows a question until they hit something surprising, then they follow that surprise even further.

Episodes land weekly and typically run 30 to 60 minutes, though some stretch past an hour when the story demands it. The show has over 800 episodes since launching in 2006, and it holds a 4.6-star rating from more than 42,000 reviews. There is a reason it keeps winning Peabody Awards.

Radiolab does not just explain things. It makes you feel the weight of a scientific discovery or the strangeness of a legal precedent. The production quality is a notch above almost everything else in podcasting, and the storytelling has a patience to it that rewards close listening. If you only subscribe to one knowledge podcast, you could do a lot worse than this one.

The premise is simple and brilliant: each episode, Alie Ward interviews an expert in a specific "-ology" and asks them all the questions you would want to ask if you could corner a scientist at a party. Volcanology. Ferroequinology (that is the study of trains). Lepidopterology. Scorpiology. The range is wild, and Ward's genuine enthusiasm makes even the most obscure field feel urgent and fascinating.

Ward has a background in science communication and comedy, and that combination is the show's secret weapon. She is not afraid to ask basic questions, crack jokes, or go on tangents that somehow always circle back to something illuminating. The interviews run about an hour to 90 minutes, giving guests real room to nerd out about their life's work.

With nearly 500 episodes and a stunning 4.9-star rating from over 24,000 reviews, Ologies has built one of the most passionate audiences in podcasting. The community calls themselves "ologists" and regularly submit questions for the experts. Ward reads and answers listener queries at the end of most episodes, which adds a communal feel that many interview shows lack.

The production is clean and professional, but it never loses the warmth of a real conversation between two people who are excited about the same thing. If you have ever wanted to understand what a professional slug sex researcher actually does all day, Ologies has you covered. And yes, there really is an episode about that.

Holly Frey and Tracy Wilson have turned history class into something you might actually look forward to. Stuff You Missed in History Class picks up the stories your textbook either skipped entirely or crammed into a single paragraph, then gives them the full treatment. Episodes cover the weird, the wild, and the genuinely important: WWII stimulant use among soldiers, FBI counterintelligence operations, the story of abolitionist Anthony Burns, early female Olympians, the discovery of phosphorus, and hundreds more.

The show has been running since the mid-2000s and has accumulated over 2,000 episodes, making the back catalog a genuine treasure chest for anyone who likes history. Frey and Wilson present in a conversational style that feels like listening to two well-read friends share what they learned this week. The research is solid, the storytelling is clear, and the topics are chosen with an eye for stories that surprise or challenge what you thought you knew.

New episodes drop twice a week, typically running 30 to 50 minutes each. The show holds a 4.2 star average from over 23,000 Apple reviews. For high school students, this is the perfect supplement to whatever your AP History class is covering. It fills in the gaps your curriculum leaves behind and makes the people and events of the past feel vivid and real rather than flat and distant.

Ethan Sawyer, better known as the College Essay Guy, has built one of the most trusted resources in college admissions guidance, and his podcast is where that expertise comes alive in conversation. The show features interviews with deans of admission, financial aid officers, test prep experts, and admissions veterans from schools across the country. Sawyer has a talent for extracting specific, actionable advice rather than letting conversations stay at the level of generic encouragement.

The topics are exactly what juniors and seniors stress about: how to build a college list that actually makes sense, what admissions officers really look for in personal statements, how to write supplemental essays that do not sound like everyone else's, strategies for financial aid appeals, and how to handle rejection without spiraling. A recent episode series called "On Becoming" explores personal storytelling as a craft, which has obvious applications well beyond college applications.

With 100 episodes and a 4.5 star rating from 227 Apple reviews, the catalog is manageable and focused. Episodes are interview-based and typically run 30 to 45 minutes. The show is especially valuable for students who do not have access to expensive private college counselors. Sawyer's whole mission is making this information available to everyone, and the podcast delivers on that promise consistently.

Betsy Jewell hosts High School Hamster Wheel with a clear thesis: the traditional path of high school to four-year college to career is not the only option, and for many students, it is not even the best option. Jewell runs a career coaching practice and brings on education experts, industry leaders, psychologists, and professionals who took non-traditional routes to successful careers. The conversations are practical and grounded in real job market realities.

The show covers territory that most high school guidance counselors barely touch. Episodes tackle questions like whether college ROI actually pencils out for specific majors, how micro-internships work and where to find them, what career-readiness actually looks like to employers, and how neurodivergent students can find paths that play to their strengths. Jewell also addresses the mental health toll of the college admissions pressure cooker, which makes the show feel less like career advice and more like permission to step off the hamster wheel and think clearly.

With 146 episodes and a perfect 5.0 star rating from 43 Apple reviews, the audience is smaller but fiercely loyal. The show releases biweekly and episodes run 30 to 50 minutes. For any high school student feeling overwhelmed by the pressure to have a perfect college plan by age 17, this podcast offers a calmer, more realistic perspective on what comes after graduation.

TED Talks Daily takes the best presentations from TED and TEDx stages around the world and delivers them as audio episodes, one per day. The subjects span everything from artificial intelligence to zoology, with stops at psychology, design, politics, health, education, and technology along the way. Host Elise Hu introduces each talk and provides context, but the bulk of every episode is the speaker and their ideas.

For high school students, this is one of the most efficient ways to stay curious across a huge range of subjects. Episodes run 10 to 40 minutes, which means you can fit one into a morning routine, a bus commute, or a study break. Recent episodes have covered the science of eyewitness memory, how AI is changing human connection, and innovations in healthcare delivery in developing countries. The diversity of topics means you are constantly exposed to fields and ideas you might never encounter in a standard high school curriculum.

The catalog is massive at over 2,100 episodes, and the show holds a 4.1 star average from over 10,000 Apple ratings. The quality varies because TED and TEDx speakers range from world-class researchers to less polished presenters, but the best episodes can genuinely change how you think about a subject in under 20 minutes. For students figuring out what interests them or preparing for college essays about their intellectual curiosity, a daily TED habit is hard to beat.

Mark Stucker runs Your College Bound Kid with a team of eight co-hosts that includes six college counselors and two working admissions officers. That bench depth is the show's superpower. Instead of getting one perspective on college admissions, you get a rotating panel of people who are actively reading applications, making decisions, and counseling families through the process right now.

The show drops twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, and covers the full admissions timeline. Episodes tackle external scholarship strategies, how to interpret deferral letters, what college health insurance actually covers, how parent Facebook groups can help or hurt you, and deep-dive college spotlight segments where they break down specific institutions in detail. Listener Q&A segments mean real families get their actual questions answered on air. A recent episode addressed supporting neurodivergent students through the application process, which is the kind of specific, underserved topic the show handles well.

With 500 episodes and a 4.6 star rating from 366 Apple reviews, the show has earned a reputation for being thorough without being overwhelming. Episodes run about 30 minutes. The stated mission is to make college knowledge available to all, and the free, twice-weekly format lives up to that. For high school students and their parents navigating the admissions maze together, this is one of the most comprehensive and current resources available.

Dr. Lisa Damour is a clinical psychologist, New York Times bestselling author, and regular contributor to CBS News and the New York Times, and her podcast with journalist Reena Ninan tackles the psychological side of the teenage years with real clinical depth. The show is technically aimed at parents, but high school students will find it just as useful because Damour explains adolescent psychology in a way that helps teens understand their own brains.

Episodes cover the things that actually consume a teenager's mental bandwidth: social media pressure, study habits that work versus ones that just feel productive, food and body image struggles, friendship dynamics, how to handle conflict with parents, and what anxiety looks like when it crosses from normal to clinical. Damour brings in research without making episodes feel like academic papers, and Ninan asks the practical follow-up questions that parents (and students) actually need answered.

The show releases weekly on Tuesdays, with 261 episodes in the catalog and a 4.8 star average from 761 Apple ratings. Recent topics include fan fiction culture, teen piercings, and how to future-proof yourself in a changing world. For high school students, listening to this show is a bit like reading your parents' playbook, which can be surprisingly helpful for understanding why the adults in your life react the way they do. The psychology insights apply just as much to self-understanding as they do to parent-child relationships.