The 9 Best Journalism Podcasts (2026)

Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger have been doing something rare with On the Media for over two decades now: they treat the news itself as the story. Instead of chasing the latest headline, each semiweekly episode steps back and asks how and why that headline got made in the first place. You'll hear a segment on why a particular framing dominated cable news all week, followed by an interview with a reporter who spent months on a story nobody else picked up. Gladstone brings this steady, almost professorial clarity to everything she touches, while Loewinger adds a sharper edge when it comes to tech platforms and digital culture. With nearly 1,900 episodes and a 4.6-star rating from almost 9,000 reviews, this is one of the longest-running media criticism shows in existence. Recent episodes have tackled Meta's social media addiction trials, internet blackouts in Iran, and the Epstein files. The show doesn't shy away from criticizing outlets across the political spectrum, which makes it genuinely useful rather than just another echo chamber. It's produced by WNYC Studios, and the production quality reflects that public radio polish without feeling sterile. If you care about understanding not just what happened but how the story about what happened got told, this belongs at the top of your rotation.

Reveal comes from the Center for Investigative Reporting, the oldest nonprofit newsroom of its kind in the country, and you can feel that institutional weight in every episode. Host Al Letson has this warm, commanding presence that keeps you anchored even when the subject matter gets genuinely disturbing. The show has racked up Peabody Awards, duPonts, Emmys, and Murrows, and honestly, it earns them. Each episode typically runs 50 minutes to an hour, giving reporters enough room to actually build a story rather than just summarize findings. They've done extraordinary work on Taser safety, immigration enforcement, police accountability, and climate policy. A recent series tracked how ICE operations expanded under shifting political winds, combining on-the-ground reporting with policy analysis in a way that felt both urgent and carefully documented. With over 300 episodes and a 4.7-star rating from more than 8,000 listeners, Reveal consistently produces the kind of journalism that changes laws and prompts congressional hearings. The production blends field recordings, interviews with sources and whistleblowers, and careful narration without ever feeling overproduced. Letson's background as a performer gives the show an emotional resonance that pure news programs often lack. It's investigative reporting done right: patient, thorough, and willing to spend months or years on a single story before publishing.

In The Dark is one of the most decorated podcasts ever produced, and every bit of that recognition is deserved. Hosted by Madeleine Baran, the show takes a single case per season and pulls it apart with the patience and rigor of a full-scale newsroom investigation. Season 1 re-examined the abduction of Jacob Wetterling and the sheriff who failed to solve it for 27 years. Season 2 followed Curtis Flowers through six trials for the same crime in Mississippi, exposing prosecutorial misconduct that eventually reached the Supreme Court. Season 3, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting, investigated unpunished killings of civilians in Haditha, Iraq. More recent seasons tackled the runaway princesses of Dubai's royal family and a 1985 English manor murder. That range shows a reporting team unafraid to follow evidence wherever it leads, domestic or international. Baran's style is methodical and unhurried. She builds her narrative brick by brick, and there are stretches where you realize the reporting team spent months on a single detail that takes up five minutes of airtime. That level of commitment shows. The podcast has earned three Peabody Awards, a George Polk Award (the first for a podcast), and a duPont-Columbia Award, among others. With a 4.6-star rating from nearly 28,000 reviewers across 70 episodes and six seasons, In The Dark proves that investigative journalism still has the power to change outcomes in the real world.

The FRONTLINE Dispatch is the podcast companion to PBS FRONTLINE, one of the most respected investigative documentary series on television. Hosted by Editor-in-Chief Raney Aronson-Rath, each episode features extended conversations with the journalists and filmmakers behind FRONTLINE's documentaries. If you've ever watched a FRONTLINE doc and wanted to know how the reporters actually got their story, this is where you find out. The format is interview-based, typically running 25 to 45 minutes. Aronson-Rath sits down with her team at GBH's headquarters and digs into the reporting process, the obstacles they faced, and the broader implications of what they found. Recent episodes have covered Iran's nuclear program, the war in Ukraine, RFK Jr.'s background, and systemic poverty in America. It is not a recap show. These conversations add real substance and behind-the-scenes context that you simply don't get from the documentaries alone. With 135 episodes since 2022 and support from PRX and the Abrams Foundation Journalism Initiative, the show has a solid institutional backing. The 4.9-star rating comes from a small but devoted audience of 7 reviewers, which tells you this is more of an under-the-radar pick than a mainstream hit. That's a shame, because the quality of journalism here is genuinely world-class. If you care about international affairs, government accountability, or just want to hear smart people talk about hard stories, The FRONTLINE Dispatch belongs in your rotation.

Maeve McClenaghan hosts this brilliantly focused show that does one thing and does it well: she sits down with investigative journalists and gets them to walk through exactly how their biggest stories came together. Not the polished version you read in the final article, but the messy reality of dead-end leads, redacted documents, doors slammed in faces, and the single tip that cracked everything open. Each episode runs around 30 minutes, which turns out to be the perfect length for this kind of behind-the-curtain storytelling. McClenaghan is an investigative reporter herself, working on stories about arms deals and institutional failures, so she asks the right follow-up questions and knows when to push for specifics. The show has covered the BBC's famous Prince Andrew interview, lead contamination in Canadian drinking water, oil drilling damage in Basra, and British soldiers' alleged crimes in Kenya. With 76 episodes and a 4.8-star rating, it releases about twice a month from the UK. What makes The Tip Off special is that it treats journalism itself as an adventure story, which it genuinely is when you hear reporters describe staking out buildings or traveling undercover to hostile locations. It's the kind of podcast that makes you appreciate the actual labor behind the headlines you scroll past every morning.

TIME Magazine named Longform one of the 100 best podcasts of all time, and after listening to a handful of episodes, it's hard to argue. Hosts Aaron Lammer, Max Linsky, and Evan Ratliff spent over a decade (2012-2024) interviewing writers, journalists, filmmakers, and podcasters about how they actually do their work. Not the inspirational version, but the practical, sometimes unglamorous reality of reporting and writing for a living. They've recorded 655 episodes, talking with everyone from New Yorker staff writers to independent journalists building their own outlets from scratch. The conversations tend to be long and unhurried, often running over an hour, which gives guests room to really explain their process rather than deliver rehearsed talking points. You'll hear Kelsey McKinney talk about co-founding Defector, or Joseph Cox describe building 404 Media after Vice imploded. The show has this relaxed, collegial vibe that makes you feel like you're eavesdropping on a conversation between friends who happen to be deeply knowledgeable about the craft. It's particularly valuable if you're interested in the business side of journalism alongside the creative side, since many guests candidly discuss money, sustainability, and career pivots. The back catalog alone is worth months of listening, packed with interviews that remain relevant long after they first aired.

Unreported World is Channel 4's long-running foreign affairs documentary series, now celebrating over 25 years on the air with 1.9 million global followers. The TV show sends reporters to some of the most overlooked and dangerous places on the planet. Episodes typically run about 25 minutes and feature on-the-ground reporting from rotating correspondents including Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Marcel Theroux, Ade Adepitan, and Giles Duley. The series covers stories that other news outlets simply don't reach, from modern slavery in South Korea and acid attack recovery in Bangladesh to mafia investigations in Sicily and child preachers in Brazil. Recent TV seasons have looked at unsolved murders in Israel's Arab communities, South Africa's Slay Queen phenomenon, and Colombia's drug war. The podcast version is the audio companion to the TV program, hosted on Acast. It is worth noting that the podcast feed has had inconsistent updates over the years. Some listeners report long gaps between new audio episodes, even while the TV show continues to air new content weekly on Channel 4 Fridays at 7:30 PM. With 82 podcast episodes and a 4.1-star rating from 13 reviewers, the audio version has a much smaller footprint than the television show's reputation would suggest. The reporting quality is consistently strong, and the stories they choose to tell genuinely expand your understanding of what is happening in parts of the world that mainstream news ignores.

Ben Smith co-founded Semafor after running BuzzFeed News, and Max Tani is one of the sharpest media reporters working today. Every Friday they sit down for about 30 minutes and pull apart the biggest media stories of the week with the kind of sourcing that only comes from being genuinely embedded in the industry. Smith has a knack for connecting dots between seemingly unrelated business moves, like explaining why a streaming deal actually tells you something about the future of local news. Tani brings the reporting muscle, often breaking news right on the show before it appears anywhere else. They've covered Rolling Stone's digital transformation, long-form podcasting economics, digital media profitability, and the business strategies behind major publishing decisions. With 87 episodes and a 4.5-star rating from 226 reviews, Mixed Signals has quickly become required listening for anyone who works in or cares about the media business. The tone is conversational but informed, never dumbed down and never pretentious. They assume you're paying attention to the news and reward that attention with actual insight rather than the surface-level takes you'd get from a Twitter thread. The show moves fast and doesn't waste time on long intros or tangents, which makes it an efficient way to stay current on an industry that changes constantly.

The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices focuses on the people and business models powering modern publishing. Running since 2016 with 394 episodes, this weekly show profiles the leaders, strategies, and products shaping how news and media organizations survive and grow in an increasingly difficult market. The format blends interviews with publishing executives and panel discussions about industry trends. Recent episodes have featured sessions from the Definitive AI Forum for Media in London, and guests regularly include leaders from outlets like the Financial Times, The Guardian, and The Independent. The show covers AI regulation, newsroom transformation, audience monetization strategies, and digital publishing models. If you work in media or are thinking about starting a publication, this is the kind of show that gives you practical insight rather than just abstract commentary. The hosts clearly know their beat and ask questions that reflect a deep understanding of what publishing professionals actually need to figure out. With a perfect 5.0-star rating (though from just 5 reviewers), the show has a niche but loyal audience. It sits at the intersection of journalism, technology, and business strategy, and does a solid job of making complex industry shifts understandable. The show is particularly valuable right now, given how quickly AI and platform changes are reshaping the economics of news. It is not a general-audience podcast, and it does not try to be. But for anyone who cares about the future of journalism as a business, The Publisher Podcast consistently delivers useful, specific information that you will not find elsewhere.