The 17 Best Podcasts for Teenagers (2026)

Call Her Daddy is the podcast your group chat has been quoting for years. Alex Cooper started this show back in 2018 and has turned it into one of the most-listened-to podcasts by women, period. The format is simple but effective: Alex sits down with a guest, and they actually talk. Not the polished, publicist-approved version of a conversation, but the kind where people say things that make you pause your walk and stare at your phone. She's had Michelle Obama on the show. She's had Zayn Malik open up in ways tabloids could never get him to. Anna Kendrick, Elizabeth Banks, Dove Cameron -- the guest list reads like a who's who of people you'd want at your dinner party.

New episodes drop every Wednesday, with throwback episodes on Fridays for when you want to revisit a classic. The show runs about an hour on average, and Alex has a way of steering conversations toward the stuff that actually matters -- power dynamics, self-worth, the messy parts of relationships that nobody wants to admit out loud. She cuts through the performative nonsense with a mix of humor and directness that feels earned, not rehearsed. With over 550 episodes, a 4.4-star rating from more than 163,000 reviews, and an extremely loyal community called the Daddy Gang, this podcast has moved well beyond its early reputation. It's become a genuine cultural force for women who want honest conversations about sex, money, ambition, and everything in between.

Emma Chamberlain started this podcast back in 2019, and seven years later it still feels like getting a voice memo from your most thoughtful friend. She records from her bed, her car, wherever the mood strikes, and the result is something that sounds effortless but actually packs a surprising amount of emotional depth. One week she is unpacking the discomfort of personal growth, the next she is telling a story from middle school that somehow turns into genuine life advice.

The format is mostly Emma talking solo, though she will occasionally bring on a guest for a longer interview. Episodes land every Thursday and typically run 30 to 50 minutes. With over 445 episodes and a 4.8-star rating from more than 62,000 reviews, this is one of the most listened-to podcasts among Gen Z audiences, period. Video versions are also available on Spotify if you want the full experience.

What makes the show work is that Emma does not perform expertise she does not have. She is openly figuring things out in real time -- talking about detachment, knowing when to quit, relationships, philosophy, and the weird mundane stuff that actually occupies your brain at 2 AM. The tone is reflective without being preachy, funny without trying too hard. She has this ability to name a feeling you have had but never articulated. If you are in your late teens or twenties and want a podcast that treats you like an adult while also being genuinely entertaining, this is the one.

Jay Shetty spent three years living as a monk in India before becoming one of the most-followed wellness voices online, and that unusual background shapes every conversation on this show. New episodes land on Mondays and Fridays, alternating between long-form interviews (usually 45 minutes to an hour and a half) and shorter workshop-style solo episodes where Shetty walks through a specific mental framework or habit. With over 800 episodes and 25,000+ ratings at 4.7 stars, the show has found a massive audience. Shetty's guest list is genuinely eclectic -- one week he is talking to a biochemist about gut-brain connections, the next he is sitting with a celebrity unpacking their relationship with failure. His interviewing style leans contemplative rather than confrontational. He asks questions that make guests pause and think, which leads to moments you do not get on more rapid-fire interview shows. The monastic training shows up in how he frames topics: he talks about purpose, gratitude, and emotional patterns, but grounds them in modern psychology rather than just spiritual tradition. Some episodes veer into motivational territory that might feel familiar if you consume a lot of self-improvement content. But Shetty's best work -- the episodes where he gets a guest genuinely off-script -- produces conversations that stick with you for days.

Sadie Sutton started She Persisted when she was a teenager who had just come out of a year-long residential treatment program for depression and anxiety. That background shapes everything about the show. She knows what it feels like to sit in a therapist's office for the first time, to take medication and worry about side effects, to explain to friends why you missed three weeks of school. Now in her twenties and studying psychology at Penn, she brings on clinicians, researchers, and other young people who have walked through hard mental health stuff and come out the other side. Episodes tackle specific topics: how CBT actually works in practice, what to expect from intensive outpatient programs, the difference between a panic attack and an anxiety attack, how to tell your parents you need help. The guest list is packed with therapists who specialize in adolescents, so the advice is grounded and practical rather than vague. What makes the show work for teenagers is the tone. Sadie doesn't talk down, doesn't pretend she has it all figured out, and doesn't package recovery as a cute journey. She asks the questions a 16-year-old would actually ask, and her guests answer them like they're talking to a smart peer. For teens navigating their own mental health, or just curious about how this stuff works, it's one of the most honest resources around.

Brothers Hank and John Green built a massive audience of teenagers and young adults through YouTube years ago, and this podcast is the slightly messier, more personal corner of their world. The format is simple. Listeners send in questions, ranging from the very serious to the absolutely absurd, and the brothers answer them with what they call dubious advice. One question might be about how to survive senior year when your friend group is falling apart. The next might be about whether a hot dog is a sandwich, or what to do if you accidentally called your teacher mom. John, the novelist behind The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down, tends to lean philosophical. Hank, a science communicator and entrepreneur, goes for the practical angle. They close every episode with news from Mars and news from AFC Wimbledon, their beloved lower-league English soccer club, which makes zero sense on paper and somehow works. For teens who grew up on Crash Course or vlogbrothers, this is the comfort show. For anyone new, it's a warm, funny hour with two brothers who clearly like each other and treat their audience with real respect.

Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant have been doing this for over 2,000 episodes now, and somehow they still sound like two friends who genuinely enjoy learning stuff together. That's the secret sauce of Stuff You Should Know: it never feels like homework.

The range of topics is absurd in the best way. One week they're explaining how lasers work, the next they're covering the history of safety coffins, and then they'll casually drop an episode on crowd psychology that ties directly into your Intro to Sociology reading. With 76,000+ ratings and a 4.5-star average, the audience clearly agrees that the formula works.

Episode lengths vary quite a bit. Their "Short Stuff" episodes clock in around 12 minutes — ideal for the gap between classes. Regular episodes run 37 to 51 minutes and go deeper, with Josh and Chuck riffing off each other, sharing personal anecdotes, and occasionally going on tangents that are half the fun.

What makes this a standout for university students specifically is that it builds the kind of broad intellectual curiosity that makes you interesting in seminar discussions. You'll pick up knowledge about the Flexner Report, Aztec death whistles, cognitive biases, and the Golden Gate Bridge — all delivered with enough humor that you'll actually retain it. Think of it as the most entertaining general education course you never signed up for, except it publishes twice a week and requires zero essays.

This one is built for the kids themselves, not the parents, which makes it genuinely useful as a road-trip listen when you've got a ten-to-fourteen-year-old who has aged out of kid podcasts but isn't ready for true crime or the news. Episodes are short, usually around ten minutes, and each one picks a topic and runs through it in a way that assumes tweens are smart and curious rather than talking down to them. Hosts cover history, science, current events, culture, biographies, and the occasional strange-but-true story. The production is clean, the pacing is quick enough to hold a squirmy attention span, and there's no profanity or heavy themes, so parents can hit play without previewing. It's from the Empowerful Girls network, and while it skews slightly toward stories about women and girls, the topics are broad enough to work for any tween in the back seat. What makes it road-trip friendly specifically is how easily you can queue up five or six episodes and let the kids pick which ones sound interesting. Good conversation starters, occasionally sparks a question or two that carries the family through the next thirty miles, and short enough that no one feels trapped.

Laura Orlando is a confidence coach who spent years working with middle and high school girls, and her podcast is basically a distillation of the stuff she wishes every young person knew before the social pressure of those years hit them. Episodes run short, usually 15 to 25 minutes, and each one zooms in on a specific confidence problem. How do you speak up in class when your voice shakes? What do you do when your best friend starts hanging out with someone else? How do you handle the voice in your head that keeps telling you you're not good enough? Laura mixes her own stories with tools borrowed from cognitive behavioral therapy, broken down into language a 12-year-old can actually use. She interviews guests too, including young people who talk about their own anxieties, body image struggles, and friendship dramas without sugarcoating any of it. The show isn't just for girls, though it skews that way, and parents who want to understand what their kid is going through often find themselves learning something too. It's the kind of podcast you can put on in the car on the way to school and have something real to talk about by the time you arrive.

Teen Beat is iHeart's love letter to the shows, movies, and pop culture moments that defined being a teenager across the last few decades, now hitting streaming and going viral all over again. Each episode picks a piece of teen media and takes it apart with real affection and a sharp eye. The hosts rewatch the pilots of shows like Dawson's Creek, The OC, Gossip Girl, and Euphoria, then talk through what held up, what got weird, and what the show was secretly doing that younger viewers missed the first time around. They bring on actors, writers, and critics who were there when these projects got made, and the behind-the-scenes stories are usually the best part. The show is clearly made for two audiences at once: adults reliving the stuff they grew up with, and actual teenagers discovering it for the first time because TikTok told them to watch. The tone stays conversational and funny without getting snarky. You get context about why a show mattered, gossip about what was going on behind the camera, and recommendations for what to watch next if you liked it. It's comfort listening with enough substance to make you feel smarter about the media you love.

Zach Sang started in radio as a teenager, bounced through Nickelodeon, and somehow landed in the position of being one of the best music interviewers working today. The Zach Sang Show has nearly 1,000 episodes and a 4.6-star rating, and it's become a mandatory stop for artists dropping new albums or making career pivots. The show updates biweekly with in-depth conversations that go way beyond the standard press junket format.

The guest list is stacked. Pop stars, rappers, actors, producers -- pretty much anyone making noise in entertainment culture ends up on Zach's couch at some point. But what separates this from every other celebrity interview podcast is Zach's preparation. He clearly listens to full albums before the interview, reads the back catalog, and asks questions that make guests visibly surprised. You can see the moment when an artist realizes this isn't going to be another "so tell me about the new project" conversation.

Zach's own Gen Z identity makes the show feel different from older interviewers covering the same terrain. He understands internet culture natively, references TikTok trends without explaining them like a news anchor would, and treats pop music with the same seriousness that music critics used to reserve for classic rock. The conversations about career trajectories and personal life experiences often reveal more about artists than their own official documentaries do. For music fans who want to actually understand the people making the songs stuck in their head, this is the interview show that consistently delivers.

Alisha Marie and Remi Cruz are both YouTubers who built massive audiences creating lifestyle content, and their podcast Pretty Basic translates that energy into long-form conversation. Each Wednesday, they sit down for an hour-plus episode covering dating stories, confidence struggles, mental health, celebrity encounters, and the realities of being a content creator. With 358 episodes and a 4.8-star rating from 34,000 reviews, the show has a fiercely loyal fanbase. What works here is the dynamic between the two hosts. Alisha brings more of the unhinged storytelling energy -- her fangirl moments and wild dating experiences provide the comedic highlights -- while Remi tends to ground things with more reflective observations. They are genuine friends, not just podcast partners, and that shows in how comfortable they are calling each other out or sharing embarrassing stories without hesitation. Recent episodes have covered travel mishaps, social media boundaries, and navigating adult friendships. The show does lean heavily into influencer culture, which will either appeal to you or not depending on your relationship with that world. Ad reads are frequent, which some listeners flag as a downside. But for its target audience of women in their twenties who grew up watching these creators on YouTube, Pretty Basic feels like a natural extension of content they already love.

Sofia Franklyn's podcast listing says "no description necessary," and honestly that kind of confidence is the whole vibe of the show. After the very public Call Her Daddy split, Sofia launched Sofia with an F under her own Sloot Media label and built it into a 321-episode catalog that has attracted over 81,000 ratings. The 3.8 star average reflects a show that inspires passionate reactions on both ends of the spectrum.

The format is loose and conversational — Sofia talks about her personal life, reality TV obsessions (particularly the Real Housewives franchise), beauty treatments, dating experiences, and whatever else is on her mind that week. Episodes run around 45 to 50 minutes and feel like sitting in on a voice memo Sofia recorded for her closest friends. She's candid about cosmetic procedures, internet fame, long-distance relationships, and the weirdness of being recognized in public.

Sofia's strength is her willingness to say things other people are thinking but won't say out loud. She's self-aware about her flaws, unbothered by criticism, and genuinely funny in a deadpan way that doesn't always come through in podcast descriptions. The show doesn't aim for depth on every episode, and it doesn't need to. It fills a specific role — entertaining, unserious, and refreshingly honest — and it fills it well. If you want a podcast that feels like your most entertaining friend rambling about her week, Sofia delivers that energy consistently.

Penn Badgley — yes, Joe Goldberg from You — teamed up with producers Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari to create something genuinely special with Podcrushed. The premise sounds simple: celebrities share their most awkward middle school memories. But the conversations go so much deeper than that. Ariana Grande talked about the pressure of performing as a kid. Simu Liu opened up about immigrant family dynamics during adolescence. Gaten Matarazzo reflected on growing up with a visible difference. Each guest brings a story that makes you think, "Oh wait, I went through something like that too."

The show ran for 199 episodes under the Lemonada Media banner before wrapping up in February 2026 with a series finale featuring Leighton Meester. What made it work was the chemistry between the three hosts. Penn asked surprisingly thoughtful questions for someone famous for playing a serial killer. Nava kept the energy moving, and Sophie grounded everything with real emotional intelligence. Episodes ranged from 40 minutes to two-hour deep conversations.

Fair warning: the show carries an explicit rating, so some language gets colorful. But the core of every episode was about vulnerability — adults admitting that being a teenager was confusing, painful, and sometimes hilarious. For teens going through it right now, hearing that their favorite actors and musicians survived the same awkwardness is genuinely reassuring. The full back catalog is absolutely worth binging even though no new episodes are coming.

This Teenage Life is exactly what it sounds like — a podcast made by actual teenagers, talking about their actual lives. No adults steering the conversation. No scripts. Just real teens from different backgrounds recording honest reflections about the stuff that keeps them up at night. The show has been running since 2019 and has built up over 200 episodes, each one clocking in around 10 to 15 minutes.

Topics range from navigating friendships and dealing with negative self-talk to figuring out independence and processing complicated family relationships. One recent episode explored what it means to create authentic friendships in an age when most socializing happens through screens. Another tackled the pressure of diet culture and how it messes with how young people think about food. The episodes feel like overhearing a support group conversation — raw, a little messy, and surprisingly comforting.

The rotating cast of teen contributors means you get a wide range of perspectives. Some voices are confident, others nervous. That unevenness is actually the point. It reminds you that nobody has it all figured out at 16. The show carries a clean rating and releases monthly, so it never overwhelms your feed. Listeners consistently say it makes them feel less alone, and the 4.7-star rating on Apple Podcasts backs that up. If you are a teenager who sometimes feels like the only person struggling with something, this podcast will quickly prove you wrong.

Alie Ward already had one of the most popular science podcasts out there with Ologies, but those episodes run long and occasionally get salty with the language. Smologies strips everything down to the good stuff: shorter episodes, zero swearing, and the same infectious curiosity that made the original show a hit. Each episode runs about 25 to 30 minutes and focuses on one specific "ology" — tardigrades, voice boxes, meat-eating plants, garbage science, macro photography.

Alie interviews actual researchers and experts, but she has this talent for asking the questions you would ask if you were hanging out with a scientist at a party. She gets genuinely excited when she learns something new, and that enthusiasm is contagious. The experts she brings on clearly love their work, and the conversations stay accessible without dumbing anything down. You walk away from every episode knowing something cool you did not know 30 minutes ago.

With 93 episodes and counting, plus new ones dropping every week, there is a massive back catalog to explore. Topics bounce from biology to physics to environmental science to photography techniques. The show carries a 4.8-star rating on Apple Podcasts, making it one of the highest-rated science shows in the education category. It is perfect for curious teens who want to learn about the world but do not want to sit through a lecture. Think of it as science class with all the boring parts edited out and replaced with genuine wonder.