The 15 Best Work Podcasts (2026)

Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist at Wharton, and his podcast does something most business shows fail at: it makes management research genuinely entertaining. Each episode of WorkLife runs about 30 minutes and features Grant interviewing people with unusual jobs or unconventional approaches to work. He has talked to astronauts about teamwork under pressure, explored why some meetings feel soul-crushing while others spark real energy, and investigated what makes certain workplace cultures thrive while others just go through the motions.

Grant has a knack for translating dense academic findings into stories you actually want to hear. He will cite a study about feedback or creativity, but then ground it in a real person's experience so it sticks with you long after the episode ends. The show is part of the TED Audio Collective, which means production quality is high — the sound design and editing are clean without being overproduced.

With over 250 episodes and nearly 9,000 ratings on Apple Podcasts (4.8 stars), WorkLife has built a loyal audience since launching in 2018. Episodes drop weekly and cover everything from rethinking performance reviews to the psychology of procrastination. If you have ever wondered why your open-plan office makes everyone miserable, or how to give honest feedback without destroying a relationship, Grant probably has an episode that addresses it. The show works best for anyone who wants to understand the science behind why work feels the way it does — and what you can actually do about it.

Guy Raz is one of the best interviewers in podcasting, and How I Built This is the proof. Each episode features a long-form conversation with the founder of a well-known company, tracing the full arc from scrappy beginnings to the business you recognize today. We are talking about the people behind Airbnb, Spanx, Patagonia, Instagram, and hundreds more. Raz has a talent for getting founders past the rehearsed origin story and into the messy, uncertain moments where things almost fell apart.

The show runs about 45 minutes to an hour, dropping new episodes on Mondays and Thursdays. With over 820 episodes and nearly 30,000 ratings (4.7 stars), it is one of the most popular business podcasts in the world. The format is straightforward — it is essentially a biography told through conversation — but Raz's warmth and genuine curiosity keep it from feeling formulaic.

What makes How I Built This stand out from the flood of entrepreneur interview shows is the emphasis on failure and doubt. Founders regularly talk about the moments they were broke, rejected by every investor, or convinced the whole thing was going to collapse. Those stretches of honest vulnerability are what separate this from a press tour. The production is polished (it started at NPR before moving to Wondery), and there is a recurring "How You Built That" segment featuring everyday inventors. Fair warning: the ad breaks can be frequent, which some listeners find annoying. But the content between them is consistently strong.

Brené Brown needs little introduction at this point — she is the vulnerability and courage researcher whose TED talk has been viewed over 60 million times. Dare to Lead takes her ideas about brave leadership and puts them into practice through extended conversations with thinkers, executives, and public figures. The show frequently pairs Brown with Adam Grant for multi-part series where they genuinely debate, disagree, and push each other's thinking, which makes for more interesting listening than the typical host-nods-along format.

Episodes range from 20 minutes to a full hour, and the show updates weekly. With 86 episodes and a 4.6-star rating, it is relatively newer compared to some of Brown's other podcast work but has quickly found its footing. The current season includes a "Strong Ground" series examining how to lead boldly when everything around you feels unstable — a topic that resonates with anyone managing a team through uncertain times.

Brown's conversational style is direct and occasionally blunt. She will call out a bad leadership pattern, share a personal story about getting it wrong, and then offer a framework you can actually use in your next one-on-one meeting. The show leans heavily on her research into shame, empathy, and trust, but it never feels like a lecture. If you manage people and find yourself avoiding hard conversations, this podcast will make you uncomfortable in a productive way.

HBR IdeaCast is the podcast arm of the Harvard Business Review, and it has been running for over 600 episodes — making it one of the longest-running business podcasts out there. Hosted by Alison Beard and Curt Nickisch (with Adi Ignatius recently joining as cohost), the show runs about 25 to 30 minutes per episode and drops new conversations every Tuesday.

The format is a focused interview with a single expert, usually someone who has written for HBR or conducted research at a major business school. Topics span leadership strategy, innovation, AI adoption, organizational change, and management practices. What sets it apart from the average business podcast is the density of insight packed into a short runtime. There is no filler, no extended banter, and no off-topic tangents — you get a clear thesis, supporting evidence, and actionable takeaways.

With a 4.3-star rating from about 1,700 reviews, IdeaCast does not quite have the universal enthusiasm of some flashier shows. A few listeners find the format a bit dry or academic. That is a fair critique — this is not a show built on personality or humor. But if you want to stay current on what serious management thinkers are saying about the modern workplace without committing to a two-hour episode, IdeaCast is one of the most efficient ways to do it. It is the kind of podcast you listen to on a Tuesday commute and end up referencing in a meeting by Thursday.

The Indicator is Planet Money's daily spinoff, and it does something remarkable: it explains an economic concept or trend in under 10 minutes. Hosted by Adrian Ma, Darian Woods, and Wailin Wong, the show drops Monday through Friday and covers everything from tariff impacts and job market shifts to why your grocery bill keeps climbing.

With nearly 960 episodes and a 4.7-star rating from over 9,000 reviews, The Indicator has proven that short does not mean shallow. The hosts rotate through different pairings and bring a conversational warmth that keeps the economics from feeling like homework. They will explain how immigration affects labor markets or break down what a yield curve inversion actually means for your job security, and they do it without condescension.

The production is NPR-quality, which means clean audio, solid fact-checking, and original music. Some listeners note that the actual content runs about five minutes once you strip out ads and credits, which can feel brief. But that brevity is the whole point — this is the podcast equivalent of a sharp newspaper column. You can listen during a coffee break and come away understanding something about the economy that was murky 10 minutes ago. It connects especially well to work life because so many episodes deal directly with wages, hiring trends, remote work policies, and the forces shaping your paycheck.

Radical Candor started as a management framework from Kim Scott's bestselling book, and the podcast extends that framework into real workplace scenarios week after week. Co-hosted by Scott alongside Jason Rosoff and Amy Sandler, episodes run 45 minutes to about an hour and often feature guest experts discussing feedback, team dynamics, and career transitions.

The core idea is deceptively simple: care personally about your colleagues while challenging them directly. The show takes that two-by-two matrix and applies it to situations you will actually recognize — the colleague who avoids giving honest feedback, the manager who confuses being nice with being helpful, the team meeting where everyone agrees but nobody means it. Over 200 episodes and a 4.7-star rating from nearly 700 reviews show that the concept has real staying power.

What makes this podcast worth your time, especially if you lead people, is how specific it gets. Scott and her co-hosts do not just talk about giving better feedback in the abstract. They role-play scenarios, break down listener-submitted situations, and point out the exact moment where a conversation went sideways. The show has shifted to a roughly biweekly cadence recently, which gives each episode more room to breathe. If you have ever left a difficult conversation at work feeling like you either said too much or not enough, this podcast will give you a vocabulary and a framework for next time.

Morra Aarons-Mele hosts The Anxious Achiever, and the premise is right there in the title: high-performing people often carry a lot of anxiety, and nobody talks about it honestly enough at work. The show sits at the intersection of mental health and professional achievement, covering topics like imposter syndrome, ADHD in the workplace, perfectionism, and the particular strain of burnout that comes from being very good at your job while quietly falling apart.

Episodes run about an hour and drop biweekly. Aarons-Mele interviews therapists, executives, researchers, and people who have navigated mental health challenges while building careers. The conversations are candid in a way that feels earned, not performative. With 296 episodes and a 4.7-star rating from over 550 reviews, the show has built a dedicated audience through the YAP Media network.

The thing that makes The Anxious Achiever stand out is that it does not sugarcoat anything. Aarons-Mele will ask the uncomfortable question and let the silence sit. She has talked openly about her own anxiety and depression, which gives guests permission to go beyond the surface-level "I practiced mindfulness and everything got better" narrative. If you are someone who excels professionally but struggles privately, or if you manage someone who fits that description, this podcast provides both validation and practical strategies. It treats mental health at work as a systems problem, not just an individual one.

Cal Newport is a Georgetown computer science professor and the author of Deep Work and A World Without Email, and his podcast is where he applies those ideas to real questions from real people. The format is mostly solo — Newport answers listener questions about productivity, focus, digital minimalism, and building a meaningful career — though he occasionally brings on guests like Brad Stulberg or Ed Zitron for broader conversations.

Episodes range from an hour to sometimes over two hours, releasing weekly. With 403 episodes and a 4.8-star rating from nearly 1,300 reviews, the show has attracted a community of people who are genuinely trying to work differently. Newport organizes each episode into segments: an ideas section where he unpacks a concept or trend, a practices section with actionable advice, and a Q&A block that gets surprisingly specific about individual listeners' situations.

Newport's style is methodical and logical, which means the show is not for everyone. There is no comedy, minimal small talk, and he will spend 20 minutes building a careful argument about why your email habits are destroying your cognitive capacity. But if you respond to that kind of rigorous thinking, it is incredibly useful. He pushes back hard on the always-connected default of modern knowledge work and offers concrete alternatives. The podcast is particularly strong for anyone who feels like their workday is consumed by shallow tasks and wants a principled framework for reclaiming their time and attention.

Angela Duckworth (the "Grit" researcher) and tech executive Mike Maughan co-host No Stupid Questions, a weekly show from the Freakonomics Radio Network that applies behavioral science to everyday life. Each episode runs about 30 to 40 minutes and starts with a deceptively simple question — things like "Why do we procrastinate?" or "Is it better to be liked or respected?" — then spirals into a genuinely interesting discussion grounded in psychology research.

The dynamic between the two hosts is the real draw. Duckworth brings academic rigor and a tendency to cite studies mid-conversation, while Maughan comes at things from a business and sports perspective. They disagree often enough to keep things lively but respect each other enough that it never feels combative. The result is a show that makes you think about your own behavior at work and at home without lecturing you about it.

With 308 episodes, a 4.6-star rating from about 3,500 reviews, and the Freakonomics brand behind it, the show has a substantial audience. One note of caution: some recent reviews mention the show airing reruns, which can be frustrating if you are a regular listener. But the archive is strong enough that even repeated episodes hold up. The work-related content is excellent — episodes on motivation, decision-making, habit formation, and self-discipline all connect directly to how you perform at your job and interact with colleagues.

Scott Anthony Barlow built Happen To Your Career as both a coaching company and a podcast, and the show is where those two worlds meet. Each weekly episode runs about 25 to 30 minutes and typically features either an interview with someone who successfully changed careers or a deep-dive into the psychology and strategy behind finding work that actually fits you.

With 657 episodes and a 4.8-star rating, the show has been running since 2014 and has featured guests like Daniel Pink, Gretchen Rubin, and Marshall Goldsmith. Barlow's interviewing style is warm but focused — he has a habit of pausing to pull out the specific insight a guest just shared and reframing it so you can apply it to your own situation. The show also features real people who were stuck in careers that looked good on paper but felt empty, and the episodes walk through exactly how they identified what was wrong and made a change.

The podcast leans heavily practical. Barlow offers a free 8-day mini-course alongside the show, and many episodes feel like guided coaching sessions. If you are in the "I know I am unhappy at work but I do not know what to do about it" phase, this is probably the most useful podcast in this category for you. It is not about quitting your job tomorrow — it is about understanding your strengths, values, and the kind of work environment where you will actually thrive. The tone is encouraging without being naive about how hard career transitions really are.

Bruce Daisley used to run Twitter's European operations, and that experience clearly informs how he thinks about workplace culture on Eat Sleep Work Repeat. The show has been running since 2016, with over 220 episodes exploring what makes some workplaces functional and others quietly miserable. Episodes run 30 to 45 minutes, dropping every two weeks, and feature interviews with researchers, authors, and organizational leaders.

Daisley is a UK-based host, which gives the show a slightly different flavor than the American-dominated business podcast space. He is less interested in hustle culture and more interested in things like how lunch breaks affect team cohesion, why open offices backfire, and what the research actually says about remote work productivity. The conversations tend to be grounded in social science rather than anecdote, but Daisley keeps them accessible and occasionally funny.

With a 4.8-star rating from about 280 reviews, the show has a devoted if not massive following. It occupies a specific niche: workplace culture as viewed through the lens of evidence-based management. If you are a team leader or HR professional trying to figure out why your team seems disengaged, this podcast consistently offers research-backed explanations and practical changes you can actually implement. Daisley is also the author of "The Joy of Work," and the podcast functions as an ongoing extension of that book's central argument that small changes in how we work can produce outsized improvements in how we feel about work.

Lauren McGoodwin hosts Career Contessa, a weekly podcast from the Dear Media network that covers the full spectrum of career development in tight, focused episodes. Shows run about 28 to 34 minutes, and McGoodwin interviews experts on topics ranging from salary negotiation and resume strategy to LinkedIn optimization and navigating office politics. With 378 episodes and an impressive 4.9-star rating from about 470 reviews, it is one of the highest-rated career podcasts on Apple Podcasts.

The show is particularly strong for women in their 20s and 30s who are trying to build a career path that makes sense. McGoodwin started Career Contessa as a website and media company, and the podcast reflects that broader mission — each episode feels like it was designed to give you one specific, usable takeaway. An episode on negotiation will walk you through the exact language to use. An episode on interviewing will cover the questions hiring managers actually care about.

The main criticism, and it comes up in reviews, is the ad load. In a 30-minute episode you might encounter eight to ten minutes of advertisements, which can break the flow. But the content between those ads is genuinely useful and delivered in an approachable, no-nonsense style. McGoodwin does not pretend that career growth is easy or that following your passion is a complete strategy. She treats career development as a skill set you can learn and practice, which makes the advice feel grounded rather than aspirational.

Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway host Pivot, a twice-weekly conversation about the intersection of tech, business, and politics. New episodes land every Tuesday and Friday, running about an hour each. Swisher is a veteran tech journalist who has been covering Silicon Valley since before most current tech companies existed. Galloway is an NYU marketing professor, serial entrepreneur, and provocateur who enjoys making bold predictions and occasionally being spectacularly wrong about them.

The show has 749 episodes and sits at 4.2 stars from over 8,500 ratings — the split reviews reflect the polarizing nature of the hosts. Swisher interrupts constantly and brings a confrontational energy that some listeners find refreshing and others find grating. Galloway makes sweeping declarations about market trends and company valuations with the confidence of someone who has been right often enough to keep doing it. Together they generate genuine heat, disagreeing with each other regularly enough that the show never feels scripted.

Pivot earns its place in a work podcasts category because it covers the forces reshaping modern employment: AI disruption, Big Tech layoffs, remote work mandates, the gig economy, and how political decisions ripple through the job market. If you work in tech, media, or any industry being reshaped by technology, this show keeps you informed about the macro trends that will affect your career. The explicit content rating is warranted — both hosts swear freely and do not hold back their opinions on corporate executives or politicians they disagree with.

Brent Orrell is a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Hardly Working is his podcast about the American workforce — specifically the policy decisions, economic trends, and educational systems that shape who gets to work, what kind of work is available, and whether that work pays enough to live on. Episodes run 45 minutes to about an hour and feature interviews with economists, workforce development experts, education strategists, and policy researchers.

With 133 episodes and a perfect 5.0-star rating (though from only 18 reviews), the show occupies a niche that few other work podcasts cover. Most career shows focus on individual strategy — how to get a promotion, how to negotiate your salary. Hardly Working zooms out to examine the systems. Orrell asks questions about apprenticeship programs, community college effectiveness, occupational licensing barriers, and how the criminal justice system affects employment outcomes.

The AEI affiliation means the show leans center-right in its policy orientation, which is worth knowing going in. But Orrell is a thoughtful interviewer who lets his guests make their case regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum. If you work in workforce development, HR, education, or public policy — or if you are just curious about why the American labor market works the way it does — this podcast fills a gap that personality-driven career shows leave wide open. The conversations are substantive and go deep on structural questions that affect millions of workers even though most people never hear them discussed.

Peter Shepherd and Jen Waldman co-host The Long and The Short Of It, a weekly podcast that runs just 16 to 20 minutes per episode and covers the art and science of being human — with a strong lean toward work, leadership, and personal growth. Shepherd is Australian, Waldman is American, and the transatlantic perspective gives the show a slightly different lens than podcasts rooted entirely in Silicon Valley or New York business culture.

With 390 episodes and a 4.9-star rating from 155 reviews, the show has built a small but fiercely loyal audience. The format is a conversation between the two hosts — no guests, no interviews, just two people who clearly enjoy thinking together. They explore frameworks for decision-making, challenge each other's assumptions about productivity and success, and frequently reference books, researchers, and ideas from outside the usual business canon.

The brevity is the show's secret weapon. Each episode picks one idea and examines it from multiple angles without overstaying its welcome. Listeners describe the tempo as "relaxing" and the discussions as thought-provoking without being heavy. If you like Seth Godin's approach to business thinking — short, punchy, focused on the question behind the question — this podcast will feel familiar. It is ideal for anyone who wants a quick intellectual spark before or after their workday, something that makes you reconsider a habit or an assumption without demanding a two-hour time commitment.