The 12 Best Your 20s Podcasts (2026)
Your twenties are this weird decade where everything changes constantly and you're supposed to be having the time of your life while also building your entire future. No pressure. These podcasts make the chaos feel more normal.
The Psychology of your 20s
Jemma Sbeg built this show around one premise: your twenties are psychologically wild, and nobody really explains why. Each episode takes a single concept -- attachment theory, the quarter-life crisis, imposter syndrome at work, the neuroscience behind heartbreak -- and breaks it down with actual research rather than vague self-help platitudes. Jemma has a background in psychology and it shows. She reads the studies so you don't have to, then translates them into something that actually makes sense during your morning commute.
The format is mostly solo, with Jemma talking directly to you for about 30 to 50 minutes. She drops new episodes twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, and at nearly 400 episodes deep, she has covered an absurd range of topics. Recent ones include the psychology of fashion choices, how narcissism manifests in friendships, and what social media does to your brain's reward system. Her delivery is warm but direct -- she's not going to sugarcoat the fact that your avoidant attachment style is sabotaging your relationships.
With a 4.8-star rating from over 1,300 reviews, listeners consistently say the show helped them understand themselves better. The podcast also made the jump to Netflix as a video series, which speaks to how well the content translates visually. If you want to understand the psychological machinery running underneath all the chaos of your twenties, this is the show that actually explains it in plain language.
anything goes with emma chamberlain
Emma Chamberlain started this podcast when she was 18 and has grown up alongside her audience, which is part of what makes it work so well. The show is exactly what the title promises -- she talks about whatever is on her mind, and somehow it always resonates. One week she's dissecting why comparison culture is destroying everyone's sense of self, the next she's telling a story about a bizarre interaction at a coffee shop that spirals into something surprisingly philosophical.
The format is almost entirely solo. Emma records from her bedroom or wherever she happens to be, and the intimacy of that setup is a big part of the appeal. Episodes run about 30 to 50 minutes, dropping weekly on Thursdays. She has racked up over 440 episodes and an enormous 62,000+ ratings on Apple Podcasts with a 4.8-star average, making her one of the most-reviewed podcasters period.
What sets Emma apart from other influencer-turned-podcasters is her willingness to sit with uncomfortable topics. She talks about burnout, loneliness, the weirdness of fame, and her relationship with social media with a level of self-awareness that feels genuine rather than performed. She also has sharp opinions about fashion, trends, and internet culture that go beyond surface-level takes. If you grew up watching her YouTube videos, the podcast feels like the natural evolution. And if you didn't, it still works as a thoughtful, unfiltered window into what it feels like to be a young woman figuring things out in real time.
Almost 30
Krista Williams and Lindsey Simcik started Almost 30 back in 2016 and have since built it into an 850-plus-episode catalog that functions like a sprawling reference library for personal development. Episodes drop twice a week -- Tuesdays and Thursdays -- covering everything from nervous system regulation and numerology to dating advice and business lessons from a decade of podcasting.
The two hosts balance each other well. Krista leans more into spirituality and energy work while Lindsey brings a grounded, practical perspective. Together they create this supportive space where big abstract concepts like conscious evolution actually get broken down into something applicable. They bring on guest experts for deep-topic episodes and also do solo recordings where each host works through whatever she is personally navigating.
With nearly 3,900 ratings and a 4.5 average, the show has a massive loyal following. It is worth noting that Almost 30 has evolved significantly over the years -- early episodes feel quite different from recent ones, and some long-time listeners have mixed feelings about the direction. But if you are in your mid-to-late twenties and interested in spirituality, self-development, and building a life with intention, this podcast offers one of the deepest back catalogs in the space. They have also written a companion book for listeners who want the framework in a more structured format.
Twenty Something
Elena Dimitrova frames this show as a weekly audio journal -- specifically, lessons she'd want to pass down to a future daughter. That framing gives every episode a sense of intention that sets it apart from the casual conversational style of most twenties-focused podcasts. Elena covers topics like building quiet confidence, developing professional communication skills, understanding investment strategies, and navigating relationships with self-respect intact.
The episodes are relatively short, usually 20 to 35 minutes, which makes them easy to absorb without feeling like you need to carve out a big chunk of time. Elena releases them weekly and has built up 163 episodes. Her style leans toward intentional, feminine self-improvement -- think etiquette, elegance, and personal presentation alongside deeper topics like financial literacy and emotional boundaries. It's a specific vibe that won't be for everyone, but the audience who connects with it connects deeply.
The show holds a perfect 5.0-star rating, though from a smaller review base of 13 ratings. Elena is active on Instagram at @dimitrovelena, where she extends the show's themes into visual content. Recent episodes have tackled non-invasive beauty treatments, speech patterns that undermine authority in professional settings, and how to invest in your twenties without feeling overwhelmed. If you're drawn to a more refined, thoughtful approach to personal growth rather than the tell-all confessional style, this is the show that matches that energy.
The Balance Theory
Erika De Pellegrin is a lawyer who burned out hard and rebuilt her life around balance -- and then made a podcast about the process. With 352 episodes and counting, The Balance Theory puts out weekly content on confidence building, goal-setting, boundary enforcement, and figuring out how to chase ambitious targets without destroying yourself in the process.
The show mixes solo episodes where Erika shares actionable strategies with interview episodes featuring notable guests. She organizes content into curated playlists -- Mindset, Self-Awareness, Health + Fitness -- which makes it easy to binge your way through a specific topic rather than scrolling through hundreds of episodes hoping for the right one. Recent episodes have tackled self-respect habits, the impact of AI on self-image, and how to grow a personal brand.
Erika has an active presence on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, which means she is constantly in conversation with her audience about what they actually need help with. That feedback loop keeps episodes feeling current and relevant. She speaks from genuine experience -- the burnout was real, the recovery was messy, and she is honest about both. At a 5.0 rating on Apple Podcasts, the show resonates strongly with twentysomethings who are high-achieving but also exhausted. If you are the type who needs permission to slow down while still moving forward, Erika gets it.
The Life You Love
Grace Lemire and Erin Confortini built this podcast for what they call the dreamers and doers -- ambitious women who want to create a life they actually enjoy, not just one that looks impressive on social media. New episodes drop every Monday at 4:30 AM EST, which tells you something about the audience they are aiming for: early risers with plans.
The show covers personal finance, side hustles, productivity systems, entrepreneurship, and lifestyle topics, with episodes typically running 50 minutes to an hour and a half. Recent ones have tackled affordable glow-up strategies on a budget, using AI for productivity, and rebuilding your relationship with money. Grace and Erin have this casual girl-talk energy that makes heavy topics like investing and business building feel approachable rather than intimidating.
At 129 episodes with a 4.8 rating across 104 reviews, the show has built a strong and growing following. Listeners appreciate how the two hosts keep things real -- they talk about what actually worked, what flopped, and what they are still figuring out. The vibe is less polished influencer and more your most motivated friends sharing their notes over brunch. Some listeners have mentioned occasional monologuing, but most agree the actionable advice more than makes up for it. If you want a podcast that treats your twenties as the foundation-building decade for everything that follows, this one delivers concrete steps alongside the encouragement.
House Guest with Kenzie Elizabeth
Kenzie Elizabeth has been hosting this podcast since 2018 and has stacked up over 400 episodes through the Dear Media network. The concept is straightforward -- Kenzie invites guests into her metaphorical living room to talk about the big messy topics that define your twenties: dating disasters, career pivots, friendship evolution, and the ongoing question of how to actually build the life you want.
The show releases biweekly and runs about 30 to 45 minutes per episode. Recent installments have covered how to make your life feel like a Nancy Meyers movie, confidence and personal style, dinner party hosting, and the art of breaking up gracefully. Kenzie has this inviting, enthusiastic energy that makes guests open up quickly, and she is not afraid to share her own stumbles alongside theirs.
With 1,700 reviews and a 4.3 rating on Apple Podcasts, the audience is substantial. Reviews are polarized in an interesting way -- longtime fans love her warmth and the cozy vibe she creates, while some newer listeners push back on what they see as lifestyle content skewed toward a specific economic bracket. That said, the core relationship and personal growth episodes consistently deliver genuine insight. If you like podcasts that feel like eavesdropping on a really good conversation between friends who are actively trying to figure life out, House Guest nails that format.
Simply Soph
Sophia Rudy created Simply Soph as a space for raw, unfiltered conversations about health, hormones, relationships, social media, and mental health. The show has 132 episodes and just went through a rebranding in early 2026, signaling a new creative direction while keeping the vulnerability that earned her a 4.9 rating from 435 reviewers.
Weekly episodes typically run 35 to 65 minutes and blend solo commentary with guest appearances. Sophia also runs a recurring segment called Simply Yours where listeners share their own stories, which creates a community feel rare in solo-hosted shows. She covers topics like rebuilding wellness routines from scratch, managing social anxiety in a post-pandemic world, stress techniques that actually work, and the tension between masculine and feminine energy in relationships.
Sophia is openly in-process with her own growth, which is refreshing. She does not present herself as someone who has everything figured out -- she talks about her struggles with confidence, her evolving relationship with social media, and her own mental health journey with genuine honesty. Some listeners note that themes can repeat across episodes, but the community seems to value the consistency of having someone check in every week on the same struggles they are facing. If you want a podcast that feels like a weekly wellness check-in with someone who is right there in the trenches of her twenties alongside you, Simply Soph is that show.
Note to Self
Payton Sartain went from influencer to entrepreneur to podcast host, and Note to Self captures all that accumulated experience in 235 episodes of sisterly advice you did not know you needed. Produced by Dear Media, the show releases weekly and covers relationships, self-love, life transitions, family dynamics, and the ongoing project of figuring out who you actually are in your twenties.
Payton runs recurring Ask P segments where she answers listener questions directly, which gives the show an advice-column energy that works surprisingly well in audio form. She mixes these with guest interviews and solo episodes where she processes her own life in real time. Recent topics include heartbreak recovery, building a relationship with yourself after a breakup, choosing yourself during major transitions, and nervous system care.
At 4.8 stars across 1,257 ratings, the audience clearly resonates with her approach. Listeners praise her willingness to go beyond surface-level advice and actually sit with uncomfortable topics. She talks about therapy, boundaries, and self-worth without making it feel like a lecture. Some feedback suggests guest episodes could better balance speaking time, but the solo and Ask P episodes are consistently strong. Payton has a knack for saying the thing you needed to hear in a way that feels personal rather than generic. The show works especially well for people navigating their mid-twenties who are starting to realize that the life they planned and the life they have might be two different things.
Girls Gotta Eat
Ashley Hesseltine and Rayna Greenberg have been co-hosting this show since 2018, and eight years in, they have the kind of chemistry that only comes from thousands of hours of conversation. The premise is simple: two friends talking about dating, sex, and relationships with complete honesty. But the execution goes way beyond two people just swapping dating horror stories.
They bring on therapists, dating coaches, and relationship experts alongside their own unfiltered takes on modern romance. Episodes typically run over an hour for the main Monday drops, with shorter Thursday "Snack" episodes that feel like a mid-week catch-up. They tackle everything from attachment styles and red flags to the logistics of dating apps and situationships, and they do it with enough humor that you're laughing even when the topic is genuinely heavy.
Produced by Dear Media, the show has built a massive following with nearly 29,000 Apple Podcasts ratings and 489 episodes. Rayna and Ashley are unapologetically themselves -- they disagree on camera, share their own dating mishaps in real time, and bring a best-friend energy that makes you feel like you're part of the group chat. The audience skews heavily toward women in their twenties and early thirties who are actively navigating the dating scene. If you've ever wanted to hear someone validate that modern dating is genuinely unhinged while also giving you useful frameworks for dealing with it, this show delivers on both fronts.
Love Life With Matthew Hussey
Matthew Hussey has been coaching people on love, dating, and confidence since his early twenties, and this podcast -- now at 945 episodes -- represents the most comprehensive version of his thinking. New episodes come out weekly on Wednesdays, featuring Matthew alongside his wife Audrey, his brother Stephen (who has a PhD in Philosophy), and producer David. The family dynamic adds a dimension that pure expert-mode podcasts usually lack.
Matthew frames the show around three core relationships: the one with other people, the one with yourself, and the one with life itself. That sounds broad, but the episodes get specific fast. Recent ones covered whether men can actually change, why people-pleasing shows up in relationships, dating burnout, and how to handle ghosting without losing your sense of self-worth. Episodes range from quick 12-minute takes to full hour-long explorations.
As a New York Times bestselling author and one of the most recognized names in relationship coaching, Matthew brings genuine expertise. His 4.7 rating across 2,553 reviews reflects a dedicated audience. Some longer-time listeners note the show has shifted toward shorter segments and more personal content, which works for some and frustrates others who prefer the deep-dive format. Still, for twentysomethings actively navigating the dating world, Matthew offers a rare male perspective on relationships that manages to be both emotionally intelligent and practical.
Growth Essentials for your 20s
Alina Rauch is 22 years old and already interviewing New York Times bestselling authors, Hollywood actresses, billion-dollar company founders, psychologists, and executive coaches on her podcast. Growth Essentials for your 20s is an interview-format show that punches well above its weight class in terms of guest quality and the depth of conversation Alina manages to draw out.
The show is still young at 17 episodes, but the content density per episode is impressive. Topics include navigating uncertainty with confidence, building self-confidence from scratch, loneliness in your twenties, creating luck through science-backed strategies, and entrepreneurship fundamentals. Each episode pairs Alina with an established professional who brings years of expertise to a topic that twentysomethings are actively wrestling with.
What makes this show stand out from the crowded self-improvement space is the interview style. Alina asks questions from the genuine perspective of someone in her twenties -- not performative curiosity, but real questions from someone who actually needs the answers. The production quality is clean and the conversations run at a comfortable pace. The show is still building its audience, with just one review so far, but the caliber of guests suggests it is only a matter of time before it finds a wider listenership. For twentysomethings who want expert-backed guidance on career, relationships, and personal growth delivered through focused conversations rather than solo monologues, Growth Essentials fills a specific and valuable niche.
Your twenties are the decade everyone has opinions about and nobody fully prepares you for. You graduate, you get a job (maybe), you lose the job, you move, you question everything, and somewhere in there you are supposed to be having the time of your life. It is a lot. The best podcasts for your 20s exist because millions of people are quietly typing "is this normal" into search bars at 2am, and it turns out hearing someone else ask the same question out loud actually helps.
What makes a twenties podcast worth listening to
Good your 20s podcasts tend to share a few things. The hosts sound like real people, not life coaches reading from a script. They talk about specific situations rather than offering generic advice. And they are willing to sit with the uncomfortable parts instead of rushing to a neat conclusion. The worst shows in this space treat your twenties like a problem to be optimized. The better ones treat it like a weird, messy, occasionally great experience that just has to be lived through.
Your 20s podcast recommendations from friends will probably point you toward the big names first, and that is fine. Popular shows got popular because they hit on something real. But the smaller shows often go deeper on specific topics. Some focus entirely on career switches. Others talk almost exclusively about friendships in your twenties, which is a topic that does not get enough attention considering how much those relationships shift in this decade.
If you want the best your 20s podcasts 2026, look for shows that address what is actually happening right now, not recycled advice from five years ago. The economy is different, the job market is different, and the social pressures have shifted. Shows that acknowledge that feel more useful than ones still telling you to wake up at 5am and journal.
Finding the right show
There are your 20s podcasts on Spotify, your 20s podcasts on Apple Podcasts, and plenty of free your 20s podcasts scattered across other apps. The supply is not the problem. The trick is sampling a few and being honest about which ones you actually look forward to versus which ones you subscribed to out of obligation.
For new your 20s podcasts 2026, keep an eye on shows launched by people who recently went through the decade themselves. There is a freshness to those perspectives that hosts in their forties sometimes cannot replicate, no matter how well-meaning they are.
A must listen your 20s podcast is one where you finish an episode and immediately want to text someone about it. That reaction is hard to manufacture. If you are new to podcasts entirely, start with the most popular your 20s podcasts and branch out from there. Three episodes is usually enough to know if a show is for you. The best podcasts about your 20s will not tell you how to live this decade, but they will make you feel less strange for finding it confusing.