Podcasts have been a game changer for independent content creators. While these days it seems like everybody from your opinionated uncle to the cast of 90s sitcom “Boy Meets World” has a podcast, there’s no denying the appeal of these on-demand digital talk shows for their accessibility and seemingly infinite variety. And as any podcaster will tell you, an engaged audience is vital to a show’s long-term success.
With that in mind, BetCalifornia hit pause on California sports betting updates and sought to find the most popular podcast in the state. Using data from ThePodcasting.org, we identified the most popular podcasts in the entire country. From there, we used Google Trends to measure the search volume for each of these pods within California.
Below you’ll find the top five podcasts in the Golden State, ranked by their share of search engine traffic within California state lines. This is information you wouldn't find on California betting apps, but you'll see which podcast would be obvious to bet on for the most popular.
“The Joe Rogan Experience” is the No. 1 podcast in California. Known for its long-form conversations with a diverse range of celebs and other interesting people, JRE has amassed a gigantic following, with an estimated 11 million listeners per episode. An elder statesman in the world of podcasting, Joe Rogan has been producing his show for the better part of 13 years, amassing over 2,000 episodes, and nearly 6,000 hours of recordings. In fact, it would take about 8 months of non-stop listening to make it through the entire “Joe Rogan Experience” back catalog.
As a former comedian, actor, and TV personality, Rogan lived in California for several decades and first began recording his podcast from his home there. However, after signing a $200 million dollar deal with Spotify in 2020, he relocated the show to Austin, Texas.
The Golden State’s No. 2 podcast is “Call Her Daddy” hosted by Alex Cooper — which, like Rogan, is only available via Spotify. “Call Her Daddy” tackles modern sex and dating, and features celebrity interviews with guests like Miley Cyrus, Ciara, and Post Malone.
The next most popular podcast in California is “Crime Junkie.” The true crime pod began in 2017 and is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. Since its debut, “Crime Junkie” has been downloaded over 500 million times. The makers of “Crime Junkies” have also launched a non-profit called Season of Justice, which awards grants to help solve cold cases.
Rounding out the top five podcasts in California are “My Favorite Murder” and “The Ben Shapiro Show.” On “My Favorite Murder” comedians Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark blend humor and true crime as they recount to one another their favorite murder mystery stories — often pulling zany cases from the history books most other true crime series would overlook. On the other hand, "The Ben Shapiro Show" brings the traditional conservative talk radio format into podcast form, delivering Shapiro's signature right-wing political commentary and analysis six days a week.
Author
Jeff Parker is an entertainment writer for BetCalifornia.com. A writer for film, television and the internet, Jeff is a life long movie buff, with a Masters Degree in Popular Culture. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he works full time as documentary filmmaker and producer.
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