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Preview data: all rankings, scores, votes, refresh labels, methodology, testing and editorial-process statements in Top 49 are illustrative demo content, not live measurements or documented reviews.
Rank 021Down 1Editor’s pick
#2 in Podcasts of All Time
of 18 ranked entries
This American Life
Ira Glass · WBEZ Chicago · Since 1995
Glass built a weekly structure — theme, then acts — simple enough to become the default format for narrative audio, and three decades later almost every serious storytelling podcast is still working some variation of the template he standardized. Recorded specifics: launched 1995, host Ira Glass, network WBEZ Chicago. Panel highlighted established the act-and-theme structure most narrative podcasts still use, three decades of consistent editorial quality across format changes and a launching ground for Serial, S-Town and a generation of spinoff shows. The reservation on record is the show’s enormous influence means some later imitators can feel more novel by comparison.
Narrative journalismCulture
Score breakdown
How This American Life earned 96.2
Each criterion is scored independently, then combined using the weights published on Podcasts of All Time.
- Editorial & production craftweight 30%
- 95.5
- Storytelling ambitionweight 25%
- 94.1
- Cultural influenceweight 25%
- 98.4
- Consistency across episodesweight 20%
- 97.0
“Its 2008 episode explaining the mortgage crisis, "The Giant Pool of Money," is still taught in journalism courses as a model for translating finance into plain language.”
— Top 49, on Podcasts of All Time
On the record
Recorded detail
| Launched | 1995 |
|---|---|
| Host | Ira Glass |
| Network | WBEZ Chicago |
| Rating | 9.2 |
Panel verdict
Strengths and reservations
What it gets right
- Established the act-and-theme structure most narrative podcasts still use
- Three decades of consistent editorial quality across format changes
- A launching ground for Serial, S-Town and a generation of spinoff shows
Where it gives ground
- The show’s enormous influence means some later imitators can feel more novel by comparison
1 appearance
Where this entry ranks
From the same list
Ranked alongside it
Rank 01Editor’s pickSerial
Sarah Koenig · Serial Productions · 2014
Koenig spun a This American Life segment into its own show and spent twelve episodes second-guessing a 1999 murder conviction in real time, essentially inventing the true-crime podcast format and the modern podcast industry’s commercial viability along with it.
97.7/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 03Editor’s pickRadiolab
Jad Abumrad · WNYC · Since 2002
Abumrad treated sound design as a genuine storytelling tool rather than decoration, layering music and effects underneath science stories until the production itself became as much a part of the argument as the facts being reported.
95.0/100 Top 49 score—No change
Rank 04The Joe Rogan Experience
Joe Rogan · Since 2009
Rogan built the format on almost total absence of structure — three hours, one guest, whatever direction the conversation takes — and turned that shapelessness into the most consistently downloaded podcast on the planet.
93.5/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 05Hardcore History
Dan Carlin · Since 2006
Carlin releases episodes that regularly run four or five hours and treats that length as a feature — enough runtime to actually sit with the scale of, say, the Eastern Front, rather than compress it into a digestible summary.
91.1/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 06S-Town
Brian Reed · Serial Productions · 2017
Reed set out to investigate a small-town murder that turned out not to have happened, and the show pivoted entirely to profile its own tragic, brilliant subject instead — a structural risk that paid off into one of podcasting’s most acclaimed seasons.
90.0/100 Top 49 score—No change
Rank 07WTF with Marc Maron
Marc Maron · Since 2009
Maron recorded early episodes in his own garage and built the show on unusually candid, therapy-adjacent conversation, most famously getting a sitting U.S. president to sit down in that same garage in 2015.
88.7/100 Top 49 score3Down 3
Rank 08The Daily
Michael Barbaro · The New York Times · Since 2017
Barbaro and the Times built a twenty-minute weekday news briefing around a single story reported in real depth, and the format proved so effective that it became the most listened-to news podcast in the country within a couple of years.
86.4/100 Top 49 score4Down 4
Rank 09Fresh Air
Terry Gross · NPR/WHYY · Since 1987
Gross has interviewed roughly the entire cultural landscape of the last four decades with the same unhurried, deeply prepared attentiveness, and her interview technique remains the genre’s clearest example of preparation as a form of respect.
85.1/100 Top 49 score3Down 3
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Top 49 rankings are editorial. Scores are produced from the published criteria on each list and are refreshed on the cadence stated there. Figures shown across this section are curated demonstration data.