Top 20 New Podcasts of 2019

Our ranking of top new shows for 2019 is based on average downloads per episode as measured by Podtrac and ranks shows which were published for the first time between December 1, 2018 and November 31, 2019.

#1 The Shrink Next Door - Wondery

Veteran journalist Joe Nocera’s neighbor in the Hamptons was a therapist named Ike. Ike counted celebrities and Manhattan elites as his patients. He’d host star-studded parties at his eccentric vacation house. But one summer, Joe discovered that Ike was gone and everything he’d thought he’d known about his neighbor -- and the house next door -- was wrong. The Shrink Next Door is a story about power, control and turning to the wrong person for help for three decades.

#2 The Ron Burgundy Podcast - iHeartRadio

Will Ferrell reprises his role as Ron Burgundy in his brand new Ron Burgundy Podcast! Each episode has a different theme in which Ron engages in conversation with another notable person on the topic at hand. In true Ron Burgundy fashion, these conversations have a tendency to go off the rails, and we find out things about people we never knew we wanted to know.

#3 Over My Dead Body - Wondery

We all have limits. And some people who are pushed beyond those limits will do unspeakable things.

In “Tally,” season One of OVER MY DEAD BODY, Dan and Wendi are two good-looking attorneys whose wedding is featured in the New York Times. But when this “perfect” couple falls apart, it leads to a bad breakup, a worse divorce, and a murder case involving a menagerie of high-priced lawyers and unexpected co-conspirators. Reported by Matthew Shaer and Eric Benson, and hosted by Matthew Shaer.

Season Two, "Joe Exotic," is the story of a man who has devoted his life to raising and breeding lions, tigers, and other exotic animals at his Oklahoma zoo. He croons ballads, shoots guns, and puts it all on YouTube. But throughout his career, he’s made a lot of enemies. And the biggest of all is the owner of a big cat sanctuary in Florida named Carole Baskin. The feud between Joe Exotic and Carole gets messy, vicious, and outrageous -- until both of them are pushed far beyond their limits. Reported and hosted by Rob Moor.

#4 Man in the Window - Wondery

In Man in the Window, Paige St. John, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter has uncovered never before revealed details about the man who would eventually become one of California's most deadly serial killers. From Wondery and the L.A. Times comes a new series that traces his path of devastation through his victims' eyes.

#5 The Thing About Pam - NBC News

Two days after Christmas, 2011, Russ Faria came home from game night to find his wife, Betsy, dead. He was soon charged and convicted of her murder. But Russ Faria insisted he did not kill his wife. Betsy’s brutal murder set off a chain of events that would leave one man dead, another man implicated, and expose a diabolical scheme. It would also see Dateline NBC—the true-crime original—become a part of the never-ending saga that proves the old adage: Truth is stranger than fiction.

#6 Bad Batch - Wondery

Patients in search of a miracle cure end up in critical condition. The race is on to find out what went wrong before more people get hurt. The trail leads back to a medical company with slick marketing and a charismatic CEO. And to a multibillion dollar stem cell industry where greed and desperation collide. Laura Beil, the award-winning host and reporter of “Dr Death,” returns for this six-part investigative series.

#7 White Lies - NPR

In 1965, Rev. James Reeb was murdered in Selma, Alabama. Three men were tried and acquitted, but no one was ever held to account. Fifty years later, two journalists from Alabama return to the city where it happened, expose the lies that kept the murder from being solved and uncover a story about guilt and memory that says as much about America today as it does about the past

#8 Dolly Parton’s America - WNYC Studios

In this intensely divided moment, one of the few things everyone still seems to agree on is Dolly Parton—but why? That simple question leads to a deeply personal, historical, and musical rethinking of one of America’s great icons. Join us for a 9-episode journey into the Dollyverse. Hosted by Jad Abumrad, creator of Radiolab and More Perfect. Dolly Parton’s America is co-produced by OSM Audio and WNYC Studios.

#9 The Mysterious Mr. Epstein - Wondery

We now know that Jeffrey Epstein was a sexual predator. He was also accused of fraud, embezzlement, coercion and more. But for most of his life, he was a mystery to the public, and to many of the people who knew him. In this six part series, we peel back the layers of Epstein’s life to detail his financial and sexual crimes, and his network of enablers, with original reporting and interviews. From humble beginnings, Epstein came to amass significant wealth which he used to buy sex, social status, silence, even justice —until money wasn’t enough.

#10 Chelsea Handler: Life Will Be the Death of Me - iHeartRadio

Listen to Chelsea Handler's first ever podcast series featuring candid, hilarious conversations about her life, her work and where she’s headed next. The series is an entertaining, raw, smart, funny, heartbreaking and honest memoir of Chelsea’s life changing year of self-discovery, healing and growth. The podcast features interviews with celebrities such as Connie Britton, Jake Tapper, Sean Hayes, Mary McCormack and more.

#11 Room 20 - Wondery

The sign above his hospital bed called him Sixty-Six Garage. For more than 15 years, he would lay there unidentified and unconscious. Or so, everyone believed. From L.A. Times Studios and Wondery comes “Room 20,” a story about the search for a man’s identity and the truth about his accident. Investigative reporter Joanne Faryon’s two-year journey is filled with twists and turns. Now, she'll finally reveal who Garage really is. But one important question remained for her upon this discovery: has Garage been conscious this entire time?

#12 - 1619 - New York Times

In August of 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. America was not yet America, but this was the moment it began. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the 250 years of slavery that followed. On the 400th anniversary of this fateful moment, it is time to tell the story.

Hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones.

#13 - Confronting: O.J. Simpson - Wondery

25 years after the crimes that ignited the "Trial of the Century," Kim Goldman, sister of murder victim Ron Goldman, is digging deep into the vicious crime that changed her life, and many others, forever. Thrust into the public eye at the age of 22, Kim was devastated when OJ Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her brother Ron. There has been much debate and confusion about what really happened the night of those brutal murders and for the first time Kim gets answers to questions that have been haunting her since the trial. She sits down with prosecutors, investigators, and witnesses who never got to speak and jurors who voted not guilty.

#14 - 2 Bears 1 Cave with Tom Segura & Bert Kreischer - YMH Studios

Twice a month, comedian best friends Tom Segura and Bert Kreischer get together in the bear cave at YMH Studios to do what bears do: make each other laugh.

#15 - Throughline - NPR

The past is never past. Every headline has a history. Join us every week as we go back in time to understand the present. These are stories you can feel and sounds you can see from the moments that shaped our world.

#16 Noble Blood - iHeartRadio

Author Dana Schwartz explores the stories of some of history’s most fascinating royals: the tyrants and the tragic, the murderers and the murdered, and everyone in between. Because when you’re wearing a crown, mistakes often mean blood.

#17 - It Could Happen Here - iHeartRadio

Boy, politics really has gotten hideous, hasn’t it? And protests seem a lot more violent than they were a couple of years ago. Are things getting worse? Could the U.S.A be on the road to a second civil war?

Robert Evans says ‘Yes!’ and by the time you’ve finished listening to ‘It Could Happen Here’, you will too.

#18 - Detective Trapp - Wondery

Anaheim investigator Julissa Trapp is not like other detectives. She’s the only woman on the homicide squad, and a skilled chameleon: undercover cop in vice stings, crime-scene commander, patient confidante of killers. A master interrogator, she invokes her personal experience – and deepest griefs – as a tool to elicit confessions. When a young woman’s body is found at a trash-sorting plant, Trapp learns the murder may be linked to the disappearance of three other women in nearby Santa Ana. Trapp embarks on a dark journey that brings her face to face with a man who takes “a little piece of her soul.” The series is about a singular detective on a relentless, sometimes lonely quest for answers. From the Los Angeles Times and Wondery, “Detective Trapp” is a new story from Christopher Goffard, the writer and host of “Dirty John.”

#19 - Insomniac - iHeartRadio

What happens when you immerse yourself in true crime, night after night, digging deeper into the lives of serial killers? What are the consequences to a person's psyche? From iHeartRadio and TenderfootTV comes a new podcast about twisted serial killers and one man's journey through their stories.

#20 - Dateline NBC - NBC News

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.

Ranking Methodology

To qualify as “new”, a show must publish its first episode between December 1, 2018 and November 31, 2019.
Ranking is based on average downloads per episode from December 1, 2018 to November 31, 2019 as measured by Podtrac.
Episodes marked by publisher as Bonus or Trailer episodes are excluded from the calculations.

In addition to year-end rankings, Podtrac publishes two Podcast Industry Rankings each month: the Top 20 Podcasts and the Top 10 Podcast Publishers. Our Rankings use proprietary and consistent measurement methodology to allow apples-to-apples comparison of podcast audience sizes.