Race & Ethnicity of Podcast Hosts

We examined the race/ethnicity of hosts.

A full 77.1% of podcast hosts in the top 100 were white and 22.3% were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups.

This translates into hearing from roughly 3.5 white podcast hosts to every 1 underrepresented host. The findings across the full sample of 592 podcasts were virtually identical.

OTHER MEDIA

Similar to gender, we examined whether podcasting was providing more or less access and opportunity for underrepresented voices.

Podcasting features far fewer underrepresented voices than music.

Underrepresented voices in podcasting was similar to the percentage of underrepresented leads in film and series regulars in TV shows. Given that roughly 41.6% of Americans identify with a non white racial/ethnic group, it is surprising their participation is so woefully low across media.

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

Across all 8 genres evaluated, underrepresented podcast hosts appear far below proportional representation with U.S. census (41.6%).

Non white podcast hosts were more likely to appear on News podcasts, Arts, Society and Culture shows, and those podcasts from “other genres.” Very few underrepresented hosts had podcasts in the True Crime, Sports & Fitness or Comedy genres.

Podcasts with underrepresented hosts were more likely to feature video than those with only white hosts.

59.4%

of the top 100 podcasts with at least 1 underrepresented host included video

53%

of the top 100 podcasts with only white hosts had video

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Explore more analysis about podcasting or go back to podcast report home.

Gender in Podcast Hosts

Women of Color

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