5 Different Types of Podcasts for Writers to Try

There are an infinite number of podcast types, and—for the most part—there is no wrong kind of podcast. One of the beautiful things about podcasting is the ability to reach a niche audience that matches your content. We can cast off the limiting framework of network television and radio, where there is only room for a few kinds of shows that are easily digested by the masses. In podcasting, you only need to find an audience that connects with the kind of work you like to make.

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With that being said, let’s dive into some examples of different kinds of podcasts. These podcast types could be any genre and most of them could be combined or altered to create a new unique style or format. It’s a rapidly evolving space that maintains a lot of freedom for individual creators, so don’t be afraid to try something out of the box!

Interview Podcasts

Interview podcasts are what first come to mind for a lot of people who are newer to exploring podcasts. Some of the most popular podcasts in the world follow this format—Armchair Expert, Call Her Daddy, WTF with Marc Maron—as it is easily digestible, keeps each episode fresh, and I think largely because it is reminiscent of formats we are accustomed to on network television and radio.

Typically the host or hosts are already somewhat famous to draw an audience, unless the interview podcast is all about a niche topic, which can draw a medium-sized audience without needing celebrity support. Interview podcasts can be very labor and administratively intensive, but often have the most momentum after launch of any podcast style.

This success often comes from podcast guests sharing the show on their own social media and pulling their audience to you. Interviewing guests from time to time on a podcast that isn’t exclusively interview based can be a great way to gain additional exposure and to network.

Round Table Podcasts

Similar to an interview-style podcast, there are also round table podcasts like the BBC’s In Our Time, NPR’s The Roundtable, and This Week in Tech. These shows use a round table format to achieve an expert driven conversation without the lecture hall feel of a heavy research style history or sociology podcast.

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Typically one or two moderators lead the discussion and host the show each week with a different group of participants. Round table podcasts are nearly as popular among listeners as interview podcasts and have the same advantage when it comes to participants sharing episodes with their own social media followings.

Storytelling Podcasts

Storytelling podcasts are some of my personal favorites and are very popular with people who listen while working or who like audiobooks. Podcasts like The Moth (RIP), Beautiful Anonymous, and Normal Gossip give listeners episodes with plot, character, and an emotional arc.

Those three examples are all nonfiction podcasts that share the stories of anonymous everyday people, but there are also wonderful fictional podcast series. Additionally, a large portion of comedy, true crime, and history podcasts use a mostly storytelling style. Popular shows like Two Girls One Ghost and Last Podcast on the Left use a mix of lightly scripted storytelling and comedy to deliver both horror and history. ‘Edu-tainment,’ if you will.

Journalistic Podcasts

News, documentary, and investigative podcasts all fall into this category. Writers with a background in journalism, but a disdain for the schedule one must keep when working in news, can find a happy medium in journalistic podcasting. This is probably the podcast style that requires the most pre-production work (sometimes a literal investigation), but when done well a journalistic podcast can have a huge impact.

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Serial is the most obvious example and was the podcast that created the surge of podcast listenership in America and gave us our appetite for investigative podcasts. Since Serial, we have seen many other podcasts and television series replicate this model—a podcast that investigates and solves crimes in the real world (Up and Vanished, The Trojan Horse Affair, Teacher’s Pet).

We even have multiple fictional TV shows about investigative podcasts that solve crimes. That doesn’t mean every journalistic podcaster needs to be a daring detective—but it is these flashy incidents that have given journalistic podcasting an incredible amount of attention in the last decade.

Recap and Review Podcasts

I know many people (myself included) who listen to recap podcasts instead of watching whatever content is being recapped. Sometimes I want to know what happened in a crime documentary or an episode of Real Housewives, but I don’t want to watch the episode for one reason or another.

Enter recap and review podcasts such as Everyone’s Business but Mine, Reality Gays, Surviving Sisterwives, and Bye Pumkin. Clearly I have an affinity for podcasts about reality TV, but there are plenty of recap and review podcasts about books, movies, documentaries, and serious television shows.

These podcasts have the advantage of tapping into a ready-made audience, since they are essentially piggybacking on other content. That is not a criticism, and hosting a recap or review show is challenging in different ways than other styles of podcasts. These podcasts require hosts with great personalities, a good sense of humor, and a lot of interesting opinions.

These are just examples, so don’t let this list limit your podcast ideas! Think about what content you’d like to deliver, what subjects and format you’d have consistent energy for, and find a podcasting style that works for you and your audience.