The Ultimate Podcast Discovery Guide

We’ve put together the ultimate guide to help you discover the content that is right for you.

Podcast listenership is on the rise

In 2022, 79% of the 12+ U.S. population reported being familiar with podcasting. Given its ever-growing popularity as a medium, it is highly likely that you're already a podcast listener yourself. Whether you are listening to podcast shows for educational or recreational purposes, it helps if you have an accurate and efficient way to search for and find new podcasts. Today, we have prepared for you three practical ways to discover podcasts tailored to your preferences. Let's dive in.

According to Buzzsprout, 50% of US population aged 12-34 are monthly podcast listeners

Three ways to discover new podcasts

Social media and community platforms

According to Buzzsprout, about 17% of podcast listeners find new shows on social media, which is consistent across both new and veteran listeners. Major social platforms like Twitter and Tiktok are among the viable choices, joined by community platforms like Reddit and social network platforms like LinkedIn.

While many of your friends are searching for podcasts on these platforms, they may not efficiently do this. While typing phrases like “motivational podcasts” in the search box will yield some options, you can use more advanced features to narrow the results down to shows that genuinely match your preferences.

With Advanced Search, Twitter can be more powerful than you think

One feature within Twitter that you can use to filter down your results is Advanced Search. Expand the dots beside the search box to access the advanced search functionality. You can use it to search for exact phrases, exclude unwanted words, filter by engagement statistics, or apply further refinements to your search. A common approach to utilizing this feature is setting a lower engagement level limit. This way, you can see the most popular/liked content given your keyword selections; specifying the language and date of content searched is also highly helpful, as it allows you to filter through tons of content swiftly.

The Twitter Advanced Search can help you find popular podcast recommendations

Follow topical experts on LinkedIn

Another practical piece of advice is to follow popular accounts in the field you are exploring. Let’s say if you are into investments, then follow someone famous on LinkedIn posting about investing. They will likely recommend podcasts from time to time or post about being featured on certain shows. This method works best when the account you follow posts very frequently and has an active comment section so that you will have a higher chance of bumping into related audio resources. Combining advanced search with this approach is also advantageous since you can restrict your search to specific accounts on many platforms.

Find shows on Reddit

Community platforms like Reddit are a great place to discover new shows. For example, the r/podcasts subreddit has 2.3+m community members, and you'll often find shows here that are fan favorites without them being necessarily popular in the mainstream. If you're interested in shows for a particular audience, you can also search the appropriate subreddits for podcast recommendations. For example, the r/Entrepreneur subreddits includes some great suggestions of podcasts relevant to people that have either started or are exploring starting a business.

Podcast players can help you find the right shows

Podcast player is one of the popular ways to listen to your favourite shows

We can use plenty of platforms and tools to see categorized podcasts. One of the most downloaded podcast players is aptly named Podcast App. The application provides classifications of most online-hosted podcasts and enables users to curate their favorite shows and track the releases of new episodes. The solution isn't perfect, as podcasts often span multiple categories or the categories themselves aren't granular enough, but it's an excellent place to get started.

Find podcasts via community recommendations

Goodpods allows users to discover podcasts through the power of community

Another great way to discover podcasts is via platforms that offer community recommendations. Goodpods is one of these platforms. Alongside the functionality you will typically find in a podcast player, on Goodpods, you can invite your friends and see what shows they've been listening to. You can also join community groups to discuss your favorite shows or find groups that match your interests: whether that's true crime, gaming, or astrology.

Stitcher gives users access to lists of hand-picked podcast recommendations

It is common for hosting platforms like Stitcher and Spreaker to keep an up-to-date list of content recommendations and feature select podcasts every week. The recommendations often contain handpicked high-quality shows. If you feel comfortable paying a subscription, you can also access premium content exclusively published on their platforms.

Podcast discovery apps

Don’t be surprised, but there are platforms out there specifically designed for the sole purpose of discovering podcasts. They differ from the indexing platforms because they often do not compile comprehensive categorized information but try to provide the service to you through algorithmic search and user-generated guides. I have two solid recommendations for you in this category.

Listen Notes: Google for podcasts

The first one is Listen Notes, a dedicated podcast search engine and a place to discover podcast lists generated by other users. To find the audio shows you prefer, you need to have a vague idea of what podcast you want to search for and put related keywords in the search bar. Listen Notes will generate a list of results based on the podcast contents it has stored. In other words, it works just like Google, only that it is a Google for podcasts!

Curated podcasts on Listen Notes

Other desirable features of Listen Notes include:

• A "similar" search function.

• User-generated playlist recommendations.

• A handy browser extension for Chrome and Edge.

The "similar" search functions quite like a YouTube algorithm where your feed gets updated daily based on the recently opened content; it saves you time and helps you passively discover new podcasts.

The abundance of user-uploaded playlists ensures you’ll always have good references when curating your favorites and gets you up to pace with what is trending. While the above two features are undoubtedly great, the browser extension can be helpful to a broad listenership. With its assistance, you can select a section of text on any website and search for related podcasts based on this selection.

Conclusion

With podcast listenership on the rise, finding efficient ways to discover the shows we'll enjoy listening to is essential. There are several ways we can decide what content we consume, from friends and social media recommendations to podcast players and discovery apps.

If our goal is learning from podcasts and we want to do this efficiently, broadn can save us significant time in finding the best content that matches our learning goals.

Time to start listening!