Podcasts AMApple's US Society & Culture chart · Nov 1, 2026
Top Society & Culture Podcasts in the US
Society and culture podcasts are about people and the ways they live together. The category is wide: it holds interview shows with public figures, reported series about schools or neighborhoods, explainers on strange corners of history, and personal accounts of family, identity and recovery. Some lean toward ideas and current debates, others toward storytelling, humor or self-reflection, but most share a curiosity about why people do what they do.
The ten shows on this page follow Apple's US chart for Society & Culture podcasts as of November 1, 2026, in the order they appeared there. Each profile below draws on the show's own description and its episode notes up to that date, so it reflects how the producers present their work. The mix runs from personal storytelling and interview shows, among them conversations with people building new technology, to reported series on education and on New York City.
Top 10 Society & Culture podcasts
- 1
The Ezra Klein Show
New York Times Opinion
Ezra Klein talks with guests on this show from New York Times Opinion, and the feed's description sketches its range with questions about climate change, markets, psychedelics, science fiction and the food system. Late October 2026 episodes turned to the midterm elections, with forecaster Nate Silver on how far to trust the polls and historian Quinn Slobodian on what Elon Musk wanted to do with his power.
- 2
Stuff You Should Know
iHeartPodcasts
Josh and Chuck take on a wide spread of subjects here, and the show's own description runs from champagne and chaos theory to the Stonewall Uprising and Rosa Parks. October 2026 brought a seasonal streak, including the Salem witch trials, the Grim Reaper and a cryptid some say appeared in Enfield, Illinois, in 1973, alongside episodes on Winnie the Pooh, Sacagawea and currency symbols.
- 3
Sold a Story
APM Reports
Journalist Emily Hanford hosts this investigative series from APM Reports about how children learn and why research on what works often fails to reach classrooms. After a first season on why so many kids struggle with reading, the second season moves on to teaching itself, tracing education outsider Zig Engelmann and the method known as Direct Instruction.
- 4
Notes from the Edge
Gamut Podcast Network
Writer and trauma educator Lisa Lacy hosts unscripted conversations about survival, identity, addiction, recovery and reinvention. Recent guests included trial attorney Ken Kunken, who returned to an inaccessible Cornell campus after a spinal cord injury, and Patricia Knight Meyer, who talks about her black-market adoption. Some "Edge Note" episodes draw on Lacy's own experience, including one on betrayal trauma.
- 5
The Builders
iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope
Biographer Walter Isaacson sits down with leading figures in technology, among them Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Mustafa Suleyman and siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, to hear about their ambitions, what worries them and how they see humanity. The feed also carries a rerun of On Musk, Isaacson's 2023 series about writing his Musk biography, plus follow-up episodes in which journalists weigh in on the interviews.
- 6
The Shawn Ryan Show
Shawn Ryan
Former Navy SEAL and CIA contractor Shawn Ryan interviews guests from many backgrounds, and the show says it talks through their wins and losses in a respectful but candid way. Recent guests included World War II Marine veteran Frank Wright, retired SEAL commander Mike Hayes, country artist Wynonna Judd, comedian Dusty Slay and Pierogi, creator of the scam-baiting platform Scammer Payback.
- 7
Listen & Laugh with Ice Cube and Mike Epps
BlueJay Partners
Longtime friends Ice Cube and Mike Epps host this show set on a porch, inviting people they know to drop by and talk. The show's description promises personal conversations, from Last Friday to first crushes, and a look at the men behind the movies, music and comedy. The trailer says Cube will make people listen and Epps will make them laugh, and sometimes the other way around.
- 8
This American Life
This American Life
Hosted by Ira Glass and produced with WBEZ Chicago, the show picks a theme each week and gathers true stories around it, some personal, with funny moments and plot twists, others tied to the news. Recent episodes covered secret identities, including Jon Ronson's account of a bank robber, and coincidences sent in by listeners, while another followed Sayre Quevedo and his twin brother as they looked for their birth father.
- 9
Freakonomics Radio
Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher
Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner goes looking for the hidden side of everyday questions, from why flying beats driving for safety to how people choose whom to marry. Recent episodes asked what is behind pricier hamburgers, whether prediction markets work as forecasting tools or as casinos, and why NFL teams struggle to predict which college quarterbacks will succeed.
- 10
METRO with Sarah Koenig
Serial Productions & The New York Times
From Serial Productions and The New York Times, Sarah Koenig's series, which began in October 2026, gathers investigations, personal stories, essays and interviews about New York City and its people. Episode one tours the city to hear what New Yorkers worry about, and the second looks at a diamond district jewelry store whose business doubled after a video showed its owner fighting a rival jeweler, asking how much of it is an act.
Questions about Society & Culture podcasts
What is the top Society & Culture podcast in the US?
According to Apple's US chart on November 1, 2026, the top Society & Culture podcast was The Ezra Klein Show from New York Times Opinion, in which Ezra Klein talks with guests about questions ranging from climate change to the 2026 midterm elections.
Which podcast on this list is about how children learn?
Sold a Story, an investigative series from APM Reports hosted by journalist Emily Hanford. Its first season looked at why so many children struggle to learn to read, and its second season turns to teaching itself, following Zig Engelmann and the method called Direct Instruction.
More genres
Podcasts in your browser, free
Podcasts AM shows Apple's podcast charts for more than 40 countries, searches Apple's podcast directory and keeps the shows you follow — no account, nothing to install, no ads from us.