Podcasts are an easy way to pass the time if you’re exercising or have a boring office job. The popularity of podcasts has risen sharply over the past five years as 504.9 million people now listen to them regularly. The industry continues to prosper, and podcasting is a lucrative career if you can build a loyal fanbase. Here we put together a list of the 10 best paid podcast hosts.
1. Joe Rogan – $30 Million
Even if you’re not a podcast person, you’ve likely heard of Joe Rogan. He’s the host of The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast, where he invites high-profile guests to talk about an array of topics including MMA, philosophy, politics and technology.
Prior to this, Joe was a TV presenter, actor, and stand-up comedian. Rogan has interviewed some of the biggest names in the world, such as Mike Tyson, Elon Musk, Edward Snowden, and more.
JRE has 14.9 million followers on Spotify and is the most popular podcast in the world. Joe signed a new deal with Spotify, according to the Wall Street Journal he’ll earn up to $250 million over its multi year term. Under the new agreement, Spotify will sell ads and distribute the podcast on other platforms.
2. Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark – $15 Million
The True crime genre is thriving and My Favorite Murder, hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, dominates the category. The investigative pair have millions of loyal listeners known as “Murderinos” that support their crime-solving endeavors.
Kilgariff and Hardstark first met in 2015 at a Halloween party, where they immediately bonded after discovering their mutual interest. Kilgariff was most recognized for her stand-up comedy before the podcast and Hardstark worked as a show host with her previous business partner Alie Ward.
Since launching in 2016, the bi-weekly program has shown no signs of slowing down. Now, they are getting more than 35 million downloads every month. The duo has started a venture called Exactly Right Podcast Network. All of this earns them $15 million annually.
3. Dave Ramsey – $10 Million
The Ramsey Show, which began as a radio program, focuses on helping listeners get out of debt and make better financial decisions. Dave Ramsey combines the elements of a podcast and a traditional radio show, letting listeners call in to ask for advice.
Fans trust Dave’s advice, telling listeners to follow his debt snowball method to reduce debt and avoid using credit cards. Three of his books became New York Times bestsellers and he worked as a host for Fox Business.
In 1992, The Ramsey Show first aired as a radio program in Nashville, Tennessee. It moved online and is now bigger than ever. With over 18 million weekly listeners and a yearly salary of $10 million, Dave Ramsey is the third richest podcaster right now.
4. Dax Shepard – $9 Million
Dax Shepard hosts the podcast titled Armchair Expert, where he conducts life interviews with artists, journalists, and intellectuals. What makes it unique from other interview-type podcasts is, Dax asks questions that spark vulnerable and touching moments.
Shepard’s style of discussion may be from studying Anthropology. He also has a lot of experience dealing with people as an actor and director. Dax is connected to many big-screen artists and is married to Kristen Bell, who was the first guest on his show.
Dax’s personable nature has propelled him to the top of the podcasting world with 20 million regular listeners. His most moving episodes are with his wife Kristen, Emilia Clarke, Ashton Kutcher. With this, Dax earns $9 million every year.
5. Bill Simmons – $7 Million
The Bill Simmons Podcast delves into the world of sports and entertainment. Here, Bill invites fellow commentators and other well-known sports enthusiasts to discuss recent events. Sal Iacono and Nathan Fielder are some of his most popular guests.
His show is now being dubbed as the new ESPN, a sports-focused cable company that Bill worked with in the past. Before parting ways with ESPN, he had his first podcasting job for The B.S. Report at ESPN.com. After some controversies, Bill left and started his own podcast network.
State Farm sponsors The Bill Simmons Podcast that has between 400,000 to 800,000 listeners per episode. The success of the podcast drew the attention of Spotify, which negotiated a $200 million agreement for exclusive rights. As a result, Simmons makes $7 million in annual income from podcasting.
6. Tim Dillon – $2.4 Million
Tim Dillon has climbed into mainstream media by constantly delivering hilarious content to solve some of the world’s most perplexing issues. He specializes in practical conspiracies and has dug into some of humanity’s darker concepts with humor.
At first, Dillon was not planning to work in the entertainment business. Tim was a subprime mortgage salesman but after the global financial crisis in 2008, Tim had to improvise. He became a stand-up comedian and his skits went viral online. Eventually, he started his first podcast Tim Dillon is Going to Hell.
Currently, he’s hosting the Tim Dillon Show and is a regular guest on the Joe Rogan Experience. His main platform is Patreon, where he had over 36,500 paying subscribers as of January 2023. As one of the leading creators on Patreon, Dillon earns $2.4 million annually.
7. Chapo Trap House – $2 Million
Five guys co-host the Chapo Trap House: Will Menaker, Felix Biederman, Amber A’Lee Frost, Matt Christman, and Virgil Texas. The podcast is associated with the dirtbag left, a style of left-wing political discussion that avoids politeness to be more casual and vulgar.
Menaker, Christman, and Biederman are the founding members and they first met on Twitter. The groups’ content is considered provocative by many due to what they talk about. They were banned from Twitch and Reddit after criticizing the political candidates in the 2020 election.
The group releases free weekly episodes on Spotify, SoundCloud, and iTunes, among other platforms. They also have premium material on Patreon. The guys became Patreon’s highest-earning members in February 2020, making about $160,000 per month. Overall, the guys make around $2 million per year.
8. Patrick Hinds and Gillian Pensavalle – $1.8 Million
Patrick Hinds and Gillian Pensavalle are the hosts of another popular true crime podcast called True Crime Obsessed. As expected, the program covers some disturbing stories but the ladies use humor to make them stand out.
Hinds is an experienced podcaster, her series Theater People and Broadway Backstory are well-established. Gillian Pensavalle is the co-creator and lead of the comedy show The Residuals, as well as the host of The Hamilcast: A Hamilton Podcast. The pair make a lively combo together.
Patrick and Gillian have made close ties with their followers, amassing over 40,300 followers on Patreon as of January 2024. The True Crime Obsessed podcast earns them roughly $1.8 million per year.
9. Pat Flynn – $1.2 Million
The Smart Passive Income podcast is hosted by Pat Flynn. The show is exactly as it sounds. Flynn invites successful entrepreneurs onto his show to discuss how they made their fortune.
Like Tim Dillon, Pat’s success story started with him losing his job during the financial crisis. He started a blog related to architecture and it attracted 10,000 daily visitors. Pat then put the content from the website into an ebook, making it his first passive income idea.
He shares firsthand experiences to his followers as an entrepreneur and hosts some of the smartest minds in business such as Tim Ferriss and Ramit Sethi. The podcast makes him over $1.2 million per year.
10. Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh – $1.2 Million
Flagrant 2 is a podcast hosted by Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh. The show prides itself on having honest and unapologetic banter. In the era of cancel culture, Flagrant 2 offers a welcome break for fans who want to escape the fake patronizing shows.
Before podcasting, Singh and Schulz made their names in stand-up comedy. The two have been featured in the MTV show Wild ‘n Out. Schulz is also known for his roles in Guy Code of MTV2 and Schulz Saves America on Netflix.
They joined forces to create a Patreon exclusive podcast. With intriguing guests, the guys tackle a variety of hot topics. They make $1.2 million in annual revenue, just enough to snag the last spot on the list.
