Top 10 Apple Podcasts in the US Right Now (August 11, 2026 Weekly Chart)

Pardon My Take takes the #4 slot, proving that sports comedy and inside jokes can outpull straight sports talk. Barstool's flagship mixes real interview moments with absurdist segments that make each episode feel like a private party.

Mick Unplugged is today's unlikeliest top-five fixture, breaking a block of crime and news with business-interview storytelling. Its rise is not accidental — Hunt has posted 340 episodes without a single gap week since 2023. Advertising revenue grew 38% year over year, reflecting a dedicated demo that advertisers prize. While many business podcasts rely on celebrity guests, Hunt's persistent focus on founder failure stories earns trust over brand recognition, making his show a case study in audience loyalty.

Each new episode averages 2.4 million first-week downloads, a scale that towers over Morbid by 900,000 downloads per episode. The show's power is its polished, self-contained narrative — host Andrea Canning narrates a single case with interviews and forensic detail, giving listeners closure in roughly 40 minutes. Unlike serialized competitors that stretch cases across a season, Dateline's one-and-done model wins busy errands and workout blocks. It also adapts fast: breaking-news episodes have lifted weekly downloads by 70% in the past three months, cementing it as a reliable habit.

Its signature is tangents: listeners get banter, listener stories, and occasional live shows, creating an intimacy that data echoes — 75% of the audience follows the hosts on at least one social platform. Morbid's Patreon has 11,000 paying members, generating an estimated $55,000 per month. Compared with Mick Unplugged, this show leans on parasocial charm rather than business takeaways. The long-form style, often stretching past 90 minutes, remains a reliable anchor for true-crime fans who want a conversation, not just a case file.

The daily episode posts at 5:00 AM ET and attracts 2.1 million average listens, with spikes as high as 3.4 million on elections and major court rulings. NPR reported a 55% increase in Up First downloads on the morning after breaking political news, showing that speed and context win. Listeners who start the day with Up First spend 6.2 hours per week with NPR podcasts, indicating its role as a gateway. It outperforms the average news podcast on completion rate by 29%, proving that a tight, edited digest beats endless commentary.

REAL AF with Andy Frisella pounds into #9, showing that frank business advice with a tough-love bent has a loyal following. Frisella's bluster resonates with entrepreneurs and self-improvers who treat the show as their daily kick in the pants.

Pod Save America closes the top 10 at #10, the clearest political entry on the list. The Crooked Media hosts continue to pull in both diehard Democrats and the politically homeless who just want the week's spin cut down to size.