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Best podcasts for your morning commute (2026)

The morning commute is where most people first got into podcasts, and it's still the format's home turf. But the trick isn't picking the "best" podcast in some abstract sense, it's picking one that actually fits the length of the commute you have, and matches the headspace you want to arrive in.

Here are our picks for 2026, sorted by how long your commute realistically is. Every show below is available on Podtastic (linked where indexed), so you can build a rotating morning queue that respects the clock.

TL;DR, pick by commute length

10 minutes or less: Up First (NPR) or FT News Briefing
20 minutes: The Daily (NYT) or Today, Explained (Vox)
30-45 minutes: Search Engine, The Vergecast, or Curiosity Daily
60 minutes or more: Hard Fork, Decoder, or Pivot

Short commutes (10 minutes or less)

If you're walking to the tube or driving a short route, your window is the length of one strong pot of coffee. You want news, calibrated, and you want it now.

Up First (NPR), Ten minutes every weekday morning, three biggest stories, three producers, no filler. NPR's Up First is the closest thing to a good newspaper front page in audio form. If your commute is a short bus ride and you want to catch up on the world before the office, this is the one.

FT News Briefing, Financial-times focus, most episodes under ten minutes. Skewed to global markets, business, and the money angle on political news. Best if your morning meetings tend to feature the words "quarter" or "guidance."

BBC Global News Podcast, Twice-daily updates from the BBC, each around thirty minutes but structured so the first ten cover the headlines. Good if you want international-first framing rather than US-first.

Medium commutes (20 minutes)

You've got a proper commute and can go one level deeper than the headlines. This is where a good daily explainer earns its keep.

The Daily (New York Times), Roughly twenty-five minutes, five days a week, one story explained properly. Michael Barbaro's interview format is the format most other daily podcasts have copied since. Consistent quality, reliable release schedule, the closest thing the podcast world has to a "must-listen" morning show.

Today, Explained (Vox), Twenty to thirty minutes, more explainer-oriented than The Daily. Where The Daily takes one story and interviews one person, Today Explained takes one story and gives you the whole shape of it. Good if you want the "why does this matter" version, not the "what happened yesterday" version.

Medium-long commutes (30-45 minutes)

You have real time to spend. Here's where you can start listening to a proper tech or curiosity show, not just news.

Search Engine, PJ Vogt's follow-up to Reply All. Investigates one small internet question per episode ("Why did all the good jobs disappear?", "How do I get rid of the smell in my apartment?") and turns it into something bigger. Twenty-five to fifty minutes, varies. If you like Reply All's rhythm you'll love this.

The Vergecast, Nilay Patel and David Pierce weekly, generally one to two hours but the first thirty minutes are a self-contained news round-up. Good for a morning tech catch-up without committing to the whole episode.

Curiosity Daily, Blends science, tech, and life-hack research into a fifteen-to-twenty minute daily. Not the deepest analysis on any of it, but a good "let me learn one thing before work" show.

Long commutes (60 minutes or more)

If you've got an hour or more, you're firmly in deep-dive territory. Interviews, analysis, and long-form storytelling all work here.

Hard Fork, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton weekly on AI, big tech, and cultural fallout. Sixty to ninety minutes, guests roughly every other episode. Consistently one of the best-produced tech shows in the format right now.

Decoder with Nilay Patel, Long-form CEO interviews, most sixty to ninety minutes. Different guest most weeks. If your commute is long enough for a whole episode, this is the substance-per-minute leader in tech interviews.

Pivot, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway twice-weekly on tech and business news. Faster-paced than Decoder, more topical, and shorter, usually forty-five to sixty minutes. Good for the "keep me current on the industry" slot.

The Ezra Klein Show, Long-form interviews on politics, culture, and ideas. Ezra picks smart guests and lets them talk. Ninety-minute episodes are common. Best if you want to arrive at work with more to think about, not more to say.

The Rest Is Politics, Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell twice-weekly on UK and world politics, in a "disagree agreeably" format. Best UK-centric political show right now, and light enough to enjoy on a commute even if you're not politically engaged.

Comedy, for when you don't want more information

Sometimes you need the opposite of news. These earn a slot for the mornings when a serious podcast would ruin the mood.

Comedy Bang! Bang!, Long-running celebrity/character improv show. Not sized for a short commute (episodes are typically ninety minutes) but you can dip in for the first twenty minutes and pick up where you left off tomorrow.

Off Menu with Ed Gamble & James Acaster, Two comedians interviewing a guest about the perfect meal, one course at a time. Hour-long episodes, self-contained, funnier the more you listen. A good weekly companion.

Business and startup

My First Million, Sam Parr and Shaan Puri riffing on startup ideas. YouTube-native energy, but the audio holds up as background listening. Long episodes, but they're easy to pick up and drop.

Prof G Markets, Ed Elson and (frequently) Scott Galloway on markets and business news. Weekly, forty to sixty minutes, with a specific bent toward "what does this mean for the actual economy." Good pair with a longer commute if you're in tech, finance, or startup land.

Interview and analysis

On with Kara Swisher, Kara Swisher's interview show, usually with a tech, political, or media figure. Sharp, occasionally combative, always well-prepared. Sixty-to-ninety minutes.

TBPN, Daily tech-business news podcast in the style of a business channel. Runs long, episodes can be several hours, but works well as background if your commute is more "long train" than "short bus."

How to build a commute queue you'll actually use

A few habits that make the morning slot work reliably:

Pick a rotation, not a single show. Even the best daily show gets tired if it's the only thing you hear. A rotation of three or four in the same length band gives you variety without forcing you to choose every morning.

Match your queue length to your commute length. If your morning is twenty minutes, don't queue three sixty-minute episodes back-to-back, you'll never finish anything and the "unfinished" pile grows. Build a queue of three or four shows that fit the actual window.

Use the auto-fill queue. Podtastic's Smart Playback fills your queue based on what you actually listen to, so the morning slot will keep filling with the kind of thing you've been listening to at that time of day. If you consistently hit "skip" on long deep-dives before 9am, the auto-fill learns to save those for the evening.

Frequently asked questions

What's the shortest daily news podcast worth listening to?

Up First from NPR is the current best-in-class for a genuinely short (10-minute) daily news podcast. It hits the three biggest US stories of the day and gets out. FT News Briefing is the international/markets equivalent.

Are there any good non-US morning podcasts?

Yes, the BBC Global News Podcast is the best straight-news equivalent from the UK. The Rest Is Politics is the best UK-flavoured commentary show.

How do I stop podcasts from playing an intro I've already heard a hundred times?

Podtastic's Smart Skip auto-jumps past intros, recaps, and other commonly-skipped sections. If a show has a two-minute cold open you always skip, the app learns and starts trimming it automatically. You can also tap the control on your lock screen or CarPlay to jump forward manually.

What if my commute changes length day to day?

Build two queues, a short queue for the days you're rushed, a long queue for the days you have time. Podtastic lets you have multiple playlists live at once, so you can flip between them depending on the morning.

Listen smarter with Podtastic

Get more out of your new podcast picks. Podtastic is a fully featured podcast player for iOS and Android, built around Smart Features (the AI features) and Audio Enhancements (deterministic DSP tuned for spoken-word audio):

Smart Summaries — AI summaries of every podcast and episode so you know what's coming before you hit play
Smart Topics — key topics surfaced across your favourite shows so you can jump straight to what matters
Smart Playback — your queue fills itself based on what you actually listen to
Smart Skip — auto-skips commonly-skipped sections of an episode (intros, recaps, asides), powered by AI topic detection plus aggregated listening data; a single tap on any control surface jumps you to the next Smart Topic on demand
Skip Silence — auto-removes silences from speech so episodes flow without dragging
Enhance Voices — a gentle EQ and compression preset that keeps voices clear in any room

Join the waitlist at podtastic.app to get early access.

\n","raw","\n# Best podcasts for your morning commute (2026)\n\nThe morning commute is where most people first got into podcasts, and it's still the format's home turf. But the trick isn't picking the \"best\" podcast in some abstract sense, it's picking one that actually fits the length of the commute you have, and matches the headspace you want to arrive in.\n\nHere are our picks for 2026, sorted by how long your commute realistically is. Every show below is available on Podtastic (linked where indexed), so you can build a rotating morning queue that respects the clock.\n\n## TL;DR, pick by commute length\n\n- **10 minutes or less:** [Up First](https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510318/up-first) (NPR) or FT News Briefing\n- **20 minutes:** [The Daily](https://podtastic.app/discover/the-daily) (NYT) or Today, Explained (Vox)\n- **30-45 minutes:** [Search Engine](https://podtastic.app/discover/search-engine), [The Vergecast](https://podtastic.app/discover/the-vergecast), or [Curiosity Daily](https://curiositydaily.com/)\n- **60 minutes or more:** [Hard Fork](https://podtastic.app/discover/hard-fork), [Decoder](https://podtastic.app/discover/decoder-with-nilay-patel), or [Pivot](https://podtastic.app/discover/pivot)\n\n## Short commutes (10 minutes or less)\n\nIf you're walking to the tube or driving a short route, your window is the length of one strong pot of coffee. You want news, calibrated, and you want it now.\n\n**Up First (NPR)**, Ten minutes every weekday morning, three biggest stories, three producers, no filler. NPR's Up First is the closest thing to a good newspaper front page in audio form. If your commute is a short bus ride and you want to catch up on the world before the office, this is the one.\n\n**FT News Briefing**, Financial-times focus, most episodes under ten minutes. Skewed to global markets, business, and the money angle on political news. Best if your morning meetings tend to feature the words \"quarter\" or \"guidance.\"\n\n**BBC Global News Podcast**, Twice-daily updates from the BBC, each around thirty minutes but structured so the first ten cover the headlines. Good if you want international-first framing rather than US-first.\n\n## Medium commutes (20 minutes)\n\nYou've got a proper commute and can go one level deeper than the headlines. This is where a good daily explainer earns its keep.\n\n**[The Daily](https://podtastic.app/discover/the-daily) (New York Times)**, Roughly twenty-five minutes, five days a week, one story explained properly. Michael Barbaro's interview format is the format most other daily podcasts have copied since. Consistent quality, reliable release schedule, the closest thing the podcast world has to a \"must-listen\" morning show.\n\n**Today, Explained (Vox)**, Twenty to thirty minutes, more explainer-oriented than The Daily. Where The Daily takes one story and interviews one person, Today Explained takes one story and gives you the whole shape of it. Good if you want the \"why does this matter\" version, not the \"what happened yesterday\" version.\n\n## Medium-long commutes (30-45 minutes)\n\nYou have real time to spend. Here's where you can start listening to a proper tech or curiosity show, not just news.\n\n**[Search Engine](https://podtastic.app/discover/search-engine)**, PJ Vogt's follow-up to Reply All. Investigates one small internet question per episode (\"Why did all the good jobs disappear?\", \"How do I get rid of the smell in my apartment?\") and turns it into something bigger. Twenty-five to fifty minutes, varies. If you like Reply All's rhythm you'll love this.\n\n**[The Vergecast](https://podtastic.app/discover/the-vergecast)**, Nilay Patel and David Pierce weekly, generally one to two hours but the first thirty minutes are a self-contained news round-up. Good for a morning tech catch-up without committing to the whole episode.\n\n**Curiosity Daily**, Blends science, tech, and life-hack research into a fifteen-to-twenty minute daily. Not the deepest analysis on any of it, but a good \"let me learn one thing before work\" show.\n\n## Long commutes (60 minutes or more)\n\nIf you've got an hour or more, you're firmly in deep-dive territory. Interviews, analysis, and long-form storytelling all work here.\n\n**[Hard Fork](https://podtastic.app/discover/hard-fork)**, Kevin Roose and Casey Newton weekly on AI, big tech, and cultural fallout. Sixty to ninety minutes, guests roughly every other episode. Consistently one of the best-produced tech shows in the format right now.\n\n**[Decoder with Nilay Patel](https://podtastic.app/discover/decoder-with-nilay-patel)**, Long-form CEO interviews, most sixty to ninety minutes. Different guest most weeks. If your commute is long enough for a whole episode, this is the substance-per-minute leader in tech interviews.\n\n**[Pivot](https://podtastic.app/discover/pivot)**, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway twice-weekly on tech and business news. Faster-paced than Decoder, more topical, and shorter, usually forty-five to sixty minutes. Good for the \"keep me current on the industry\" slot.\n\n**[The Ezra Klein Show](https://podtastic.app/discover/the-ezra-klein-show)**, Long-form interviews on politics, culture, and ideas. Ezra picks smart guests and lets them talk. Ninety-minute episodes are common. Best if you want to arrive at work with more to think about, not more to say.\n\n**[The Rest Is Politics](https://podtastic.app/discover/the-rest-is-politics)**, Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell twice-weekly on UK and world politics, in a \"disagree agreeably\" format. Best UK-centric political show right now, and light enough to enjoy on a commute even if you're not politically engaged.\n\n## Comedy, for when you don't want more information\n\nSometimes you need the opposite of news. These earn a slot for the mornings when a serious podcast would ruin the mood.\n\n**Comedy Bang! Bang!**, Long-running celebrity/character improv show. Not sized for a short commute (episodes are typically ninety minutes) but you can dip in for the first twenty minutes and pick up where you left off tomorrow.\n\n**Off Menu with Ed Gamble & James Acaster**, Two comedians interviewing a guest about the perfect meal, one course at a time. Hour-long episodes, self-contained, funnier the more you listen. A good weekly companion.\n\n## Business and startup\n\n**[My First Million](https://podtastic.app/discover/my-first-million)**, Sam Parr and Shaan Puri riffing on startup ideas. YouTube-native energy, but the audio holds up as background listening. Long episodes, but they're easy to pick up and drop.\n\n**[Prof G Markets](https://podtastic.app/discover/prof-g-markets)**, Ed Elson and (frequently) Scott Galloway on markets and business news. Weekly, forty to sixty minutes, with a specific bent toward \"what does this mean for the actual economy.\" Good pair with a longer commute if you're in tech, finance, or startup land.\n\n## Interview and analysis\n\n**[On with Kara Swisher](https://podtastic.app/discover/on-with-kara-swisher)**, Kara Swisher's interview show, usually with a tech, political, or media figure. Sharp, occasionally combative, always well-prepared. Sixty-to-ninety minutes.\n\n**[TBPN](https://podtastic.app/discover/tbpn)**, Daily tech-business news podcast in the style of a business channel. Runs long, episodes can be several hours, but works well as background if your commute is more \"long train\" than \"short bus.\"\n\n## How to build a commute queue you'll actually use\n\nA few habits that make the morning slot work reliably:\n\n**Pick a rotation, not a single show.** Even the best daily show gets tired if it's the only thing you hear. A rotation of three or four in the same length band gives you variety without forcing you to choose every morning.\n\n**Match your queue length to your commute length.** If your morning is twenty minutes, don't queue three sixty-minute episodes back-to-back, you'll never finish anything and the \"unfinished\" pile grows. Build a queue of three or four shows that fit the actual window.\n\n**Use the auto-fill queue.** [Podtastic's Smart Playback](https://podtastic.app) fills your queue based on what you actually listen to, so the morning slot will keep filling with the kind of thing you've been listening to at that time of day. If you consistently hit \"skip\" on long deep-dives before 9am, the auto-fill learns to save those for the evening.\n\n## Frequently asked questions\n\n### What's the shortest daily news podcast worth listening to?\n\nUp First from NPR is the current best-in-class for a genuinely short (10-minute) daily news podcast. It hits the three biggest US stories of the day and gets out. FT News Briefing is the international/markets equivalent.\n\n### Are there any good non-US morning podcasts?\n\nYes, the [BBC Global News Podcast](https://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/p02nq0gn) is the best straight-news equivalent from the UK. [The Rest Is Politics](https://podtastic.app/discover/the-rest-is-politics) is the best UK-flavoured commentary show.\n\n### How do I stop podcasts from playing an intro I've already heard a hundred times?\n\n[Podtastic's Smart Skip](https://podtastic.app) auto-jumps past intros, recaps, and other commonly-skipped sections. If a show has a two-minute cold open you always skip, the app learns and starts trimming it automatically. You can also tap the control on your lock screen or CarPlay to jump forward manually.\n\n### What if my commute changes length day to day?\n\nBuild two queues, a short queue for the days you're rushed, a long queue for the days you have time. Podtastic lets you have multiple playlists live at once, so you can flip between them depending on the morning.\n\n## Listen smarter with Podtastic\n\nGet more out of your new podcast picks. **[Podtastic](https://podtastic.app)** is a fully featured podcast player for iOS and Android, built around **Smart Features** (the AI features) and **Audio Enhancements** (deterministic DSP tuned for spoken-word audio):\n\n- **Smart Summaries** — AI summaries of every podcast and episode so you know what's coming before you hit play\n- **Smart Topics** — key topics surfaced across your favourite shows so you can jump straight to what matters\n- **Smart Playback** — your queue fills itself based on what you actually listen to\n- **Smart Skip** — auto-skips commonly-skipped sections of an episode (intros, recaps, asides), powered by AI topic detection plus aggregated listening data; a single tap on any control surface jumps you to the next Smart Topic on demand\n- **Skip Silence** — auto-removes silences from speech so episodes flow without dragging\n- **Enhance Voices** — a gentle EQ and compression preset that keeps voices clear in any room\n\nJoin the waitlist at [podtastic.app](https://podtastic.app) to get early access.\n","morning-commute","news-podcasts","best-video-podcasts-to-watch-2026","Best video podcasts to watch in 2026","2026-07-21T00:00:00.000Z","The best video podcasts in 2026, tech, business, science, and culture shows worth watching, not just listening to. Every pick is available on Podtastic.","/blog/best-video-podcasts-to-watch-2026.webp","Best video podcasts to watch in 2026, hand-picked video-first shows across tech, business, science, and culture, all available on Podtastic",[35,52,8],"best video podcasts 2026","

Best video podcasts to watch in 2026

Video is now the dominant discovery format for podcasts. YouTube passed 1 billion monthly podcast viewers and Spotify now hosts over 330,000 video podcasts. But most "video podcasts" aren't equally good in video and audio. Some shows are genuinely worth watching. Others should be experienced as audio and the video is a formality.

Here are the video podcasts that actually earn the video treatment in 2026, the ones where seeing the room, the guest, the product, or the reaction adds something the audio alone doesn't. Every pick is available on Podtastic, so you can flip between the audio version and the video version depending on where you are.

TL;DR, the shortlist

Waveform: the tech-review podcast that unambiguously earns video
Decoder with Nilay Patel: long-form CEO interviews with the visual weight of a proper sit-down
The Vergecast: a weekly tech round-up where the hardware demos genuinely need a camera
Hard Fork: Kevin Roose and Casey Newton talking AI, worth the video when guests join
On with Kara Swisher: interviews where the guest reactions are half the story
My First Million: Sam Parr and Shaan Puri riffing on startup ideas, YouTube-native energy
TBPN: a tech-business daily built for the video-first era
This Week in Tech: Leo Laporte's long-running roundtable, video streaming since before it was cool
Prof G Markets: Ed Elson and Scott Galloway on markets, works in video when charts get drawn
The Rest Is Entertainment: Marina Hyde and Richard Osman on culture, video adds the delivery

Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast

Marques Brownlee's podcast is the clearest case of a video podcast that would be less good as audio. The show reviews consumer tech, phones, wearables, laptops, cars, and half the value is Marques literally holding the thing up to the camera, showing you the screen glare, the button feel, the surprise on his face when Andrew and David disagree with him.

If you're new to it, the WWDC recap and the annual smartphone awards episodes are the ones that hook most listeners. Audio-only works too, but you're missing the demo half.

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Nilay Patel gets CEOs on the record for 60-90 minutes. Video gives you the small tells, a CEO shifting when a question lands, a moment of genuine surprise, a smile that a pull quote doesn't capture. It's also the format that lets you see whether the guest actually turned up for the interview or phoned it in.

Audio works fine for the drive; video is worth it for the CEO episodes specifically.

The Vergecast

The Vergecast is a weekly tech round-up hosted by Nilay Patel and David Pierce. The recent Ramageddon segment is a good example of why the video version earns its keep, when they're pulling up charts on the RAM crisis or a screenshot of Meta's smart-glasses privacy interface, the video makes the reference obvious in a way the audio has to describe.

Audio version is great for the pub-conversation feel; video version is better when there's a hardware or UI moment in play.

Hard Fork

Kevin Roose and Casey Newton do a weekly on AI, big tech, and cultural fallout. The video is quietly excellent when there's a guest, the interviews land differently when you can see who the guest is looking at, especially the more heated regulator conversations. Audio-only is also completely fine and probably how most listeners consume it.

On with Kara Swisher

Kara Swisher's interview show is another that works better with the video for a specific reason, her interview style is confrontational in a friendly way, and watching a guest's face during a follow-up question is often the whole point. She gets access to political and tech figures who normally do rehearsed press circuits, and the video captures the moments where the rehearsal cracks.

My First Million

Sam Parr and Shaan Puri riffing on startup ideas. The show is YouTube-native, the two hosts sit at desks facing each other, the whiteboard is often physical, and half the jokes rely on seeing one of them make a face at the other. It's a good example of a video podcast that started as audio and evolved into a video-first product.

TBPN

If you want a daily rhythm on tech and business, TBPN is the video-first take. It runs like a cable business channel that took the cable network out of the equation, a live-ish daily with graphics, guest segments, and headlines. Works as background audio too, but the show is clearly designed for people looking at a screen.

This Week in Tech

Leo Laporte's TWiT show has been broadcasting on video since long before it was fashionable, the podcast literally invented the term "netcast" and the video studio has been operating for years. If you want a weekly, roundtable format with rotating panellists on the state of tech, this is one of the longest-running versions of that format on either audio or video.

Prof G Markets

Ed Elson and Scott Galloway on markets and business, most useful in video when there's a chart on screen. The Alex Kantrowitz interview on the Apple v OpenAI lawsuit is a good recent example, the chart section of the episode makes more sense with the visual.

The Rest Is Entertainment

Marina Hyde and Richard Osman on the media and culture industries. Genuinely one of the funniest podcasts in either format, and video adds the delivery, Marina Hyde's raised eyebrow when Richard Osman lands a punchline is worth the video click by itself. The UK-culture focus is the differentiator; if you want a break from the US-tech-heavy list above, this is where to go.

Which of these should you actually watch?

Realistic answer: pick two.

If you're a tech listener, Waveform for the reviews and Decoder for the interviews cover the vast majority of what's worth watching in the tech world. Everything else on this list is a strong audio show that occasionally rewards a video click.

If you're a business/startup listener, My First Million and TBPN are the video-native pair. Different tones, MFM is riffy and idea-heavy, TBPN is more paced and headline-driven.

If you want one show that isn't tech or business, The Rest Is Entertainment is the change-of-pace pick.

How to watch these without leaving your podcast app

A recent Podtastic update added a Jump to Video button to the maxi player for shows that publish a video feed alongside the audio. Tap it and you're in the video version of the current episode at the same timestamp, no need to search YouTube, no scrubbing, no phone dance.

For the shows above that publish a video version, that means you can listen through the standard podcast player, hit Jump to Video when a hardware demo or chart lands, then close the video and go back to audio-only for the rest. It matches how most people actually watch video podcasts anyway, with the video on for the visual bits, audio-only for the long conversation.

Frequently asked questions

Are video podcasts a different format from regular podcasts?

Usually not. Most video podcasts are the same show recorded with a camera. The audio version ships to podcast feeds (Apple, Spotify, Podtastic, Overcast) and the video ships to YouTube, Spotify's video tier, and sometimes their own site. Some newer shows are video-first, TBPN and Waveform are examples, but even those maintain audio-only feeds because that's where a lot of the loyal listening still happens.

Do I need YouTube Premium to watch video podcasts?

You need YouTube Premium (or YouTube Music) if you want background play, meaning you can lock your screen or switch to another app and the audio keeps going. Without Premium, YouTube stops playback when the app leaves the foreground. This is one reason a lot of "video podcast" listeners actually consume the audio via a podcast app instead, no premium subscription needed.

What's the best way to discover new video podcasts?

Two paths. Follow the creators you already like on YouTube, most tech and business podcasters clip their shows there. Then, when you find one worth committing to, subscribe to the audio feed in a podcast app so you get the full-length version with proper chaptering and background play. YouTube is the trailer; the podcast app is the listen.

Listen smarter with Podtastic

Smart Summaries — AI summaries of every podcast and episode so you know what's coming before you hit play
Smart Topics — key topics surfaced across your favourite shows so you can jump straight to what matters
Smart Playback — your queue fills itself based on what you actually listen to
Smart Skip — auto-skips commonly-skipped sections of an episode (intros, recaps, asides), powered by AI topic detection plus aggregated listening data; a single tap on any control surface jumps you to the next Smart Topic on demand
Skip Silence — auto-removes silences from speech so episodes flow without dragging
Enhance Voices — a gentle EQ and compression preset that keeps voices clear in any room

Join the waitlist at podtastic.app to get early access.

\n","\n# Best video podcasts to watch in 2026\n\nVideo is now the dominant discovery format for podcasts. [YouTube passed 1 billion monthly podcast viewers](https://blog.podbean.com/video-podcast-statistics-2026/) and Spotify now hosts over 330,000 video podcasts. But most \"video podcasts\" aren't equally good in video and audio. Some shows are genuinely worth watching. Others should be experienced as audio and the video is a formality.\n\nHere are the video podcasts that actually earn the video treatment in 2026, the ones where seeing the room, the guest, the product, or the reaction adds something the audio alone doesn't. Every pick is available on Podtastic, so you can flip between the audio version and the video version depending on where you are.\n\n## TL;DR, the shortlist\n\n- **[Waveform](https://podtastic.app/discover/waveform-the-mkbhd-podcast)**: the tech-review podcast that unambiguously earns video\n- **[Decoder with Nilay Patel](https://podtastic.app/discover/decoder-with-nilay-patel)**: long-form CEO interviews with the visual weight of a proper sit-down\n- **[The Vergecast](https://podtastic.app/discover/the-vergecast)**: a weekly tech round-up where the hardware demos genuinely need a camera\n- **[Hard Fork](https://podtastic.app/discover/hard-fork)**: Kevin Roose and Casey Newton talking AI, worth the video when guests join\n- **[On with Kara Swisher](https://podtastic.app/discover/on-with-kara-swisher)**: interviews where the guest reactions are half the story\n- **[My First Million](https://podtastic.app/discover/my-first-million)**: Sam Parr and Shaan Puri riffing on startup ideas, YouTube-native energy\n- **[TBPN](https://podtastic.app/discover/tbpn)**: a tech-business daily built for the video-first era\n- **[This Week in Tech](https://podtastic.app/discover/this-week-in-tech-audio)**: Leo Laporte's long-running roundtable, video streaming since before it was cool\n- **[Prof G Markets](https://podtastic.app/discover/prof-g-markets)**: Ed Elson and Scott Galloway on markets, works in video when charts get drawn\n- **[The Rest Is Entertainment](https://podtastic.app/discover/the-rest-is-entertainment)**: Marina Hyde and Richard Osman on culture, video adds the delivery\n\n---\n\n## Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast\n\nMarques Brownlee's podcast is the clearest case of a video podcast that would be less good as audio. The show reviews consumer tech, phones, wearables, laptops, cars, and half the value is Marques literally holding the thing up to the camera, showing you the screen glare, the button feel, the surprise on his face when Andrew and David disagree with him.\n\nIf you're new to it, the WWDC recap and the annual smartphone awards episodes are the ones that hook most listeners. Audio-only works too, but you're missing the demo half.\n\n## Decoder with Nilay Patel\n\nNilay Patel gets CEOs on the record for 60-90 minutes. Video gives you the small tells, a CEO shifting when a question lands, a moment of genuine surprise, a smile that a pull quote doesn't capture. It's also the format that lets you see whether the guest actually turned up for the interview or phoned it in.\n\nAudio works fine for the drive; video is worth it for the CEO episodes specifically.\n\n## The Vergecast\n\nThe Vergecast is a weekly tech round-up hosted by Nilay Patel and David Pierce. The recent [Ramageddon segment](https://podtastic.app/discover/the-vergecast/netflix-is-turning-into-youtube) is a good example of why the video version earns its keep, when they're pulling up charts on the RAM crisis or a screenshot of Meta's smart-glasses privacy interface, the video makes the reference obvious in a way the audio has to describe.\n\nAudio version is great for the pub-conversation feel; video version is better when there's a hardware or UI moment in play.\n\n## Hard Fork\n\nKevin Roose and Casey Newton do a weekly on AI, big tech, and cultural fallout. The video is quietly excellent when there's a guest, the interviews land differently when you can see who the guest is looking at, especially the more heated regulator conversations. Audio-only is also completely fine and probably how most listeners consume it.\n\n## On with Kara Swisher\n\nKara Swisher's interview show is another that works better with the video for a specific reason, her interview style is confrontational in a friendly way, and watching a guest's face during a follow-up question is often the whole point. She gets access to political and tech figures who normally do rehearsed press circuits, and the video captures the moments where the rehearsal cracks.\n\n## My First Million\n\nSam Parr and Shaan Puri riffing on startup ideas. The show is YouTube-native, the two hosts sit at desks facing each other, the whiteboard is often physical, and half the jokes rely on seeing one of them make a face at the other. It's a good example of a video podcast that started as audio and evolved into a video-first product.\n\n## TBPN\n\nIf you want a daily rhythm on tech and business, TBPN is the video-first take. It runs like a cable business channel that took the cable network out of the equation, a live-ish daily with graphics, guest segments, and headlines. Works as background audio too, but the show is clearly designed for people looking at a screen.\n\n## This Week in Tech\n\nLeo Laporte's TWiT show has been broadcasting on video since long before it was fashionable, the podcast literally invented the term \"netcast\" and the video studio has been operating for years. If you want a weekly, roundtable format with rotating panellists on the state of tech, this is one of the longest-running versions of that format on either audio or video.\n\n## Prof G Markets\n\nEd Elson and Scott Galloway on markets and business, most useful in video when there's a chart on screen. The Alex Kantrowitz interview on the [Apple v OpenAI lawsuit](https://podtastic.app/discover/prof-g-markets/apple-just-declared-war-on-openai) is a good recent example, the chart section of the episode makes more sense with the visual.\n\n## The Rest Is Entertainment\n\nMarina Hyde and Richard Osman on the media and culture industries. Genuinely one of the funniest podcasts in either format, and video adds the delivery, Marina Hyde's raised eyebrow when Richard Osman lands a punchline is worth the video click by itself. The UK-culture focus is the differentiator; if you want a break from the US-tech-heavy list above, this is where to go.\n\n## Which of these should you actually watch?\n\nRealistic answer: pick two.\n\nIf you're a tech listener, **Waveform** for the reviews and **Decoder** for the interviews cover the vast majority of what's worth watching in the tech world. Everything else on this list is a strong audio show that occasionally rewards a video click.\n\nIf you're a business/startup listener, **My First Million** and **TBPN** are the video-native pair. Different tones, MFM is riffy and idea-heavy, TBPN is more paced and headline-driven.\n\nIf you want one show that isn't tech or business, **The Rest Is Entertainment** is the change-of-pace pick.\n\n## How to watch these without leaving your podcast app\n\nA recent Podtastic update added a **Jump to Video** button to the maxi player for shows that publish a video feed alongside the audio. Tap it and you're in the video version of the current episode at the same timestamp, no need to search YouTube, no scrubbing, no phone dance.\n\nFor the shows above that publish a video version, that means you can listen through the standard podcast player, hit Jump to Video when a hardware demo or chart lands, then close the video and go back to audio-only for the rest. It matches how most people actually watch video podcasts anyway, with the video on for the visual bits, audio-only for the long conversation.\n\n## Frequently asked questions\n\n### Are video podcasts a different format from regular podcasts?\n\nUsually not. Most video podcasts are the same show recorded with a camera. The audio version ships to podcast feeds (Apple, Spotify, Podtastic, Overcast) and the video ships to YouTube, Spotify's video tier, and sometimes their own site. Some newer shows are video-first, TBPN and Waveform are examples, but even those maintain audio-only feeds because that's where a lot of the loyal listening still happens.\n\n### Do I need YouTube Premium to watch video podcasts?\n\nYou need YouTube Premium (or YouTube Music) if you want background play, meaning you can lock your screen or switch to another app and the audio keeps going. Without Premium, YouTube stops playback when the app leaves the foreground. This is one reason a lot of \"video podcast\" listeners actually consume the audio via a podcast app instead, no premium subscription needed.\n\n### What's the best way to discover new video podcasts?\n\nTwo paths. Follow the creators you already like on YouTube, most tech and business podcasters clip their shows there. Then, when you find one worth committing to, subscribe to the audio feed in a podcast app so you get the full-length version with proper chaptering and background play. YouTube is the trailer; the podcast app is the listen.\n\n## Listen smarter with Podtastic\n\nGet more out of your new podcast picks. **[Podtastic](https://podtastic.app)** is a fully featured podcast player for iOS and Android, built around **Smart Features** (the AI features) and **Audio Enhancements** (deterministic DSP tuned for spoken-word audio):\n\n- **Smart Summaries** — AI summaries of every podcast and episode so you know what's coming before you hit play\n- **Smart Topics** — key topics surfaced across your favourite shows so you can jump straight to what matters\n- **Smart Playback** — your queue fills itself based on what you actually listen to\n- **Smart Skip** — auto-skips commonly-skipped sections of an episode (intros, recaps, asides), powered by AI topic detection plus aggregated listening data; a single tap on any control surface jumps you to the next Smart Topic on demand\n- **Skip Silence** — auto-removes silences from speech so episodes flow without dragging\n- **Enhance Voices** — a gentle EQ and compression preset that keeps voices clear in any room\n\nJoin the waitlist at [podtastic.app](https://podtastic.app) to get early access.\n","video-podcasts"]

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