In this business, hosts have to have a certain ego to succeed - you have to believe that people want to hear what you have to say for multiple hours in a week. I may listen to a host talk for 3-4 hours a week -- probably longer than any other person in my actual life. Because of the potential for such an "intimate" relationship and connection between host and guest, there's been a big jump in advertising money in recent years.
Most of the ultra-popular podcasts, often hosted by NPR or other news networks, would be classified as educational/informational/journalistic, and a lot of people exclusively listen to these ones. But I am not a fan at all personally. I much prefer visual as opposed to auditory for consuming serious information, like reading an article or even transcript of the discussion (and look up stuff on the side to corroborate information). Instead of getting just one person's narrative or compilation, I would have more freedom in the way I digest the material.
The Ringer is a podcast network that hosts all these three and they have a diverse selection.
Bill Simmons - Releases 3 x 1.5 hrs a week; founder of the Ringer website and has the most connections to get well-known guests, usually sports but not always. Also likes to pull longstanding friends or work colleagues on as guests. I'd say the funny/serious time split is 20/80.
Ryen Russillo - 2 x 1 hr a week; comes off as arrogant but I don't mind and think it's part of the schtick. Heavy sports focus with a dash of mailbag advice. I definitely think hosting solo is more difficult than with a partner because you always have to fill that empty air time and have nobody to bounce ideas off of. F/S split is 30/70.
Rewatchables - 2 x 1 hr a week; group of 3 or 4 deep dives into movies with certain categories and inside jokes. Goes behind the scenes with stories about production, marketing, whatifs. But I don't listen to the podcast unless I have also watched the movie -- maybe a 1/3 of the time. F/S split is 40/60.
But as for my favorite podcast at the moment (the only one where I always listen to all the way through and not skip any sections...)
Pardon My Take - 3 x 1.5 hrs a week; Sports and Comedy, with an emphasis on the Comedy. It started out as a satire of traditional sports interviews, which are very bland and scripted. They go by nicknames, not real names, to give the impression of "playing a character", and correspondingly insert a lot of banter and jokes. But it's subtle like Colbert's satirical persona. They don't take it that seriously to take the edge off things and make the interviewee more comfortable. A true test of whether you're into the podcast is if you listen even if you're not that interested in the guest. And they help alleviate that because half of the podcast is the guest interview(s), but the other half they have recurring segments that cover current events, pop culture, everyday life, and inside jokes. But other than that, they do get top-notch guests (not only sports ones) more than any other podcast I've seen. They do a lot of preparation for jokes and research for the interviewee's background, and often get the guest to lower their guard and sound more like a normal person. But there is a decent amount of improv that goes into their segments as well (ex. cold calling another celebrity in the guest's contacts). I'd say the funny/serious split is 70/30.
It's not something that comes up in typical conversation, but I'm definitely curious to the podcasts my friends listen to. Studies show a quarter of Americans listen to them on a weekly basis.
