Apple celebrated 20 years of Apple podcasts on Thursday by unveiling a curated assortment of 20 reveals that it stated helped form the medium into what it’s at present. The primary podcasts in iTunes debuted again in 2005, earlier than the title “Apple Podcasts” turned a factor. This new listing is sort of a roadmap to high quality content material that goes again in time.
“This listing is a love letter to the podcasts that left an enduring impression on us and those we proceed to advocate time and again,” the streamer wrote. “They’re reveals with hosts that really feel like mates, and reveals that make us press play instantly on the most recent episode to listen to what occurs subsequent. These reveals have measurably improved our lives and helped outline this medium we all know and love.”
Celebrating 20 years of Apple podcasts with 20 favourite reveals
The Apple Podcasts milestone celebration honors a maturing medium. Podcasts emerged a number of years earlier than iTunes help got here alongside. The phrase “podcast” credited to journalist Ben Hammersley. He referred to “podcasting” in a 2004 article in The Guardian. The time period is a portmanteau of “iPod” and “broadcast,” highlighting Apple’s instrumental position in bringing podcasting to mainstream audiences. This new listing of 20 favorites, is solely the most recent of its variety from the iPhone big. Apple’s editorial groups for providers are not any strangers to creating lists of favorites from over time, with Apple Music selecting its high 100 albums of all time final yr.
A love letter to podcasting’s evolution
This human-curated strategy contrasts with purely data-driven suggestions. Apple’s workforce particularly selected reveals that “greatest exemplify how far podcasting has come — and the place it could possibly go within the subsequent 20 years.”
Every of the 20 reveals contains its personal editorial be aware on Apple’s devoted anniversary web site. The be aware explains why the present acquired chosen and what makes it important to the medium’s improvement. This contextual data helps customers perceive not simply what to take heed to, however why these explicit reveals matter in podcasting historical past.
Apple’s editorial workforce stated the gathering showcases reveals spanning from the early days of the medium by way of 2025. The listing demonstrates how podcasting has advanced from experimental audio initiatives to mainstream leisure.
As per the quote above, the corporate emphasised how a private connection between hosts and listeners has develop into a defining attribute of profitable podcasts throughout the two-decade span.
From experimental audio to cultural phenomenon
Picture: Apple
The anniversary assortment displays podcasting’s transformation from Nick van der Kolk’s early audio experiments in Love and Radio to at present’s celebrity-hosted reveals and deep-dive investigative sequence like. This evolution mirrors the medium’s journey from area of interest hobbyist content material to a multi-billion greenback business that influences information, leisure and cultural conversations.
The reveals vary from “devoted followers within the truest type” like Las Culturistas hosts Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, who “started the present as burgeoning comedians and, with the present, have ballooned into large stars,” to established journalism codecs which have formed how hundreds of thousands devour day by day information.
Apple’s celebration acknowledges each the intimacy that makes podcasting distinctive and its rising affect on broader media landscapes. The corporate notes that reveals like The Day by day have develop into “a part of the on a regular basis routine for hundreds of thousands of individuals searching for to make sense of the world — and their place inside it.”
Numerous reveals throughout five-year durations
The 20 chosen podcasts are organized chronologically into 4 distinct eras, every representing a distinct part in podcasting’s improvement.
- 2005-2010 period options pioneering reveals like Love and Radio, This American Life and 99% Invisible. They symbolize the medium’s experimental roots and early narrative storytelling.
- 2011-2015 interval contains breakthrough sequence like Serial. It introduced true-crime podcasting to the mainstream, alongside reveals like Tune Exploder, The Reality and Thriller Present. Additionally they pushed inventive boundaries.
- 2016-2020 alternatives spotlight the medium’s growth into day by day information codecs with The Day by day, comedy with Las Culturistas and conversational codecs like Name Her Daddy. They present podcasting’s rising cultural affect.
- 2021-2025 modern picks characteristic current hits like Huberman Lab, with its science-focused content material, plus investigative sequence like Candy Bobby and personality-driven reveals resembling Child, That is Keke Palmer and Therapuss with Jake Shane.
The whole anniversary assortment is obtainable on Apple’s devoted web site and throughout the Apple Podcasts app.