50 Creative Podcast Topics and Ideas For Your Next Show

Running out of podcast ideas can be a legitimate fear for podcast hosts. With listener demand at an all-time high, hosts are feeling more pressure than ever before to deliver high-quality episodes. 

Fortunately, there’s no shortage of podcast topics and ideas to choose from.

Whether you’re releasing new episodes every day or every week, you can use this plan to plan hundreds of new podcasts—so you’ll never run out of ideas to talk about.

Regardless of your podcast format or niche, the following 50 podcast ideas can help inspire you to create amazing content for your audience:

1. Product Reviews

You can create an entire show reviewing products. Think beyond physical products—as this can also translate to services and software.

Break down the costs, how it works, who it’s good for, what you liked, and what you don’t like. You could spend an entire episode on a single product or review and compare five to ten related products. 

Just make sure the reviews are relevant to your category or area of expertise. 

2. Teaching New Skills

If you possess highly sought-after skills, you can teach them to your audience through podcast episodes. 

Step outside the box and brainstorm some skills that don’t have a highly visual component to retain. 

For example, a step-by-step software tutorial probably wouldn’t translate well to a podcast. But teaching emotional intelligence, active listening techniques, and leadership would all make for great episodes. 

3. Comedy Sketches

Skip this if you’re not funny. 

But otherwise, look for creative ways to make your audience laugh through a comedy sketch or stand up routine. You can even have an entire episode just rattling off “one-liner” jokes. 

Bring on a guest or two and add another element to your sketches. 

4. Book Reviews and Recommendations

This podcast idea is pretty self-explanatory. 

Read a book, and give your opinion. If you haven’t read anything lately, it’s an excuse to read something new. Otherwise, you can always start with something you’ve read in the past and use that to create an episode ASAP.

5. History

We have more than 5,000 years of recorded history—meaning there’s no shortage of inspiration to pull from here.

You can have episodes about different historical events, presenting facts and summarizing what happened. Or you can take this a step further and add your own spin, like taking something from the past and explaining how it shaped something in the modern era. 

6. Advice of the Day

This works really well for daily podcast publishers. 

You can either incorporate “advice of the day” into each episode—or create daily micro-podcasts with bite-sized pieces of advice. 

Some days can be very simple, like telling your listeners to drink water. Others can be more complex, such as giving advice on patience or making assumptions about people. 

7. TV and Movie Reviews

You could have an entire podcast series related to TV and movies and never run out of episode ideas. 

This works really well for new podcasters who are looking for a place to start. 

Eventually, you should narrow your focus to a particular category—like true crime TV or dystopian future movies. Narrowing your scope will help you retain a particular audience, which is easier than trying to please the masses. 

8. Guided Meditation

More than half of these episodes will be silent. You just need to chime in every once in a while reminding your listeners when to breathe and what they should be focusing on.

But a 20-minute episode may only have one or two total minutes of speaking—making it really easy to record a bunch of episodes at once and have them ready for release. 

9. Travel Tips and Stories

Share your travel experiences with your listeners!

You can provide general travel advice—like how to pack a carry-on bag or tips for getting cheap hotel rooms. Or you can go into specific locations—like “where to eat in Rome” or “five things you need to see in California.”

10. Pets and Animals

There are nearly 87 million pet owners in the US alone. So there’s definitely a huge market of potential listeners. 

Use this as a platform to talk about your own pets. Or you could potentially try to get some animal experts on the show to share their knowledge. 

11. The “Top 10” Show

People love lists, and they always tend to get more clicks. These types of episodes are great for sharing your podcast online and attracting new listeners.

Regardless of your podcast type, I’m sure you can find at least one “top ten [something]” to talk about. You could even mix in an episode like this once a month, and it wouldn’t get stale. 

12. Improvisation

Normally, I recommend having a well-prepared and polished show.

But if you want to stray a bit from conventional, you could always sit down without a topic or idea and just start talking. This works better if you have a co-host or guest, as you can feed off of each other. 

Worst case scenario is that the improv isn’t great, and you don’t release the show. No harm done!

13. Under Ten Minutes Show

Having a show that takes less than ten minutes to record and listen to definitely takes some pressure off of you. 

You could break up an episode that would normally take an hour or 90 minutes and turn it into five or ten episodes. 

Think morning coffee—what do people want to hear while they’re brewing and drinking coffee first thing in the morning? 

14. Hiking, Camping, and Outdoors

Immerse your audience in the thrill of the great outdoors!

There are tons of topics to explore in this category alone. You can share some personal stories of trips or give trail recommendations to avid hikers. 

This can even be combined with other topics—like product reviews of camping gear or “top ten” places to hike in the US. 

15. Poetry

Two approaches here—writing your own poetry or reading poetry from others.

Either way, there’s no shortage of content. You can even ask your audience for submissions to drive more engagement and ensure you have a never-ending source of poems to pull from. 

16. Taxi or Uber Driver Interview

Every taxi, Uber, and Lyft driver has at least one crazy story to share.

The next time you’re taking a ride with a cool driver, you can ask them if they’d like to join your show. Or you can just interview them in the car and share their stories. 

This is a great way to kill time and get inspiration whenever you need to hail a ride. 

17. Storytelling

There are no rules for this one.

You can come up with your own stories or simply share the stories of others. 

From fictional stories to first-person narratives and fantasy adventures, the sky’s the limit.

18. Dating and Relationships

Here’s another podcast idea with seemingly endless possibilities.

Maybe you want to give your listeners relationship advice. Or you could go in a completely different direction and share nightmare first-date stories. 

19. Gameshow

Invite your friends over and play games!

This can be a really fun way to record episodes. Just make sure the games don’t require too many visuals to follow or understand.

For example, some type of trivia would work better than Wheel of Fortune. 

20. Coffee Connoisseur 

If you’re a coffee enthusiast, share your knowledge with your listeners.

You can talk about different brewing methods, from French press to moka pot, or dive into the weeds with how coffee is sourced roasted. 

21. Alcohol

Share cocktail recipes or review different bottles. Invite a bartender to be your guest and have them cover the “do’s” and don’ts” of ordering drinks—maybe they’ll even share some stories.

You could always dive deeper into a particular category, like bourbon or wine reviews.

22. Podcasting

A podcast about podcasting—why not?

One of your episodes can be about podcast topics for your next show (and you have my permission to borrow ideas from this list).

23. AMA

This is inspired by the old Reddit “ask me anything” approach.

It requires a bit more work, as you’ll need to have people submit questions ahead of time. Then it’s just a matter of reading the questions and providing an answer.

24. Day in the Life

You can go over a day in the love of anyone!

• Doctor
• Musician
• DJ
• Fisherman
• Photographer
• Landscape Architect
• CEO

There’s a never-ending list of options to choose from. You can even have an episode about a day in your life. 

25. Gaming

Rate and review different video games and systems. 

You can even talk specifics—like how to beat certain levels or tricks for advancing through different story modes. 

26. Home Improvement

There are several different approaches you can take here.

If you’re doing your own home renovations, you can keep your listeners up to speed throughout the process.

Or you can always discuss different home improvement hacks, like tools to get or materials to avoid. You can even have an interior designer come on and share some space-saving tips or inspiration. 

27. Industry Inner-Workings

What goes on behind the scenes at the zoo? What’s taking insurance companies so long to issue checks for claims?

If you work or have worked in an interesting industry, you can share “behind the scenes” information with your audience. 

Alternatively, you can invite guests from different industries to come on your show and discuss mind-blowing industry secrets. 

28. Retirement

Again, this is another podcast idea that can be spun with multiple approaches.

• How to keep your mind sharp during retirement
• How to save for retirement
• How to retire before you’re 50

All of these shows have different angles and target different audiences. 

29. Wedding and Event Planning

There are hundreds of things that a couple needs to do to prepare for a wedding. 

From finding a venue to hiring a wedding planner and managing payments, you could record 365 episodes per year and never run out of things to talk about. 

30. Entrepreneurship

There’s a growing number of people who want to start their own business but don’t know where to begin.

You can have podcast episodes about leadership and management tips and or other episodes about forming an LLC and tax benefits. 

Bring on guests to share their stories about being an entrepreneur. 

31. Interesting Facts

Did you know that Australia is wider than the moon? Or that only female mosquitoes bite humans?

You can do some research and share fun facts of the day with your audience. 

While this may not be enough to carry an entire episode, it’s a segment you can add to any show.

32. Alternative Living

From tiny homes to RVs, living on a boat, or becoming a digital nomad, there are tons of topics and ideas you can discuss on this type of podcast.

You can have episodes geared to people who are currently living these lifestyles, as well as episodes for people interested in starting alternative living. 

33. Life Hacks

There are endless life hacks that you can talk about.

Try focusing each episode on a particular category, sharing all of the hacks within that segment. 

For example, one episode can be all about life hacks for better sleep. While another episode can cover life hacks for home organization. 

34. Fitness

From strength training to cardio and everything in between—you’ll never run out of ideas for your fitness and wellness podcast. 

Cover workout routines and interview guests who want to share their favorite dieting secrets.

One of the best parts about running a fitness podcast is there will never be a shortage of guests either. So many people in this industry are looking for free publicity, and your show can be a win-win situation for everyone. 

35. Food

Ten ways to cook chicken. Best sides for a summer BBQ. My favorite one-pan meal.

You get the idea. There are potentially thousands of different topics you can cover with a food podcast. 

36. Repurposed Content

This idea is super cool because it’s broad enough to cover any category.

Let’s say you read an awesome blog post or stumbled upon an intriguing YouTube video. You can simply take something that’s already out there and repurpose it into your own podcast.

Just make sure you’re not taking credit for someone else’s proprietary work or ideas. Always give credit where it’s due. 

37. Psychology

There’s a growing interest in the human mind and behavior. 

Generally speaking, it’s better if you have a background in psychology to have success with this type of podcast. However, you can get away with it if you find quality and qualified guests on your show.

Otherwise, you could try to summarize and explain different psychological studies (repurposed content). 

38. Art

Picasso, da Vinci, Rembrandt—that’s where most of our minds go when we think about art.

But there are so many different types of art that you can cover—including photography, performance art, architecture, and even music. 

39. Crypto

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain have been a hot topic for quite some time now. 

Your episodes can focus on crypto trends and keep your listeners up to date with new currencies and breaking news regarding regulations. 

40. Astrology

Daily horoscope readings for every zodiac sign. 

That in itself can give you enough material for a year’s worth of shows. 

41. Philosophy

There are seven different branches of philosophy, plus tens of thousands of philosophers worldwide.

Not to mention some of history’s most famous philosophers—like Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, and Marx. You could pick just one of these guys and have enough material to carry your podcast forever.

42. Throwback Thursday

Consider running a weekly throwback Thursday show. 

Use Google to find something interesting that happened on that day in the past. Try to focus on recent history—like within the last 10-30 years. This increases the chances that guests will remember the event, and have a nostalgic feeling related to that era.

Then you can talk about something interesting or obsolete from whatever year you’re throwing it back to. 

43. Hypothetical Scenarios

I recently saw a Ted Talk by Liam Young called “Planet City.” 

He paints a hypothetical picture of a futuristic metropolis of ten billion people—where it’s possible for the entire earth’s population to survive on a sustainable planet. 

You could have a lot of fun with this type of episode and even use it as a thought experiment. 

44. Famous Biographies

There are thousands of famous people, both dead and alive, that you can dedicate entire episodes to. 

Discuss their upbringing, family life, education, professional accomplishments, and anything else that you can uncover. 

45. Parenting

It helps to have kids if you’re going to host this type of podcast. But it’s not a requirement. 

You can give parenting tips to new parents or provide a platform for parents to share their stories. This is an excellent opportunity for you to build a community beyond your podcast by having a website or forum where your members can connect with each other. 

46. Industry News

Tell people what’s happening in your industry.

If you’re a marketer, you can cover Google’s newest SEO-related updates. If you’re in payment processing, you can keep listeners apprised of Visa and Mastercard’s latest rate increases. 

You get the idea—keep your ears open and be the first to share what’s happening with your audience. 

47. Freelance and Side Hustles

Who doesn’t want to earn some extra cash on the side?

Each episode can cover a different type of side hustle or money-making venture. 

From starting a dropshipping business to freelance writing or spotting hidden gems at tag sales, you can definitely create an entire show dedicated to this topic. 

48. Bus Stop Interviews

Head to your local bus stop, train station, airport, or even city park—basically anywhere you can sit and start chatting with a stranger. 

See if they’re open to giving you some information about their life story. You can keep them anonymous and share the best and most interesting stories with your podcast listeners. 

49. Personal Finance

From budgeting to investing, you’ll have plenty to discuss here. 

People are always thinking about money. So why don’t you become the voice in their ear?

50. Real Estate

Here’s another podcast topic with endless possibilities. 

You can have some episodes related to real estate investing, giving listeners a proven formula for finding the right properties and calculating ROI. Other episodes can be about how to buy your first home. You can even have episodes that teach people how to become a licensed broker. 

If you’re running out of ideas and just want to put together something quick, you could even highlight crazy listings—like a home that has underwater scuba tunnels or the infamous Mike Tyson and 50 Cent house with a whopping 21 bedrooms and 25 bathrooms. 

Final Thoughts

This list of 50 unique podcast ideas can give you enough material to produce thousands of podcast episodes. You could potentially take just one or two of these topics on this list and never run out of material. 

Use this list to create a new podcast from scratch, or simply reference it if you’re running out of topics for your current show. 

Did I forget something? If you have a cool idea for a podcast, drop a comment and let me know about it. I might even add it to my own list.