10 Best YouTube Channels That Are Actually Great Podcasts (2026)

Why YouTube has quietly become a top podcast platform

Over the last few years, a huge share of the most interesting talk-format shows have moved primarily to YouTube. Some never bothered with an RSS feed at all. The format is almost always the same: a host, a guest, two microphones, and one to four hours of actual conversation. There's nothing on screen you need to see.

The catch is that listening to YouTube like a podcast is a worse experience than the content deserves. The native app pauses when you lock your phone, drains battery on video frames you're not watching, and pulls you back into a recommendation loop the moment you open it. The fix is to treat these channels the way they want to be treated — as podcasts.

The list

These are channels where the audio is doing essentially all of the work — interviews, analysis, monologues, roundtables. They're ordered loosely by how naturally they translate to a podcast app, not by popularity.

#1 · Long-form, science & philosophy

Lex Fridman Podcast

Hosted by Lex Fridman

Two-to-five-hour interviews with researchers, founders, writers, and the occasional world leader. The pacing is unhurried and the visuals are basically two people in chairs — almost the platonic ideal of a YouTube show that should have always been a podcast.

Best for: Long drives, long flights, long anything.

#2 · Solo episodes & expert interviews on neuroscience and health

Huberman Lab

Hosted by Andrew Huberman

Stanford neurobiologist Andrew Huberman walks through sleep, focus, training, nutrition, and mental health — usually with a guest expert, often solo. There is virtually nothing visual happening; if you want the protocols, you want the audio.

Best for: Morning walks, gym sessions, falling-asleep episodes you will need to re-listen to.

#3 · Multi-hour deep dives into legendary companies

Acquired

Hosted by Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal

Each episode is a four-hour, painstakingly-researched history of a single company — Nvidia, Costco, LVMH, TSMC. There are no charts to look at. It is research read aloud, and it is one of the best shows on the internet for it.

Best for: A long Saturday with chores and headphones.

#4 · Founder, athlete, and creator interviews

The Diary Of A CEO

Hosted by Steven Bartlett

Steven Bartlett pulls hour-plus, surprisingly emotional interviews out of CEOs, athletes, scientists, and authors. The visual production is more polished than most podcasts, but the conversation carries the show — it travels well into earbuds.

Best for: Commutes when you want a story, not background noise.

#5 · Life, performance, ideas

Modern Wisdom

Hosted by Chris Williamson

Chris Williamson is a relentless reader and an even more relentless interviewer. Topics jump from evolutionary psychology to dating to AI to writing. It's essentially a written magazine read aloud by smart people — perfect podcast material.

Best for: Walks, runs, anytime you used to read essays.

#6 · Weekly tech, economics, and politics roundtable

All-In Podcast

Hosted by Chamath, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, David Friedberg

Four investors arguing about the news of the week. The video is essentially four webcam squares; the value is in the back-and-forth. Treat it like sports radio for tech and you will look forward to every Friday drop.

Best for: Friday afternoon walks, gym, weekend errands.

#7 · Deep interviews on AI, economics, and history

Dwarkesh Podcast

Hosted by Dwarkesh Patel

One of the most prepared interviewers working today. Dwarkesh's questions read like he wrote a paper before each episode — and the guest list (top AI researchers, economists, historians) is increasingly hard to beat.

Best for: Anytime you want to feel slightly smarter at the end.

#8 · Business ideas, stories, and riffs

My First Million

Hosted by Sam Parr & Shaan Puri

Two founders riffing on business ideas, niche markets, and weird internet companies. The energy is loose and conversational, which is exactly why it plays so well as audio while you do something else.

Best for: Cooking, cleaning, low-focus tasks.

#9 · Tactics and routines from world-class performers

The Tim Ferriss Show

Hosted by Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss has been doing this for over a decade and it shows — questions are crisp, episodes are tightly edited, and guests range from Olympians to neuroscientists to chefs. The YouTube version is just the audio with a static frame, so you lose nothing in earbuds.

Best for: Quiet listening when you want to take notes.

#10 · Weekly tech news, with humor

Hard Fork

Hosted by Kevin Roose & Casey Newton

The New York Times' tech podcast — Kevin Roose and Casey Newton dissect the week's AI news, big-tech antics, and internet culture stories. Light enough for a commute, sharp enough to keep you genuinely informed.

Best for: Weekday commute, dog walk, dishes.

How to actually listen to these like podcasts (Android)

None of these channels publish a real RSS feed for the full episode catalog, and the official YouTube app isn't built for audio. The simplest fix on Android is YouCaster — a free app that turns any YouTube channel into a podcast feed. You search for the channel, tap subscribe, and from then on it behaves like a normal podcast app: new uploads show up automatically, playback continues with the screen off, and every episode resumes from exactly where you left off.

No YouTube Premium required — background play is built in.
No Google or YouTube account needed to subscribe.
Audio-only streaming, so it uses far less data and battery than the YouTube app.
Lock-screen, notification-shade, and Bluetooth controls work like any podcast app.
Chronological feeds — no algorithm pulling you toward unrelated videos.

Most people end up with a tighter, calmer listening setup than they ever had inside YouTube itself. A handful of channels you actually care about, in one queue, with no thumbnails to fight.

A quick way to set up your library

Install YouCaster from the Google Play Store.
Open the search tab and paste a creator's @handle — for example @lexfridman, @hubermanlab, or @acquiredfm.
Tap subscribe. Repeat for the channels above that you actually want in your week.
Press play, lock the phone, and go for a walk. That's the whole loop.

For a longer walk-through, see our guide on turning any YouTube channel into a podcast feed.

A few more channels worth a mention

The list above stops at ten on purpose, but a few others get suggested every time this topic comes up: The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish, Lenny's Podcast, Bankless, Deep Questions with Cal Newport, The Joe Rogan Experience (back on YouTube as of late 2023), and Founders with David Senra. Any of them slot neatly into the same audio-first listening setup.

Frequently asked questions

Why not just use the YouTube app with picture-in-picture?

Picture-in-picture still keeps a video stream running, drains battery faster, and pulls you back into the YouTube recommendation feed every time you switch apps. For shows where you only want the audio, a dedicated podcast-style app is calmer and more efficient.

Will I miss anything by listening instead of watching?

For the channels above, almost nothing. They're built around interviews, monologues, or roundtables — formats where the visuals are mostly two people sitting still. For lecture or demo channels with diagrams on screen, video still wins.

Does this work with members-only content?

No — only public uploads can be turned into podcast episodes.

Is there an iOS version?

Android only for now. iOS is on the roadmap.