Zero. 🤬

20 highest-paid podcasters, and NONE are women of color.

Forbes released a list of the highest-paid podcasters last week, and it was exactly what you’d expect.

Joe Rogan is at the top, earning $82 million. There were five women (all white) and three Black folks (all men). Zero women of color.

The list merely confirmed what those pushed to the margins have been saying about the podcasting industry for years.

The list looks like this “not because women of color are absent from podcasting, but because access to major distribution deals, corporate ad budgets, media networks, celebrity booking pipelines and investors is still wildly unequal,” as Jannese Torres said on Threads.

The system is functioning as designed. Indie shows that amplify marginalized voices are the necessary counterweight.

Don’t compare

This list doesn’t reflect the reality of 99% of podcasters. Almost everyone on it walked into the recording studio already having a giant audience they’d built somewhere else first.

As an FPC member pointed out, almost no one here is just doing a podcast. The podcast is one piece of a larger ecosystem they created.

To right-size expectations: At that level of media, $40 million is like $60K to regular people. They are just playing at a much bigger scale.

Of course it’s not only scale that’s different, the goals don’t typically compare either.

Most folks don’t get into podcasting thinking they’ll ever sit atop a list like Forbes’ or become a household name. They start a show to build their client list, be seen as an industry expert, or maybe to make a modest living. They aren’t to get noticed by the whole world, but by the right few sponsors, clients, or listeners.

And unlike the names on that list, most podcasters are doing everything alone. No producers, editors, marketing team, PR reps, or business managers.

What can we learn?

So what does this list

1. Audit your listening habits. What shows get your attention? Which hosts get your money (subscriptions, merch)? The issue isn’t just getting more Black women to start podcasts; it’s supporting those who already have shows and are underrecognized.

2. Find what the algorithm won’t show you. Recommendation engines show you what’s already well-known (why you’ve probably been served the names on this list). Seek out the missing voices … this post from Ms. Pakyetti shouting out shows from Black women is a great place to start.

3. Build together. A network of indie podcasters with real community and trust has power that a single show doesn’t. Find your people, whether that’s Feminist Podcasters Collective or elsewhere, because the alternative is every indie podcaster fighting alone for scraps of a system that wasn’t built for us anyway.

The list isn’t going to change because we’re angry about it. It changes when enough of us stop waiting to be picked.

---

📢 AD: Last chance for lifetime access

If you’ve been sitting on the idea of turning your podcast into paid courses, digital products, or memberships, now is the time to take action. After August 15, Teachery’s wildly-good lifetime pricing deal of just $550 is gone forever (and the price will nearly double).

Teachery 4.0 is on the way, and it promises built-in communities, memberships, PayPal support, more design control, and a faster, mobile-friendly rebuild.

Feminist Podcasters Collective is hosted on Teachery and we love it.

➡️ Get it for $550 before it’s gone. ⬅️

---

🚨 Featured show: What Are You? The Identity, Growth, and Becoming Podcast

A show about identity, and how it’s complicated. Host Angeleaza Anderson leads the revolution against society’s quest to shrink us into one thing. Join the rebellion as she and her guests reclaim and celebrate the beautiful, unique, complex facets that make each of us who we are.

“As a blonde, biracial, Black woman in musical theatre and fitness, I constantly felt myself qualifying and minimizing who I was,” she says. “I tried to make myself ‘palatable’ and ‘accessible,’ simplifying the more complicated parts of myself.”

She began her show in 2022 when she decided to stop making herself smaller to make other people comfortable.

Give it a listen: https://whatareyoupod.com

---

🎙️ New episodes for your playlist

• Why Children's Book Illustrator Melquea Smith Ditched the Lone Wolf Creative Myth on Standout Creatives with Kevin Chung

• How to Increase Your Joy as a Business Owner with ADHD on The Dream Biz Podcast with Christi Johnson

• Fangirling Over Heated Rivalry And Body Liberation With Tiana Dodson on Fangirl Your Life with Nadine Stille

• Sonic Branding: Why Podcast Engagement Beats Downloads on Audio Branding with Jodi Krangle

• You're Not Lazy, You're Depleted: Invisible Labor & the Burnout Epidemic on Just Rest: Burnout Tips for Everyday Radicals with Nicole Havelka (she/her)

• Gotcha Culture: Why Catching an AI Cheater Feels So Good on PsyberSpace with Leslie Poston

• How to Date with Self-Worth (Even When You’re Tired) on The Naked Truth with Lauren Roche

• Gabriella Gamez on Librarians in Love, Brother’s Best Friend, and Latinx Character Dynamics on We Read Smut with Alesia Galati

• Finding Her Voice: How Dāli Rivera Turned Years of Bullying into a Life of Advocacy on Stories We Haven't Shared® with Shanti Joy Gold

• How to Succeed and Flourish as a Business Owner in 2026 on Dream Biz Podcast with Christi Johnson

• How AI Tools Should (and Shouldn’t) Work For You with Bree Nachelle on Analog-ish with Becky Mollenkamp