In Jan. 2026, Amy Poehler, comedian and actress, received the “Best Podcast” award for her show, Good Hang with Amy Poehler. She was the first woman to win in the Golden Globe’s newest division. The show had been launched on March 2025 but already featured major celebrities such as Michelle Obama Viola Davis, and Arianna Grande. So, how did this comedian manage to revolutionize the podcasting world with just a few jokes and great guests? Well, aside from her reputation, her formula is straightforward: it’s a term I like to call the “Manic Dream Podcast,” where instead of polite interviews, the hosts pull out all the stops. All that matters is getting the tea and pushing the interviewees past their limits, all while laughing along the way.
But, this addictive sensation started as a simple audio track over 30 years ago. The first podcast started with This American Life’s debut in 1995, a collection of digital stories that you couldn’t get on cable. Then, in 2000, Tristan Louis, Dave Winer, and Adam Curry added audio to an RSS system or website. Soon after, New York Times Journalist Christopher Lyndon launched “Radio Open Source” in 2004. After the rise in this new media form, Ben Hammersley, writer for The Guardian, coined the term “Podcasting”, a combination of iPod and broadcasting, in his article that same year. Apple hops on the trend and releases its new podcasting feature in 2005, allowing users to listen to their favorite stories on the go, ready to download at any time.
Weirdly, with this new technology, podcasting slowed down until This American Life podcast resurged again with its new mystery series called Serial in 2014, hosted by Sarah Koenig. The series focused on one horror story across multiple episodes, creating a mass attraction. This, coupled with the boom of new Bluetooth inputs for cars, reignited the podcasting scene, and its growth became unstoppable. It reached larger heights with Joe Rogan’s 2021 podcast, which signed with Spotify for almost 200 million dollars, surpassing Apple for the top-streamed podcasting platform.
It debuted in 2017, featuring Tony Yayo. Since then, the podcast has skyrocketed and has hosted guests such as Gordon Ramsey, Cardi B, Sabrina Carpenter, Jennifer Lawrence, and more, in which celebrities are asked serious questions while eating wings at increasing spice levels. Capturing celebrities in their most vulnerable moments creates a sense of empathy and relatability from the public. When the everyday person sees their childhood crush lash out over ghost-pepper wings, the rose-colored glasses are taken off, and people realize that celebrities are people. This way, people can connect with celebrities on a personal level and practice healthier ways to interact with their art.
Brittany Broski’s Royal Court, featuring celebrities like Bob the Drag Queen, Dove Cameron, and Elijah Wood, is set in a medieval world where they must pass fun tests and play activities that reveal the deepest parts of themselves. This interactive setting gets the celebrity out of their shell and allows them to share their narratives in a way that resonates with the audience. Through different activities such as drawing, singing, etc., celebrities can show a side of themselves that makes them the happiest. Through laughter and silly medieval games, the audience is welcomed into a fantasy world, where their dreams come true, but even in this glamorous imagination, the icon is still just like them. Broski’s hard-hitting questions that involve politics and embarrassing moments help the viewer create informed decisions about how to interact with a celebrity’s art or personality without crossing boundaries.
Other shows in this genre are heavily satirical, putting their guests in controversial positions, calling out the celebrities’ pasts, and kicking them off their high horse. Ziwe Fumudoh’s show Ziwe does just that. The series, established in 2021, has featured guests such as Kevin Hart, Leslie Jones, and Lizzo. The comedian and host, Ziwe, challenge her guests by comedically twisting their words that can induce their anxiety. She asks straightforward questions about race, politics, and morality that put the guest in sticky situations where anything they say or do can be held against them. This forces the celebrities out of their PR-trained mold. Audiences can feel better about themselves, laughing at the mess that the celebrity didn’t know they’d get into. In turn, people can hold celebrities accountable for their actions and engage with their work while holding them to ethical and moral standards.
Manic podcasting has come a long way from the radio to your #1 streamed YouTube video. This format was once seen as a sketchy intrusion on an artist to paint them in the worst light possible and has flourished into an engaging and entertaining world that forces audiences to question their relationships with public figures. The Manic Podcast genre has shifted the focus from the picture-perfect image of fame to the everyday person who just happens to be famous. The way the new generation has interacted with audiences since the genre has been that of a more conscious parasocial view, where the views and political stance of a person matter more than their newest business or album. The Manic podcast genre peels back the layers through relatable, fantasy, and satirical content, which creates a deeper respect from the audience.