Anastasios Tsiloukas

Nearly a third of all Americans now listen to or watch podcasts every week, but more often than not, it's men's voices that they're hearing.

Researchers at the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative have found that in the 100 most popular podcasts of 2024, nearly two-thirds were hosted by men and nearly three-quarters of all guests were male, too.

The researchers say that's a far greater gender inequity than in similar research they've done in the movie, TV, and music industries.

Women are particularly underrepresented in business, tech, sports, fitness, and comedy podcasts.

The researchers also found that over 77% of the top 100 hosts were white, leaving a lot of communities out of the conversation.

Anastasia Tsiloukas, NPR News, New York.