reason.fm

Reason.fm organizes Apple Podcasts rankings for the United States into several browsable views: a daily-updated Top 100, a Top 10 snapshot, trending episodes, new podcasts, and a category-based chart index. To browse by category, use the "Charts by category" section on the site, which splits the Apple Podcasts rankings into individual genres rather than one combined list. All rankings shown are for the United States and update daily.

What you can browse on Reason.fm

The site presents the same underlying Apple Podcasts data in different slices, so pick the view that matches what you want:

Browsing by category

1. Go to the "Charts by category" section of Reason.fm.
2. Select the genre you want. The site's category labels follow Apple Podcasts genres — examples visible in the new-podcasts list include Technology, Education, Sports, Arts, History, TV & Film, Kids & Family, and Religion & Spirituality.
3. Read the ranked list for that category. Each entry shows the show's chart position, and the new-podcasts view also displays the category and rank (for example, "#16 Government," "#73 Education," "#6 TV & Film").
4. Open a show to see its 90-day rank trend, which shows how its position has moved over the past three months rather than just today.

Checking rank movement and trends

Two features help you judge whether a ranking is meaningful or just a one-day blip:

• Position changes vs. yesterday. The Top 10 list marks shows as up (▲) or down (▼) compared with the previous day. For example, a show marked ▲ 8 climbed eight places since yesterday.
• 90-day trends. Every show has a 90-day rank trend, so you can see whether a podcast is consistently high or spiking briefly.

If you only care about what's popular right now, the trending episodes list is faster — it's a flat, cross-category list of the day's most-played episodes.

Playing episodes directly

Some episodes on the trending list can be played right away — the site notes "Tap to listen" for trending episodes, and each entry shows the show name and episode length (for example, "The Daily · 57 min"). This means you can go from browsing a chart to listening without leaving the page for supported episodes.

Common points to keep in mind

• Region: The charts cover the United States only, as stated on the page.
• Source: Rankings come from Apple Podcasts, so a show's Reason.fm position should match its Apple Podcasts US chart position for the same day.
• Update frequency: Charts are described as "daily updated," so a rank you saw yesterday may differ today.
• Category names: Use Apple Podcasts' own genre names when looking for a category, since the site's labels mirror them.

Reason.fm's blog is described on the site as offering "insights on podcasts," which positions it as the interpretive layer on top of the site's raw chart data. The charts themselves show you what is ranking — daily Apple Podcasts rankings for the United States, trending episodes, new podcast launches, category charts, and 90-day rank trends. The blog is where that data gets context: why a show moved, what a ranking shift might mean, and how to read the numbers. If you only want to see current standings, the charts are enough. If you want to understand the movement behind them, the blog is the intended companion.

What the site actually documents

The page evidence is specific about the chart features and thin on the blog itself. What's confirmed:

The blog heading appears alongside these as a distinct section, but the excerpt doesn't list individual posts or topics. So the honest answer is: the blog's stated purpose is podcast insight, and its natural raw material is the chart data described above — but the specific articles aren't enumerated in the source material.

What "insights on podcasts" most plausibly covers

Given the data the site collects, a blog built on top of it would reasonably address:

• Rank movement and its causes — a show jumping 8 spots in a day (as This American Life does in the sample data) invites explanation: a new episode, a news cycle, a guest.
• Chart dynamics — how Apple Podcasts rankings behave, what "top 100 of a main chart" means for a new show, why categories differ.
• Trend interpretation — reading a 90-day rank trend rather than a single day's snapshot.
• New-show discovery — what it means when a brand-new podcast enters a top 100 quickly.

This is inference from the site's own data model, not a list of confirmed posts. Treat it as the likely scope rather than a table of contents.

How to use the blog alongside the charts

The two serve different questions:

• Charts answer "what's happening now." Use them for current standings, today's trending episodes, and a show's 90-day trajectory.
• The blog answers "what does this mean." Use it when a ranking change needs explanation or when you want context on chart behavior itself.

A practical workflow: spot a movement in the Top 10 or the New podcasts list, then check the blog for interpretation before drawing conclusions from a single day's position change. One day's rank is noisy; the 90-day trend plus commentary is the more stable read.

Limits to keep in mind

• The source material confirms the blog exists and its stated focus, but not its publishing frequency, archive depth, or individual article topics.
• No pricing or login information appears in the source, so nothing here should be read as confirming the blog is free or requires an account.
• The chart data shown is a snapshot (United States, Apple Podcasts, dated Sep 28, 2026), so any blog commentary tied to it is time-bound.

If your goal is understanding podcast ranking behavior rather than just checking standings, the blog is the part of Reason.fm built for that — with the charts as its evidence base.

Reason.fm builds its charts from Apple Podcasts data for the United States and refreshes the rankings daily. Each entry shows the show's current position, and where a show has moved since the previous day, that change is displayed as well — an up arrow with a number for gains, a down arrow for drops, and a dash when the position is unchanged. Alongside the daily snapshot, Reason.fm keeps a 90-day rank trend for every show, so you can see whether a podcast is climbing, holding steady, or fading over a longer window.

Where the rankings come from

The charts are labeled "Apple Podcasts · United States," which tells you the scope directly: this is not a blended cross-platform score, and it is not a global average. It reflects how shows are positioned within Apple's U.S. podcast rankings. If you are tracking a show's performance outside the U.S., or on Spotify, this data will not answer that question — Reason.fm lists a separate Spotify ranking page, but the main charts described here are Apple-only.

What gets ranked

Reason.fm organizes its rankings into several distinct views rather than one flat list:

• Top 100 podcasts — the overall Apple Podcasts chart for the U.S., with position changes versus yesterday.
• Charts by category — the same ranking logic applied within individual categories (True Crime, News, Comedy, Technology, and so on).
• Trending episodes — individual episodes that are being played most today, across all of Apple Podcasts, presented as a playable list.
• New podcasts — brand-new shows that have already broken into the top 100 of a main chart, ordered newest launch first.

The "New podcasts" view is useful precisely because it filters for a hard-to-find combination: recent launch and early chart traction. A show appearing there has already cleared the bar of reaching a main chart's top 100, which is a stronger signal than simply being newly published.

How to read the daily changes

The position-change markers are the part most people misread. A "▲ 8" next to This American Life means it moved up eight places compared with the previous day's ranking — not that it is eighth overall. The number is the size of the move, and the arrow gives the direction. A "—" means no change from yesterday.

Because the update is daily, a single day's move is noisy. A show can jump several places on one episode and fall back the next day. The 90-day trend is the better tool for judging whether a move is a blip or a pattern: a show that spikes for one day and then returns to its prior range looks very different over 90 days than one that has been steadily gaining.

A practical example

Suppose you are deciding whether to pitch yourself as a guest on a mid-sized interview show. The daily chart tells you where it sits right now. The 90-day trend tells you whether that position is typical or whether the show is on an upswing that might make it harder to book — or a downswing that might make it more receptive. Checking the category chart as well tells you how it ranks against direct competitors rather than against the entire Apple catalog, which is usually the more meaningful comparison.

What the charts do not tell you

Rankings measure position, not audience size. Apple does not publish download or listener counts through these charts, so a #4 show and a #40 show cannot be converted into a ratio of actual listeners from this data alone. Treat the charts as a relative ordering within Apple's U.S. ecosystem, useful for spotting momentum and category standing, and not as a headcount.

If you want the current numbers rather than a description of the method, the live charts are the source — positions and trends change daily, so any figure quoted secondhand is already a snapshot of a past day.

The "New podcasts" section on Reason.fm lists brand-new shows that have already reached the top 100 of a main Apple Podcasts chart, sorted with the newest launches first. Each entry shows the show's name, its category, and its current chart position, so you can spot podcasts that just started but are already drawing enough listeners to rank.

What each entry tells you

Every row in the section combines three pieces of information:

• Chart position — the number at the front (for example, #16 or #88) is where the show currently sits in a main chart.
• Category — the label next to the position (such as Religion & Spirituality, Education, Technology, or TV & Film) tells you which chart the ranking comes from.
• Show name — the title of the podcast itself.

From the page evidence, a sample of the section looks like this:

How the list is ordered and what qualifies

Two rules define the section:

1. Qualification — a show must be new and have already broken into the top 100 of a main chart. A podcast that is new but hasn't ranked yet won't appear here.
2. Ordering — entries are sorted by launch date, with the most recent launches first. This is different from the "Top 10 podcasts today" list, which is ordered by chart position and shows day-over-day movement.

That distinction matters: the position number in "New podcasts" tells you how high the show has climbed, while its place in the list tells you how recently it launched. A show near the top of the section may have a lower chart number than one below it.

Why this section is useful

Mainstream charts tend to be dominated by established shows, so a new podcast can be hard to find even when it's performing well. This section surfaces exactly those cases — shows that are early in their run but already competitive in their category. If you want to find something before it becomes widely known, or you're tracking how quickly a new show gains traction, this is the list to check.

How to use it

1. Open Reason.fm and go to the Podcast Charts area.
2. Find the "New podcasts" section.
3. Scan the category labels to filter mentally for topics you care about — the list mixes categories, so a Technology show and a Kids & Family show can sit next to each other.
4. Note the chart position to judge how strong the show's early performance is; a top-20 placement for a brand-new show signals faster pickup than a position in the 80s.
5. Cross-check the show against the 90-day trends and category charts if you want more context on whether its ranking is holding or fading.

One caveat: because the section only includes shows that have already ranked, it won't help you discover podcasts that are too new or too small to chart yet. For those, you'd need a different discovery route.

Reason.fm is a podcast chart-tracking site that publishes daily Apple Podcasts rankings for the United States. It covers every category, lists the episodes trending today, and shows 90-day rank trends for individual shows. If you want to know what's climbing the Apple Podcasts charts without opening Apple's own app, or you want to see how a show's position has moved over three months, this is the site's purpose.

What the site actually tracks

The homepage is built around a single data source: Apple Podcasts rankings for the United States. The page states the charts are "daily updated," and the snapshot shown is dated with a specific day (the example on the page reads "Apple Podcasts · United States · Sep 28, 2026").

The tracked data falls into four buckets:

• Top 100 podcasts — the overall Apple Podcasts chart, with position changes versus the previous day.
• Trending episodes — the episodes "everyone is playing today," across all of Apple Podcasts, each with a runtime and a tap-to-listen link.
• New podcasts — brand-new shows that already reached the top 100 of a main chart, sorted newest launches first, with the chart category and peak position noted.
• Charts by category — rankings broken out by category rather than only the overall list.

There is also a 90-day rank trend view for every show, which is the feature that distinguishes a chart tracker from a one-day snapshot.

How the rankings are presented

Two things are worth understanding before you use the numbers.

Position changes are relative to yesterday. In the Top 10 list, each entry carries either a flat dash (no movement) or a triangle with a number. For example, This American Life shows ▲ 8, meaning it moved up 8 places versus the prior day, while Up First from NPR shows ▼ 4. A dash means the position held steady.

Trending episodes and the Top 100 are different lists. The trending section is episode-level and cross-category — it mixes news, true crime, sports, and comedy in one feed. The Top 100 is show-level and reflects overall chart standing. A show can sit high in the Top 100 while none of its individual episodes appear in the trending feed on a given day.

The Top 10 podcasts today, as shown on the page, illustrates the format:

What the "new podcasts" list tells you

This section is more specific than a general "new releases" feed. It only includes shows that are both new and already inside the top 100 of a main chart — so it functions as a breakout list rather than a launch calendar. Each entry shows the chart category and the peak position reached. In the snapshot, examples include a show at #16 in Government, one at #88 in Religion & Spirituality, and one at #6 in Education.

If your goal is spotting shows gaining traction early, this list is the most direct signal on the page. If your goal is tracking an established show's trajectory, the 90-day trend view is the relevant tool.

Where Reason.fm fits in a podcast-discovery workflow

Use Reason.fm when you want:

• A daily, category-complete view of Apple Podcasts US rankings in one place.
• Episode-level trending data with runtimes, so you can judge whether something fits a commute or a longer block.
• Historical context — the 90-day trend — rather than a single day's position.

The site also links out to a Spotify ranking and maintains a blog with insights on podcasts, so it is not limited to a single chart view.

One limitation to keep in mind: the rankings are US Apple Podcasts data. If you are looking for another country's chart or a non-Apple platform's rankings, this page's core charts will not answer that.