Narrative Podcasts Have Found Their Niche...Can They Thrive There?

Connie & Jack: A Rigged Game is a narrative podcast about the tragic true story of Connie Hawkins, a once-in-a-generation New York City basketball superstar. Created and produced by Bo Belanger, the nine-episode series explores how Hawkins was expelled from college in 1961 and blackballed from the NBA due to his tangential association with Jack Molinas, an ex-NBA All-Star turned mob fixer.

Connie & Jack

The North American Right Whale is one of the most magnificent creatures on Earth. It was nearly hunted to extinction during the whaling era. Only about 350 remain, still vulnerable to ship strikes and fishing gear entanglements. The point here is that splendor and majesty don’t guarantee survival.

The narrative podcast may be the most majestic podcast format in existence, with its superior storytelling, narrative excellence, refusal to place any topic out of bounds, its burrowing into socioeconomic and racial landmines and its masterful use of audio to create an immersive and gratifying experience.

The wide angle lens of narrative podcasting includes urinary tract infections, true-crime, broken relationships, and even stray cats in Brooklyn.

Jen Moss, Co-Founder and and Chief Creative Officer of JAR Audio, told me, “Narrative podcasts are podcasts that unspool a compelling, often investigative story using a mix of immersive sound design, layered music, on-location scenes, interviews, and threaded narration that actually drives the story forward. A good narrative podcast is a masterpiece of pacing and blending, and holds attention – objectively – longer than any other form of media. When it comes to audience engagement, narrative podcasting remains the most powerful format there is.”

In this new age of video podcasting and assertions, or boasts, that it is the “next big things” in podcasting, Jenn Moss still recognizes that, “audio narrative podcasting steeps listeners in the environment of the story, and forces them to co-create the images they are hearing in their own minds. When you listen to a show like this, you are transported, moved, and wholeheartedly engaged.”

ForbesVideo Podcasts Won’t Take Over The Industry–But Are Here To StayBy Frank Racioppi

In this article, we will examine narrative audio podcasting, its inherent and historical strengths, and the threats posed by video podcasting, bottom-line corporate podcast networks, and stark economic realities that endanger the format.

What makes narrative podcasting so exquisite?

Let’s start with an unadulterated advocate for narrative podcasts. Samantha Hodder produces the Bingeworthy Substack.

In her Substack, Samantha says: “Bingeworthy is a listener-supported newsletter. My goal is to bring narrative podcasts out from the fringe shadows; To make them a subject of critical discussion; To see them recognized as their own storytelling format.”

What Samantha and other narrative podcast advocates assert is: “Highly produced storytelling fosters an emotional connection with listeners that is harder to achieve with casual interview. Audio formats force listeners to visualize the story in their heads, leading to stronger, more active attention spans.”

Podcast Strategist Stephanie Fuccio explains the essence of audio narrative podcasts: “Many podcast consumers still prefer audio-only for a hands-free experience when they're walking, working, or doing daily tasks. But it goes beyond convenience, there's a difference in our voices that happens in audio versus motion video podcasts. Unfortunately, the intimacy in audio first podcasts often gets sacrificed with the move to motion video podcasting.”

Dan R. Morris, creator/host of the history narrative podcast, Tracing The Path, says: “The late, great radio host Paul Harvey once noted that he grew up listening to radio dramas as one of his main entertainment options. And noted that whether it was mystery, science fiction or adventure, the hero of the stories he listened to always looked a little bit like him. ”

"That is why I decided to do Tracing the Path," Morris continues. "I see my kids, and others, glued to their screens watching TikTok, Instagram and YouTube shorts all the time. For my kids, at least, I wanted them to have the experience of the movie forming in your head as you were listening. I wanted them to build the look and feel of the characters all on their own - in their brains."

Shawn Spitaleri, creator/host of the Distillate Podcast, told me: “What I think gets lost in that conversation is that narrative audio accomplishes something wholly different from other formats. It puts the listener directly into a moment without a visual to guide them. They get pulled into the story — the history, the science — without being led by what they can see. That requires a different level of storytelling and guided narration to capture and hold attention.”

True-crime podcasts, a popular podcast genre, can be narrative podcasts, depending on the format of the show. One of the best in recent years and an award winner was Stolen: The Search For Jermain. Stolen: The Search for Jermain specifically focuses on the case of a missing Indigenous woman, Jermain Charlo, in Montana, who was out one evening at a bar in Missoula and never made it home.

Over the course of eight episodes, Walker is on the ground in real time tracking down leads through the dense mountains of the Flathead Reservation, all while examining what it means to be an Indigenous woman in America, as Jermain was.

Stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the U.S. have long gone uncovered by mainstream media, and Walker hopes to change that. For added perspective, the statistics on violence against Indigenous women in the U.S. are alarming — according to the Indian Law Resource Center.

It’s always about the money!

In August 2025, Eric Benson of Rolling Stone published an article, Who Killed the Narrative Podcast? that made the case, “The podcasts that are thriving are talk shows — increasingly celebrity-driven talk shows — that are cheap to make, can easily be turned into streaming YouTube videos, and command big ad dollars.”

Let’s look at the reasons for the imperiled future of narrative podcasting. First up, money, of course. Jen Moss from JAR audio explains: “High-quality narrative shows take time, money, and craft. YouTube rewards speed and volume. Different incentives, different outcomes. And most teams simply don’t have the budget to produce the true visual equivalent of a narrative podcast, something that leans into the visual medium as fully as narrative podcasts lean into audio.”

On Simon Owen’s Media Substack Newsletter Mr. Owens make a compelling case for why narrative podcasts are a bad investment for most publishers

Mr. Owens explains: "When it comes to episode output, narrative podcasts can’t even begin to compete with their conversational counterparts. This American Life probably has one of the largest content budgets in the industry, and yet it only produces a few dozen new episodes per year. Compare that to conversational pods like The Joe Rogan Experience or Fresh Air, which publish literally hundreds of episodes over the same time period.

Mr. Owens points out that, “If your narrative podcast puts out only 10 episodes per season – which seems to be the standard length for the genre – then that severely limits the advertising inventory that’s available. Meanwhile The New York Times’s hit podcast The Daily produces 250 episodes per year, which comes out to 500 available ad slots.”

Mr. Owens provides another scenario: “Let’s say the entire cost for a 10-episode season is $300,000. That means in order to break even you need to generate $30,000 per episode in ad sales. Assuming an average $25 CPM, you would need to generate between 500,000 and one million downloads per episode, depending on how many ad slots you run. The number of podcasts that reach that threshold is infinitesimally small, and the odds aren’t in your favor.”

Serial launched the season-long immersive narrative true-crime podcast that helped put podcasting on the map. Yet even popular true-crime podcasts are not immune to cost-cutting. According to Variety, many major podcast networks are cutting budgets for narrative true crime. Driven by higher production costs and shifting ad-revenue strategies, the industry is transitioning away from expensive, season-long investigative reporting in favor of cheaper, weekly chat-based episodes.

Dan R. Morris of the Tracing The Path podcast is the epitome of an independent podcaster, dedicated, determined, and always conscious of budget.

Mr. Morris explains: “Each episode is about $750 to produce in terms of research time, writing, story editing, recording, sound editing, sound design and production.”

The other money factor is that podcasting’s boom cycle around 2019 inevitably turned into a bust cycle several years later. Spotify realized after spending hundreds of millions of dollars that it could not dominate the industry by extravagant spending. Therefore, podcast studio construction was abandoned, highly regarded shows such as Heavyweight were canceled, entire production studios such as Gimlet and Parcast went disposed of quickly, and the search was launched for inexpensive ways to launch and produce podcasts.

Whether the podcasting asset bubble bursting led directly to the ascendance of YouTube and video podcasting, or was simply incidental to the inevitable growth of YouTube podcasts, is a question reserved for podcast philosophers.

Time is money

The other issue besides money with narrative podcasting is the time needed for research, development, production, and editing.

Dan R. Morris shares that, "For Tracing the Path, the research to create an episode is weeks and sadly often results in hours and hours of research being completely thrown out because Morris just can’t find "the story" inside the idea. But once the key piece of research, that the rest of the episode is dependent upon, is found, then it’s 4 to 5 days of solid research followed by 2 1/2 days of story writing and editing."

Shawn Spitaleri told me, “An episode of Distillate takes at least one to two weeks of research, writing, and production for a format that generates little to no revenue at my current scale.”

Mr. Spitaleri adds: “The stories I tell in Distillate — the history of rum, gin, Georgian winemaking, the Prohibition era — wouldn't be greatly enhanced by two people discussing them on camera. Part of the allure is being placed right in the middle of what's happening, both historically and scientifically. In a lot of ways, the format and the content are inseparable.”

Some production companies are still betting on audio narrative podcasting despite the time and money spent. For example, JAR Audio focuses entirely on brand storytelling, using comprehensive research and scripting to build immersive, narrative corporate series.

This American Life, the legendary weekly podcast featuring compelling, humorous, and deeply human stories about everyday life, is still going strong. Heavyweight was resurrected by Pushkin Industries so that host Jonathan Goldstein can still help people track down individuals from their past to resolve long-standing regrets or unresolved mysteries with a healthy dose of humor.

The Radiolab creator, Jad Abumrad, reprised the approach he honed in Dolly Parton’s America, melding his distinct flavor of expansive sound design with a deep historical and musicological curiosity, and turned it toward Fela Kuti, the Nigerian musician and activist who pioneered the genre known as Afrobeat.

Days of Future Passed

There is no doubt that YouTube and the advent of video podcasting are a threat to narrative podcasting.

Jenn Moss of Jar Audio contextualizes the threat. “We know that executives enjoy podcasts but tend to favor portable audio content. They’re more likely to listen while commuting or working out than spend hours down YouTube rabbit holes. But if you’re reaching Gen Z, they were raised on YouTube. So whether narrative podcasts get widely consumed depends less on the format itself, and more on who you’re talking to. And as YouTube continues to grow its share of ear and eye, it’s not a platform you can ignore.”

Since podcast discovery is all important in a media universe of 40,000 active podcasts, YouTube is a recommendation engine first and a content platform second. Narrative podcasts often rely more on subscriptions, word of mouth, and editorial curation, which can limit initial reach but deepen loyalty.

Podcast Discovery Strategist Stephanie Fuccio notes that, “The differences in audio and video podcasts means that there isn’t really a competition between audio and video podcasts because they meet very different needs for the podcast consumer. Narrative podcasts are often consumed while doing something else: driving, walking, cooking, mowing the lawn. YouTube usually asks for your eyes, which changes both the time commitment and the setting.”

Nick Dunkerley, the Co-Founder and CEO of Hindenburg Systems, offers a positive spin on narrative podcasting and its role: “I don’t think narrative podcasting is dying. I think it’s becoming rarer, which means the shows that do it well are going to matter more, not less. I think that long form narratives will be in demand looking forward … if the quality is good enough. They will function as a counter balance to attention seeking news and social media … as a much needed attempt to bring together a polarized world and democracy’s on the brink of destruction.”

Mr. Dunkerly offers more than words as a prescriptive forecast for audio podcasting. His Hindenburg Pro is made specifically for audio narratives.

Nick Dunkerly explains: “ Traditional Digital Audio Workstation (DAWs) evolved from music production. Hindenburg evolved from journalism, radio and narrative storytelling. Rather than trying to become the DAW with the longest feature list, it was designed around a different question – How can software remove unnecessary technical decisions so producers can focus on editorial ones?”

Despite the ink space and media attention paid to true-crime shows and celebrity-helmed shows, narrative podcasting is the heart and soul of podcasting. Without narrative podcasting, the podcast industry is simply grisly true-crime tales and celebrities interviewing each other.

Echoes In The First Person creator/host Michael Washington Brown reflects on his love of storytelling: “As a storyteller, I’m especially fond of narrative podcasts, hence my devotion to Echoes. I thrive on being transported through someone’s point of view, it’s amazing what imagery and moments come to life that resonate from your own personal experience. There's something truly magical about the narrative storytelling space, it takes us back to a time of campfire stories, or when my grandmother recalled stories and events from her youth.”

Where else could we get Shadow of Hope by Karen Ann Coburn about a Catholic cult that burrowed into northern New Jersey in the 70s and 80s. Who would report on Armenian genocide if Maxim Saakyan didn’t do it in Uncovering Roots.

Why is there a surge in ADHD diagnosis in adult woman? Climbing The Walls with Danielle Elliot is attempting to answer that mystery. Why are fewer people embracing religion in the U.S.? In The Final Service with Mateo Schimpf & Ray Suarez, they go searching for an answer. What do we know – or don’t know – about period cramps? Cramped by Kate Helen Downey is equal parts science, storytelling, and cathartic comedy about a problem that affects millions but is still treated like a punchline—or worse, ignored entirely.

Finally, how about a podcast that asks an existential question that deeply impacts our lives every day. In , creator/host Katie Stokes begins the podcast by asking, "Do you know what a third place is?" Katie then posits that we are meant to have three places in our lives. "Home, work, and a third place where you belong," Katie explains in the podcast. "That third place is where you exist."

On an interview podcast, you’re the observer. On a true-crime show, you are the voyeur. On a sports or politics podcast, it’s tribal.