Year-Ender 2022: Most Loved Podcasts Of This Year Which Brought The Audio Industry To The Spotlight

2022 was a year of podcast supremacy! We saw the medium explode and expand right from experimental niche topics to massy concepts, which came as a welcome surprise to viewers. 81% of Indian podcast listeners have heard their first podcast in the last 12 months, as per a survey by IVM Podcasts and InMobi Pulse. With the youth icon Navya Nanda taking over the podcast scene bringing along her Nani, the iconic Jaya Bachchan and her mother, the eloquent Shweta Bachchan Nanda gave the medium a whole new dimension and opened doors of possibilities for both content makers and listeners.

There are a lot of other things that happened in the podcast world, but it is important we take a look at the much-appreciated trending podcasts which had listeners glued and clued in.

What The Hell Navya

She came, she podcasted, she conquered. The smart, young entrepreneur Navya Nanda carved a niche for herself on the medium. Her podcast ‘What The Hell Navya’ was an instant favourite. Surrounded by fun and banter, Navya’s podcast did touch upon some very relevant topics on the financial independence of women, consent and more. The cherry on top were the women of her family that accompanied her. Listeners got to see a different side of the filmy family, as three generations indulged in an honest, fun discussion and debates. This podcast has surely shown the medium’s potential to reach a larger mass-ey audience and made the industry sit up and take note.

Cyrus Says

The popularity of one of the oldest running podcasts by the OG funny man Cyrus Broacha never seems to dip. With each season, each episode is able to amass more and more new listeners' intrigue and loyalty. It didn’t fail to impress this year too. Cyrus Says is a gift that keeps giving in the podcast space and viewers just can't have enough!

The Habit Coach with Ashdin Doctor

Health and wellness are much sought after podcast genres. One of the popular podcasts in this segment is ‘The Habit Coach with Ashdin Doctor’. This podcast focuses on helping people incorporate positive habits like health, sleep, productivity, nutrition, relationships and other areas of life. They are bite-sized, insightful yet non-preachy talks and discussions by popular habit coach and TEDx speaker Ashdin Doctor and interesting personalities from different walks of life.

Paisa Vaisa with Anupam Gupta

Indian podcast listeners one-stop shop for all things money! This podcast has gained prominence for a no-nonsense talk on personal finance. The host interviews experts across fields like mutual funds, stocks, housing, loans, crypto and more. Whether it is ‘Financial Planning For Women and Families’ or ‘Financial Wellness of Employed Workforce’, the podcast caters to the personal finance needs of listeners across age, gender and income groups. The host is a renowned finance personality and author.

Kadhai Podcast's Sivakamiyin Sabatham

Regional podcasts are seeing an encouraging rise in listenership. This Tamil podcast is a narration of the epic novel ‘Sivakamiyin Sabatham’ from Kalki, a Tamil writer, journalist, and Indian independence activist. He is known for his historical novels, one of which includes the famous ‘Ponniyin Selvan’. This podcast focuses on the bravery and excellence in governance, art and culture of the Pallava dynasty.

“It was an interesting year for podcasts in India. Newer audience segments emerged which encouraged content producers to experiment with languages and styles of formats. The podcast space is finally gaining the spotlight as a major source of entertainment and information. Through the survey done by IVM Podcasts and InMobi Pulse, we understood that the top 3 favourite podcast genres were News Policy (62%), Comedy & Entertainment(53%) and Business & Finance (47%). In 2023, podcast creators should take more risks and have fun creating different kinds of podcasts” shared Kavita Rajawade, Co-Founder of IVM Podcasts-Pratilipi commenting on the podcast content landscape in India.

It may be a wrap for podcasts in 2022, but we are eagerly awaiting to see podcasts that steal the show in 2023!