Dan Primack is the business editor at Axios and the voice behind Pro Rata, the daily newsletter and podcast that has become required reading for the venture capital, private equity, and M&A worlds. What began as an email he sent from his own Outlook account now reaches hundreds of thousands of dealmakers. Over two decades he has built and rebuilt the same beat three times, launching peHUB at Thomson Reuters, Term Sheet at Fortune, and Pro Rata at Axios, turning the unglamorous mechanics of who-bought-whom into a daily must-read.
Dithering is a subscription-only podcast hosted by Ben Thompson, founder of the Stratechery business-strategy newsletter, and John Gruber, the writer behind the Apple-focused blog Daring Fireball. Each episode runs exactly 15 minutes, twice a week, with two of the most influential voices in technology commentary trading takes on Apple, the tech industry, media, and whatever else is on their minds. It is a paid show built on Thompson's own membership infrastructure, included in the Stratechery Plus bundle.
John Gruber is the writer behind Daring Fireball, the long-running Apple-focused weblog he launched in 2002 and turned into a full-time, ad-and-membership-funded one-person media business by 2006. He co-created Markdown with Aaron Swartz in 2004, hosts the popular podcast The Talk Show, and co-hosts Dithering with Ben Thompson. Equal parts UI obsessive and sharp-tongued critic, Gruber has become one of the most influential independent voices covering Apple and Mac culture.
John Sundell is a Swift and Rust developer, writer and podcaster who runs Swift by Sundell, a weekly publication of articles, tips, podcasts and videos read in well over a hundred countries. A former lead iOS developer at Spotify, he went indie to build apps, games and a stack of widely used open-source developer tools - including the static site generator Publish, the type-safe HTML DSL Plot, the Markdown parser Ink and the syntax highlighter Splash. He is based in Gdansk, Poland.
Charlie Sykes spent 23 years as one of Wisconsin's most influential conservative talk-radio voices, then walked away and turned his fire on his own movement. He co-founded The Bulwark, became a fixture of the Never Trump opposition, and now writes the Substack newsletter and hosts the podcast 'To the Contrary.' Author of nine books and an MSNBC contributor, he is a rare media figure who publicly reckoned with the part talk radio played in remaking the American right.
Danielle Pletka is a distinguished senior fellow in Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where she has shaped conservative thinking on the Middle East, Iran, and national security for more than two decades. A former senior Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer under Jesse Helms, she co-hosts the AEI podcast 'What the Hell Is Going On?' with Marc Thiessen, teaches at Georgetown, and appears regularly across major print and broadcast media.
Derek Thompson is an American journalist, author, and podcaster best known for co-writing the #1 New York Times bestseller Abundance with Ezra Klein and hosting the Plain English podcast on The Ringer. After 17 years as a staff writer at The Atlantic, he left in 2025 to write independently on Substack, focusing on housing, energy, technology, and the decline of in-person social life.
Josh Barro is an American journalist who left legacy media to run Very Serious, a subscription newsletter and podcast about politics, business, economics, and culture. A former Republican turned Democrat, ex-host of KCRW's Left, Right & Center and onetime New York Times and Business Insider columnist, he now writes a weekly mailbag called the Mayonnaise Clinic and co-hosts the litigation podcast Serious Trouble with attorney Ken White.
Andrew Huberman is a tenured professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine and the host of the Huberman Lab podcast - regularly ranked the #1 health and science podcast in the world with over 400 episodes. His Stanford lab investigates visual system repair, neural plasticity, and stress resilience, publishing in Nature, Science, and Cell. A former skateboarder who once wrote for Thrasher magazine and lobbied the Palo Alto city council to build a skate park at age 13, Huberman translates complex neuroscience into actionable protocols for millions of listeners globally.
Andrew Schulz is a New York-born stand-up comedian, podcaster, and actor who upended the comedy industry by self-distributing his specials directly to fans — selling out Radio City Music Hall twice in a night and Madison Square Garden multiple times — while co-hosting the hit Flagrant podcast with Akaash Singh. His 2022 special 'Infamous' and 2025 Netflix special 'Life' cemented his reputation as one of the most commercially independent voices in modern comedy.
Dave Ramsey is a nationally syndicated radio host, 9x national bestselling author, and founder and CEO of Ramsey Solutions. Reaching over 18 million listeners weekly through The Ramsey Show, he built a personal finance empire from personal bankruptcy into a company generating a record $300 million in 2025. His 7 Baby Steps and debt snowball method have guided millions of Americans toward financial freedom.
Graham Stephan is an American personal finance YouTuber, real estate investor, and entrepreneur who turned a real estate license at age 18 into a multimillion-dollar media brand. Known for his signature 20-cent home-brewed coffee philosophy, he has amassed over 5 million YouTube subscribers by making money talk approachable, transparent, and relentlessly actionable. He also co-hosts The Iced Coffee Hour podcast, founded Bankroll Coffee, and built a rental property portfolio in the Los Angeles area before relocating to Las Vegas.
Jay Shetty is a British-Indian author, podcast host, and former monk who turned three years of monastic life in India into the world's #1 health and wellness podcast, 'On Purpose,' which has surpassed 1 billion listens. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and TIME100 Creator, he is the author of two bestsellers, Chief Purpose Officer at Calm, and co-founder of multiple ventures including a production company and a talent agency. In May 2026, Netflix and Spotify signed a deal worth up to $100 million to exclusively carry video versions of his podcast.
Joe Rogan is an American stand-up comedian, podcast host, and UFC color commentator whose Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) has become the world's most-listened-to podcast. Launched in 2009 and exclusive to Spotify from 2020 under a $200M deal, then renewed in 2024 for an estimated $250M, JRE has crossed 2,400 episodes and 6+ billion YouTube views. A former sitcom actor (NewsRadio), Fear Factor host, and taekwondo champion, Rogan has built a media empire from Austin, Texas, including the Comedy Mothership club, that makes him arguably the most influential solo voice in American culture.
Lewis Howes is a former professional athlete turned media entrepreneur, best known as the host of 'The School of Greatness' podcast - one of the world's top podcasts with over 500 million downloads. A three-time New York Times bestselling author, Howes transformed a career-ending wrist injury and a spell sleeping on his sister's couch into a multi-platform media empire spanning podcasts, books, television, and the Greatness Network. Recognized by the Obama White House as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under 30, he has interviewed everyone from Tony Robbins to Alanis Morissette.
Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal are an American comedy duo and lifelong best friends who have built one of YouTube's most enduring empires — Good Mythical Morning — into a daily talk show with over 19.5 million subscribers and 10.8 billion views. Operating out of Burbank as Mythical Entertainment, they create shows, podcasts, merchandise, books, and live experiences, ranking #4 on Forbes' 2025 highest-earning creator list with $36M in annual earnings.
Steven Bartlett is a British entrepreneur, investor, author, and podcast host who dropped out of university after a single lecture to build Social Chain - a social media marketing company that went public at a $200M+ valuation before he turned 28. He hosts The Diary of a CEO, the second most-listened podcast globally on Spotify Wrapped 2025, with over 15 million YouTube subscribers. He is the youngest-ever Dragon on BBC's Dragons' Den and the founder of Steven.com, a creator holding company valued at $425 million.
Afar is a purpose-driven travel media company built around the idea that the best trips change the people who take them. Launched in 2009 from a chance trip to India, it now publishes a quarterly print magazine, a daily-updated website, podcasts, video, newsletters and travel experiences for a community of curious, conscientious travelers.
Babylist is the operating system for new parenthood — a universal baby registry that grew into an ecommerce destination, a content engine, a healthcare brand, and now a chain of experiential showrooms. Founded in 2011 by ex-Amazon engineer Natalie Gordon, the company hit $750M in 2025 revenue while staying founder-led, profitable, and unapologetically focused on the parent.
Hamish McKenzie is the New Zealand-born co-founder and Chief Writing Officer of Substack, the subscription newsletter platform that has fundamentally reshaped how writers monetize their work. A former journalist and Tesla lead writer who wrote a book about Elon Musk's EV revolution, McKenzie pivoted from covering disruption to causing it - co-founding Substack in 2017 with Chris Best and Jairaj Sethi. Today the platform hosts over 50,000 earning creators and has raised $213 million total funding including a $100M Series C. McKenzie hosts The Active Voice podcast, delivered a TED2025 talk on the future of media, and is writing a book called 'How to Save the Media' due in 2026.
Adam Ragusea is an American YouTuber, food writer, and former public-radio reporter who turned a kitchen-counter pizza video into a 2.6-million-subscriber cooking empire. A former journalism professor at Mercer University, he treats recipes the way a beat reporter treats a city hall meeting: with curiosity, skepticism, and a willingness to season the cutting board instead of the steak.
Ben Shapiro is the editor emeritus and co-founder of The Daily Wire, host of The Ben Shapiro Show, a syndicated columnist since age 17, and the author of more than a dozen books. A Harvard-trained attorney turned media operator, he has built one of the most-listened-to political podcasts in the United States and helped grow The Daily Wire into a conservative media company valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Chris Williamson is the host of Modern Wisdom, one of the world's most-listened-to long-form interview podcasts, and co-founder of the nootropic drink brand Neutonic. A former nightclub promoter and Love Island contestant turned interviewer, he has built a 400M+ download catalogue of conversations with thinkers, scientists, and authors.
Conan O'Brien is an American comedian, writer, podcaster and producer whose career arc reads like a writer's room dare: Harvard Lampoon president, Saturday Night Live and Simpsons writer, a 28-year run hosting late-night for NBC and TBS, and a second act built around the chart-topping podcast 'Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend,' the HBO Max travelogue 'Conan O'Brien Must Go,' and a 2025 Oscars hosting gig that drew the show's biggest ratings in years. He sold his media company Team Coco to SiriusXM in 2022 and in March 2025 received the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Emma Frances Chamberlain is an American YouTuber, podcaster, and entrepreneur who reshaped vlogging at 16 with jump cuts, sarcasm, and bad lighting, then turned a one-girl bedroom show into a coffee company with a Century City flagship, a Spotify-exclusive podcast (Anything Goes), and a recurring perch on the Met Gala carpet for Vogue. She is a brand ambassador for Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and Lancôme.
Ethan Klein is the co-founder of h3h3Productions and host of the H3 Podcast, a long-running commentary, comedy and interview show he runs with his wife Hila Klein. What started in 2011 as a YouTube channel built around 'reaction' style videos and 'exe' edits became one of the more durable creator businesses on the internet, with a podcast launched in 2017 that has put out more than a thousand episodes.
Jordan Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist, Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, and one of the most widely read and debated public intellectuals of his generation. Known for his books '12 Rules for Life' and 'Beyond Order' - which together sold over 7 million copies - and a YouTube channel with over 8.8 million subscribers, he blends Jungian psychology, evolutionary biology, and Biblical narrative into a framework for personal responsibility and meaning. He co-founded Peterson Academy in 2024, an online education platform with 72,000 students, and hosts 'The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast,' which has surpassed 150 million downloads.
Lex Fridman is a Russian-American computer scientist, AI researcher at MIT, and host of the Lex Fridman Podcast — one of the most-watched long-form interview shows in the world. With a PhD from Drexel University and research spanning autonomous vehicles, deep learning, and human-robot interaction, he interviews everyone from Elon Musk to world leaders to Nobel laureates. A black belt in both jiu-jitsu and judo, he blends intellectual curiosity with martial discipline, and has built a YouTube channel with over 4.8 million subscribers and hundreds of millions of views.
Mark Edward Fischbach, known worldwide as Markiplier, is an American YouTuber, filmmaker, and actor with over 38 million subscribers and 23 billion views. Starting with horror game Let's Plays in 2012, he has evolved into an independent filmmaker - his self-financed directorial debut Iron Lung (2026) grossed $51 million worldwide and earned a spot in the top 40 highest-grossing independent films of all time. He co-founded the Cloak clothing line, hosts the Distractible podcast, and has raised millions for charity, all while redefining what a content creator can be.
Nathaniel Drew is an American content creator, polyglot, and filmmaker based in Paris, France, with over 1.79 million YouTube subscribers. Born in Los Angeles to Argentine-immigrant parents and raised in Portland, Oregon, he skipped college to teach himself filmmaking and launched his YouTube channel in 2015. Known for his cinematic vlogs exploring travel, language learning, identity, and existential questions, he speaks five or more languages and went viral with 'Speaking 5+ Languages with my Polyglot Grandma.' He also hosts the 'No Backup Plan' podcast, runs a Substack newsletter, creates music, and teaches filmmaking through his 'Frame by Frame' masterclass course.