15 Amazing Indian Podcasts That Won’t Make You Miss the Screen

Have you ever experienced the bliss of being soothed to sleep by a calming podcast? Or heard an enthralling murder mystery being recited, complete with sound effects and background noises?

The audio medium offers an easy way to consume all kinds of content ranging from news to entertainment and podcasts are the new fuel running the content world. This convenience has perhaps catered to its significant growth across the world, with more and more people tuning in.

Not surprisingly then, Indian podcasts, too, serve a wide range of audiences. Here’s a list of some of the best you should tune into:

1. The Mythpat Podcast

The Mythpat podcast is created and hosted by Mithilesh Patankar, popularly known as gamer ‘Mythpat’. This gaming podcast highlights all the new happenings in the gaming industry as well as on the internet.

In weekly episodes, he entertains and educates his listeners through interviews with top gamers and influencers. He also shares tips on how to be a successful creator and also paints a picture of what an influencer’s life is like by sharing his own experiences.

Streaming platform: Spotify

2. Maed in India

The first Indie music podcast in India, the Maed in India podcast showcases the best Indian independent musicians across the country and even outside. Hosted by Mae Mariam Thomas, each episode of Maed in India showcases an artist/band along with an exclusive stripped-down session or acoustic renditions of their original music.

The weekly show is popular for being one of the best destinations to find new music and stories. It features all kinds of music genres and artists from hip hop to folk and everything in between.

Streaming platforms: Available across all major platforms.

3. Respectfully disagree by The Swaddle

The podcast by The Swaddle, an independent media company based in Mumbai, discusses and dissects different issues related to health, gender, family and culture. Hosted by Srishti Malhotra, this weekly podcast deals with different topics and the conversations are equally informative and entertaining.

Streaming platforms: Spotify, Apple

4. The Internet Said So

One of the best Indian comedy podcasts, The Internet Said So is a weekly podcast founded and hosted by comedians, Aadar Malik, Neville Shah, Varun Thakur and Kautuk Srivastav.

In the podcast, the hosts involve unscripted fun conversations around their own life stories and talk about them at length. Also, as the name suggests, they share quirky facts that are available on the internet and talk about them in the funniest way.

Streaming platforms: Available across all major platforms.

5. The Ranveer Show

One of the leading podcasts in India, The Ranveer Show is hosted by Ranveer Allahbadia, popularly known as Beer Biceps who is also an influencer and a Youtuber. His podcast touches on a wide range of topics like lifestyle, health, fitness, career guidance, motivation and so on.

He had hosted several Indian and global celebrities across different fields from A R Rahman to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Streaming platform: Spotify

6. The Tastes of India

A weekly bilingual podcast (Primarily in Hindi) hosted by Puja Darshan is an Indian recipe food podcast. This podcast takes you through the lengths and breadths of India and connects the varied culture through tasty food. A perfect podcast for people who are just starting to cook, it helps one cook without being in front of a TV or computer screen to watch the recipes.

Streaming platforms: Available across all major platforms.

7. Indian Noir

It is a crime, horror and dark fantasy mix launched in 2018, written, narrated and produced by Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner and voice actor Nikesh Murali. The stories, unfold in four to seven minutes along with the sound effects, which offer a different kind of dramatic experience.

Streaming platforms: Available across all major platforms.

8. The Musafir Stories

Launched in 2017, Musafir Stories is an Indian travel podcast, hosted by Saif Omar and Faiza Khan. In the podcast, they talk about various Indian travel destinations as well as they talk to travellers letting them share their journey, experiences, travel tricks, hacks and even more.

The fortnightly podcast brings in a diverse range of storytellers and explores beyond the picture-perfect itinerary to inspire people to take up travelling.

Streaming platforms: Available across all major platforms.

9. Figuring Out with Raj Shamani

A podcast on growing businesses and brands is hosted by Raj Shamani who showcases his own experiences as an entrepreneur and content creator. Through his podcast, he showcases his growth, challenges and shortcomings while following his entrepreneurial journey and finally finding success in it.

Streaming platforms: Available across all major platforms.

10. Masala Podcast

The Masala podcast is an award-winning feminist podcast for and by South Asian women is all about cultural taboos. Hosted by London based Sangeeta Pillai, the podcast deals with everything from sex, sexuality, periods, menopause, porn, mental health, sexual harassment and even more.

The podcast that had won multiple British Podcast Awards, features some of the world’s most inspiring South Asian women.

Streaming platforms: Spotify, Gaana, Apple

11. The Seen and the Unseen

The weekly show hosted by Amit Varma features long-form conversations that give an in-depth understanding and insights into different subjects. The podcast that started by looking at the unintended consequences of public policies later evolved into a deep-dive interview podcast.

The life and thought of Mahatma Gandhi, the Emergency, Hindutva, Cricket, Demonetization, The Bangladesh War, Plato, The Me Too movement etc are some of the subjects he had discussed in his podcasts. The podcasts also include guests like Ram Guha, Srinath Raghavan, Paromita Vohra, TM Krishna, Manu Pillai, Shashi Tharoor, Matt Ridley, Tyler Cowen and so on.

Streaming platforms: Available across major platforms.

12. In Focus by The Hindu

The ‘Hindu In Focus’ delves deep into the current developments across the globe. To give more dimensions to the subject/topic, the podcast brings in subject experts to discuss and provide context, history, perspective and analysis.

Streaming platforms: Spotify, Apple

13. Finshots Daily

It is a 5-min daily podcast explaining the most important finance and business developments in plain and simple English, with a focus on India.

The show is produced by Finception, a finance storytelling platform and they release a five-minute episode daily.

Streaming platforms: Available across all major platforms.

14. Paisa Vaisa with Anupam Gupta

Launched in 2017, Paisa Vaisa is one of the leading podcasts on personal finance. Hosted by Anupam Gupta, a charted accountant and investment research consultant, the podcast hosts experts across the spectrum of personal finance to have conversations covering diverse topics such as mutual funds, stocks, housing, loans, education, crypto, and much more.
Streaming platform: Available across all major platforms.

15. On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Hosted by the Jay Shetty, a British Indian author, former monk and purpose coach, the show is aimed at helping people overcome day-to-day hardships and be more mindful.

This self-help podcast, which drops episodes every Monday and Friday, covers a variety of topics and presents fascinating conversations with insightful people from across the world.

Streaming platforms: Available across all major platforms.

(Edited by Yoshita Rao)