Most lists of the best interview podcasts with celebrities rank fame and stop there. That is useless if you need a booking. This list gives you the host, the format, the guest type and the catch for ten shows. Almost none of them take guests who are not already famous. What they give you is a working model for the shows that do, and an hour worth listening to. One is mostly replaying old episodes, which matters if you are pitching a podcast guest this quarter. Formats run from surprise guest comedy to an NPR card game to a film show taped on stage.
What are the best interview podcasts with celebrities? Good Hang with Amy Poehler, SmartLess and Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend win on reach and warmth. Wild Card with Rachel Martin gets the most honest answers, and Call Her Daddy books the biggest crossover names.
1. Good Hang with Amy Poehler: big names, loose comedy conversations
Amy Poehler would rather ask a guest what they eat in the car than how they prepare for a role. Good Hang is her weekly interview show with The Ringer. The Amy Poehler podcast plays like a green room, not a press stop. One habit sets it apart from every other pick on this page. Poehler often seats a second guest beside the first. Christopher Nolan came in with Matt Damon and the two just talked. You get a conversation, not a question and answer session. Steve Carell, Aubrey Plaza and Hayley Williams have all had that hour. Nobody else here books that way.
If your guest is funny in a kitchen, this is the room. Poehler warms people up with small talk and keeps them there for most of the hour. Whatever they came on to promote surfaces near the end, briefly. That is the cost of the format, and it is worth paying. A loose celebrity interview clips better than a tight one. The moments that travel online are the ones nobody planned. If you need three points landed cleanly, Happy Sad Confused in section ten is the safer room. Here, those points tend to disappear. Bring charm rather than a brief.
2. SmartLess: surprise guests, three hosts, huge reach
Two of the three hosts have no idea who is walking in. Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett take turns booking a secret guest. The reveal happens on tape, and the reactions are real. That one rule powers the entire show. Emma Thompson, Cillian Murphy and Margot Robbie have all walked into it. SmartLess is the celebrity podcast where a guest gets treated like an old friend. The hosts are peers, so nobody is performing an interview. They are three actors messing about with a fourth. The room feels safe, and guests keep saying yes. You can hear why.
Send someone who can improvise, or do not send them at all. The banter runs the show and the guest has to ride it. Anyone carrying a message grid will watch it evaporate. In exchange you get warmth and a very large audience. People finish an episode liking the guest, which is the whole job. If likeability is the brief, start here, then look at Good Hang in section one. Both shows sell friendship rather than access. If the brief is depth, Armchair Expert in section four is the better hour. Know your guest before you pitch. The tape does not lie.
3. Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend: comedians who want to play
Conan O'Brien started this because he had no friends left. Thousands of famous interviews, and not one of them stuck. So he made a weekly show to fix that. His assistant Sona Movsesian and producer Matt Gourley sit in and refuse to behave. They interrupt, they contradict him, they run their own segments. A guest joins a family mid argument, not a polite celebrity interview. Mick Jagger and Molly Shannon both took the seat recently. No other show here hands the crew this much power. That is the pleasure and the risk. You cannot control it, and you would not want to.
The voicemail and fan call segments are why people keep coming back. O'Brien will argue with a stranger about nothing for ten minutes. Comedians love it, because there is finally room to build a bit. A serious actor with a heavy film can look stranded in that space. That is the price of the looseness, and the looseness is the point. If the gift is timing, this interview podcast is the best room available. If the gift is gravity, Wild Card in section seven will treat them better. Pick honestly. Nobody survives this hour on charm alone. You need a fast brain and a thick skin.
4. Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard: long, unguarded life stories
Dax Shepard tells you what is wrong with him first. Then he asks you to match it. Armchair Expert is a long interview podcast built entirely on that trade. Episodes push past two hours, and sobriety, money and shame arrive early. Monica Padman co hosts, then returns later for a separate fact check. The pair go back and correct what was said in the room. No other celebrity podcast here audits itself afterwards. That is why the honesty holds up years later. Guests give more because Shepard went first. It works almost every time, and you can hear the guard drop.
Listeners stay for the fact check, which is really a second show. Anyone who protects their private life will find it feels like surgery. The intimacy is what buys the honesty, so take it or skip it. Send someone with a real story about failing at something. Make sure they will actually tell it out loud. A polished guest with nothing to confess sounds evasive here. The same person would come across as charming on Good Hang in section one. The room changes the result more than the guest does. Choose the room for the story you have. Everyone forgets that, constantly.
5. Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa: daytime stars unfiltered
Kelly Ripa spent decades interviewing people in short television segments. The good material always arrived once the cameras stopped. The Kelly Ripa podcast is her attempt to keep that hour. Let's Talk Off Camera runs weekly, and she books people she has known for years. Goldie Hawn, Christina Applegate and her husband Mark Consuelos have all sat down. Other celebrity podcasts chase whoever is new this month. Ripa trades on familiarity, and guests tell her things they held back on air. Some conversations run so long they split across two episodes. She lets them. You hear the difference within minutes.
The payoff is the moment a guest says something they clearly meant to withhold. Her crowd is daytime, soap and Bravo, and that is not an accident. Actors and hosts do well here, musicians and founders far less so. The narrow lane is exactly why the booking converts when it fits. Among celebrities with podcast projects, Ripa is the most generous host on this page. She wants her guest to look good. Bring warmth and a story, not a message grid. If the fanbase is not watching morning television, spend the pitch elsewhere. The clips will tell you fast. Trust them.
6. Call Her Daddy: is this the biggest celebrity interview podcast?
Alex Cooper will ask the question a lawyer struck from the brief. She will ask it warmly, and they will answer it. Call Her Daddy drops twice a week, mixing confessional celebrity interviews with solo advice. Michelle Obama sat down here. So did Kamala Harris. Nothing else on this page turns one hour into a week of headlines. That is the argument for pitching it, and the argument against. If your guest has something to say to millions of young women, this is the biggest celebrity interview podcast going. If not, stay away. Cooper does not do halfway, and neither does her audience.
People come for the mix of gossip, sex and career candour. A nervous guest gets found out inside ten minutes. Accept that, and you get the payoff, because nothing softened has ever trended. Rank the best celebrity gossip podcasts by reach and you land here. The show is confession rather than tabloid, which is a different pitch entirely. Send the person who wants the record corrected in their own voice. Never send the one who wants the record left alone. That single test decides the celebrity gossip podcast booking. Audience size is not the question. Their nerve is, so ask them first.
7. Wild Card with Rachel Martin: the most honest answers
A deck of cards runs this interview, not the host. Rachel Martin left NPR's Morning Edition to build an interview game show. Guests pull cards about regret, joy, belief and death, then answer them. She launched it in 2024, and The New York Times named it one of that year's ten best podcasts. Bowen Yang and George Saunders have both played. Nobody can rehearse, because nobody knows which card is coming. That one mechanic is why the other celebrity interview podcasts cannot match this honesty. The format does the interviewing. Martin just listens, and so do you. It is quietly disarming.
Half an hour, and almost no promotional runway at all. A guest with a product to sell gets very little to work with. That constraint is the reason the answers land the way they do. It is the most efficient good interview podcast on this page. Book it to make people like your guest as a person. Do not book it to sell a release date. For a hard release date, Happy Sad Confused in section ten gives you the film as the reason. Choose by mechanic, not by follower count. The mechanic decides the outcome, and fame rarely does. You will see it in the tape.
8. Las Culturistas: pop culture gossip with famous friends
Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang have been doing this together since 2016. They call themselves culture consultants, and they are not entirely joking. The weekly roundtable runs on obsession, and a guest arrives as a third friend. Lady Gaga, Tina Fey and Gina Gershon have all joined in. One segment defines it: I Don't Think So, Honey. Everyone gets sixty seconds to rant about something in the culture. This celebrity gossip podcast asks a guest to perform, not simply to answer. Taste and speed are the entry fee. A guest who can hold a rant does well here. Being famous alone is not enough.
Regulars stay for the rules of culture and the annual awards episodes. Both reward long listening, and both are built from in jokes. A guest who does not know the references drifts, visibly. That closed world is the source of the loyalty, so brief your guest properly. Make them listen to three episodes before they walk in. If they live online and have opinions on music or fashion, they will thrive. If they need a script, this celebrity podcast will eat them. The audience hears a bluff instantly, and so do the hosts. Send the real fan every time. You will get a great hour.
9. Anna Faris Is Unqualified: celebrity advice from the archive
Anna Faris built the format everyone else copied. The Anna Faris Is Unqualified podcast pairs a celebrity interview with calls from listeners. Someone rings in with a genuine relationship mess, and the star has to answer. Ed Helms, Jennette McCurdy and Alison Brie have all fielded those calls. Nobody is qualified, which is the joke and the permission slip. Among celebrities with podcast projects, this is still the sharpest structural idea. Nobody can hide behind a press answer while a stranger is crying. That is the whole trick, and it is remarkably hard to fake. Faris never tries. Listen and you will hear why.
One thing is worth knowing before you plan around it. The feed has been running flashback episodes. Treat it as a library to learn from, not a target this quarter. The upside of that pause is a deep back catalogue, free to study. Listen to how Faris hands a guest a real problem in the first ten minutes. Then go find an active show using the same call in structure. Copy the mechanic rather than the guest list. That is worth more than any pitch you could send here. Your next booking will thank you. Formats travel, and guest lists do not.
10. Happy Sad Confused: film stars and live stage tapings
Josh Horowitz has already seen the film your guest made in 2011. Happy Sad Confused is a weekly career interview show, and he does the reading. He will know the flop, the recast, and the part they lost. Stanley Tucci, Kate Winslet and Robert Eggers have all sat with him. Then there is the thing nobody else here does. Horowitz sells tickets, taping live at rooms like the 92nd Street Y in New York. A press obligation becomes an event, and the celebrity interview becomes a night out. Actors notice, and they come back. Repeat visits are normal, which tells you enough.
Fans return for the deep cuts and the questions nobody else bothers to ask. Come here only if the work is the story. A guest outside film or prestige television has nothing to offer this crowd. The narrowness is what makes the depth possible, and the loyalty too. Among the best celebrity podcasts, this is the one built on craft. For a film or streaming campaign, it is the safest booking on the page. Vague praise will not survive the first question he asks. Send someone who wants to talk about the actual job. They will enjoy it, and so will you.
| Show | Pitch it if | Skip it if |
|---|---|---|
| Good Hang with Amy Poehler | Your guest is funny off the cuff and has an hour to spend well. | The booking exists to land three exact talking points. |
| SmartLess | You want maximum reach and the guest improvises well. | The guest must stay on message for a full hour. |
| Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend | The guest is quick, comic and happy to be interrupted. | They are promoting something heavy and need to be taken seriously. |
| Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard | The guest has a real story about failure and will tell it. | Their private life is off limits and must stay that way. |
| Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa | The audience you want already watches morning or daytime television. | They are a musician, founder or anyone outside that world. |
| Call Her Daddy | The guest wants to answer the rumour in their own voice. | Anything in their past is a no go zone. |
| Wild Card with Rachel Martin | You want people to like the guest as a human being. | The whole point is selling a release date. |
| Las Culturistas | The guest lives online and has real opinions to defend. | They need a script and hate being put on the spot. |
| Anna Faris Is Unqualified | You want to study the format that everyone else copied. | You need a live booking target this quarter. |
| Happy Sad Confused | The work is the story and the guest can talk about craft. | The guest has nothing to do with film or television. |
If you are listening, start with Wild Card, then Good Hang. The gap between a stranger's questions and a friend's questions teaches more than any ranking. If you are pitching, ignore all ten for a week. Open the celebrity interview podcast directory, then work down. Stop where your guest would be the biggest name of the year. That tier answers email. That is where your next booking actually lives.
Go beyond the celebrity podcasts in this guide
Use these shows as a benchmark, then find interview podcasts that fit your audience, budget, and outreach strategy. MillionPodcasts lets you filter 3M+ active podcasts by audience size, topic, listener demographics, guest acceptance, and more, with verified host, producer, and booker emails ready to export.
Search 3M+ podcasts →Frequently asked questions about celebrity interview podcasts
What is the best interview podcast with celebrities right now?
Good Hang with Amy Poehler and SmartLess lead for reach and warmth, because both attract A list guests and let them talk like people. Wild Card with Rachel Martin gets the most candid answers thanks to its card game format. Your best pick depends on whether you want comedy, film, or honesty.
Which famous people have podcasts?
Amy Poehler, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, Will Arnett, Conan O'Brien, Dax Shepard, Kelly Ripa, Anna Faris, Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers all host shows on this list. Celebrities with podcasts now interview each other more often than they sit for television press. That shift is why podcasts are a core booking channel.
What is the best celebrity gossip podcast?
Las Culturistas is the strongest celebrity gossip podcast on this list, because Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang combine pop culture takes with real industry guests. Call Her Daddy delivers gossip adjacent confessions from bigger names. Neither is a tabloid show, and both expect guests who can hold a bit.
How do you pitch a celebrity interview podcast?
Find the producer or booker rather than the host, then pitch a specific angle tied to the show's format instead of a guest biography. Check that the show accepts guests and is publishing new episodes, not reruns. MillionPodcasts lets you filter for both and unlock verified contacts.
Are celebrity interview podcasts worth pitching for guests who are not famous?
Rarely on the shows on this list, since most book talent through publicists and personal networks. The value for marketers, publicists and founders is pattern recognition. Study how these hosts build a segment, then find mid tier interview podcasts in the same niche where your guest is the biggest name in the room.
References
NPR. (April 2024). New NPR podcast Wild Card is part interview, part existential game show. https://www.npr.org/about-npr/1245323217/new-npr-podcast-wild-card-is-part-interview-part-existential-game-show NPR. (July 2026). Wild Card with Rachel Martin, show page and episode archive. https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510379/wild-card-with-rachel-martin Apple Podcasts. (July 2026). Good Hang with Amy Poehler, show page. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-hang-with-amy-poehler/id1795483480 Apple Podcasts. (July 2026). SmartLess, show page. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/smartless/id1521578868 Apple Podcasts. (July 2026). Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend, show page. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conan-obrien-needs-a-friend/id1438054347 Apple Podcasts. (July 2026). Anna Faris Is Unqualified, show page. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anna-faris-is-unqualified/id1059045374 Apple Podcasts. (July 2026). Happy Sad Confused, show page. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/happy-sad-confused/id827905050