Russ: Eighty-two million dollars. For one guy talking into a microphone. [dry] And that's not even the weird part of this list.
Nadia: This is Nadia.
Russ: This is Russ.
Nadia: [excited] It's July 31st, 2026, and we've got three podcast stories that all boil down to one question — who's getting paid.
Russ: My favorite question.
Nadia: Forbes just dropped its Highest-Paid Podcasters of 2026, and Rogan's on top again — an estimated eighty-two million.
Russ: SiriusXM's launching a five-dollar 'Sports Pass' next month, built out of Audacy's local stations.
Nadia: And Don Lemon just signed a three-year exclusive with Libsyn to host and monetize his whole network.
Russ: Rich guys, sports bundles, and a cable anchor. Let's go.
Nadia: Let's start with Forbes. Their annual Highest-Paid Podcasters list is out, and per Matt Craig's reporting, Joe Rogan tops it at an estimated eighty-two million.
Russ: Estimated. So Forbes is guessing.
Nadia: [laughs] It's a model — Spotify deal value, ad loads, YouTube, live gates. Their estimate, not his tax return. But the shape of the list is the real story.
Russ: Okay, so who's number two?
Nadia: TBPN — the tech show tied to OpenAI's orbit — at a reported seventy million.
Russ: Wait — a tech podcast is number two? Ahead of Crime Junkie and the Kelces?
Nadia: That's the whiplash. Then Steven Bartlett's Diary of a CEO around forty-five, Ashley Flowers' Crime Junkie about forty-two, New Heights near thirty-five, Call Her Daddy around thirty-two.
Russ: But here's my dumb-listener question — is any of this because the show got better? Or is it just deals?
Nadia: [beat] It's deals and scale. Nobody jumps eighty million on charm. It's cross-platform — audio, video, tour dates, ad networks they own.
Russ: So the takeaway is 'own your distribution.' Which, funny enough, is basically every story today.
Nadia: [excited] You're already connecting dots, I love it. Here's my hot take — that TBPN number is the real signal. Niche plus a rich advertiser base beats broad-and-cheap.
Russ: Meaning what for the person washing dishes listening to us right now?
Nadia: Meaning the shows you love are chasing whoever pays most — so expect more finance, more sports betting, more supplements in your feed.
Russ: [sarcastic] Great. Can't wait for Rogan to sell me a mattress made of testosterone.
Nadia: [laughs] And again — every one of these numbers is Forbes' estimate. The creators mostly don't confirm them.
Nadia: Next up — SiriusXM's launching 'SiriusXM Sports Pass' on September 1st. Five bucks a month, or forty-nine a year for new U.S. subscribers.
Russ: Five dollars is... actually cheap for Sirius. What am I getting?
Nadia: Per Barrett Media — Audacy's twenty-three local sports stations, Good Karma's 710 ESPN L.A., sixteen SiriusXM-exclusive channels, plus seven national sports networks.
Russ: Hold on — Audacy stations inside a Sirius app? Since when do those two share a sandbox?
Nadia: Since the rebroadcast deal. This is Sirius turning that into a standalone product — one bundle, all your sports talk, right before football season.
Russ: So the timing's the whole play. College and NFL kicking off in September.
Nadia: Exactly. You catch the sports-radio junkie at the one moment they'll actually pay.
Russ: But is it good? Or is it just twenty-three stations of guys yelling about their fantasy team?
Nadia: [laughs] For a local-sports diehard? Genuinely great — your hometown station in the car and out of market.
Russ: See, that's the pitch. I move to a new city, I still get my home team's radio guys. That I'd pay five bucks for.
Nadia: And that's the strategy — Sirius isn't selling channels anymore, it's selling bundles by mood. Sports pass, comedy pass, whatever's next.
Russ: Which sounds a lot like cable getting re-invented one tier at a time.
Nadia: [dry] The circle of media life. Bottom line — audio's bundling like streaming now, so watch your wallet come fall.
Russ: Forty-nine a year and I never hear a Sirius free-trial robot call again? Sold.
Nadia: Last one — Don Lemon just signed a three-year exclusive hosting and advertising deal with Libsyn for his Lemon Media Network, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Russ: Libsyn. Remind me why I should know that name.
Nadia: Old-school hosting and monetization backbone — tons of shows quietly run on their pipes. Now they're the exclusive home and ad seller for Lemon.
Russ: So the plumbing company signed the celebrity. Interesting flex.
Nadia: [excited] That's the twist — the UTA-brokered deal covers the flagship Don Lemon Show plus Lemon Live at 5, Hot Topics, and Lemon Drop.
Russ: He's got four shows? The man left CNN and started a whole network.
Nadia: And he wants to sign outside creators too. He's building a mini-network, not just a solo pod.
Russ: Okay, blunt question — is the show any good, or is this just a famous name shopping for a new landlord?
Nadia: [beat] It's found a lane — the YouTube-first interview format works when he books a real newsmaker. Uneven, but the ceiling's high.
Russ: So why does Libsyn want it if it's uneven?
Nadia: Because a marquee name with four feeds is a lighthouse — it pulls other creators onto the platform. That's the real deal here.
Russ: My hot take — 'exclusive' only matters if he's still making these shows in year three.
Nadia: Fair. Three years is a long commitment for a daily grind. For you? Expect a more consistent, better-monetized Lemon feed, and maybe some new voices under his banner.
Russ: Translation: more ads, but the shows won't randomly vanish. I'll take that trade.
Nadia: So — Forbes says Rogan's back on top at eighty-two million, with an OpenAI-adjacent tech show stunningly at number two.
Russ: Sirius bundles up a five-dollar Sports Pass out of Audacy stations, right in time for football.
Nadia: And Don Lemon parks his whole four-show network at Libsyn on a three-year exclusive.
Russ: All three: own the distribution, sell the ads yourself. I'm learning, Nadia.
Nadia: Before we go — one more Forbes nugget. The gap between number one and number six on that list is roughly fifty million dollars.
Russ: [dry] So the 'sixth highest-paid podcaster on Earth' is making Call Her Daddy money and still gets called the little guy.
Nadia: [laughs] The floor of the top six is a whole career for the rest of us. Wildly top-heavy business.
Russ: Testosterone mattress money, all the way down.
Nadia: [laughs] And that's the show for July 31st, 2026 — see you tomorrow, and yes, Russ, we'll check if that sports bundle actually launches on time.
Russ: What we're actually listening to — I'll skip the eighty-two-million-dollar guys. I've been on 'Search Engine,' the PJ Vogt show. Just honest curiosity, no supplement ads. That's my rec.
This show is made with AI: the hosts’ voices are synthetic and the scripts are AI-assisted. Every story links to its original source.