From website to top 100 podcast

Stuff They Don't Want You To Know started as a website in 1998, evolved into a podcast, and now ranks in the country's top 100 despite competing with 4.7 million other shows.

Consider every idea seriously

Host Ben Bowlin credits the show's popularity to a willingness to explore almost any topic, from the Illuminati to fermented cabbage. Early on, there were no formulas, so the team tried everything.

“When we first started off in this new frontier, there were no bad ideas.”

Your listeners are your reporters

The hosts treat listener mail as more than feedback. On a recent episode about nuclear weapons, they heard from someone who actually launches them, adding real expertise that shaped the conversation.

“from a guy who is literally the guy that launches nuclear weapons, and he told us what that world is like”

Trust data and your gut equally

CEO Conal Byrne tracks downloads and margins, but hosts also rely on gut feelings. Frederick asks if the conversation moved in interesting directions. Bowlin's metric is simple: are we excited to do this again tomorrow?

“Did I feel good listening? Did the conversation move, and did it go in interesting directions?”

Adapt or become irrelevant

The show started as a video podcast before the term existed, became an audio podcast, had success on YouTube, and now appears on Netflix. This willingness to evolve across platforms has kept it relevant for 13 years.

“That willingness to evolve is a really important metric for digital creators.”

Audiences still want humans, not AI

Despite 60% of people using AI tools, over 90% of podcast listeners don't want AI-generated content. Audiences crave messy, organic human conversation over machine-made alternatives.

“definitely still need human beings having a messy, organic, human conversation”