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Apple Celebrates 20th Anniversary of Taking Podcasts Mainstream With iPod and iTunes

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of iTunes gaining support for podcasts, Apple has shared a new web page highlighting 20 podcasts that the company loves.

Apple Podcasts 20
The podcasts are categorized by year: 2005-2010, 2011-2015, 2016-2020, and 2021-2025.

Featured podcasts include This American Life, Acquired, The Daily, and others.

Apple shared a letter to honor the occasion:

At Apple Podcasts, we love podcasts.

Since the medium came to iTunes in 2005, our team has dedicated countless hours to helping people discover new shows. To celebrate 20 years, here are 20 favorites that best exemplify how far podcasting has come—and where it can go in the next two decades.

This list is a love letter to the podcasts that left a lasting impact on us and the ones we continue to recommend again and again. They are shows with hosts that feel like friends, and shows that make us press play immediately on the latest episode to hear what happens next. These shows have measurably improved our lives and helped define this medium we know and love.

Explore the list and join the celebration.

The anniversary is technically in a few more days, as Apple released iTunes 4.9 with support for discovering, listening to, and subscribing to podcasts on June 28, 2005.

"Apple is taking Podcasting mainstream by building it right into iTunes," said Steve Jobs, in a press release shared that day. "Podcasting is the next generation of radio, and users can now subscribe to over 3,000 free Podcasts and have each new episode automatically delivered over the Internet to their computer and iPod."

You can still read our own Arnold Kim's coverage of the iTunes update that day. Time flies!

Podcasts emerged a few years before iTunes support came along. The word "podcast" is credited to journalist Ben Hammersley, who referred to "podcasting" in a 2004 article in The Guardian. The word is a portmanteau of "iPod" and "broadcast."

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Top Rated Comments

18 months ago
That is a truly creative graphic!
Score: 39 Votes (Like | Disagree)
xDKP Avatar
18 months ago

That is a truly creative graphic!
Amazing really. Look too focussed and the “20” almost disappears
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
18 months ago
Gotta say, that’s a clever image :)
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ipedro Avatar
18 months ago
I cut the cord to cable back in 2007 with the first tv before there was streaming content. I'd buy entire seasons of TV shows and movies but I survived mostly on a diet of Podcasts. I'd listen to the Podfather Adam Curry and video podcasts from Diggnation and others. Anyone remember Revision3?


Honestly, I kind of miss those days of innocence when podcasts were truly self productions and conversation style shows. Now many of them have gone corporate and high level production and it doesn't feel as authentic.

Attachment Image
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Cameront9 Avatar
18 months ago
Put whoever did the graphic design for this logo on the MacOS design team.

Crazy to think that the "pod" part of Podcasts outlived the iPod itself. Leo Laporte tried to change the name to Netcasts but it never caught on.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Sirious Avatar
18 months ago
That's a great logo!

I also loved it when Disney was celebrating 30 years of Disneyland and had Mickey inside the number 30 🤯

Some designers are genius!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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