Step 02 · Analyze

How to analyze any podcast in sixty seconds.

Every one of the 5M+ podcasts on CastFox has a profile. It gathers what the show talks about, how big it is, who listens, whether it books guests, its chart history, its episode archive and its YouTube channel, across eight tabs. This page walks through each tab on a real show: Metabolic Mind, by Bret Scher, MD, a health podcast with 187 episodes and a 112K-subscriber YouTube channel.

Updated · Written by the CastFox team from the live product

The header is the whole show on one screen. Whether it's active, its categories, a description, and a written read on the host. Then three actions: save to a list, track alerts, or pitch the podcast with an AI draft. Everything after this is depth.

castfox.net/podcast/… · Metabolic Mind
CastFox podcast profile header for Metabolic Mind by Bret Scher MD: Active badge, Health, Fitness and Mental tags, host summary, Save to List, Track Alerts and Pitch This Podcast buttons, and four insight cards
Four insight cards, straight away. What the audience is interested in, what the show actually focuses on, how consistently it publishes (187 episodes, three years), and where it exists across platforms.

Below the header sits the tab row, and the numbers are already on it: chart position, episode count, YouTube subscribers. You know what's inside before you open anything.

Plans: the header, description and Episodes are free on every show. The data tabs are unlimited on Pro and above, and free accounts get a monthly allowance of full profiles.

Insights: topics, brands, reach, competition and who's on the show

What the podcast actually talks about

Not the categories it filed itself under, but what it actually says. Most Discussed Topics counts how many episodes cover each subject. Beside it, Brands & References lists the companies, products, people and institutions that come up on air. Both come from the transcripts. Nobody typed them in.

Insights · Most Discussed Topics and Brands & References
CastFox Insights tab showing Most Discussed Topics bars, metabolic health 19 episodes, mental health 16, ketogenic therapy 10, and a Brands & References list including Baszucki Group, GLP-1 medications, semaglutide and UC San Diego
Metabolic health in 19 episodes, mental health in 16, ketogenic therapy in 10. Alongside: the Baszucki Group, GLP-1 medications, semaglutide, UC San Diego.

Every topic and every brand is clickable and opens the exact episodes, with dates. That's not a tag. That's the receipts. For an advertiser, checking whether a competitor already lives on a show is two clicks. For a researcher, it's a citation list.

Topic · ketogenic therapy, 10 episodes on record
CastFox topic detail modal for ketogenic therapy listing ten Metabolic Mind episodes on record with titles and dates
Brand · Baszucki Group, 5 episodes on record
CastFox brand detail modal for Baszucki Group listing the five episodes where it is mentioned
Left: the ten episodes on ketogenic therapy, including the first randomised trial of keto for schizophrenia. Right: the five episodes where the Baszucki Group comes up.

How big the podcast is: reach estimate with confidence

Monthly reach as a range, with the source shown: the chart positions in each market that the estimate is built from, listed individually. Per-episode audience within thirty days. Active followers tracked across platforms. And a confidence rating on the whole thing, so you know how hard to lean on it. Most tools give you one number and no way to check it.

Insights · Reach
CastFox reach panel: total monthly reach 9K to 50K derived from three chart positions, per-episode audience 2.7K to 15K, 112K active followers, and a High Confidence badge
9K to 50K listeners a month from three chart positions in three markets. 2.7K to 15K per episode. 112K active followers. High confidence.

Market competition and platform distribution

Market Insights places the show against its categories: typical competition in fitness and health, low competition in mental health. Low competition is a gap, and gaps are where you buy ads or pitch a guest. Platform Distribution breaks followers, plays and reviews out by YouTube, Castbox, TuneIn and the rest, so you can see where the audience actually lives.

Insights · Market Insights and Platform Distribution
CastFox Market Insights showing typical competition in Fitness and Health and low competition in Mental Health, plus Platform Distribution of 112K followers, 9.3M plays and 870 reviews across YouTube, Castbox and TuneIn

Hosts, recent guests and official channels

The hosts and how often each appears. Recent guests across the last forty episodes, with faces and counts. The latest episodes with dates. And every official channel in one place: website, RSS, Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok. A show that books twenty guests a month books guests. That's not a guess anymore.

Insights · On the show, Social Links & Contact
CastFox 'On the show' panel with hosts and appearance counts, a carousel of sixteen recent guests, the latest episodes with dates, and Social Links & Contact icons

Audience: podcast listener demographics and locations

Built from reviews, comments, social engagement and web signals: a written audience profile, gender split, estimated income, age distribution, top locations and interests. The locations row is the one that changes plans.

Audience tab
CastFox Audience tab for Metabolic Mind: 55/45 male to female, ages skewing 35 to 44, average estimated income, top locations Brazil 40% and United States 25%, and listener interests
55/45 male to female, skewing 35 to 44. Brazil 40%, United States 25%. If you were about to buy a US ad slot on this show, that one number just changed your plan.

Pitch Fit: does this podcast book guests?

The tab for anyone who wants on the show. A score out of 100 for how open the podcast is to guests, then the evidence behind it, measured over the last fifty analyzed episodes.

Pitch Fit tab
CastFox Pitch Fit tab: Moderate for guests 53 out of 100, 36% guest rate, 4.6 guest slots per month, 94% first-timers, last guest 91 days ago, and best-fit guest type Academic/Researcher at 41% with recent guests named
36%

Guest rate

Share of episodes that feature a guest.

4.6

Guest slots a month

How many openings there are to pitch for.

94%

First-timers

Guests the host had never had on before. High means open to strangers.

91d

Last guest

How recently the show booked someone.

Under the numbers: what each guest spot is worth, as listeners reached and as ad-equivalent dollars. Then the best-fit guest type, with the actual recent guests behind it named, so you can see who this host says yes to. Here, academics and researchers, 41% of recent guests.

The “Pitch This Podcast” button in the header drafts an email from all of this, and “Find 50+ more shows that would book you” hands the show off to Guest Finder.

Charts: podcast ranking history by country and category

Full ranking history in every market the show has ever charted in, plotted over time. You can see the peaks, and you can see the slides. A show that just cracked a Top 50 reads differently from one that has been sliding for a year.

Charts tab · Rank Trend
CastFox Charts tab Rank Trend line chart plotting Metabolic Mind's Apple chart positions over time across several country markets

Then a comparison against the median podcast in any category you pick, chart presence by country, and best rank per country.

Charts tab · vs Category Average, Chart Presence, Best Rank per Country
CastFox Charts tab showing comparison against the category average, a chart presence donut of 46 countries, and best rank per country including number one in Malta
Charted in 46 countries. Number one in Malta, six in Serbia, seven in Israel. A show you'd never heard of is number one somewhere.

Episodes: the searchable archive with topics, guests and sponsors

The archive, indexed. Episode count, average length, date range, how many have been analyzed, and the topics and guests found across them. The table is searchable by title, topic, guest, host or keyword, with columns for topics, guests, brands, places, keywords and sponsors on each episode. This is where you confirm a sponsor read, find the episode a guest appeared in, or pull every episode on a subject for a report.

Episodes tab
CastFox Episodes tab: 241 episodes averaging 23 minutes since March 2023, 32 topics and six guests, with a searchable table showing topic, guest, brand, place, keyword and sponsor columns
241 episodes averaging 23 minutes, back to March 2023. 32 topics, six guests.

YouTube: channel analytics and comment sentiment for the same show

Many shows now reach more people on YouTube than in podcast apps, and this is the tab nobody else does. The same show's channel: overview, the last ten videos with views and likes colour-coded high, medium and low, then channel stats, engagement, upload pattern and shorts versus long-form.

YouTube · Channel Overview, Recent Video Performance
CastFox YouTube tab channel overview donut and Recent Video Performance bars colour-coded high, medium and low for the last ten videos
YouTube · Channel stats, Engagement, Upload Pattern, Content Mix
CastFox YouTube channel stats: 9.3M total views, 802 videos, lifetime average 11.6K views, recent average 3.7K, view trend down 68%, engagement rate, upload pattern and shorts versus long-form content mix
9.3M total views across 802 videos. Lifetime average 11.6K views per video, recent average 3.7K, a 68% view trend down. That's a health check on the channel, not a vanity number.

Then the biggest videos ever, and the comments analysed: percentage positive, the words that come up most, sentiment per video, and the most positive and most negative comment pulled out by name. That's how the audience actually feels. Not a follower count, the room.

YouTube · Most Popular Videos, Comment Sentiment
CastFox YouTube tab Most Popular Videos with 109K views on 'Does the Brain Need Carbs?' and Comment Sentiment 62% positive with hot words diet, metabolic, protein, keto
YouTube · Full Summary, Similar Audience Demographics
CastFox YouTube Full Summary table of recent videos with views, likes, comments, engagement rate, duration and above or below par markers, plus a Similar Audience Demographics row
62% positive. Hot words: diet, metabolic, protein, keto. The full table marks every recent video above or below par, and the row at the bottom lists shows with a similar listener profile, so decoding one podcast hands you the next five.

Reviews and Web Presence

Pro and up

Reviews

Listener reviews from the podcast apps pulled together, so you read the audience in its own words before you write to the host.

Pro and up

Web Presence

An AI-generated report of the show's footprint beyond audio: press, mentions, official sites and social profiles. Useful for judging a host's reach off-platform.

How to read a podcast profile for sponsorship, guesting or research

The same profile answers different questions depending on why you opened it. This is the order that works for each job.

Which profile tabs matter for which job
If you are…Look at firstThen confirm withDecision signal
Buying or selling sponsorshipInsights › Reach and Platform DistributionAudience › top locations; Insights › Brands & ReferencesReach range at high confidence, audience in your target country, no direct competitor already on the show.
Pitching yourself or a client as a guestPitch Fit score and first-timer shareInsights › recent guests; Episodes › recent topicsScore above moderate, recent guests like you, a recent episode near your subject to reference.
Researching a market or categoryInsights › Most Discussed TopicsCharts › vs category average; Episodes archiveTopic counts over time, category position, exportable episode list.
Growing your own podcastCharts › rank trend and Market InsightsYouTube › view trend and content mixLow-competition categories, cross-promotion partners with a similar audience.
Free on every show
Header, description, host read, Episodes tab
Pro and up
Insights, Audience, Pitch Fit, Charts, YouTube, Reviews, Web Presence, unlimited. Free accounts get a monthly allowance of full profiles. Current limits.

Frequently asked questions about podcast analytics

How many listeners does a podcast have, and how does CastFox know?
CastFox shows monthly reach as a range, for example 9K to 50K, modelled from the show's chart positions across markets and its follower and play counts on platforms like YouTube, Castbox and TuneIn. The profile lists the chart positions the estimate is built from and gives it a confidence rating.
What is on a CastFox podcast profile?
Eight tabs: Insights (topics, brands and references, reach, market competition, platform distribution, hosts and guests, social links), Audience (demographics and locations), Pitch Fit (guest openness score), Charts (rank history by country and category), Episodes (searchable archive with per-episode topics, guests, brands and sponsors), YouTube (channel stats and comment sentiment), Reviews and Web Presence.
How can I see which brands advertise on or are mentioned in a podcast?
The Insights tab lists Brands & References found in the transcripts, with a count of episodes for each. Click a brand to see the exact episodes. The Episodes tab also has a sponsors column per episode.
How do I know if a podcast accepts guests?
Open the Pitch Fit tab. It shows a 0–100 openness score, the share of episodes with a guest, guest slots per month, the percentage of first-time guests, how long since the last guest, and the best-fit guest type with recent guests named.
Where does the audience demographic data come from?
The Audience tab is built from listener reviews, YouTube comments, social engagement and web signals, and reports gender split, age distribution, estimated income, top locations and interests.
Does CastFox show a podcast's YouTube performance?
Yes. The YouTube tab covers total views and videos, lifetime versus recent average views per video, view trend, engagement rate, upload pattern, shorts versus long-form mix, most popular videos, comment sentiment with hot words, and a per-video table marking each above or below par.
Which parts of a podcast profile are free?
The header, description, host summary and Episodes tab are free on every show. The data tabs are unlimited on Pro and above, and free accounts get a monthly allowance of full profiles. Current limits are on the pricing page.