Steven Bartlett Started the Diary of a CEO in His Bedroom with a Sock as a Pop Shield. Now It Tops YouTube’s Podcast Chart
· Thought Catalog
Updated 2 minutes ago, November 3, 2026
Steven Bartlett’s The Diary of a CEO has reached the top of YouTube’s podcast subscriber chart, drawing more than 1 billion views from January through October 2026. As of November 1, the show had 21.3 million subscribers.
FlightStory’s YouTube Studio figures put views at around 399 million for the same 10 months in 2025. This year’s January-to-October output included 87 full-length video episodes in more than 20 languages.
Bartlett, 34, began the podcast in 2017, recording his experiences of building a business from his Manchester bedroom. His equipment included an inexpensive microphone and a sock used as a pop shield. Around 40 people listened to the early episodes, many of them friends.
Weekly full-length YouTube videos followed in 2020 as a pandemic project. The British entrepreneur, investor and Dragons’ Den star expanded the show into interviews covering business, psychology, health, relationships, science, technology and global affairs. Guests have included Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, Jada Pinkett Smith and Matthew McConaughey.
An October episode featuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky passed 7 million views within 10 days. The conversation was recorded in Ukrainian with 2 human interpreters, then made available in more than 20 languages using AI voice technology.
Bartlett credited the team, guests and partners behind the show, and singled out translation as a way to reach listeners worldwide. He said: “The moments that stay with me most are when somebody tells me that something they heard on the podcast has made a difference to their life.”
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