Congratulations to the Duchess!
Meghan Markle's new podcast, Archetypes, is smashing goals, thanks to coordinated promotion efforts from the Duchess herself, as well as Archewell as a whole, guest Serena Williams, and the production team.
As a result, just two days after the series launched with an episode featuring the tennis champion, Archetypes has taken the number one spot in the Spotify charts, the first podcast to beat Joe Rogan's controversial show in ages.
"Meghan's debut podcast, #Archetypes, has done what many have tried (and failed) to do—snatch the top spot from The Joe Rogan Experience on @Spotify's US Podcast Charts. The show is also #1 in Australia, Canada and UK," royal expert Omid Scobie wrote on Twitter, alongside the "receipts," AKA a screenshot of said charts.
Joe Rogan created a huge amount of noise around his podcast a few months ago, when he was accused of spreading misinformation about COVID vaccines. At the time, many public figures and private individuals lobbied Spotify to remove Joe's show from the platform, but they decided to form a safety advisory council instead, per Variety.
Among Joe Rogan's critics were Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Brené Brown, and James Blunt. And of course, because it was known at the time that the Sussexes had a podcast in the works with Spotify, they also weighed in on the controversy.
"Last April, our co-founders began expressing concerns to our partners at Spotify about the all too real consequences of COVID-19 misinformation on its platform," they said in a statement obtained by Page Six.
"We have continued to express our concerns to Spotify to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis.
"We look to Spotify to meet this moment and are committed to continuing our work together as it does."
In that context, it must feel particularly satisfying for Meghan to snatch the top spot from Joe, whose ideas she clearly disagrees with, and for so many people to resonate with her feminist message.
