The best podcasts to learn Chinese

Podcasts are the cheapest listening hours you will ever get: free, portable, and available while you wash up. For Mandarin they have one more advantage. You can choose your accent, mainland or Taiwan, and hear it spoken by people who are not reading from a textbook.

The twelve podcasts below are grouped by level. Kungfucius checked each feed on 14 November 2026, and every one had published a new episode in the previous two months. The accent column tells you which standard you will hear. All of them are free on Apple Podcasts and the other usual apps unless noted.

The podcasts at a glance

Podcast	Level	Accent	Language of the show	Latest episode seen
ChinesePod	Beginner to intermediate	Mainland and Taiwan hosts	English and Mandarin	Nov 2026
Mandarin Monkey	Beginner to intermediate	Taiwan	English and Mandarin mixed	Nov 2026
Chillchat	Elementary to intermediate	Mainland	Mandarin and English	Nov 2026
Speak Chinese with Da Peng	Elementary to intermediate	Mainland	Mandarin	Nov 2026
Learning Chinese through Stories	Novice to advanced, graded	Mainland	Mandarin	Oct 2026
TeaTime Chinese	Intermediate	Mainland	Mandarin	Oct 2026
Fu-lan Speaking	Intermediate to advanced	Taiwan	Mandarin	Oct 2026
Learn Taiwanese Mandarin	Intermediate to advanced	Taiwan	Mandarin	Oct 2026
Haike Mandarin	Intermediate	Taiwan	Mandarin	Nov 2026
MaoMi Chinese	Intermediate and above	Mainland	Mandarin	Nov 2026
Dashu Mandarin	Intermediate to advanced	Mainland	Mandarin	Nov 2026
Convo Chinese	Intermediate to advanced	Mainland	Mandarin	Nov 2026

Beginner and elementary: podcasts with English support

At this stage you need explanation in English and short stretches of Mandarin.

• ChinesePod. The veteran, with more than twenty years of lessons: a short dialogue, then hosts who take it apart in English. The free podcast feeds, split into Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced, put out several episodes a week. Weakness: the full library, transcripts and exercises are behind a subscription, and the Advanced feed has been quiet since early 2025.
• Mandarin Monkey. Tom and Ula, a couple living in Taiwan, chat in a mix of English and Mandarin, so you always have the context. Good for hearing Taiwan-accented Mandarin at natural speed without getting lost. Weakness: a lot of English per minute, so it is light as pure listening practice.
• Chillchat (Learn Chinese and Chill). Relaxed conversations on culture, trends and common learner mistakes, some bilingual and some marked as all Chinese. Weakness: transcripts and study notes are offered through a supporter page, not in the feed.
• Speak Chinese with Da Peng (大鹏说中文). Short episodes, each on one everyday expression or a pair of confusing words such as 一點 (一点) yīdiǎn and 有點 (有点) yǒudiǎn. Weekly, and already past 370 expressions. Weakness: one voice and a narrow format.

Coffee Break Chinese is still listed everywhere and its 40-odd lessons remain a decent first course, but the feed has had no new episode since 2019. It is an archive, not an active show.

Intermediate: slow, clear Mandarin about real topics

This is where podcasts start to do real work. The hosts speak only Mandarin, a little slower than normal, and explain hard words in easier Mandarin.

• Learning Chinese through Stories (聽故事說中文 / 听故事说中文, tīng gùshi shuō Zhōngwén). Graded stories from novice to advanced, each with a second episode that walks through the story. The level is coded in the episode number, which is unusually considerate. Weakness: the numbering takes a few minutes to decode, and full transcripts sit on the website.
• TeaTime Chinese (茶歇中文). Nathan talks about Chinese culture, history and society in calm, clear Mandarin, built on the idea of comprehensible input. It reached episode 100 in October 2026. Weakness: a new episode only every two to four weeks.
• Haike Mandarin (還可中文). Two friends from Taiwan, sometimes joined by a sister, teach everyday conversation through their own stories, slang and the occasional swear word. Past 250 episodes. Weakness: chatty, so the amount you learn per minute varies.
• MaoMi Chinese. Made by a professional Chinese teacher together with a learner. Each episode takes one topic from current Chinese society. Weakness: it says intermediate and above and means it.

Taiwanese Mandarin: Fu-lan Speaking and friends

If you are learning in or for Taiwan, train your ear on Taiwan Mandarin: softer retroflex sounds, different everyday vocabulary, and Traditional characters in the transcripts.

Fu-lan Speaking: Natural Taiwanese Mandarin is the one Kungfucius recommends first. Fu-lan is a Mandarin teacher from Taiwan who has taught at university language centres in Taiwan and in Poland. She speaks clearly and at a natural pace, with no background music and very clean sound, so the show is far easier to follow than its level suggests. Topics run from travel to subjects such as death and Taiwanese politics, and the episodes come with transcriptions.

Where to listen: on Apple Podcasts under the full name "Fu-lan Speaking － Natural Taiwanese Mandarin", on the hosting platform Firstory, and on her YouTube channel. Weakness: she publishes roughly one episode a month, and there were 32 numbered episodes in November 2026. You will run out. Kungfucius considers that a compliment.

Two more from Taiwan:

• Learn Taiwanese Mandarin. All in Mandarin from the fourth episode on, for intermediate to advanced learners, with hard words explained in easier Mandarin, notes on Taiwanese culture and a little Taiwanese Hokkien. Weekly, more than 170 episodes. Weakness: a solo host, so no dialogue.
• Learn Taiwanese Mandarin With Miss Lin offers conversations and culture from a Taipei teacher, at a slower rhythm of about one episode a month.

Upper intermediate and advanced: natural conversation

• Dashu Mandarin (大叔中文). Three Chinese teachers discuss news, society and culture at close to normal speed. Weekly, more than 220 episodes, and there is a video version on YouTube. Weakness: three speakers talking over each other is realistic and tiring.
• Convo Chinese (瞎扯學中文 / 瞎扯学中文, xiāchě xué Zhōngwén). Natural conversations on topics from daily life to politics, with a free transcript and vocabulary list in the show notes. Weakness: a new episode only every two weeks.

After these, switch to podcasts made for native speakers. In Taiwan, 百靈果 News (Bailingguo) is a long-running bilingual news comedy show. On the mainland, 故事FM (Gùshi FM) tells true first-person stories. Both were still publishing in November 2026, and neither will slow down for you.

Podcasts about learning Chinese, in English

These will not train your ear, but they will improve how you study.

• Hacking Chinese Podcast. Olle Linge on how to learn Mandarin. More than 320 episodes. In November 2026 he published an episode on the future of the show, so check whether the format has changed.
• You Can Learn Chinese. Jared Turner and John Pasden on methods, with interviews with learners.
• I'm Learning Mandarin. Mischa Wilmers interviews researchers and successful learners. Episodes have become occasional in 2026.

Can you learn Mandarin from podcasts alone?

You can build listening comprehension and a feel for rhythm and tone. You cannot learn to read characters or to speak, and a beginner who starts with all-Mandarin shows will mostly hear noise. Kungfucius's rule of thumb is that a show is at the right level when you follow the gist on first hearing and most of the detail on the second.

How to use a podcast for study

1. Choose one show at your level and one slightly above it. Two is enough.
2. Listen once without text. Then listen again with the transcript, if there is one, and look up only the words that blocked you.
3. Replay a favourite 30 seconds and repeat it aloud. The technique is described under shadowing.
4. Put five phrases per episode into your flashcards.
5. Match the accent to your goal, and see HSK or TOCFL if you are still deciding between mainland and Taiwan standards.

For the rest of the toolkit, see the best apps to learn Chinese and the wider advice on listening.