Most podcasts don’t earn you CPE credit, but they’re one of the best low-friction ways to keep your ear to the ground between courses — you can listen on a commute, during a workout, or while doing anything that doesn’t need your full visual attention. The trick is picking shows that add real signal instead of just filling airtime.
Ten Podcasts for CPAs, Sorted by the Time You Have
All ten were publishing as of November 2026. Episode lengths are typical and vary by show.
Under 20 minutes
Accounting Best Practices with Steve Bragg (about 9 minutes, every three weeks or so). Short discussions of accounting management, controls and GAAP. Best for controllers and corporate accountants.
Journal of Accountancy Podcast (about 16 minutes, weekly). AICPA & CIMA’s show on the issues facing the profession, including careers, risk and finance leadership. Best for CPAs who want one short general show.
Want CPE credit for those same 10 minutes? EverydayCPE isn’t a podcast, but each lesson is a 10-minute, NASBA-registered nano-learning program worth 0.2 CPE. Free members get the lesson of the day.
20 to 35 minutes
Tax Notes Talk (about 20 minutes, weekly). Tax news and analysis from Tax Notes, with guests on IRS, state and international issues. Best for tax practitioners.
The INSIDE Public Accounting Podcast (about 23 minutes, weekly or more). Firm performance, pay, pricing and private equity, drawn from IPA’s benchmarking data. Best for firm owners and partners.
The AI Daily Brief (about 28 minutes, nearly daily). Nathaniel Whittemore’s AI news and analysis, made for a general audience. Best for accountants who field client questions about AI.
Count Me In (about 33 minutes, weekly). The Institute of Management Accountants’ interview show, with recent episodes on AI adoption and internal controls. Best for management accountants and corporate finance teams.
45 minutes or more
The Accounting Disruptors (about 47 minutes, weekly). Paul Peterson and Matt Barbieri of Wiss on AI tools and workflow automation. Best for firm leaders deciding what to adopt.
CFO Thought Leader (about 48 minutes, several a week). CFOs talk through their careers and how they run finance. Best for finance leaders and anyone working toward the CFO seat.
Oh My Fraud (about 51 minutes, every two weeks). Caleb Newquist on fraud cases: the people, the motives and the methods. Best for auditors and anyone with a long drive.
The Accounting Podcast (about 64 minutes, weekly). Blake Oliver and David Leary on the week’s accounting news, including AI, the Big Four, firm M&A and audit failures. Listeners can earn free NASBA-approved CPE through the Earmark app. Best for CPAs who want the full week’s news in one sitting.
Look for Practitioners, Not Just Personalities
The most useful accounting and finance podcasts are hosted by people who still do the work, or did recently enough to be current — practicing CPAs, former Big Four partners, active CFOs — rather than career media hosts covering business news generally. Both Accounting Today and the Journal of Accountancy publish their own podcasts hosted by editors and practitioners closely tied to the profession, which is a reasonable place to start browsing. Practitioner-hosted shows tend to spend more time on the “here’s what this actually means for your Tuesday” angle instead of just summarizing headlines, which is the part that’s genuinely hard to get elsewhere.
Match the Show to the Time You Actually Have
If your available listening windows are short and frequent (a 15-minute commute twice a day), a show with short, focused episodes will fit better than a 90-minute deep-dive format you’ll only ever hear half of. If you have longer stretches — a solo drive, a long flight — a longer-form interview show can go deeper on a single topic than a quick-hit format ever could. Pick the format that matches your actual schedule, not the one that sounds most impressive to subscribe to.
Diversify Beyond General Accounting News
A single accounting-news podcast covers the same ground you’re probably already getting from newsletters and trade press — see our roundup of the best accounting news sources for the written-format equivalent. Consider rounding out your rotation with something adjacent to your specific work — a tax-specific show if you do a lot of tax work, a technology or AI-focused show if you’re fielding a lot of client questions on that front, or a general finance/business show for broader context that occasionally feeds back into client conversations.
Treat Episode Age Like You Would an Article’s Publish Date
Podcast apps love to surface “popular” episodes regardless of age, and a two-year-old episode on a fast-moving topic like AI tools or tax law can be actively misleading if you don’t notice the date. Check the publish date before treating anything time-sensitive as current, the same way you would with a written article.
Don’t Try to Keep Up With Every Episode
Subscribing to a show doesn’t obligate you to hear every episode. Scan episode titles and skip anything that’s clearly outside your interest area — treating your podcast queue like a buffet, not a syllabus, keeps it from becoming another guilt-inducing backlog like an overstuffed inbox, the same trap covered in our piece on how busy accountants stay informed without it becoming a second job.
Key Takeaways
- Favor shows hosted by active or recent practitioners over general business media personalities for practical relevance.
- Match episode length to your actual available listening windows, not the format that sounds most impressive.
- Round out a general accounting-news show with something specific to your work — tax, AI, or broader finance.
- Check publish dates on time-sensitive episodes, and treat your queue as a buffet you skim, not a syllabus you must finish.
Related Reading
- The Best Sources for Accounting News in 2026
- How Busy Accountants Stay Informed Without It Becoming a Second Job
- Where to Find Reliable AI News for Accountants
Want CPE credit for time you’d otherwise spend just listening? EverydayCPE’s short lessons fit the same kind of pockets of time — with a certificate at the end.
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