🎙️ Ownership Economy Podcast Round-Up

A list of podcasts on employee ownership and more

One way to stay informed and updated on employee ownership and the ownership economy? Podcasts! In this post, updated June 2026, we’ve rounded up some podcasts focused on employee ownership (or at least include them).

Employee Ownership Podcasts

Owners at Work

Produced by the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, Owners at Work brings you stories from the frontlines of employee ownership. The podcast series covers policy discussions to personal experiences. The podcast also features interviews with academics and individuals sharing their experiences with employee ownership.

Journey to an ESOP & Beyond

Journey to an ESOP & Beyond by Doeren Mayhew, a consultancy, guides listeners through the process of transitioning to an ESOP. They cover both challenges and benefits for business owners who want to sell to their employees. Here is an episode with Stakehold advisor Daniel Goldstein:

ESOP Radio

Launched in January 2026 and hosted by the Menke Group, an advisory firm, ESOP Radio has an “ESOP Boot Camp” series in addition to their regular interviews and commentaries on ESOP news. Here is an episode on research by the Rutgers Institute [a Stakehold sponsor] showing the productivity increases of ESOP ownership:

The Ownership Effect

Launched in 2025 and hosted by Jim Bonham of The ESOP Association, The Ownership Effect covers policy, history, and stories of ESOP success. Here’s an episode about the bipartisan appeal of employee ownership:

Alternative Exit

Alternative Exit, hosted by entrepreneur Andy Farquharson, discusses the various exit strategies for business owners, with a strong emphasis on employee ownership as a viable and sustainable exit option. This podcast features interviews with business owners, financial experts, and leaders. Here’s their 2026 interview with Dr. Hand:

Empowered Owners Podcast

In Empowered Owners, ESOP holding company Empowered Ventures hosts interviews mostly with employee-owners from its portfolio companies. Here’s one with a selling owner, on employee ownership as business legacy:

Flying the Coop

Marketing agency Strange Birds has been chronicling their conversion to a worker cooperative, and interviewing other worker cooperative advocates as they go. In this episode they interview Niloufar Khonsari, author of the book The Future if Collective:

Employee Ownership with Bob Whalen

This podcast, hosted by Bob Whalen, is recorded primarily for the employee-owners of HB Global. It’s an interesting window into how one ESOP-owned company communicates with its employees. Here’s an episode about HB Global’s practice of “radical autonomy”:

ESOP for Contractors

Rebooted in the spring of 2026, ESOP for Contractors is a project of Tenor ESOP Partners, an ESOP consultancy. It’s an in-the-weeds podcast—for example, here is a June 2026 episode on the financial details of tax-efficient reinvestment of ESOP sale proceeds:

The ESOP Podcast

Until its discontinuation in 2024, The ESOP Podcast was the most popular podcast on employee ownership. It offered listeners an inside look into the employee ownership movement. Their archive is a treasure trove of conversations with employee-owners business leaders, and industry professionals. Here’s one with 100% employee-owned King Arthur Baking:

Bicycle for the EO Mind

This podcast by Zolidar, a software company, focused on the challenges that small and medium-sized businesses face when trying to sell. Their episodes share stories from business owners who have successfully transitioned (mostly) to employee ownership. Three of their most recent podcasts interview leaders of purpose trust-owned companies, including Natural Investments, a financial advisory firm:

Co-Op Chronicles

We’re pretty sure this is AI generated workslop. If not, someone tell us!

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Ownership Economy Podcasts

De Steward-Ownership Podcast

De Steward-Ownership Podcast covers all things steward ownership. Their episodes are typically in Dutch, but here is an interview in English with Dr. Astrid J. Scholz:

Ethical Exits

A product of Steward Market, a marketplace for values-aligned exits, Ethical Exits episodes include discussions about exit planning and interviews with business sellers and buyers. Here is a recent episode with Stakehold reader Brenna Davis, CEO of the purpose trust-owned Organically Grown Company:

The Ownership Economy

Until mid-2025, The Ownership Economy podcast focused on the different ways the ownership economy is reshaping industries, communities, and the workplace. It also explores the broader implications of employee ownership and its role in creating a more equitable economy. Here’s their episode with Stakehold reader Alison Lingane:

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Employee Ownership-Adjacent Podcasts

21 Hats

This podcast focuses on the challenges and rewards of owning a business. The podcast offers insights from successful entrepreneurs who discuss their paths to creating and sustaining employee-owned companies, and they frequently host conversations about worker and employee ownership, like this one with Stakehold reader John Abrams:

Nuts and Bolts of Leadership

Billy Duren of ESOP-owned Threaded Fasteners’ podcast is mostly about leadership but not-so-secretly about leading employee-owned companies. Here’s their episode with Corey Rosen, founder of the National Center for Employee Ownership, a Stakehold sponsor:

The Steward Chair

The Chat with Leaders podcast amplifies the voices of “servant leaders” who build enduring companies. They dive into the experiences, challenges, and successes of leaders within the B Corps, conscious capitalism, and responsible business communities. This episode features the leaders of Text-Em-All, a Texas-based employee ownership trust:

Opportunity in America

The podcast outlet for the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, which co-hosts the Employee Ownership Ideas Forum (EOIF) each year, Opportunity in America explores economic mobility and workforce development in part through employee ownership. Here are the opening keynotes of EOIF 2026:

ImpactAlpha Podcasts

ImpactAlpha’s podcasts are geared for impact investors, and sometimes incorporate reporting from their ownership economy beat, which includes employee ownership. Here is a 2024 episode with Stakehold reader Jack Moriarty:

Capital Insight

Hosted by securities lawyers Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch, Capital Insight regularly covers alternative ownership strategies as a subset of their focus on creative financing mechanisms. Here’s an episode featuring Stakehold advisor Jenny Everett:

Next Economy Now

Next Economy Now explores emerging economic models, including employee ownership, that prioritize community well-being and environmental sustainability. They feature interviews with leaders and practitioners working towards creating a new economy. Here’s a 2025 episode with Stakehold reader Jason Wiener:

Beyond the B

LIFT Economy’s Beyond the B podcast focuses on certified B Corporations and benefit corporations; some of those are owned by employees, worker, or purpose trusts. Here is E1 of a series on purpose trust-owned Patagonia:

The Next City Podcast

Next City’s mission is to “inspire greater economic, environmental, and social justice in cities.” The solutions it explores includes community land trusts and neighborhood trusts, both of which are featured in this 2026 roundup of scalable solutions to urban problems:

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Bonus! Other ownership podcast episodes

Part of expanding employee ownership is getting stories about employee ownership into the algorithms of people not already bought into employee ownership. Here are a few of our favorite episodes where non-EO podcasts have highlighted employee ownership and the ownership economy:

• Marjorie Kelly, Corey Rosen, and Pete Stavros on the Freakonomics podcast

• Pete Stavros from Ownership Works on Planet Money

• Acquired episodes with purpose trust-owned Epic Systems and member-owned Vanguard

• The Stuff You Should Know podcast on how worker co-ops actually work

• Dr. Hand and Patagonia’s Greg Curtis on B Lab’s Forces for Good

• Dr. Hand and Jenny Everett on Mindful Marketplace

• Miren Oca from purpose trust-owned Ocaquatics on The Exit Whisperer (Miren is a one-woman employee ownership marketing machine)

• John Abrams on Independence by Design

• David Kemper from Trust Neighborhoods on Building Better Cities

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These are most of the podcasts and episodes we could find on employee ownership and the ownership economy. What are we missing? Share in the comments below and we’ll keep adding to the list!

AI’s approximation of “three kids all talking into microphones in a podcast studio booth”

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