Two of the roundups that come up for the best accounting podcasts were written for somebody else. One is a Michigan State University roundup for accounting students. The other ranks shows for UK accountants and bookkeepers.
For a partner at a US firm with a commute and a license to renew, the question is narrower. Which shows are worth the drive time, and when does that time turn into continuing professional education, or CPE, that a state board will accept?
The answer to the second half sits in a few paragraphs of the joint AICPA and NASBA standards, and it is far more specific than "listen and get credit" suggests.
Who the Popular Roundups Are Written For
Check the audience of a list before you take its ranking. The Michigan State roundup comes from the Broad College of Business and names the Journal of Accountancy podcast, Accounting Best Practices, Becker Accounting Podcasts and The Big 4 Accounting Firms Podcast (Broad College of Business, Five top podcasts for students studying accounting). Those are sensible picks for somebody sitting the exam. They are a poor match for a partner deciding whether to add a service line.
The other pattern is geography. A second list ranks shows for UK accountants and bookkeepers, including ICAEW Insights and The Bookkeepers' Podcast (Karbon, Top 7 podcasts for UK accountants and bookkeepers). The technical content there rests on UK rules, so a US preparer gets the practice-management value and none of the tax.
Best Accounting Podcasts, Sorted by the Job They Do
Five shows cover the four jobs a US firm actually has: knowing what happened, staying current on tax, filling a technical gap and thinking about the firm itself. News takes two of the five, because the independent read and the institute's read are not the same thing.
The Accounting Podcast, for Weekly Profession News
The Accounting Podcast publishes weekly and describes itself as a roundup of accounting news, analysis and interviews. Its own page tells listeners they can earn free NASBA-approved CPE credits for listening through the Earmark app (The Accounting Podcast).
Treat it as the profession's news desk rather than technical training. If you want one show that tells you what moved in accounting last week, this is the one.
Journal of Accountancy Podcast, for the Institute's Own Reporting
The Journal of Accountancy posts an episode most weeks, and the August 13, 2026 edition was the show's 500th, published with a transcript alongside the audio (Journal of Accountancy podcast). Recent subjects run from what finance leaders are focused on beyond AI to enforcement of unclaimed property notices, which is the range you would expect from the AICPA's own magazine.
When a topic is only half relevant, that transcript means the skim beats the listen.
Tax Section Odyssey, for Tax Practice Between Seasons
The AICPA's tax show releases episodes twice a month, hosted by April Walker, CPA, CGMA, a senior manager at the AICPA, with guests covering Congress, IRS updates, trending issues and practice management (AICPA and CIMA, Tax Section Odyssey podcast).
Twice a month suits tax work. It is often enough to catch a change that matters and rare enough that you are not behind by February.
Accounting Best Practices, for Short Technical Explainers
This one runs short on purpose. Most episodes are just 7 to 10 minutes long, the archive holds 399 of them, and the publisher says the show has been downloaded more than 5.7 million times (AccountingTools, Accounting Best Practices podcast).
Recent titles sit close to the work: CPAs who commit fraud, recording financial losses, accounting due diligence. Hold that running time in mind, because it shapes how an episode can be packaged for credit.
Accounting Today, for Firm-Level Interviews
Accounting Today's feed runs interviews about how firms are run rather than how returns are prepared, with episodes on AI adoption, private equity's push into firms, reselling and what makes a best firm for technology (Accounting Today podcasts).
It is the management show in this group. Play it when you are deciding something, not when you are learning something.
Does Listening to a Podcast Count as CPE?
Not on its own. The joint standards require a sponsor to verify completion, and they state plainly that self-certification of attendance or completion alone is not sufficient (AICPA and NASBA, The Statement on Standards for Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Programs, August 2026). Credit comes from a program a registered sponsor builds around the audio, never from the hour you spent listening.
Those standards were revised in 2026 and carry an effective date of August 1, 2026 for initial or additional delivery method applications, with existing group and self study programs required to comply by November 1, 2028 (AICPA and NASBA, Statement on Standards for CPE Programs, August 2026).
The Two Routes, and What Each Demands
A self study program is one where the learner controls the timing, place and pace of learning. It reaches credit through a qualified assessment, which the standards define as a method of measuring the achievement of a representative number of the learning objectives for the activity. For a traditional self study program the sponsor must require a cumulative minimum passing grade of at least 70 percent, with at least 5 questions and scored responses per CPE credit (AICPA and NASBA, Statement on Standards for CPE Programs, August 2026, Section 6).
Nano learning is the shorter route and the stricter one. A nano learning program is a self study program designed to let a learner achieve a single learning objective in a minimum of 10 minutes and less than 20 minutes through electronic media (AICPA and NASBA, Statement on Standards for CPE Programs, August 2026, Section 1).
Credits for it must be awarded only as one-fifth credit, written in the standards as 0.2 credit, and a 20-minute program would have to be produced as two stand-alone nano learning programs. The assessment at the end carries only two questions, but it requires a passing grade of 100 percent, forced choice responses such as true or false are not permissible, and a participant who fails must re-take the program (AICPA and NASBA, Statement on Standards for CPE Programs, August 2026, Sections 6 and 7).
That window is measured on the whole program, not on the audio alone. A 7 to 10 minute episode (AccountingTools) is not ruled out by its running time, because the standards measure a nano learning program by its duration including review questions or other content reinforcement tools plus the qualified assessment, and require that combined total to reach a minimum of 10 minutes (AICPA and NASBA, Statement on Standards for CPE Programs, August 2026, Section 7). A short feed can still be excellent listening. It just is not automatically a unit of credit.
The App That Sells the Wrapper
Earmark is the sponsor the shows themselves name. Its published flow is three steps: listen to the audio, take the short quiz at the end of the course and score 70% or higher, then download the certificate. The company states it is registered with NASBA as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, and its free tier gives one credit per week with ads, against $199.99 a year for one person, or $159.99 a year per member on the 5 to 20 seat team plan (Earmark CPE).
Read that threshold closely, because it tells you which route a course sits on. A score of 70% or higher (Earmark CPE) matches the traditional self study bar, while nano learning demands 100 percent on its two-question assessment (AICPA and NASBA, Statement on Standards for CPE Programs, August 2026). Which one applies is the sponsor's disclosure to make on the course, not a listener's assumption on the drive home.
Your State Board Still Decides
The standards say it themselves. Boards of accountancy, membership associations and other professional organizations have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit (AICPA and NASBA, Statement on Standards for CPE Programs, August 2026). On nano learning, that authority splits, and the split is published.
NASBA keeps a jurisdiction table for it, stamped 10/15/2025, and the answer is no in Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, plus Puerto Rico and CNMI, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Illinois is listed as undetermined (NASBA Registry, Acceptance of Nano and Blended Learning and Technical Reviewer Credit).
A "No" there means the board has confirmed the delivery method is not accepted. If you are licensed in one of those jurisdictions, a nano learning certificate does not move your requirement, whatever the app hands you.
What the Drive Time Is Actually Worth
Do the arithmetic before you build a habit on it. A nano learning program is fixed at 0.2 credit, one-fifth of the 50-minute period that equals one full CPE credit (AICPA and NASBA, Statement on Standards for CPE Programs, August 2026, Section 7). Five completed nano programs make one credit.
That is the same unit a conference seat is priced in, worked through in accounting conferences 2026, and how many credits you owe across a reporting period is a state question covered in accounting staff training statistics. Measured against either, drive-time credit is a supplement rather than a plan.
When a Podcast Is Not the Answer
The standards draw the first line themselves: nano learning is not a substitute for comprehensive programs addressing complex issues (AICPA and NASBA, Statement on Standards for CPE Programs, August 2026). A new lease standard to apply, or a first employee benefit plan audit to plan, needs a course and a reviewer, not a segment.
The second line is capacity, and it is the one partners walk past. Listening does not create hours. If review is what caps the firm, drive-time credit closes a compliance gap and leaves the real one open, which is the argument the capacity plan has to settle instead.
Where to Start This Week
Pick by job, not by ranking, and stop there. Both news shows for the week, since the independent read and the institute's read are not the same thing, one tax show for the season, one short technical feed for the gaps, and one management feed for the decisions you keep deferring.
Then check two things before you count a single app credit: your own board's position on nano learning, and the delivery method the specific course is registered under. Both take a few minutes and both are the difference between a certificate and a credit.
And be honest about what the listening is for. If it is professional currency, it works. If it is the feeling of getting ahead while the review queue sits still, a podcast is not the problem your firm has.
If capacity is the binding constraint, it can be tested rather than planned around. Accountably runs a Free 40-Hour Proof Pilot on a firm's own representative work, prepared on its software and SOPs and put through full review, so your reviewer grades real output before a single client file moves. Don't trust us. Test us. Start here.