Critics haven’t been kind to Meghan Markle’s new podcast, “Archetypes,” but that hasn’t stopped it from eclipsing “The Joe Rogan Experience” as the most-listened-to show of the week on Spotify.
Fox News noted that “Archetypes” topped charts this week in six countries, including the United States, taking down Rogan from the top slot he’s occupied for so long. Other countries where “Archetypes” soared to the top were Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
The show promised to reveal deeper truths about Markle, inviting fans to get to know the “real” her and not how the media portrays her. In a promo, the Duchess of Sussex said it would include “probably the me that they’ve never gotten to know — certainly not in the past few years, where everything is through the lens of the media as opposed to, ‘Hey, it’s me.’”
Markle debuted the project with an interview with her friend Serena Williams on the topic of ambition, calling it a “dirty, dirty word when it comes to women.”
The Duchess of Sussex said she started to notice negative connotations after she became romantically involved with Prince Harry.
“Since I’ve felt the negativity behind it, it’s really hard to un-feel it,” she said during the episode. “I can’t unsee it, either, in the millions of girls and women who make themselves smaller — so much smaller — on a regular basis.”
Next week’s episode will include an interview with Mariah Carey.
Despite being so popular, many of the reviews of “Archetypes” have been less than favorable, as The Daily Wire previously reported.
Critics slammed Markle for using the interview process as a way to talk about herself. “Every woman has had a girlfriend like Meghan: the one who turns every confidence back to them and hijacks every distressing anecdote with one of their own — only theirs is longer drawn-out, more distressing,” the reviewer from The Telegraph wrote in part.
The Spectator’s reviewer agreed, saying it was “all about Meghan, since it takes 11 minutes for Serena to barely get a word in edgeways.”
“The podcast is a tastefully soundtracked parade of banalities, absurdities and self-aggrandising Californian platitudes,” The Times reviewer wrote of the new podcast. “The effect of all the tinkly music and vapid conversation is to make you feel you’ve been locked in the relaxation room of a wellness spa with an unusually self-involved yoga instructor.”
Listeners took to Twitter and expressed similar sentiments. If subsequent episodes of “Archetypes” are similarly received, there’s a good chance Rogan will regain his Spotify crown sooner rather than later.