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There’s no denying that podcasting is making its stamp on mainstream media. Hosts from Joe Rogan to Alex Cooper have weighed in on—and perhaps have even swayed—elections. A-list talent like Amy Poehler and Jason Bateman have spent just as much (if not more) time recording their podcasts as appearing in film and TV. So it’s no surprise that when actor Emma Watson wanted to tell her story, she, too, sat down on a podcast set.

“It’s not that I have stopped doing interviews because I want to hide myself away,” Watson told podcaster and Under 30 alum Jay Shetty on his show, “On Purpose,” last fall. “It’s because I wanted to be able to have a certain type of conversation that I didn't seem to be able to find a space for.”

Watson’s episode raked in 5 million views on YouTube alone, making it Shetty’s most watched episode on the platform in over a year—and one of the most watched on his entire channel.

Their conversation covered everything from Watson’s early days on the big screen, the traumas she’s overcome, and her goals for the future. It’s the type of conversation that Shetty typically has with his guests, who range from Madonna to former first lady Dr. Jill Biden.

It’s also the interview format that earned him an estimated $21 million last year from a mix of ad revenue and distribution—putting him at no. 14 on the inaugural Forbes Highest Paid Podcasters list, which debuted last week.

Shetty is joined on the Top Podcasters list by fellow Under 30 alumni Alex Cooper and Steven Bartlett, no. 8 with $32 million in annual earnings and no. 3 with $45 million, respectively.

Next year, Shetty is set to make even more with a new $100 million, three-year Netflix-Spotify partnership. But it’s been seven years since he started the show from his bedroom in 2019. “The show caught its first break when it landed Kobe Bryant as a guest [in 2020], in what would be one of the basketball legend’s last longform interviews before his death,” Forbes’ Matt Craig reports. “Then came the pandemic lockdowns, which led to a massive spike in digital content consumption—and free-range anxiety—that Shetty was well-positioned to capitalize on.”

Capitalized the former monk did. He published a New York Times bestselling book in the fall of 2020, titled none other than “Think Like A Monk.” And he’s since expanded his empire even further. He’s an investor in Austin-based blood testing company Function Health, co-founded a sparkling tea brand Juni, and has brand partnerships with those like the meditation app Calm and supplement maker BIOptimizers.

The monk-to-entrepreneur pipeline has shocked some of his fans and followers who say making $21 million a year is antithetical to a monk lifestyle. To that, he says: “I’m not a monk anymore. Today I consider myself an entrepreneur and a leader in this space, and that allows me to have the ability to use money as a resource to do good in the world and create impact in the way that we’ve chosen to do that.”

Read more about Shetty’s entrepreneurial journey to a $100 million deal here, and see the full Highest Paid Podcasters list here.

More next week,

Alex & Zoya

(P.S. Speaking of podcasts … listen to ours! Season one of the Under 30 Podcast is out now on Spotify, YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.)

Aboard The $250 Million Superyacht ‘Amadea’ With The World’s Youngest Real Estate Billionaire

For 27-year-old Dubai mogul Abbas Sajwani, his 348-foot pleasure vessel isn’t just a floating trophy, it’s a palatial office from which he runs his empire.

Lister Lowdown

-Valar Atomics, the startup building small-scale nuclear reactors, raised $1 billion in a Series B round led by Sequoia Capital. When founder Isaiah Taylor made the Under 30 list in December, Valar had raised about $150 million. Read the Forbes cover story on the alum to see what might have reeled in the heavy-pocketed investors.

-Robinhood, led by Forbes billionaire and Under 30 Hall of Famer Vlad Tenev, launched a roadshow for its second publicly traded venture fund, which aims to raise up to $200 million. The fund will invest primarily in early-stage Y Combinator startups, changing the game on who gets access to private companies.

-2025 Under 30 Europe robotics startup Kaikaku has been acquired by REEF Technologies, a SoftBank-backed company that’s raised more than $1.5 billion in funding. Kaikaku builds robots to scale the next generation of restaurants where repetitive tasks are automated, meanwhile REEF specializes in ghost kitchens. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

On Our Radar

-Index Ventures raised $2 billion in fresh capital. The venture firm has been an early backer of several Under 30 startups. The raise includes $400 million for a new seed fund, $900 million for a venture fund, and an additional $700 million towards its existing $1.5 billion growth fund. That brings the firm’s total investment capital to $3.5 billion. (Index Ventures)

-U.S. police departments are buying $1 million surveillance vans from Israel’s Palantir rival. The vehicles are outfitted with surveillance technology from startup Cognyte as the Israeli company expands beyond its core markets in Israel and Europe. (Forbes)

-Speaking of policing: Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, U30 lister Tom Holland, is back on the screen to beat both villains and records. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” grossed $1 billion at the worldwide box office in its first six days. It now also holds the record for the film with the highest-grossing domestic opening weekend. (Forbes)