The Distractible podcast is hosted by three friends, Mark Fischbach, Wade Barnes, and Bob Muyskens, and is produced by QCode’s Wood Elf Label. In this podcast, the three friends choose funny or interesting topics pertaining to everyday life and have discussions about them. It is also, according to them, a “chance to remind each other that they are not as smart as they think.”

The podcast quickly shot to popularity right from the debut episode because it is hilarious and very entertaining to listen to. The three hosts are very goofy and can keep you entertained for hours. It is just like listening to three friends have random conversations with each other.

The Creators Behind the Distractible Podcast 

Mark Fischbach is an American YouTuber, and is more commonly known by his YouTube name Markiplier. He posts playthroughs of him playing video games, especially in the survival horror niche. His original intention with the channel was sketch comedy. Over the course of his career, he has collaborated with several other YouTubers (and even some stars such as Jack Black) on sketch comedy and gaming videos, and has won several Streamy awards. He is particularly known for his charity livestreams, where he streams himself playing games while campaigning for his viewers to donate to charities. Mark is also the co-founder of a clothing brand called Cloak which is an athleisure brand focused on gamers. 

Wade Barnes is an American YouTuber and gamer who is known for his horror, action, adventure, and survival gameplays. He graduated from Cincinnati University with a degree in Philosophy. He and Mark have been friends since middle school. He is the oldest of the Distractible trio, and is often on the receiving end of their jokes. 

Robert “Bob” Muyskens is an American gaming YouTuber, more popularly known by his alias “muyskerm.” Mark and Bob were roommates in freshman year of college, and he is the reason Bob got into video creation. Apart from being a YouTuber, Bob was briefly part of a local jazz band called The Cincy Brass and also enrolled in law school. His long-term goal is to use the community he gained via YouTube and open a non-profit. 

The three friends used to stream a podcast on Twitch called “Three Peens in a Pod,” where they used to discuss the current happenings of the world while playing multiplayer games. In 2021, they decided to turn this into a full-fledged podcast, which is how Distractible came to be. The podcast is, essentially, a condensed version of their Twitch livestreams which often went on for hours. 

Distractible Podcast

Themes and Topics Covered 

In the Distractible podcast, the three friends choose random topics that are sometimes funny, sometimes serious, but always interesting, and hold discussions about them and play games among themselves. Their banter makes the episodes very entertaining to listen to. Essentially, their motto is that “it doesn’t matter what the topic is; it matters where we go with it.”

Let’s look at a few episodes to understand their content better. 

Would You Rather 

In this episode, Bob is the judge, and the others are competitors. Here, Bob presents them with several awful scenarios, asking the other two to pick their poison among the options, so to speak. Once they pick their answer, they explain their choice. He, then, awards them points, and the winner gets to be the judge in the next episode. The game begins after they have a little personal chat and the rules are explained.

Here is one of Bob’s “this or that” questions: would you rather eat a live, healthy puppy (without cooking or preparing it), or kill 10 people and get away with it? Each of the options are horrible, and it is very entertaining to listen to them make their choices and state their reasons. 

Solving the Unsolvable 

In this episode, the trio discuss questions that don’t really have a definitive answer. For example: why do we need to sleep? What does it actually do? They get a little bit philosophical and scientific in this episode and try to solve some of the world’s greatest mysteries. Such as aliens. And the creation of the universe. They discuss scientific theories, experiments, and their own opinions. It is very interesting and a bit more serious than some of their other episodes. 

Musical Memories 

Do you have certain songs that instantly transport you back to specific moments in life? Maybe it was a song you had your first prom dance to, or maybe you rode the ferris wheel for the first time while the song was playing in the background. Everybody has songs like that, and that is exactly what the guys talk about in this episode! 

Reach of the Distractible Podcast 

The Distractible podcast has 711k subscribers on YouTube. The hosts are pretty famous YouTubers in their own right, and have quite the reach on social media. Mark has 34.5M subscribers on YouTube, 11.1M followers on Instagram, and 13.9M followers on Twitter. Bob has 1.06M subscribers on YouTube, 273k followers on Instagram, and 655k followers on Twitter. Wade has 1.78M subscribers on YouTube, 467k followers on Instagram, and 951k followers on Twitter. 

On YouTube, where view statistics are readily available, it seems that the average episode receives between 45k to 94k views, with some popular ones racking in more than 700k views. 

As of January 2023, the Distractible podcast was ranked #24 in Apple Podcasts under U.S. comedy. 

Based on this analysis, we estimated that the Distractible podcast receives 150k – 250k listens each time an episode goes out across Apple, Spotify, Google, and YouTube podcast networks. 

The Format of the Podcast 

Each episode begins with the host (or the judge) of the episode introducing the podcast as well as themselves. The trio, then, have a chat about their personal lives for a few minutes, following which, the topic and the rules are discussed. The game begins, but it is very informal, and the guys keep interjecting their thoughts and opinions on various things throughout. There are also ads, but they are super funny as well.

The podcast doesn’t feature any guests. It is purely a three-man show. It would probably be weird inviting guests over, since the three of them have been friends for decades, and their banter and camaraderie is what makes the show interesting and funny.

Impact and Reach 

The Distractible podcast has become one of the most famous podcasts on the internet. After the debut episode was released, the podcast reached the #1 spot on Spotify’s U.S. podcast rankings within just two days, beating Joe Rogan’s show! Distractible has consistently stayed towards the top on charts ever since. 

People love the podcast for the humor and entertainment it provides. Even the guys rambling is interesting to listen to. It essentially acts as a conversation between three friends that we are allowed to listen in on. 

If you want to laugh till you drop, check out the podcast! You can listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or Google Podcasts.