Meghan's 'Archetypes' Podcast Hits Number One in U.S. and U.K. Charts

Meghan Markle's Archetypes podcast has hit the top spot on the U.S and U.K. Spotify podcast charts following the release of its premiere episode on Tuesday.

The Spotify exclusive series overtook The Joe Rogan Experience in the U.S. and The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett in the U.K. on Thursday, holding a 4.1 star score with over 12,000 reviews.

Archetypes is Meghan's first solo podcast produced by her production company Archewell Audio in collaboration with streaming giant Spotify. The collaboration is part of a multi-million dollar content creation deal signed by Meghan and Prince Harry in 2020 with the streaming platform following the couple's stepping down from their working royal roles.

The duchess announced the series in March and said it would "dissect, explore, and subvert the labels that try to hold women back."

In a one-minute trailer, a range of words such as "skanky," "slut," "submissive" and "quiet" were followed by Meghan's announcement that: "This is how we talk about women: the words that raise our girls, and how the media reflects women back to us.

"But where do these stereotypes come from? And how do they keep showing up and defining our lives? I'm Meghan, and this is Archetypes: the podcast where we dissect, explore, and subvert the labels that try to hold women back.

"I'll have conversations with women who know all too well how these typecasts shape our narratives. And, I'll talk to historians to understand how we even got here in the first place."

In the inaugural episode of Archetypes, Meghan conducted an interview with close friend and tennis pro Serena Williams, and the word or "archetype" they focused on was "ambitious."

Before she introduced Williams as a woman who "embodies the spirit of ambition," Meghan gave her own viewpoint on the label and how she herself has related to it since coming under media scrutiny upon beginning a relationship with Prince Harry in 2016.

"I don't remember ever personally feeling the negative connotation behind the word ambitious until I started dating my now husband," she said at the beginning of the 57-minute podcast. "And um, apparently ambition is, uh...a terrible, terrible thing, for a woman, that is–according to some."

"Since I've felt the negativity behind it," she continued, "it's really hard to un-feel it. I can't unsee it, either, in the millions of girls and women who make themselves smaller–so much smaller–on a regular basis."

Despite the large public interest in the series and now ranking number one on both sides of the Atlantic, the critics have not shared the same levels of enthusiasm for the project that has been displayed on social media.

British broadsheet newspaper The Times gave the episode a one star review describing it as "packed with tinkly music and vapid chat."

James Marriott, the paper's deputy books editor, said the podcast is a "tastefully sound-tracked parade of banalities, absurdities and self-aggrandizing Californian platitudes."

"Even those sympathetic to Meghan's plight (and I had once thought I might be one of those people)," he continued, "will find that the full hour of an episode of Archetypes will put them in an unusually grumpy mood."

This view seemed to be equally shared by The Telegraph and the Daily Mail.

The Daily Mirror's lifestyle editor Courtney Pochin was among those with words of praise for Meghan, writing on Twitter: "I'm sorry but Meghan Markle is a genius for this. A podcast about the words used against women, after she's been called everything under the sun. A big FU to her haters, but in a very classy and clever way."

Meghan and Harry are due to make their first return to Britain in the first week of September since their Platinum Jubilee visit to the country in June. The couple will attend a number of charity events as well as travel to Germany to mark the one year way-point to the 2023 Invictus Games in Dusseldorf.

Newsweek reached out to Spotify and representatives of Meghan for comment.