Guy Raz told The Hollywood Reporter in late September 2026 that How I Built This fields about 1,000 pitches a week and has put out roughly 45 episodes a year in recent years, according to Net Influencer’s summary of that interview. Run the arithmetic and you get about 52,000 pitches a year competing for a few dozen seats. That is well under one tenth of one percent.
Those odds explain why most founders who ask how to get on How I Built This are asking the wrong question. They want a contact. What they need is a story shaped the way this show tells stories, at a moment when the show itself is changing more than it has in a decade.
Here is what changed this fall, what the episodes reveal about who gets booked, a scoring tool for your own story, and how to get the pitch to the right inbox.
What How I Built This looks like in late 2026
Most people still call it NPR’s How I Built This. That stopped being accurate on September 29, 2026, when Vox Media announced that Raz was acquiring full ownership of the show from NPR and partnering with Vox on its next chapter. Vox Media’s announcement says Vox will provide sales, marketing, distribution, business operations and live-event infrastructure. Financial terms were not disclosed, and a Vox Media spokesperson told TheWrap that NPR keeps no ownership or economic stake. The show had also carried a licensing deal with Amazon’s Wondery since 2022. On Apple Podcasts today it sits under the Vox Media Podcast Network.
The numbers behind the brand are large. Raz launched the show in September 2016. Vox says it has published more than 700 episodes, collected hundreds of millions of downloads and ranks in Edison Research’s top 50 U.S. podcasts. In the show’s tenth anniversary episode on October 5, 2026, Raz said he had conducted more than 600 interviews with founders.
Three announced changes matter for anyone pitching. First, video. Vox said episodes would premiere on YouTube and social platforms later this fall, and that has started: the November 2 episode with Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky carries a YouTube link in its show notes and points listeners to an @HowIBuiltThis YouTube channel. Second, volume. The show will publish twice as many episodes beginning in early 2027. Third, live events, which Vox and Raz plan to bring back along with new formats for founders and business leaders.
More episodes means more seats. Video means the people in those seats will be watched as well as heard. Both facts should shape your pitch.
Why did the Advice Line end, and what replaces it?
For two and a half years, the friendliest door into the show was the Advice Line. Launched in 2024, it paired Raz with a returning founder to answer questions from early-stage entrepreneurs who had sent in a one-minute voice memo. Episode notes through the summer of 2026 invited listeners to email a memo to hibt@id.wondery.com or call 1-800-433-1298. Small companies got real airtime. The October 15 episode with SmartSweets founder Tara Bosch featured XO Marshmallows, Vivi’s Vacation and Romanticize Collective, and the October 8 episode with Thrive Market’s Nick Green featured Blackstrad Concert Attire, Peak State Coffee and Voice Back.
That door closed on October 29, 2026. The notes for the episode with Calendly founder Tope Awotona said plainly that it was the final episode of the Advice Line. The show has not announced what will fill Thursdays.
The other short format has also gone quiet. HIBT Lab, a series of shorter company-focused conversations that began in 2022, did not appear in the feed’s recent run. Apart from the anniversary special, every episode in October 2026 was either a full founder story or an Advice Line.
So the realistic path for most founders now runs through the main interview, and the main interview has a high bar. If you were planning to call in with a question about your first retail account, you need a new plan. The doubled publishing schedule in 2027 may open new formats, and I would watch the feed closely in January. Until something is announced, build for the flagship.
Read the Monday episodes like a booking memo
The best research for how to get on How I Built This is free and sits in your podcast app. Through October, new founder stories ran on Mondays, and each one now comes with a “What you’ll learn” list and timestamps. Those notes read like a producer’s outline. Study them and you can see the story structure the team builds every week.
Take the four founder episodes around the anniversary. On October 19, Sweet Loren’s founder Loren Castle told how she started baking after surviving cancer in her early twenties, how her refrigerated cookie dough business was bringing in just $350,000 a year after five years, and how she discontinued her original line to go allergen-free before expanding into 30,000 stores. On October 26, FIGS co-founders Heather Hasson and Trina Spear described selling scrubs out of a car, hearing no from hundreds of investors, paying $40 million to fight a lawsuit and building what the episode calls a $2.5 billion brand. On November 2, Brian Chesky explained how Airbnb lost 80 percent of its business in a matter of weeks when COVID hit, and why he calls himself “naturally a great founder but naturally a terrible CEO.” Earlier, in August, YETI’s Roy and Ryan Seiders described losing their only manufacturing partner.
Notice what these share. Each company is large, usually a consumer brand you can picture on a shelf or in your hand. Each story has a moment when the company nearly died. Each founder has a specific number attached to the low point and another attached to the recovery. And each one ends with reflection: Castle on why she wants to keep building instead of selling, Hasson and Spear on why net worth is not self worth, Chesky on loneliness after the IPO.
Notice too what the show does with its archive. Monday slots sometimes go to updated reruns with the original year in the title, such as Alamo Drafthouse (2023) on October 12 and Seventh Generation (2021) on September 28. Evergreen stories earn repeat airtime. A story built on a trend that fades by spring will not.
The Near-Death Arc Audit
To judge whether a founder is ready to pitch, I use a scoring tool I call the Near-Death Arc Audit. It is built from the structure of the show’s own episode notes. It scores six beats from zero to two, for a total of 12. A pitch should not go out below nine.
The spark. Score two if the company began with a specific, visual moment the founder can describe in a sentence, like a healthcare friend’s uncomfortable scrubs or two brothers who wanted a cooler that would not break. Score one if the origin is real but abstract, such as “we saw a gap in the market.” Score zero if there is no origin story at all.
The doubters. Score two if named people or institutions said no, and you can say how many. Hundreds of investor rejections is a two. Score one if the doubt was general. Score zero if everyone said yes, because a story without resistance has nothing for the host to ask about.
The near-death moment. This is the beat the audit is named for. Score two if there was a period when the company could have failed outright, with a number attached: an 80 percent revenue drop, a lawsuit, the loss of your only factory. Score one if there was a hard year without a single crisis. Score zero if growth was smooth. Founders often hide this beat out of pride. On this show it is the reason you get booked.
The turn. Score two if the founder made a decision that changed the company’s direction and can explain why, like discontinuing a product line or rebuilding how the CEO runs the business. Score one if the recovery came from outside luck alone. Score zero if there was no turn.
The proof. Score two if the company has reached a scale a general listener would recognize: national distribution, a valuation in the hundreds of millions or more, a brand people own. Score one for a strong regional or niche business. Score zero for a company still searching for product-market fit. Be honest here. This beat decides most outcomes.
The reflection. Score two if the founder can say something true and slightly uncomfortable about what the journey cost or taught them. Score one for a polished lesson. Score zero for talking points.
Add the six scores. Ten to 12 is ready. Seven to nine means the story is there but buried, usually in the near-death or reflection beats, and a good interview prep session can bring it out. Below seven, the company probably needs more time, and that is fine. Knowing how to get on How I Built This includes knowing when you are not ready yet. The audit also shows where to focus your other press work while you wait. For help drawing the arc out of your own history, see how to pitch your founder story.
How do founders actually get booked?
Raz’s own contact page answers the first question directly. Under “How do I pitch a business or founder for How I Built This?” it says to email hibt@id.wondery.com. Look at the link behind that address and it still points to an old NPR address, which tells you the page has not caught up with the move to Vox Media. Check guyraz.com and the most recent episode notes before you send, and watch for a new address once the Vox transition settles.
The same page sends media requests to interview Raz himself, speaking inquiries and TV or film projects to his team at United Talent Agency. Do not send a guest pitch there. It is the wrong desk.
Beyond the inbox, there are three realistic routes.
The first is the founder pitch itself, sent by you or your communications lead. Lead with the near-death beat, not your title. A subject line that names the company and the crisis does more work than one that names your funding round. In the body, give the spark in one sentence, the low point with its number, the turn, and the scale you reached. Close with one line on what you can say on air that you have never said publicly. Keep it under 200 words. At 1,000 pitches a week, a producer will decide in seconds.
The second is the publicist route. Large consumer brands get booked on this show partly because their communications teams pitch a story, not a launch. If you work with an agency, give them your audit scores and your hardest stories, and ask them to pitch the arc. Our guide on how to pitch podcasters covers how producers on interview shows like this one read pitches.
The third is the Advice Line alumni path, which still matters even though the format has ended. Founders who called in had a relationship with the show, and returning guests on the Advice Line were past interviewees. If you were a caller, mention it in your pitch when your company has grown. A show that has already heard your voice and your business has context a cold pitch cannot buy.
Timing matters more than usual right now. The show is about to double its output in early 2027, which means producers are filling a larger calendar than they have ever filled. The pitches that land this winter will be the ones with a clear arc and a founder who is ready for camera.
Prepare for video, not just a microphone
If you get the yes, know what kind of conversation you are walking into. Founder episodes run long. The October and November interviews ran between about 68 and 75 minutes, and the timestamps show Raz moving through a founder’s whole life, from early ambitions and first jobs to the crisis to the present. He will ask what you felt, not only what you did. The Chesky episode spends minutes on his loneliness after Airbnb went public. The FIGS episode closes on self-worth.
Prepare for that in three ways.
Rebuild your timeline. Write out your company’s history year by year with the real numbers: revenue at the low point, how many investors passed, what the lawsuit cost. Raz’s notes are full of specific figures, and he will ask for yours. Vague answers make weak tape.
Rehearse your worst moment. Most founders have told their success story a hundred times and their near-death story almost never. Tell it out loud to someone who will push back. The goal is not to cry on cue. It is to be able to describe the hardest week of your career clearly, without hedging, in a way a listener can feel.
Plan for the camera. With episodes now going to YouTube, your setting, your posture and your face while you listen all become part of the episode. Ask the producer whether you will record in a studio or remotely, and what the video setup looks like. If you have never been filmed in a long-form interview, book a session before the date. Our media training guide for founders covers the basics.
One last thing. After the episode airs, the show notes, timestamps and the YouTube video will outlive the release week by years. Those notes are written by the show, but you can make sure your company page, press kit and founder bio all point to the episode. For many founders, this single interview becomes the most cited source on their story.
Here is the next step on how to get on How I Built This, and it takes about an hour. Pull the notes from the last four Monday founder episodes, score your own story with the Near-Death Arc Audit, and write the near-death beat in two sentences with a number in each. If you cannot write those two sentences yet, you have found the work to do before you pitch.