Podcast Analytics - Kazakhstan
This is my personal analysis of Dope Soz - a Kazakhstani podcast I follow closely. Hosted by Zhomart Aralbaiuly and Arsen Tusipbek, it has been running for 6 years and covers history, culture, politics, science, and whatever else matters in Kazakhstan right now.
Dope Soz started as a modest Kazakh-language podcast and grew into one of the most-watched intellectual shows in Central Asia. Over 6 years, the show hosted 163 guests across 46 professions - historians, comedians, lawyers, doctors, musicians, and scientists all sitting across from the same two hosts.
What makes Dope Soz unusual is its range. One week it is a medieval historian tracing the origins of the Kazakh steppe; the next it is a comedian breaking down why Kazakhstani humor hits differently. The data behind this analysis was compiled manually from YouTube. 163 rows, 7 columns, 10.8 million views total.
Views ranking
Each card shows the guest's single most-viewed appearance.
The top spot belongs to Zhanna Urazbakhova with 545K views - nearly double the second place. This episode, published in April 2024, rode one of the biggest waves of public attention in Kazakhstan in years: the Bishimbayev trial. Urazbakhova was the lawyer representing the family of Saltanat Nukeyanova, the woman killed by former minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev. The trial was broadcast live and followed by millions. Her Dope Soz appearance broke far beyond the podcast's usual audience.
Zhaksylyk Sabitov, a historian who appears 6 times in the dataset, holds second place with 440K views for a single episode. His total views across all appearances likely exceed anyone else's on the show. Comedians, writers, and the occasional breakout figure (a lawyer, a psychologist) produce the biggest single-episode spikes.
Year by year
Total views and episode count per year. Year 6 = 6 years ago, Year 1 = most recent full year. Hover a bar to see the breakdown.
The most recent full years (Year 1 and 2) generated the most total views - 3.4M and 2.8M respectively. This is partly because older episodes have had more time to accumulate views, but also reflects genuine growth. The show started slowly, built a loyal audience, then began consistently breaking into mainstream attention around Year 2.
Years 4 and 5 show a dip - fewer episodes, lower total views. This is a pattern common in long-running podcasts: the initial sprint gives way to a more sustainable rhythm. Year 6 (earliest) has the fewest episodes but still shows strong per-episode performance, suggesting the early audience was highly engaged even when the show was small.
46 professions invited
Ranked by total views. Below are the 12 most-watched professions. The bar shows total views generated by all episodes from that profession.
"Historians appeared 19 times - more than any other profession. But a single lawyer episode outperformed the entire IT, ecologist, and diplomat categories combined. Frequency does not equal impact."
The show's identity is anchored in history and culture. Of 46 professions represented, historians appear almost twice as often as the next group. But the average-views-per-episode picture is different: comedians, writers, and lawyers punch far above their frequency. The audience wants intellectual depth, but also entertainment - and the guests who deliver both drive the biggest numbers.
46 unique professions across 163 episodes is genuinely impressive. Very few podcasts in this region have hosted an agronomist, a demographer, a linguist, a philosopher, and a diplomat in the same archive.
Professional universe
Circle size = total views. Click a profession to reveal its strongest guests.
Each orbit shows who brings the most views inside that profession.
Does longer mean more views?
Each dot is one episode. Blue = male guest, red = female guest. Hover any dot to identify them.
Based on the scatter plot, there is a weak positive correlation between duration and views - the trend line slopes upward, but the data is scattered widely. The correlation is real but not strong. What the chart reveals more clearly is the outlier cluster in the upper-left: short episodes (under 70 minutes) that still broke 200K views.
The longest episode in the dataset - Qanat Beissekeyev's documentary film discussion at 149 minutes - pulled 98K views. Strong performance, but not top-10. The 545K episode ran 99 minutes. Duration is not the variable that moves the needle.
Gender balance
Female vs male guest share per year. The percentage label shows female share for each year.
Across all 163 episodes, 33% of guests are women. That ratio has held roughly stable across all 6 years, with Year 5 briefly approaching near-parity. What is striking is the performance data: the #1 episode by views is a female guest. The #4 spot (Aigerim Turekulova, doctor, 249K) is also female. Female guests represent 33% of invitations but a disproportionately large share of top-performing episodes.
Returning guests
Each bar represents one appearance. Height = views for that episode. Did views go up or down across return visits?
"Zhaksylyk Sabitov appeared 6 times. His first episode (6 years ago) pulled 440K. His most recent pulled 102K. First appearances almost always outperform returns - but even the lowest Sabitov episode beats the average guest's best."
Efficiency by profession
Only professions with 2+ episodes. This separates frequency from impact - which professions punch above their weight?
Psychologists average 80K per episode - a higher return per invite than historians (107K average but high because of Sabitov's outsized episodes). Writers average 215K per episode across 4 appearances. Comedians average 119K. The pattern is clear: the show built its identity on historians, but earns its biggest numbers from entertainers and controversy-adjacent guests.
Full archive
From the first recorded episode (top) to the most recent (bottom). Filter by gender or sort by views.
Findings
Data compiled manually from YouTube analytics. Guest episodes only. Views as of export date. Analysis: nurasyl.space by Nurasyl Abdrazakuly.