One of the greatest (and most overwhelming) parts of the ongoing podcast boom is that as soon as you’ve finished with one show, there are hundreds more waiting to be discovered. To help sort through the plentiful options of the audio world and to salute the great work being down in a bevy of genres, we’ve assembled some of our favorites from 2018 so far. 

With the traditional caveat that picking a precise cross-section of all the incredible work from the podcast world is a near-impossible task, the following is our attempt to get as close as we can to the best that 2018 has to offer. 

(And if you missed our big 2017 year-end recap, here’s your link to the potential listening bounty.)

To hear all the best of IndieWire’s own selection of podcasts, visit our audio homepage here.

Amy Nicholson and Paul Scheer’s spin on the AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies list is a delicate balance of cinematic appreciation and a full view of the classic movie canon. Taken in tandem with the debut episode right before it, which looked at “Citizen Kane,” this bookending examination of the film in the list’s last slot provides an interesting context for what does or doesn’t remain timeless in the movie world. It’s the pair’s guest for this particular episode that adds a special layer to that positioning in the overall pantheon. Stunt specialist Christopher Leps helps to connect the epics of the past and the spectacles of the present with an appreciation of the changing expectations of those tasked with making the impossible look real.

Listen to the full episode here.

Accepting or changing fate is a common theme in stories on “The Truth.” This time, that question manifests itself in the form of voicemail messages from the future, sent to a couple by their future selves as they’re planning the next stage of their lives together from a motel room in the present. Without getting bogged down by the semantics of how these futuristic dispatches end up on their phones, Chris Kipiniak’s story instead looks at the metaphorical way that people in love concern themselves with the future or try to change it altogether. Gradually revealing elements of the relationship over the course of a single conversation, it’s a snippet of two lives at a crossroads, with a tiny layer of the supernatural on top. Even with a faint sprinkling of a sci-fi premise, “The Runaways” still manages to find something real in both performance and design.

Listen to the full episode here.

Most shows built around existing works of fiction are centered on performance, trying to find the optimal way to bring a classic piece of literature to life. Co-hosts Kelly Nugent and Lindsay Katai flip that convention, introducing an element of surprise to go along with a sense of discovery. Tackling out-of-copyright writings with open and occasionally irreverent ears, the two of them bring on a weekly guest to help sift through the complicated biographies of each of the featured authors. In this particular installment, as Nugent, Kitai, and Mary Holland journey their way through the terrifying underbelly of Bram Stoker’s “The Dualitists,” the results are equal part hilarious and horrific. You’ll never hear stories about rabbits the same way again. 

Listen to the full episode here.

There’s a certain kind of story that feels incredible because of a series of chance encounters. For Randy, one fateful shoe order led to the opportunity of a lifetime, to be on the set for a Hollywood movie directed by a living legend. Tracing Randy’s recollections of the steps that led to being a witness to the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders” and the interactions that have stayed with him 35 years later make for a movie story that’s about almost anything but the film in question. It’s a tribute to the tiny events that make a stepping stone between a missed opportunity and something impossible to forget.

Listen to the full episode here.

The title of this show, hosted by long time collaborators J.D. Amato and Connor Ratliff, is not a metaphor. Each episode is half a day’s worth of conversations, curiosities, and everyday adventures taking the two from corners of New York to places and experiences beyond. This most recent episode, recorded last November, also doubles as a tribute to the end of a comedy era in New York City. As the two walk around the inside of the now-defunct UCB Chelsea location, it’s a parade of memories and remembrances. This episode has pauses, awkwardness, and the occasional technical difficulty. But that’s part of what sustains a curious charm, both in the entire run of the show and over the course of listening to two people spend an entire morning, afternoon, and evening together.

Listen to the full episode here.

Al Letson is a podcast host, artist and poet who has helped head up some of the most significant investigative work in audio on “Reveal.” Taking a look at the man behind the mic, “The Longest Shortest Time” delivered this thoughtful, revealing look at how his life has changed in ways that don’t always relate to the stories you’d find in his other show “Errthang.” Being able to adapt to unexpected changes is a fundamental part of storytelling, but with the help of “LST” host Andrea Silenzi, this shows how some of those same principles are fundamental parts of being a good parent. Each of those tasks come with certain expectations, and this story encapsulates how Letson has continued to respond to both.

Listen to the full episode here.

One thing that seems to fuel the existing national divide is a lack of agreement on what we owe each other. The rising and waning fortunes of the American coal industry and the relative job opportunities of those in that workforce is what forms the backbone of Kelly McEvers and Chris Benderev’s five-part look inside the coal counties of Appalachia.

But rather than just present individuals unsatisfied with how things are, the approach that “Embedded” takes doesn’t distill down this set of economic circumstances to a simple dichotomy or solely a referendum on the current administration. While certain elected officials look to claim credit for rising prospects within the industry and look to point fingers when certain economic factors take a downturn, this series that looks at job outlooks in mining areas and how the prospects of individuals can have a changing relationship with that of the communities they’re a part of.

Listen to the full episode here.

Much the way Phoebe Judge’s show “Criminal” looks at our ever-changing relationship to crimes of all kinds, “This is Love” centers on the many different ways that affection and companionship can manifest itself in people’s life stories. Even as both subjects deal with how a visual impairment can affect the evolution of a relationship, there’s a universality in their shared experience that speaks to listeners of all kinds. A story of reconciling and fostering genuine understanding, it’s part of the entire season’s arc: how we can grow when we’re together and what we gain when we can give part of ourselves to another.

Listen to the full episode here.

As the laugh track becomes more of a relic of a bygone era of TV, Willa Paskin’s overview of the comedy tool’s origins and up-and-down history is a fascinating way to think about how it’s shaped American entertainment. Interviewing historians and including archival clips from sitcoms in a number of different decades, Paskin also takes a critic’s-eye view at how hearing a bunch of random folks’ laughter (or not) has affected the quality and familiarity of TV writing for nearly the length of the medium’s existence. Between this and the Shakespeare-focused “Lend Me Your Ears,” both podcasts are a strong pair of spring additions to the Slate podcast lineup.

Listen to the full episode here.

Were it not for the impeccable, immersive production design for Marvel’s first scripted podcast, the first thing you’d notice about the opening chapter of “Wolverine: The Long Night” is that the character from the show’s title is conspicuously absent. Instead, this 10-part season wisely uses the uncertainty surrounding a series of unexplained deaths in a rural Alaskan town to see what life might really be like if a mutant lived in the shadows just beyond our understanding. Anchored by an impressive voice cast (Richard Armitage eventually emerges as the besnikt’d one) and an approach to audio that treats its omnidirectional mic in the same way a filmmaker would wield a camera, “Wolverine: The Long Night” throws a wrench into the standard conceptions of a modern superhero story.

Listen to the full episode here.

Barry Lam’s tour through the history of American cover songs examines the evolution of the idea from a musical, philosophical, and cultural perspective. Tying a case study of “Killing Me Softly” into a tradition that stretches beyond US history, Lam provides a framework for understanding the philosophical nuances between songs remade or reworked under different contexts. At the heart of it all is another question: Who can (and should) own a song? It’s a query without an easy answer that gets right to the heart of the nature of art itself.

Listen to the full episode here.

As the former “Reading Rainbow” host says at the top of each episode, the main connection between the stories of “LeVar Burton Reads” is that he finds them interesting. Few episodes of this series devoted to short fiction embody that idea more than this reading of Watts’ short story, which trades in genre fare for a poetic look at faith and future through the eyes of a young Jehovah’s Witness girl. Burton gives a natural, evocative performance of the story itself, bringing multiple characters to life against an atmospheric Southern soundscape. What really distinguishes this episode is the final bit of introspection that comes after Burton reads it, as he wrestles with his own expectation of fictional heroes and the value of revisiting work that can come off as frustrating at first glance.

Listen to the full episode here.

As this episode conveys at the outset, Josephine Baker lived an almost mythic life. Perhaps best known for her activism, Baker loomed large in many different areas, not the least of which was helping the French resistance during World War II. With the help of producer Emanuele Berry, “The Nod” team looks at a bold, ill-conceived experiment on Baker‘s part to create a racial utopia, via a collection of adopted children. This episode brings together interviews with Baker’s family members and historians alike to puzzle out how someone with such a prominent role in the Civil Rights Movement would approach the idea of racial harmony in quite this way. It’s an overarching look at intentions, hopes, and aspirations for a better future, even when one of those specific attempts diminishes with decades’ worth of perspective.

Listen to the full episode here.

The breeding patterns of crustaceans on either side of the Atlantic may not be an inherently compelling topic. But in providing a growing ecological and financial debate a relatable framework, the team behind “Outside/In” help give this international fight over the fate and future of lobsters something that resonates beyond aquatic life. As the scientists and researchers tasked with figuring out the origins of genetically unfamiliar lobster eggs spend years try to solve the mystery of its official classification, it makes for a debate with far more than just the fate of an industry in the balance. If not a direct parable at times, it’s still a worthwhile way to consider how we can inherently view things that come from beyond our borders.

Listen to the full episode here.

The first installment in the show’s latest series on unpacking Hollywood mythology manages to be much more than a simple dissection of classic gossip. Looking at Kenneth Anger’s longstanding assertions about director D.W. Griffith and the starlet Gish Sisters, Longworth examines the conditions of the day that may have led to a misunderstanding or a prevailing popular wisdom that metastasized over time. “You Must Remember This” has always made a point to address why certain things have persisted in our collective knowledge of the film industry and why other details (or entire bodies of work) have been lost to time. By looking at the chroniclers of the day and the stories that have developed sense, Longworth continues to blend a number of eras in Hollywood lore, making an appropriate lens for our own time in the process.

Listen to the full episode here.

With much of the first half of 2018 dominated by discussions and ramifications of legal decisions and the questioned legality of certain actions, this installment of Malcolm Gladwell’s ongoing podcast series is a reminder that the smallest imaginable details can mean a world of difference. The existence of a single punctuation mark isn’t just the basis for a semantic dive into constitutional law, it’s the foundation for a discussion of the idea of intent and which standard-bearers get to establish and maintain a particular interpretation. In expanding that view to how different readings of the Constitution, Gladwell’s theoreticals are also a reminder that political intentions are subject to generational shifts that are surprisingly hard to spot until after they arrive.

Listen to the full episode here.

Turns out that the best way to mix things up in the world of audio fiction is to just add monsters. Centered on Morgan (Alison Becker), a gifted slayer of otherworldly beasts, “Bubble” builds out the rest of its alternate reality with plenty of outrageous characters who still feel familiar in their own way. Flipping some of the more mundane aspects of big city comedies, “Bubble” imagines how having to deal with massive deadly creatures on a regular basis might affect everything from weekend cookouts to rideshare ratings to unbearable bosses. With a stellar ensemble that also includes Mike Mitchell, Cristela Alonzo, Eliza Skinner, and Keith Powell, it’s brought to life with a satirical edge that’s as powerful as The Sting.

Listen to the full episode here.

With the unexpected passing of Prince in the spring of 2016, scores of tributes have focused on the musician’s cultural impact. Keeping that same spirit in mind, Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva’s interview with Susan Rogers gives a different perspective on his musicianship. As a sound technician, Rogers became a vital part of Prince’s creative process during the apex of his career. Rogers’ anecdotes about the recording process behind “Purple Rain” and Prince’s other mid-80s output are less about the musician’s persona and more about the human side to his creative cycle. In full, Rogers’ recollections make a subtle portrait of an obsessive artist who commanded excellence from his collaborators and responded in kind with respect. Along the way, it’s an understanding of someone whose legacy lives on in the memories of those who worked with him.

Listen to the full episode here.

Even though co-hosts Kristen Meinzer and Jolenta Greenberg spend two weeks living the advice of any number of self-help volumes, rarely does the best advice end up coming from those book’s pages. As with the most satisfying “By the Book” installments, this isn’t just a look at Mark Manson’s bestselling guide confronting your own mortality. It also addresses the question of which authors are most often afforded the chance to dispense unsolicited advice. With the trademark “By the Book” window into the lives of the two hosts at the show’s center, it’s also a reminder that sometimes the best result that can come from a self-help regimen is just to keep doing the things in your life that are already working.

Listen to the full episode here.

Appointment listening for anyone who prefers their comedy podcasts as wild and self-referential as possible, the time-tested combo of Adam Scott Aukerman made an unexpected and triumphant return, this time covering the good rock and roll, uh, music of Michael Stipend and company. Balancing a diversion-filled riff-fest with a genuine appreciation of the band’s musical history and achievements, “R U Talkin’ R.E.M. Re: Me?” starts the journey to becoming whatever it wants to be from a grounded beginning. (Oh, and we got another episode of “Staind Glass” along the way. Cause for celebration all its own.)

Listen to the full episode here.

READ MORE: Adam Scott and Scott Aukerman’s New REM Podcast is as Wonderfully Weird as They’ve Ever Been

“This is the story of a documentary that never got made about a play that no one should have ever seen.” So starts this retelling of a bizarrely fated production of Neil Simon’s “They’re Playing Our Song” that seemed to make everyone involved reexamine their own relationship to art. Using footage from inside rehearsals and performances, all part of a residency in India that didn’t end up going exactly to plan, this resultant work pulls together a journey through some false pretenses and some deep self-evaluation. In the process, this ends up chronicling a performance that extended well beyond the confines of a stage and left its share of baffled bystanders in the process. 

Listen to the full episode here.

Even working from a rich literary tradition built over the course of six decades, the written work narrated in the dozen inaugural episodes of “The Paris Review Podcast” ends up as something even more fundamentally sonic. Hearing Jamaica Kincaid in candid conversation and reading her own short fiction turns what has long existed in print form into something that seemed like it was always meant to be listened to. In a similar way, Dick Cavett’s narration of a James Salter short story is a perfect union between fiction and the person delivering it. It’s a lush soundscape with poetry and prose as the anchors, a literary listening experience that’s soothing in its own distinct way.

Listen to the full episode here.

Eliza Skinner’s show is a comedian hangout session and musical nostalgia trip that manages to be so much more than either of those two basic descriptions. It’s an unguarded celebration of what songs can mean for us, in all the supportive and enabling ways. This particular conversation with newly minted Oscar nominee Emily V. Gordon is a personal one that never feels exploitative, just a natural offshoot of all the emotions and memories a well-curated playlist can evoke. In addition to Gordon, Skinner’s variety of guests bring in a wide assortment of tastes, from musical theater to punk to tracks from all over the world. Come out of each episode with some great stories and some solid song recommendations — what more could you want from a show?

Listen to the full episode here.

From the opening seconds, The Onion’s dark spin on true crime podcasts zeroes in on what makes them distinct and the markers that have come to bind many of its predecessors together. The cadence and rhythms of hosting is impeccable and (as we’ve written before) it’s the ads that really put this over the top as a piece of satirical precision. Future episodes would make gigantic leaps to subvert all sides of this imagined journalistic exercise, but it’s this first one that sets the table so flawlessly, right down to the smiling ruthlessness of the pursuit of a popular story (or a product endorsement).

Listen to the full episode here.

READ MORE: ‘A Very Fatal Murder’: Even the Fake Ads Are Hilarious in The Onion’s True Crime Podcast Parody

For anyone still unsure about the inner workings or viability of the emerging blockchain industry, this meta-storytelling experiment offers a clean, simplified explanation. But what this episode of “ZigZag” is more focused on is the idea of risk, particularly through the eyes of two public radio vets eyeing a potentially revolutionary approach to media. Trading in stable jobs for a journalistic and financial experiment, co-producers Manoush Zomorodi and Jen Poyant take this calm before a potential storm to reassess why they’re making this change and what they might do if it fails. Seeking advice from people who’ve been in similar positions and drawing strength from their own credentials, it’s a vital step in a story of empowerment that isn’t blind to the fact that a possible breakthrough doesn’t come without some sort of sacrifice.

Listen to the full episode here.

The most fascinating episodes of “The Dollop” are the ones that bring out just as much outrage as outrageousness. As co-hosts Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds unspool the long, frustrating history of Blackwater (as usual, Reynolds’ light bulb moment when he realizes the main subject of the episode is a highlight), they weave their way through as many emotions as they do international fiascoes. Bringing out the kind of nervous laughter that comes from the recognition that this segment of history gets more relevant by the sentence, it’s the kind of look at a recent American chapter that these two excel at the most.

Listen to the full episode here.

A lot of “Ear Hustle” is built around relationships. Through the lived experiences and observant understanding of producers Earlonne Woods, Antwan Williams and Nigel Poor’s time inside San Quentin State Prison, this show takes a regular, detailed look at how those connections affect daily life. “Down Low” looks at LGBTQ life at San Quentin, a subject that many inside are reluctant to talk about. Some inmates are able to assert their identity despite overwhelming pressure not to do so, while others opt not to take similar steps. In a place like San Quentin where privacy is often at a premium, “Ear Hustle” offers the chance to consider the circumstances of those who aren’t in a position to live openly.  

Listen to the full episode here.

In a growing, crowded landscape of daily news podcasts, “Today, Explained” has found a happy medium between addressing headlines in a timely way and crafting stories built to exist as sustainable reference materials for the topics that can often dip below the constant news wave. That those twin ambitions are evident right from the show’s debut in February, with this introductory episode on the volatility apparent in the state of the global nuclear community, is a strong indication that this is an informational resource equipped to handle a rapidly changing cycle of crises and confusion.

Listen to the full episode here.

READ MORE: Daily News Podcasts Grow Audiences By Tackling Critical Headlines Beyond Russia and Trump

It takes five episodes for this series to speak to the man who, as many interview participants prove, still is believed to be responsible for the Atlanta child murders over a two-year period. Pausing to hear the dial-in process to speak to Wayne Williams, currently serving multiple life sentences for a 1982 conviction, introduces a bit of transparency in explaining how these kinds of conversations come about. Focusing on the same ideas of balancing the individual, the city, and the aftermath of these crimes, it’s an episode that uses an objective lens to present a period of uncertainty in full, including the perspective of a man accused of bringing it all about.

Listen to the full episode here.

READ MORE: ‘Atlanta Monster’: The First Blockbuster Podcast of 2018 is a Complex Look at a City Wrestling with Its Past

It’s worth repeating: The best movie shows are the ones that can explain why something is good without ignoring the indescribable feelings that come a more gut-level fandom. (Last year‘s “Bridge of Spies” episode did exactly that.) This installment brings in host David Sims and Griffin Newman’s respective siblings to do some of the same in a family affair that balances insight and heart in the best possible way. It also serves as a perfect hinge for the show’s tremendous Brad Bird miniseries, considering the filmmaker’s origins in animation and how this particular Pixar installment he overtook would help inform the live-action projects that were coming for him just around the corner. An episode about a filmmaker who made a movie about the power of artistic expression, it’s an all-too-appropriate highlight for the Connoisseurs of Context.

Listen to the full episode here.

Julia Lowrie Henderson’s extensive reporting on the meteoric rise and disgraced unraveling of Bikram Choudhury‘s yoga empire is an empathetic piece of investigative work. Drawing on personal experiences and condensing a year and a half’s worth of interviews and research into this five-part series, Henderson crafts a story that considers the man in full, including the psychological destruction he left in his wake. Giving voice to the men and women that Choudhury subjected to abuse of varying degrees, “Bikram” becomes a representative story of the way that misused power is beginning to be rectified in incremental ways. In trying to understand whether or not it was the man himself or the product he capitalized on that became a force for improvement in so many people’s lives, this is a fitting finale that considers the full view of what Choudhury left behind wherever he went.

Listen to the full episode here.

One of the most unbelievable parts of this story of the aftermath of a 1989 McDonald’s contest is that the promotion even happened in the first place. Still, this “Lost Notes” piece looks at what happened when a Virginian family won $1,000,000 for being the owners of a thin plastic recording of a fateful, literal one-of-a-kind jingle. Combining the family’s story with a look at the town they lived in, the cash prize fades into the background as the intervening decades take on a greater meaning. Even after looking into the decision process behind a music-based competition, this “Lost Notes” chapter grows even more profound as it considers the value we place on pieces of physical evidence of the past and what happens when the meaning behind them changes.

Listen to the full episode here.

On the surface, the question asked in the title of this episode may seem like one as harmless and fluffy as the beloved character at its core. But Flora Lichtman and her team turn this journey for an answer into a rumination on childhood, maturity, mortality, and the place that children’s stories have on our lives. (It’s an episode that also asks whether “children’s stories” is even a helpful designation.) Approaching answers from an analytical place, an emotional place, and eventually a scholarly one, this episode doesn’t limit that understanding to one area or another. It’s a full view of a question that helps us to listen and understand why these transformative tales stay with us long after we’ve aged out of the target age range.

Listen to the full episode here.

The third chapter of the third installment in Mark Ramsey’s ongoing deep dives into the histories behind iconic movies, this is a blend of everything that sets the show apart from other film-focused shows. “Inside” stories are always best when they consider the full historical underpinnings of a particular film. This time, with “Jaws” as as the main work under the microscope, it’s the crafting of a growing shark attack threat that adds a unique sense of dread to the lore surrounding it. Incorporating the origins of Steven Spielberg‘s career, the final sequence of this episode finally introduces the other major player in the crafting of this story’s journey to megablockbuster legend. With Ramsey as narrator and across-the-board performer, it’s another installment in an experiential biography that utilizes the podcast form to its fullest potential.

Listen to the full episode here.

Nate DiMeo‘s exquisite look at American history often uncovers a story that has been ignored, cast aside, or downplayed in the decades and centuries since it occurred. But the show also excels in illuminating unfamiliar corners of the lives of people who take up their share of the history books. “The Memory Palace” and its work on the Founders has been fascinating over the years (who could forget the Ben Franklin Death Ray) and this short biography on one of George Washington’s slaves is instrumental in understanding a fuller scope of history. Looking at the efforts of Hercules (the Mount Vernon chef) toward gaining his freedom and trying to understand how the intervening years have minimized him in the narrative of the man who once called him property is an ideal example of the care that goes into the series’ consideration of the country in full.

Listen to the full episode here.

Throw a dart at the “Off Book” episode list and you’re likely to find a classic moment wherever it lands. This particular installment, recorded live at the late great NerdMelt, has the added benefit of capturing not just the energy of a guest performer alongside improvisers extraordinaire Zack Reino and Jess McKenna, but the collective response of 100 people gathered in the back of a comic book store. To spoil the specific jokes from an evening well spent along with “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” star Rachel Bloom is to deprive anyone some of the specific fun of listening. But let’s just say there are a few Tom Cruise-related moments that stand out as some of the funniest moments of accidental inspiration the show’s ever caught on tape.

Listen to the full episode here.

Nora McInerny’s show is a consideration of all the things happening below our own personal surfaces that we sometimes have trouble acknowledging. This open and honest conversation between McInerny and an Air Force pilot puts words to some indescribable circumstances: the highest joys of meeting someone and falling in love, the decisions to change your life to be with them, the uncertainty of what to do when the unthinkable happens. A story of acceptance, service, and sacrifice, on a number of different levels, this story also looks at how (or even if) we’re allowed to share our grief with someone else. It harnesses the power of small gestures to help loved ones through a crisis, conveying the intuitive power that can sense the need and importance for a specific kind of empathy.

Listen to the full episode here.

This New York Times series cuts through the prevailing discussion of the Islamic State, looking at individuals that make up its membership and those fighting to curtail its progress. Talking with men who’ve been recruited into the greater ISIS global campaign, reporter Rukmini Callimachi unpacks the mindset and conditions that make willing converts most susceptible to a specific ideology. Without distracting from the truth that she’s uncovering, the series also shows that doing this work is an incredibly dangerous task. Callimachi risks more than just personal safety to tell these stories and give a much-needed perspective on a force that’s becoming more difficult to understand.

Listen to the full episode here.

A “30 for 30” story by way of “Heavyweight,” Roger Bennett’s chronicle of the US Men’s National Team’s disastrous World Cup run in 1998 is largely a story about personality. From the turmoil in the program’s upper management to the unfamiliar level of fame that the team reached before their ill-fated trip to France, this is a consideration of all the warring interests that conspire against a squad before they even get within 50 kilometers of the pitch. This particular episode, focusing on the unconventional training regimen that took the team away from the city and put them in a counterproductive state of isolation, is also an ideal showcase for Bennett’s personality as well. Telling this complicated story with Bennett’s dual perspective of being both fan and outside observer, it’s a recounting that’s at turns giddy and gutting.

Listen to the full episode here.

Another installment in Robert Andersson’s carefully crafted series of immersive storytelling reveals itself as a portrait of someone searching to define an elusive feeling of normalcy. There’s a certain reluctance, but through an understanding of what can’t be translated, the two of them together, subject and storyteller, find a way to establish a common ground where both can be comfortable in revealing parts of themselves to each other. It’s told with the knowledge that there are things that we can’t know about each other, be they strangers or new friends. But the more we try, the more we can help each other feel valuable and wanted in the world. It’s a show powered by a search for empathy that grows more welcome each passing day.

Listen to the full episode here.

For anyone who saw the “Last Week Tonight” segment back in June on rehabilitation centers, consider this episode of “Reply All” that premiered days before it. Following the evolution of a cottage rehab industry that developed in Florida, producer Sruthi Pinnamaneni looks at who has benefited from an opportunistic insurance boom and the individual cost of those left to sift through the aftermath. Many of the “Reply All” stories in the show’s impressive history have focused on the lack of accountability in a particular corner of the internet. Tracking how that same spirit of regulation skirting and loophole capitalizing has a tangible consequence for those in most need of medical help serves to separate this reporting as a much-needed piece of audio journalism.

Listen to the full episode here.

Hrishikesh Hirway’s fascinating deep dive into the personal and technical stories behind some of the best new music occasionally examines film and TV scores. Back in March, Hirway set his sights on “Black Panther.” In this dissection of one of the standout pieces for the biggest film of the year, composer Ludwig Göransson went through a variety of artistic and musical inspirations, a globe-spanning effort of instrumentation and participation alike. The result is a haunting theme for one of the year’s best villains, blending styles and generations much the same way Michael B Jordan’s on-screen performance does.

Listen to the full episode here.

The past few years have shown the myriad dangers of obsessive fandom. It’s so refreshing then, to hear someone so passionate about the career of another person be able to encounter a sense of mutual admiration in the way that Early and Collette get to share. Early, a magnetic performer in his own right, ran a Toni Collette fansite as a teenager, a subject that gets broached with great delight from both sides here. Timed to the release of “Hereditary” but in so many ways about anything but, it’s a conversation that delves into the expectations that come with finding success at a young age and how that work can have a positive ripple effect half a world away. A whirlwind of appreciation, graciousness, and genuine love of lifelong creative pursuits, it’s a chat between two artists that feels as grounded and warm as an overheard catch-up between two old friends.

Listen to the full episode here.

The best jucking podcast in the galaxy returned in rare form after a short between-season hiatus. Coming back with an episode that picked up exactly where the show left off, with new wrinkles to the relationship between Pleck, Dar, C-53, Nermut Bundaloy, and Bargie herself, “Mission to Zyxx” continues to keep finding satisfying, improvised messes to wriggle its way out of every single week. With the added genius touch of bringing characters who had only existed in the show’s ads into the actual main storyline, “Mission to Zyxx” is the rare science-fiction show in any medium that knows just how much to pay attention to its own canon while upending it at each possible turn. Long live the rebellion, indeed.

Listen to the full episode here.

(Listen to this!) Not long after tackling one of the show’s most-requested songs — “One Week” — and right before taking on the national anthem itself, Miel Bredouw and Demi Adejuyigbe tackled this bizarre ’90s LFO masterpiece. They may not have 100 percent solved the mysteries behind what made “Summer Girls” the unlikeliest meeting place for random NBA player jersey numbers, Don Knotts movies, and figures from the American Revolution, but they’re the perfect team to sift through the nonsense. (And as the only song in recorded history with the line “Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan/Pandora got attacked by marine invasion,” Demi’s punch-up is truly a marvel to behold.) In a year so far when these two have taken on Guns N’ Roses, Randy Newman, and spent a great live episode unpacking Lou Bega, you could say that, like the New Kids on the Block, they’ve had a bunch of hits. (Ow!)

Listen to the full episode here. 

This year’s Oscar race brought up a number of conversations about on-screen representation, some new and some familiar. In addressing the controversy surrounding the supporting characters in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” New York Times writers Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris shared an insightful discussion on the film’s “crisis of place” and how a film can be set everywhere and nowhere in America all at once. Connecting that complicated relationship with the broader national conversation about what it means to live and be a participant in the current national age is a perfect blend of cultural, social, and political analysis that speaks to what often goes unspoken.

Listen to the full episode here. 

If Andy Daly had made Dalton Wilcox either the country’s foremost cowboy poet or a nocturnal force of vengeance against all kinds of mythical creatures, he’d have crafted a character for the ages. That he manages to move effortlessly between those two and keep them both quintessentially Wilcox is the backbone of some of his best work, TV, podcast, or otherwise. Kicking off Season 2 of this collection of legends (which also includes the return of Daly’s travel-obsessed August Lindt), this twist on the TV episode retrospective show takes an absurd look at the first episode of “Bonanza” in a way that even city slickers can appreciate. The chorus of muffled giggles throughout is the perfect backing for an hour and a half return of both Wilcox and The Journeymen that constantly surprises even the guys in the room bringing it to life.  

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In chronicling an unconventional experiment in which six NASA employees lived for a year in a small, restrictive biodome in the middle of the Hawaiian desert, “The Habitat” became an effective microcosm of human interaction. Much like those conducting this test, this eight-part series looked at how close confinement and a common goal served to both unite and slowly push apart the people under observation. The episode before this goes into how certain relationships formed between people in close quarters, but it’s “Tortilla!” that looks at how those partnerships are continuously tested. The uneasy peace that can exist between co-workers and friends bonded by proximity and time is about as close to a universal story as you can find on this planet.

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We’ve written before about the ways in which “In the Dark” is not a traditional crime story. Taking an institutional view of the Curtis Flowers case, “In the Dark” becomes an engaging (and occasionally, enraging) commentary on the American justice system through a meticulous examination of all the factors that led to Flowers’ conviction. There’s an attention to detail that orients the listener to specific benchmarks without shifting the focus away from those whose lives are most affected by the current state of circumstances. Madeleine Baran is a host who helps the audience to understand that in this realm of long-form storytelling, so much depends on reconciling the ways that multiple people can approach the same facts of a particular investigation with their own narratives at the ready.

Listen to the full episode here. 

READ MORE: ‘In the Dark’ Is the One True Crime Podcast You Should Be Listening to Right Now

One of the distinguishing elements that made “Slow Burn” one of the best podcasts of the past 12 months is its ability to speak specifically to the events of Watergate and effortlessly address the collective news environment of today. With keeping explicit references to the present at a minimum, this episode on the conspiracy theory responses to media reports, congressional testimony, and presidential misconduct is a helpful window into the nation’s collective psyche in the early ‘70s. Tracking which outlandish theories were able to make their way into the mainstream and which individuals capitalized on harnessing a growing national paranoia feels like an eerie echo of what would begin to happen almost a half century later. Told through a mix of archival footage and retrospective interviews under the careful eye of host Leon Neyfakh and producer Andrew Parsons, it’s another example of how “Slow Burn” is able to facilitate a conversation between past and present.

Listen to the full episode here. 

READ MORE: ‘Slow Burn’: Watergate Podcast Host on Avoiding Obvious Trump Parallels and Finding Out When Conspiracies Come True