Best Podcasts of 2019: The 50 Episodes to Listen To

Write about podcasts for long enough and the impulse to use some of the same words becomes hard to fight. “Story” certainly pops up quite a bit. Eventually, you start finding plenty of synonyms for the word “history.” Taking note of others like “legacy,” “moments,” “complex,” and “understand,” and it becomes clear what the most engaging (ah, there’s another one) series manage to tap into.

But looking at the best that 2019 had to offer, there’s one word that seemed to work its way into these descriptions more than any other: “family.” Maybe that’s a matter of personal preference, an unconscious force that makes stories about finding what connects us the most compelling. Whether it’s a group that people are born into or one that they find along the way, the stories that reinforce the idea that the universal is hidden in each of these experiences are always thrilling.

And that’s really the promise of the entire medium. No matter your interests, regardless of what kind of storytelling you find most engaging, each passing day makes it more and more likely that the show you’ve been waiting for is out there waiting to be discovered. (Better yet, if it isn’t, it’s never been easier to make it yourself.)

With that in mind, in an attempt to try to look at the year in podcasting as an avenue for that kind of discovery, here are 50 episodes that all try to tap into those disparate ideas and make them something to be grasped. (There’s some overlap between this list and the one that originally published in July as a mid-year check-in — think of these two lists as halves of a whole year in review. Any of those from the halfway point could easily be here, too.)

So, at the risk of setting up too many words that will only be repeated in the sentiments below, these are the shows that each brought something essential to the greater podcast family.

50. Odd Ball, “Who is Gerri?”

As odd bits of conspiracy-adjacent ephemera have found new life in the podcast world, few have gotten the thoughtful treatment that WJCT host Lindsey Kilbride gives to the legendary Betz Sphere. A mysterious metallic ball whose origins and behavior have confounded skeptics and experts alike, the Sphere becomes just one of the many key players in a decade-spanning quest for the truth. Along the way, one of the most valuable things that “Odd Ball” does is approach various individuals in the ongoing Betz saga with a healthy dose of perspective. Rather than paint people like this episode’s primary subject Gerri Betz as a simple attention-seeker or a dishonest perpetuator of a longstanding myth, the show considers the toll that prolonged media attention can have on someone’s life and the difficulties of maintaining privacy in an era of increased connection and curiosity.

Listen to the episode here.
49. Spacebridge, “3: A Live Studio Audience”

Image Credit: Radiotopia

This four-part presentation of Radiotopia’s ongoing Showcase series is a window into how the development of a piece of groundbreaking technology sought to become a key tool in the easing of Cold War tensions. Spacebridge broadcasts, a kind of predecessor to videochatting, allowed individuals from both the United States and the Soviet Union to communicate in a more direct way. Co-hosts Julia Barton and Charles Maynes provide context for the process that, despite frequent skepticism from geopolitical rivals and a bizarre slate of conditional advancements, opened a diplomatic dialogue that went beyond political maneuvering. The culmination of this episode, a Phil Donahue-moderated spacebridge conversation between American and Soviet citizens from opposite sides of the globe, represents both the wariness that sustained the conflict for so long and the optimism for a peaceful future that helped bring it to a close a few short years later.

Listen to the episode here.
48. Maybe Don’t, “‘Oh No…'”

As the producers of “Doughboys” and “Hollywood Handbook,” producers Kevin Bartelt and Yusong Liu are no strangers to the comedy podcast world. Whether you can credit their new show “Maybe Don’t” as a product of that time spent or their friendship outside of it, few two-person shows have hosts as in sync as this pair. Finding a certain middle ground between a comedy show with complex scaffolding and one that just hits the record button once and goes from there, Bartelt and Liu let each differently themed episode find its own rhythm, based on whatever the week’s chosen topics might be. An enjoyable patchwork of improv setups, heart-to-heart conversations, spontaneous songs, and short fiction, “Maybe Don’t” turns the idea of “figuring it out” — whether it’s the next 10 years or the next 20 minutes — into its biggest asset.

Listen to the episode here.
47. Committed with Jo Piazza, “What Came Before”

There’s a certain amount of trust that comes with letting someone tell your story, so it’s appropriate that this profile of Erica and Spencer, a married couple who met after the passing of their respective spouses, is most about how they fostered that trust in each other. Addressing the complications and the realities of raising 11 children after their families merged, host Jo Piazza also makes time for the pair to explain how their late spouses are still present in all of their everyday lives. They’re honest about the difficulties that come with trying to start a new chapter in your life after one ends far too prematurely. Through this conversation, Erica and Spencer outline the way that common goals (and a shared faith in each other) can help kindred souls find stability amidst the chaos that tragedy can bring.

Listen to the episode here.
46. Commons, “DYNASTIES #5 – The Sahotas”

Housing availability and the standards for both public and private units is an issue that’s not confined to a single city. Still, through its highlighting of single-room occupancy properties in Vancouver, this Canadaland show illustrates how, in many cases, the decisions of a select few can mean devastating conditions for those simply looking for a hospitable place to live. Producers Arshy Mann and Jordan Cornish lay out the means by which one family of landlords has systematically ignored the people who live inside their deteriorating structures, all while those same real estate holdings represent millions of dollars in personal gain. The episode doesn’t lose sight of the costs that many have paid, providing a thorough accounting of what residents have experienced and the collective effort to make the Sahotas confront the consequences of their own negligence.

Listen to the episode here.
45. 30 for 30, “Out of the Woods”

This profile of Olympic biathlon competitor Kari Swenson, who survived a 1984 kidnapping at the hands of two men on a Montana mountain trail, could easily have been framed as a simple portrait of resilience, culminating in her eventual protracted return to the sport. But it ends up being a far greater testament to her strength by incorporating all the other ways she endured following her attack, and not just during it. As the episode progresses, it also becomes an indictment of the resulting media narrative during her abductors’ trial that, as with many others like it, placed undue emphasis on perpetrators at the expense of their victims. Incorporating candid conversations with Swenson and her family and friends, reporter Bonnie Ford shines a knowing light on what was taken, what lingers, and what has been regained.

Listen to the episode here.
44. Nice Try! “Herland: Reimagining Utopia”

Avery Trufelman makes a point in the opening of each episode of “Nice Try!” to explain that the very origins of word “utopia” points to the idea that one can never exist. Over the course of the season, the show outlines how difficult it is to rebuild society without falling prey to the conditions that made a new isolated home desirable in the first place. After chapter upon chapter of failed paradises driven to ruin by overambitious men who couldn’t follow their own proclamations, the spiritual capper to this journey through past attempts at utopias refocuses to consider those self-sufficient queer communities (both in theory and in practice) that exist out of necessity rather than curiosity. The underlying thesis that develops as a result of these last looks is one that considers power and control and what it means to define who belongs in an ideal world fashioned in one’s own image.

Listen to the episode here.
43. The City, “Battlelines”

Image Credit: USA Today

Sometimes it’s easy for audio investigations to get consumed by their subjects. What makes this multi-part investigation into the battle for the soul of Reno, Nevada so fascinating is how it’s able to use reporter Anjeanette Damon’s long history with the city to its advantage. Through Damon’s conversations with strip club impresario Kamy Keshmiri and the various figures in local government and citizens groups trying to enhance or thwart his business efforts, “The City” presents a diligently crafted portrait of this corner of the state that draws on the people as much as the buildings they’re feuding over. It’s the kind of clear-headed reporting that’s unafraid to show its work, even when that work isn’t the sensationalist fare that can power some other shows of its kind. The result is a show that can see and convey Reno as the city it is rather than one an outside observer wants it to be.

Listen to the episode here.
42. Decomposed, “A Cold War secret weapon”

It’s not that Jade Simmons sets out to make some of the most enduring composers and classical pieces accessible to all listening audiences. The real joy of “Decomposed” is the way she helps reveal how those works reach through centuries and still speak to the modern listener. This profile of a group of performers who brought “Porgy and Bess” behind the Iron Curtain at the height of Cold War tensions lies right at the intersection of international diplomacy, civil rights, and dramatic representation. Unafraid to unpack the complicated legacy that George Gershwin’s opera had during its day and in the intervening decades, Simmons shows how a fraught piece of art still helped signal to a global audience that those telling its story were worthy of being heard, on and off the stage.

Listen to the episode here.
41. How Did This Get Made? “#219: Drop Dead Fred: LIVE! (w/ Casey Wilson)”

Image Credit: Earwolf

There’s certainly strength in numbers when the co-hosts of “HDTGM” fix their sights on some baffling cinematic output like “Drop Dead Fred.” But through a bizarre bit of podcast alchemy, June Diane Raphael, Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, and Casey Wilson somehow managed to turn a discussion of this 1991 invisible friend movie into an existential tug-of-war. Recorded in front of a packed theater, you can hear the energy in the room shift as an organic crisis breaks out. These longtime friends on the stage divide themselves into two, clean camps as a simple interpretation of the movie becomes a kind of cosmic battleground for on-screen interpretation. It’s spontaneous incredulity at its absolute finest.

Listen to the episode here.
40. Nancy, “The Case of the Cutoffs”

Image Credit: WNYC Studios

As producer Ben Riskin sets out to find the origins of a framed pair of cutoff jeans he found at a thrift store six years ago, that simple goal flourishes into a much deeper search. Bringing in an official Levi jeans historian, contemporaries from the Chicago leather scene, and poring through archives, it’s a quest that — like so many other worthy audio stories — finds just as much in the journey that any destination ever could. As the central mystery eventually gives way to greater appreciating and understanding about what those cutoffs represent, it becomes a way to honor an entire generation and maintain a connection to the past through what could easily have been left behind forever. The city of Chicago, an extensive photo collection, and Riskin’s shifting perceptions of what these cutoffs mean all blend together to present a small but significant slice of gay history.

Listen to the episode here.
39. The Big One, “The Buildings”

Image Credit: KPCC

Where earthquakes are concerned, it’s not unreasonable to be an alarmist. Yet, this KPCC production finds a way to sound warning bells in a way that encourages meaningful action rather than all-encompassing despair. Along with lead producer Misha Euceph (host of fellow KPCC offering “Tell Them, I Am”), host Jacob Margolis helps to weave together a full picture of Los Angeles’ ongoing tumultuous relationship to the natural ticking time bomb just waiting to go off. There’s an opening chapter that places the listener right in the aftermath of the event of the show’s title, a step-by-step breakdown of the region’s massive resource challenge if/when it arrives, and this particular chapter looking at the way that building codes have been handled and maintained on a municipal level. “The Big One” may not be an all-encompassing checklist of what to do in the event of a massive disaster, but it’s at least the beginning of one. And if there’s one message this show conveys in the starkest terms, it’s that there’s a dangerously low number of people in the greater LA area who have even thought that far.

Listen to the episode here.
38. Love Letters, “S2E8: Carpe Diem (or Matt Dorfman)”

This Meredith Goldstein-led compendium of relationships of all kinds has chronicled love in a number of its stages: long-distance resiliency, doubt-filled breakups, and unlikely reunions. What has become a common theme on the show — so much that it’s the question the most recent season is built around — is the idea of finding out “How do you know?” When is the right time to admit/present/hide/indulge your feelings? This installment of “Love Letters” shows how one chance encounter flowered into an international love, and at the same time looks at how an anonymous college crush has shaped Goldstein’s own perspective on being bold and/or forthcoming. With different endings, these stories show how just as much understanding can come from the situations we imagine in our own head as the ones that actually happen that we never see coming.

Listen to the episode here.
37. Outside/In, “10×10: Under the Ice”

This New Hampshire Public Radio highlight has continued to find ways to discover the tales from nature that are often hidden from sight. What makes this particular episode thrilling is the way it proves how the undisturbed wilderness can tell its own stories, provided you have the patience to listen. As with many stories from this series over the years, this examines the many ways that plant and animal life have adapted to some of the harshest conditions and thrived as a result. Taking full advantage of the audio medium, “O/I” also turns over a good chunk of its airtime to the sounds of ice itself. With cues from the floes warping and shifting under the surface of the water, this is a science lesson and a biological primer, all wrapped in a fascinating audio exploration of an environmental corner few people get the fortune to experience for themselves.

Listen to the episode here.
36. Zero Hours, “Episode 2 – World Enough”

Written and directed by Gabriel Urbina, Sarah Shachat, and Zach Valenti, this limited series scripted podcast run takes a centuries-spanning look at moments in time when characters within each episode are facing the possible end of the world. Before later installments would reach far into our future, this 1821-set tale underlines the ways that facing down certain doom reaches across timelines. There’s the feeling of traveling in circles, the desire to cast off people in your vicinity, followed by the realization there’s a chance you probably still need them. That comes to a head in this 19th-century two-hander — played by a pitch-perfect Felix Trench and Tom Crowley — featuring a solitary Arctic explorer and the unwanted companion who seems to keep popping up at the most inconvenient of times. With an immersive sound design that plays with the frequent, stiff wind and crunching snow underfoot, this is fiction that lulls you into a sense of simplicity before dropping out the bottom to reveal the layers that have been underneath all along.

Listen to the episode here.
35. Earth Break, “The Cabin in the Woods”

There’s a size to the world of “Earth Break” that you just can’t recreate in a booth. To make the desolate, post-apocalyptic world of the series feel real, director Aaron Katz and star Jenny Slate recorded parts of this and other episodes on a sprawling ranch. In her quest to find other survivors of a devastating alien attack, Slate’s Lynn Gellert comes upon a cabin and the proof of a prior inhabitant. When that discovery threatens to break Lynn’s will, Slate manages to wrap up the character’s anxieties and tiny triumphs into a specific brand of resiliency. You can almost smell the long-unplugged fridge and taste the surprise fruit preserves and hear Lynn’s stories gently echoing across a ravine. Anchored by Morgan Ormond’s carefully revealing script, this a first-person survival story with a recognizable weight to it.

Listen to the episode here. For more of the process behind “Earth Break,” read our interview with Aaron Katz here.
34. Off Book, “#109: Ross Bryant + Nick Mandernach in Every Place I Cry Returns”

Image Credit: Earwolf

Even though the objective remains the same — create an entire musical from scratch on a weekly basis — the thrill of “Off Book” comes from hearing how Jessica McKenna and Zach Reino follow the musical pathway set out by each week’s guests. Whether that involves welcoming newcomers of various musical abilities or wrangling a pack of old favorites (their centennial “Cats 2” episode is a shining pillar of insanity), this is a truly a show where no two episodes feel the same. One of the strongest boosts to that idea is when Zach and Jess, along with Bryant and Mandernach, embrace their quadruple-lead-singer’d emo group Every Place I Cry. Presented as found audio of a single recording session, these behind-the-music EPIC episodes (along with their occasional live shows, where they somehow turn the rattling off of people’s names into a workable rock chorus) are some of the best proof of how this show embraces the impossible and still pulls it off.

Listen to the episode here.
33. Julie, “1: The End”

2019 was a year for a growing collection of book companion podcasts. Series like Ronan Farrow’s “Catch and Kill,” which brought a greater depth to his award-winning reporting, continued a podcasting tradition that’s been around as long as shows like “Happier” and “Freakanomics” have sought to do the same. Few podcasts have taken the ideas presented in written form and made them as vibrant in audio quite like this series has. The first of a three-part overture that illuminates Julie Yip-Williams’ posthumous memoir “The Unwinding of the Miracle,” this opening episode encapsulates all the complex decisions and realities that come with trying to preserve a part of yourself. Using audio of Julie and her family, host Eleanor Kagan helps to cement that legacy, one that recognizes that a memory of life is incomplete without acknowledging all the ecstatic highs and overwhelming sorrows and the ever-present unknown.

Listen to the episode here.
32. Still Processing, “Apology”

Released in the opening days of 2019, this conversation between Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris tapped into ideas that would reverberate throughout the entire rest of the year. Unpacking what makes a meaningful apology that doesn’t just shift guilt from one person to another, the pair outline how defiance is woven into the fabric of American culture, from music hits to political strategy to joke-writers. It’s an area that “Still Processing” would return to throughout the year, taking a look at the fraught legacy of Michael Jackson and whether or not Dave Chappelle is equipped to handle where comedy has shifted to in the years since his hiatus. Rather than merely talk about these ideas as a hypothetical, this closes with Wortham putting a number of those discussed ideas into practice. It might not be an episode with all the answers, but it’s one with a pretty clear roadmap to help find them.

Listen to the episode here.
31. Last Day, “4: Was it Painful?”

Image Credit: Lemonada Media

Like many other series that balance the personal and the universal, this series hosted by Stephanie Wittels Wachs is an attempt to show that no one is truly alone. Examining the current scourge of opioid and substance-related deaths across the country, “Last Day” provides insight from anyone who might be involved in an individual’s struggles. This episode seeks to address the emotional turmoil of the loved ones of those with a substance abuse disorder and the medical professionals that are surrounded by that heartbreak and frustration on a constant, daily basis. It captures the persistent toll that one person’s experience can have on the web of people doing whatever it is they need to provide support, including the vicious paradox where the momentarily relief that might help someone in pain is a more acute version of the thing that goes on to claim so many other lives. It’s not an easy conversation, but it’s one that can help those who feel hopeless have a slightly better understanding of an often impossible situation.

Listen to the episode here.
30. Reveal, “When Tasers Fail”

Over the past six years, “Reveal” has become an invaluable asset in the podcast world by challenging assumptions. Sometimes that means challenging commonly held beliefs about a particular institution. Other times, it’s by identifying something that generations have deemed unworthy of attention and bringing it to a greater public consciousness. The investigative reporting at the heart of the series is the product of meticulous, painstaking work that doesn’t merely follow a dominant, established narrative. This report on the legacy of the Taser, both in its development and its eventual use as a tool of law enforcement, looks at how that greater awareness gets shaped and who is left at a disadvantage as a result.

Listen to the episode here.
29. The Allusionist, “100. The Hundredth”

Image Credit: Radiotopia

On a week-by-week basis, Helen Zaltzman enthusiastically investigates the unknown corners of the English lexicon and the greater curiosities of language on a global scale. When the show hit triple digit episodes earlier this year, Zaltzman took it as an opportunity to reflect on the many adventures and tidbits that have resonated with the show’s audience. With curses and courage, identity and idioms, this rapid-fire trip through the “Allusionist” archive is an ideal entry point to the ways the show has balanced its etymological pursuits with care, humor, and empathy. Come for the proper portmanteau skepticism, stay for the fact that the word “hundred” itself hasn’t always meant 100.

Listen to the episode here.
28. Headlong: Running from COPS, “3: Nothing Is Voluntary When You Have Handcuffs On”

As questions about power in the world of reality television continue to boil underneath some of the country’s most popular shows, it only reinforces what this Dan Taberski-hosted series identifies in the history of the long-running “COPS.” When mixed with an already-fraught relationship between the police and some of the citizens in the cities where the show films, the question of who is offered the ultimate call over what makes it to air becomes a battle for autonomy in microcosm. Future episodes of this series would eventually make a detailed comparison between original and final footage, while also looking at the show’s legacy in the popularity and conduct of its spiritual descendants. Regardless of what stage of the show’s production is under the microscope, “Running from COPS” is the meticulous product of a year and a half of thorough and intensely focused societal examination.

Listen to the episode here.
27. Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, “Stephen Colbert”

There are plenty of shows to single out in the rise of the household name-fronted interview podcast, a wave that seemed to crest this year after a growing groundswell for the better part of this decade. And there were few people in a better position to take advantage of that spike in attention than Conan, who became a de facto face of that growth on the strength of his star-studded lineup. It’s what he did with that opportunity, though, that helped sustain that attention, bringing more to these chats with famous peers than the usual late-night clip talking points. Few recorded conversations this year reflect a better understanding of honesty and connection better than these two comedy mainstays, as they trade stories of their upbringing, their morphing relationships to a volatile industry, and their transformations of moments of loss into a meaningful way forward.

Listen to the episode here.
26. Blank Check, “Spirited Away with David Rees”

Image Credit: Audioboom

Usually the most compelling episodes of “Blank Check” stand at a director’s inflection point, the film where a particular director veers from filmmaking sensation to a wayward artist. Here, in the midst of its miniseries on the legendary Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki, hosts Griffin Newman and David Sims are left to deal with what happens when that turning point never comes. With the help of David Rees, who previously brought some heady existential heft to #thetwofriends’ discussion of “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence” on his last appearance, this trio parses out what it means to come into contact with art so transcendent that hyperbole might not be enough. Situated in the middle of an overview of shifts in children-oriented entertainment over the past two decades — what episode is complete without a ten-minute diversion into the plots, casts, and relative industry success of “Rat Race” and “Shrek” — it’s a conversation that also considers the role of the critic, the merits of an informed audience, and a perfectly succinct commonality between all great films. Few shows make earned and thoughtful praise sound this irresistible.

Listen to the episode here.
25. Scattered, “The Camp”

Through comedian Chris Garcia’s efforts to fill in the gaps of what he knows about his late father’s early years in Cuba, “Scattered” quickly becomes far more than one man’s story. It’s a historical journey that lovingly includes Garcia’s living family members, each with their fond memories of Andres as a husband and a parent. The series finds an even greater depth as Garcia’s attempts to piece together clues about an unspoken past lead him to connect with other members of generations of Cuban immigrants who endured a litany of hardships to help secure a better life elsewhere. Merging distinct personal observations with an overview of both the Cuban agricultural work camps and the Freedom Flights of the 1960s and ‘70s that brought some of those refugees to the United States, Garcia helps to show how his family is far from the only one that’s still in search of details about loved ones that only firsthand remembrances can provide.

Listen to the episode here.
24. Lost Notes, “Beyond Disco: Nermin Niazi and Feisal Mosleh”

Image Credit: KCRW

Over the course of its rich second season, this KCRW series has looked beyond traditional subjects for a more thorough globe- and genre-spanning musical portrait. One particular episode centers on “Disco Se Aagay,” an album of Urdu-language New Wave music released in the mid-1980s in the UK and Pakistan that represented not just a fusing of two influences, but an organic outgrowth of a brother and sister’s musical passions. To understand the genesis of the album, Arshia Fatima Haq uncovers the history behind Niazi and Mosleh’s efforts to live out their musical dreams and the way the record’s reception serves as a metaphor for a cultural middle ground that potential audiences on all sides can often be quick to condemn. At its heart is a song-by-song breakdown of an album that’s both an unmistakable product of its time and a tribute to the idea that music is something made to be rediscovered, however many decades later.

Listen to the episode here.
23. This Sounds Serious, “Hostages”

Podcasting has been around long enough as a cultural force that it occasionally folds in on itself. Amongst the podcasts about podcasts and the podcast episodes that respond to podcast episodes, you’ll occasionally find writers and comedians trying their hands at podcast-specific parodies. None of those shows have tapped into the sounds and rhythms of true crime quite like “This Sounds Serious,” which entered its second season this year. Telling the story of a missing daughter, a compulsive mischief-maker, and the mayor of the small Oregon town trying to make all the unwanted attention go away, this Kelly & Kelly production gets about as close to the “real thing” as a scripted series can get. From Carly Pope’s steady narration as the host trying to puncture the mystery to Aaron Read’s gleeful interpretation of Jimmy, the town’s well-intentioned screw-up, this is a fiction series that indulges its audio predecessors with carefully honed winks and nods.

Listen to the episode here.
22. Heavyweight, “#30 The Marshes”

It’s not often that narrators of audio stories get to directly address the way their participation helps shape the overall trajectory of what’s happening. So “Heavyweight,” long built on the foundation of host Jonathan Goldstein’s hyper-self-aware style, is kind of the ideal vehicle for unpacking a family saga looking to outside forces to help motivate a massive change. As the Marsh family weighs what to do after a revelation from nearly a half-century in the past, it’s the interplay between a mother, her son, Goldstein, and a new figure in the Marsh history that fuels months of delicate communication. “Heavyweight” often looks at the burden of guilt and the natural desire to keep some memories at a distance — by letting the show’s occasionally flippant exterior melt away, it arrives at conclusion with a little bit of earned poetry in one family’s unexpected new chapter.

Listen to the episode here.
21. The Underculture with James Adomian, “Bernie Sanders & Bernie Sanders (w/ Bernie Sanders)”

Image Credit: Forever Dog

If he so chose, James Adomian could probably keep this show afloat all by himself, indulging in a neverending carousel of celebrity impressions and putting them in unexpected new contexts. What “The Underculture” has become, though, is a thrilling back-and-forth between two or more comedic voices, each looking for the entertaining and enlightening ways that slipping into someone else’s persona can provide. Sometimes these “leaked audio tapes” of surprise encounters are stunningly spot-on (Adomian and Matteo Lane imagining a chat between Orson Welles and Liza Minnelli is a particular highlight). Other times, the show fully embraces its own insanity. This opening year’s most noteworthy episode turned out to be a little bit of both, when Bernie Sanders swung by for a Bernie-on-Bernie summit. Sanders plays along wonderfully and Adomian gives just enough curveballs to keep him on his toes. A bit of an anomaly for the show overall, but comedy lightning in a bottle rarely arrives in quite this kind of container.

Listen to the episode here.
20. Flash Forward, “BODIES: Switcheroo”

Rose Eveleth’s regular peeks into the future often wrestle with the idea that the stuff of sci-fi legend will almost certainly not come to fruition in the ways we’d like them to, or even in the ways they’re intended. In a time when technological possibility can occasionally feel boundless, it’s always nice to have a reminder of both the unintended consequences that academic experts are bracing for and those that the people of today are already beginning to experience for themselves. Themed “Flash Forward” miniseries released in this year alone have centered on Earth, Bodies, Crime, and Power, showing the ways that those in years and decades and centuries to come will be left to balance both the benefits and consequences of those developments. This episode, like the ones centered on time travel and animal testing bans and punishment in space, don’t have to sacrifice imagination for pragmatism. Keeping both a spirit of wonder and spirit of caution alive simultaneously is a difficult task, but one this show continues to embrace.

Listen to the episode here.
19. 1619, “Episode 4: How the Bad Blood Started”

A vital part of understanding the legacy of slavery is recognizing the ways that the insitution still reverberates through modern American life. Beginning from an opening drawn from her own experience, host Nikole Hannah-Jones crafts an ever-present reminder of the conditions born from four centuries of oppression in various forms. In that consideration — here, focused on thwarted advancements and systemic inadequacies in the field of medical care — Jones helps to champion the stories of those who have fought against that tide, whether or not their efforts are common knowledge. To those melded family and national chronicles, this episode introduces a short story from “Homegoing” author Yaa Gyasi, one additional prism through which to view the cross-generational failures that leave a lasting psychological impact. In the same way that other chapters in this project examine other areas of American life, like popular music and land ownership, this helps to show how over four centuries, gains in freedom and gains in equality have not always gone hand in hand.

Listen to the episode here.
18. Mogul, “S2 Part 1: The Walls Were Sweating”

Continuing the tradition begun by the late Reggie Ossé, Season 2 of “Mogul” is another portrait of a musical movement and the city that helped birth it. In charting the evolution of Miami Bass, host Brandon Jenkins details the rise of 2 Live Crew, the target of an eventual hurricane of public ‘90s hysteria. Before going on to detail the legal obscenity cases that would take the group from the clubs of South Florida to the halls of the Supreme Court, this opening chapter delves into the Crew’s unlikely origin story. “Mogul” takes full advantage of providing sonic context for the ecosystem that helped foster the group’s stardom — you should heed Jenkins’ suggestions and listen to this on the best pair of headphones you can find. The crispness of the 808s, the fullness of the bass, and even the subtlest of ways that firsthand accounts reverberate in their retelling: It all gives that much more weight to the conflict to come.

Listen to the episode here.
17. Freaknik: A Discourse on a Paradise Lost, “Prologue or: The Abominable Discretion of Youth”

Image Credit: Mass Appeal/Endeavor Audio

Impossible to confine to one single episode, Freaknik serves as the portal to a multifaceted exploration of the history of an annual institution and the city that tried to sustain its meteoric rise. The extra time that host/producer Christopher Frierson has to go into all the factors that made this spring break tradition a phenomenon lets the show look at Atlanta from multiple angles, through the prism of its schools, its population, and even its traffic. Discussions of music, gender, and autonomy all intersect against the backdrop of a yearly gathering that grew in ways that those who helped create it could never have foreseen. Still, there’s no better place to start than here at the beginning, an episode that lays out some necessary background for Freaknik’s origins, all provided courtesy of Frierson’s inimitable storytelling approach.

Listen to the episode here.
16. Rough Translation, “The Search: Parts 1 & 2”

Image Credit: NPR

War stories in audio form can exist in the abstract, mostly told through people remembering their experiences or discussed in the context of an era before recording. So it’s experiences like photojournalist Kamaran Najm’s that can help bring an immediacy to an amorphous conflict that has claimed and forever altered so many lives nevertheless. This two-part series seeks to understand the circumstances surrounding Najm’s kidnapping 2014 (the first half of the story was released five years to the day after it occurred) and the toll faced by the family and forces who worked to rescue him from ISIS custody. It’s an effort that includes careful clue-gathering and the same diligent attention to detail that Najm sought to bring to his photography of a transformed Iraqi Kurdistan region.

Listen to the episode here.
15. Start Up, “Our Company Has Problems”

Image Credit: Gimlet Media

When Alex Blumberg started documenting the creation of Gimlet Media back in spring of 2014, it marked a new level in the coming wave of podcast recursion. Hearing the process of creating the structure that was delivering the show you were listening to felt like a listening experience that wouldn’t be easily repeatable. In many ways, this episode is the culmination of the idea that, despite Gimlet’s best efforts, it hasn’t been. The company has gone on to foster a number of other worthy additions to the company slate — including “The Habitat,” a show they mention by name that was one of our clear picks for last year’s best. Yet, this episode outlines how that five-year journey is still one of great financial instability and insecurity, particularly where issues of artistic integrity and commercial viability butt heads. Later episodes in this series-closing miniseries show how an outside acquisition served as a Spotify Ex Machina to help alleviate some of those problems. Still, even in small, carefully selected doses, it’s hard to imagine a podcast entity on Gimlet’s level opening itself up to this kind of scrutiny in this way ever again.

Listen to the episode here.
14. Terrible, Thanks for Asking, “#64: WWJD?”

Image Credit: American Public Media

If there’s a common bond that unites all the subjects of this Nora McInerney-hosted series, it’s that we all experience loss in different ways. Sometimes, like in the episode released the week before this one, it’s recognizing when a planned future won’t come to pass. In this account of one family’s encounter with the unexpected that shows how often these stories involve finding both strength and solace in each other. Told with empathy, understanding, and enough room to find the love that remained and grew in its own way after tragedy, it’s also a celebration of everything that came before, of the bond between twin sisters that carried on in the unexpected family that came to be.

Listen to the episode here.
13. Love + Radio, “Gotcha!”

The best “Love + Radio” stories are built around shifts in perspective. Feeling unmoored from the truth is often by design, as assumptions about the trajectory of any individual narrative get slowly warped over time. In the show’s first season as a part of Luminary Media, there’s no better example than this tale that begins with a seemingly innocuous morning show segment in Australia and gradually spirals out of control from there. Produced by “Hi-Phi Nation” host Barry Lam, this combines the best of hindsight-filled conversations with some of the saga’s key players and the kind of internet-age sleuthing that can help uncover a story that’s too thin to be true. Hopping continents and taking hairpin turns that you wouldn’t be able to predict at the outset, it’s another quality chapter in a series that delights in directing your attention precisely where it wants to be.

Listen to the episode here.
12. How Did This Get Played? “Custer’s Revenge (w/ Joey Clift)”

Image Credit: Earwolf

About halfway through this episode, Joey Clift catches himself in a reflexive apology and says instead, “I’m not gonna apologize for that. These are my emotions.” After being asked to guest on the show to talk about a 1982 Atari game that incentives sexual violence against Native women, Clift (a comedian who lives in L.A. and is an enrolled member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe) took an opportunity to shift the conversation away from video games. What followed is an illustrative conversation about the reflexive nature of tokenism and the selective way that people of color are called on to contribute to cultural understanding. Show co-hosts Nick Wiger and Heather Anne Campbell thoughtfully engage with how their actions placed Clift in an impossible situation, acknowledging his feelings without trying to negate them. The end result doesn’t offer an easy absolution, but it’s another in a growing list of industry-wide wake-up calls. (For more on what happened before, during, and after the recording, Clift wrote an essay about his experience on the show.)

Listen to the episode here.
11. The Last Days of August, “Episode Four”

Having already proven that they can portray the adult film world with an objective eye and an inquisitive ear, Jon Ronson and Lina Misitzis took that same approach for a more in-depth story, investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of performer August Ames. Jettisoning the usual layers of self-importance and manufactured intrigue that plague so many profiles of a tragedy shrouded in uncertainty, Ronson’s narration reflects a desire to thoughtfully consider everyone’s perspective and not feel unduly controlled by any particular one. In setting out to separate truth from rumor, the pair speak to directors, performers, agents, family members in an attempt to understand Ames’ suicide and whether her experiences in the industry were an anomaly or unsurprising. When answers are elusive, the efforts to provide context in their place show that this series isn’t about blame or guilt, but what journalistic work like this can do to help provide a way forward from the unfathomable.

Listen to the episode here.
10. Ethnically Ambiguous, “We Are Anna’s Family/We Are Shereen’s Cousins”

Episodes of this show co-hosted by Anna Hossnieh and Shereen Lani Younes come with titles that begin with “We Are.” They can be a nod to the episode’s guest, a summary of a greater trend happening in global events, or a succinct expression of a simmering emotion. Regardless of the reason, it shows how Hossnieh and Younes search for greater understanding through the experiences of others. Though it’s a bit out of their usual episode format, this two-episode duet of sorts is still a perfect encapsulation of how these co-hosts “want you to know what it’s like to be a modern Middle Easterner living in America.” As Anna provides her own dispatch from a Sizdah Be-dar celebration at the end of Nowruz and Shereen shares a conversation with her cousins about their time in Syria and their journey to the United States, they’re each able to bring fresh ears to a vibrant cultural institution and illuminate the way that many people within the immigrant community have an ever-changing relationship to home.

Listen to the episode here.
9. The Memory Palace, “Episode 148: Safe Passage”

Image Credit: Radiotopia

One of the enduring qualities of Nate DiMeo’s regular excavations of underappreciated American history is how the show moves learning about the past away from being a passive experience. So when “The Memory Palace” turns to a particular chapter that draws tremendous importance from what didn’t happen just as much as what did, it’s doubly satisfying. Such is the case for this stirring account of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1943 perilous transatlantic ocean voyage. Bound for the Tehran Conference that would help shape WWII strategy, FDR’s safety was far from assured. Seated with the navy men charged with keeping the president alive through treacherous waters (and some that turned that responsibility into a liability), this episode’s ability to wring suspense from a known outcome is the kind of feat that has made “The Memory Palace” a major historical and storytelling fixture for over a decade now.

Listen to the episode here.
8. Make Believe, “Bruh Rabbit”

As a means for reinterpreting fiction through live audio performances, the first season of “Make Believe” brought with it a thrilling sense of discovery. What deepened that exploration even further was engaging multiple mythmaking histories with fresh eyes and revisiting long-established work with the help of some modern twists. The show approached the Odyssey through five different narrators, dramatizing Zachary Mason’s novel, and also presented Nancy García Loza’s musical reimagining of a Mexican folktale. Those, combined with this new version of the Uncle Remus stories from poet Nate Marshall, all work together in concert to show how Make-Believe Association is thoughtfully unpacking a number of artistic legacies for audiences in their hometown of Chicago and beyond.

Listen to the episode here.
7. Fiasco, “Spin-Off”

The battlefields of modern American political disputes are fought on a variety of fronts. With this overview of a pivotal chapter in the “Bush v. Gore” saga, host Leon Neyfakh continues his ongoing chronicle of how a surprising amount of recent political history is written using the language of public perception. The looming Supreme Court decision hangs in the background, and the show turns its attention to the “Brooks Brothers riot” and GOP attempts to strong-arm the already endangered Miami-Dade recount out of existence. When Congressional Republicans used similar tactics to storm a SCIF four months after this episode was released, it was another example of how this team manages to uncover historic repetitions even when those lines can’t possibly be consciously or explicitly drawn. Taking oft-forgotten chapters from decades past and making them feel fresh has become something of their specialty, especially as those particular outcomes are still almost impossible to believe.

Listen to the episode here.
6. Imaginary Advice, “56 HORSE FACTS”

The title of this installment of Ross Sutherland’s characteristically unpredictable audio fiction series isn’t completely a lie. Following a show-within-a-show setup, Sutherland takes the role of an equine aficionado, dispensing with curiosities from the annals of horse racing and the origin of a handful of horse-related phrases. And then, the little tiny cracks in the artifice begin to form, until that opening salvo of fun tidbits seems like a long-distant memory. Using the horse as a kind of ultimate metaphor, it becomes a nesting doll of anecdotes, presented in a delightfully odd metafictional blanket. As the audio quality and your own sense of consciousness begin to warp, this is a welcome kind of disorientation that makes you want to keep your finger hovering over the rewind button before choosing to just let the whole thing wash over you instead.

Listen to the episode here.
5. Dolly Parton’s America, “The Only One for Me, Jolene”

A delightful blend of cultural, musical, and historical examinations, this installment of “Dolly Parton’s America” takes full advantage of the myriad angles into the Dollyverse that the show collects inside its own coat of many colors. Connecting Parton’s hypnotic 1974 superhit “Jolene” to a long musical tradition, this particular installment balances a broader discussion of the song’s spiritual ancestors with one of more focused music theory and Dolly’s songwriting particulars. And through a hypothetical final verse of the song, one woman reframes it as one of discovered love rather than fear of potential loss. With reactions and input from Dolly herself, this is an episode that shows how “Dolly Parton’s America” doesn’t set out to court a specific kind of audience and ends up making something that newcomers and die-hards can both appreciate. In that way, it’s a perfect profile of the woman at the center who’s taken that same approach herself for over a half century.

Listen to the episode here.
4. Everything is Alive, “Alex, Alex, and Sebastian, Russian Dolls”

Season 2 of Ian Chillag’s ongoing series of interviews with inanimate objects inched further beyond its basic premise and moved into becoming something more. It had its first follow-up episode, checking in with a grain of sand that had become part of a pane of glass. Its season finale had a heart-to-heart with a trusty stethoscope, only to find that conversation joined by an unlikely third party. But as the show evolves into something even more unexpected, it’s installments like this one with a set of nesting dolls that most illustrate how all of these chats stumble upon something fundamental about being human. You’re left to imagine how these objects can smile or know pain, all because you can hear it in the people giving them a voice. It’s an ongoing magic act, and it’ll be thrilling to find out what gets added to the repertoire next.

Listen to the episode here.
3. Decoder Ring, “Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Wars”

In her Slate podcast about the unexpected histories behind some of pop culture’s enduring institutions, Willa Paskin approaches each subject with a particular kind of openness. Often addressing a particular curiosity that’s gone from a collective mild fascination to a full-blown phenomenon (as installments covering Truck Nutz and gender reveal parties can each attest), there’s also a dose of societal detective work in trying to pinpoint the dividing line or driving force between those two phases. While those episodes are certainly engaging on their own, one of this year’s standout stories remains this chronicle of bizarre artifact of a now-bygone generation, when animatronic rodents played for adoring and bewildered crowds alike at Chuck E. Cheese locations around the country. Following the unlikely way this fad dissolved and providing a genuinely moving glimpse of one man’s quest to keep the flame burning as bright as possible, it’s proof that we might actually be losing something significant when these characters are gone for good.

Listen to the episode here.
2. Snap Judgment, “This is Not a Drill”

Everything we pointed out when we put this episode atop our mid-year list still holds true. It’s an entrancing audio journey through a story —an errant emergency alert that convinced Hawaii residents and global observers that a missile attack was imminent — that for many listeners only previously existed as a spooky headline or a setup for a monologue joke. But the power of audio is one that can take wispy ideas and make them tangible, almost tactile. Producer Jazmin Aguilera and her team weave together the experiences of people who were confronted by that chilling Saturday morning push notification and forced to reframe their priorities, consider the prospect of having mere minutes left to live, or remember the historical analogues they had already endured. Normally, these kind of poignant reflections come with the clarity provided by a few years’ distance. To create something as powerful as this that lives in such an immediate wake to the event itself is a true feat.

Listen to the episode here.
1. Untitled Dad Project, “Chapter 3: Script”

Image Credit: Spoke Media

Some of the most personal podcast projects end up speaking volumes about the way we all choose to present the truths of our lives. When Janielle Kastner’s father died before she had the chance to have more than a passing parental connection with him, she directly oriented her search for a meaningful story around the very pillars of storytelling. Over the course of that journey, this exploration of story fundamentals becomes so much more than a helpful organizing tool. Each installment brings a chance for not only Kastner to reflect on how ideas like Genre and Plot and Foreshadowing play out in her own life, but for co-host and producer Carson McCain to help her actively confront those concepts. This episode’s reimagining of her father’s memorial service, done alongside the man who presided over the ceremony, takes this pursuit out of the theoretical and presents it in an active way few audio stories get to achieve. It’s about the collective words that society provides to help us travel through tumultuous waters, and where we might be able to turn when those conventions seem wholly insufficient or just don’t exist at all. Coupled with Kastner and McCain’s thorough debrief reflections that come at every step in this deeply precise multi-year search, “Untitled Dad Project” proves how the specific and the universal can intertwine beautifully when presented in the best possible way.

Listen to the episode here.