The Golden Age of Podcasts?
Or, an intro to podcasts for people whose taste totally overlaps with mine
Like nearly 10% of Americans, I have a crappy long (hour plus) commute alone in my car. While this has many obvious downsides (stress, sloth, messy car), the one upside is the amazing amount of excellent audio content out there.
Of course, there are a huge number of available podcasts. While it seems that everyone is listening to them, I know a ton of people who have not yet caught the bug. So this post is for them (hi mom.)
I tend to focus my listening on stories, although I also listen to a fair amount of “news” and tech. Regular listeners of podcasts are probably aware of the fact that 2015 saw the rise of a number of podcast networks. Either start up companies or groups of shows banding together to cross promote, raise money and share resources. Below are some of what I consider the better offerings out there, grouped by network, and some other random shows tossed in.
Radiotopia
A wonderful network with an eclectic mix of shows, mostly focused on great storytelling. My top picks on this network are:
99% Invisible: a show ostensibly about design with very compelling content, extremely well made and researched, and host Roman Mars’ voice is so great to listen to. Love this one — consistently great. Covers topics from the creation of Monopoly to the destruction of Penn Station. Literally have not yet heard an episode I didn’t like.
The Memory Palace: Short slices of some historical scene — totally sucks you in for the 10 or 15 minutes of the story. This is partly due to host Nate DiMeo’s voice and storytelling ability, and partly due to the great stories he picks.
These two I listen to every week and have worked through pretty much all of the back catalog.
Also very good from this network, but I listen to a little less consistently…
Radio Diaries: Fascinating real life stories about real people from all walks of life. Love the episode “A Guitar, A Cello and the Day that Changed Music” — it’s a good example of their style. Host Joe Richman is also a master of his trade.
Criminal: Also true stories, these ones obviously with a criminal bent — some great ones in the catalog. Many very compelling, some kind of horrifying. The artwork on their website freaks me out!
Song Exploder: Interviews with musicians about how they made a song — I love the very first episode about The Postal Service and the song “The District Sleeps Tonight” (which is a song I happen to love.)
I listen sporadically to almost all the others in the Radiotopia network as well — some are more hit or miss or the topics or hosts less engaging to me, but almost all of them have great episodes sometimes.
Gimlet Media
Another great and growing network, a start up company started by ex-National Public Radio peeps, so they have a strong bias to really well produced shows coming from that world (more on NPR below).
Startup: Gimlet’s first show which is about the founder starting the company — excellent if you are interested in the start up world, but even if not, a really compelling listen because the founder Alex Blumberg is so awkward and full of self-doubt even though he’s a total pro in this field. The second season, about a different start up, was also fascinating. Alex and co. are masters at bringing very human elements (often themselves) into their stories to make them relatable.
Reply All: a show about the internet that covers a broad range of topics, some that turn out to be only tangentially related to the internet. The two hosts have a good rapport and they are really coming into their own with the shows becoming much more personal and focusing more on the human element (read: some can make you cry.)
Gimlet has two other shows — Mystery Show, which took a little warming up to for me but has some segments which are great little human moments, and the latest, Surprisingly Awesome — so far the topics are interesting but could go deeper, and the format feels too contrived — guessing it will mature.
Public Radio and its spawn
The granddaddy of the format, and probably most people’s experience with audio storytelling, many public radio produced or broadcast shows are also podcasts, with years of journalism, storytelling and production experience behind them. Too many shows to mention them all, but a few of my favs:
This American Life (TAL): Consistently very very good, with an enormous back catalog since it’s been on since the dawn of time. Each week a theme with several stories relating to that theme (I think you’ve managed to imprint that sentence in me, Ira). Can be informative, funny, heartbreaking or all combined. Many of the hosts/producers of the shows above have worked on TAL or other Public Radio shows and have now branched out to their own podcasts.
Serial: Almost everyone has heard about this one, as it quickly became the most listened to podcast ever. A spin off from TAL, but instead of several short stories around a theme, it’s long form journalism / narrative with the whole season devoted to one story. Season 1 was a murder case with the show casting serious doubt on guilt of the convicted suspect. Super well made, and was very hard to wait a week for each new episode. So if you didn’t listen you now have the advantage of being able to binge listen.
Radiolab: Super interesting, very popular, with very high quality production (some may say too much production.) Fantastic stories with a scientific bent.
These three are my most consistent in this group. I also like Invisibilia, a show that quickly became very popular focusing on science/human behavior. For finance info there is the excellent Planet Money which makes finance seem really interesting. They did an amazing show on the 2008 financial meltdown in a way I could understand AND enjoy, as well as others on the Greek debt crisis etc. Great hosts/reporters.
Random Others
Marc Maron WTF: Honestly, I can’t totally get into him (he’s a tad too neurotic for my taste) but he makes great shows and is very popular. Try the ones with Louis CK and more recently Obama (and the after Obama show.)
The Gist: I listen to this one most days (well, parts of it) as host Mike Pesca does good commentary on current events, along with some light hearted stuff to help keep blood pressure down on the drive.
So go grab your phone, open the podcast app and subscribe to a few of these and see what you think…
