Top 10 Podcasts of 2023
“Isn’t this fun? Talking every day?”
What a sensational year for podcasting! One side effect from the explosion of media and beloved storytelling that we’ve seen in the past two decades or so has been the amount of people who are excited to talk about it with likeminded members of the cultural community. And in a monoculture more fragmented than ever, there is still merit to uncovering the niche populations that comprise our most specific interests. It’s like the TikTok algorithm! Some think that TikTok should be banned because it is made of children dancing and entitled teenagers “pranking” retail service workers. I like TikTok because it has figured out that I feel serotonin from videos about Nat King Cole’s Christmas album, the Shoppes at Blackstone Valley, and Jimmy Fallon’s Glee themed opening to the 2010 Emmys. You just have to find your lane.
And while I love when the monoculture hits a movie (Barbie) or television show (Game of Thrones) or album (Folklore) that we all get to gush about together, it never feels right when it happens to podcasting. Imagine if podcasts hosted by Marc Summers or Lee Mallaby were as popular as The Super Mario Bros. Movie? That would be weird! Even Serial didn’t hit those heights. Basically, if I feel like it would be impossible to make conversation about it at the Thanksgiving dinner table, I’d like to keep it to myself. No uncle of mine is going to understand my highly specific jokes about Sean Fennessey.
Anyway, let’s talk about some of the trends we’ve seen in podcasting this year. For one, there was a lot more A.I. coverage. More than I felt comfortable with (TED Talks Daily seemed to go all in on the subject), as I toe the line between respect and wariness for our eventual overlords. I also noticed an uptick in the theme park genre, which now seems to be veering more towards the narrative than ever before (like Keys to the Kingdom, which found an oral history bend to the stories of former cast members at various theme parks, as hosted by Matt Gourley and Amanda Lund), as the motif usually focused on news and lists in the past. Lastly, I observed a lot of hosts beginning to reckon with the mortality of their series. Because podcasting has no offseason and no time limit, some podcasters were wrapped up in the notion that it was a medium that was just sort of forever? But now, I’ve heard many hosts begin to talk about what it would mean to end their show (if they can afford to do so) and pursue other passions. It even led to one beloved podcast actually coming to an end this year.
I’ve said goodbye to podcasts before (Ask Me Another!). Harry Potter and the Sacred Text and I parted ways, for example, after they finished reviewing the final chapter of the series. However, none have actually ended ended. Even the Serial feed is still active sometimes. But this year, a podcast actually aired a series finale and I was quite moved by it. Tea Time, from The Ringer’s Amelia Wedemeyer, Liz Kelly, Kate Halliwell, and Kaya McMullen, came to an end in 2023. The podcast about celebrity news, cringe Disney Channel movies, and Spotify Wrapped reviews closed its era this year as the hosts wanted to pursue other creative endeavors. I always loved starting my Friday drives home with Tea Time, so I was very sad to see it go, but also happy to hear it depart on top. It was a new feeling, to say goodbye to the reliable parasocial relationships of a podcast, but I feel happy for them and the myriad episodes provided along the way. No one can ever say the podcasts we treasure have lacked for episodes, of course. Fare well to you, Tea Time.
Tea Time’s History on These Lists:
2023 — Honorable Mention
2022 — #8
2021 — #7
2020 — #2
There were also some podcasts I chose to say goodbye to on a regular basis this year. The Letterboxd Show is, for now, a somewhat disorganized affair. As such, I will only be tuning in for the episodes that interest me. Two podcasts hosted by beloved food connoisseurs and television legends, Adam Richman’s The Meals That Made Me and Marc Summers’ Marc Summers Unwraps, went somewhat on ice towards the latter half of the year. It was hard to stay invested. And, lastly, the D23 Inside Disney podcast did not retain the staff that made it such cheery, giddy fun. As such, it did not retain me. I have evolved beyond the need for a weekly Disney news podcast, but I would still not say no to a good one.
Before we get to the list, a few more shoutouts are in order. To the podcasts created by friends and admired acquaintances (Film Frauds, Goodbye Mello Brick Road, Post Park Broadcast, Spoilers!, and The WDW Radio Show), you did good work in 2023 and I love hearing all of your voices; it’s just that I could never rank you.
In alphabetical order by the last names of the guests, here are my favorite episodes of Marc Maron’s WTF from this year: José Andrés, Joan Baez, Wayne Brady, Albert Brooks, Austin Butler, Chevy Chase, Jessica Chastain, Brendan Fraser, Jim Gaffigan, Ray Romano, Amy Sherman-Palladino, Marc Summers, Taika Waititi, John Wilson, Michelle Yeoh.
In alphabetical order by the titles of the films, here are my favorite episodes of The Rewatchables from this year: Adventureland, Alien, Big, Blackhat, Blood Diamond, Casino Royale, Catch Me If You Can, Chef, Christmas Vacation, Dumb and Dumber, A Few Good (Re) Men, In the Line of Fire, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Iron Man, My Cousin Vinny, Sleepless in Seattle, This Is the End, Trading Places, Whiplash.
I also want to give a shoutout to three pop culture/movie review podcasts. The Filmcast, Filmspotting, and Pop Culture Happy Hour are consistently among my favorite podcasts to check in (from the Summer Movie Wager to the Filmspotting Madness to the New Year’s Resolutions, respectively), due to what they cover and to whom covers them. However, it’s hard to compare regular review podcasts to longer-form, higher-arching podcasting ideals. But they are so awesome and I treasure them and I’ve just never found spot in my Top 10 lists for them. Maybe they should all get a joint entry next year just to make sure of it. They are truly fantastic and I cannot imagine my podcasting life without them, so they deserve this shoutout.
With the housekeeping covered, let’s explore the year in podcasting that was, from some old favorites and from some newcomers who became instant first ballot podcasting Hall of Famers. To 2023!
Honorable Mentions: The Bill Simmons Podcast, Can’t Wait for Christmas, Comedy Bang Bang, Every Single Album, Family Trips, I Love Films, Keys to the Kingdom, Little Gold Men, Shakespeare Unlimited, Tea Time
10. Blank Check
Maybe, eventually, there will be a year of the Blank Check podcast that is completely consumed with new films from directors they’ve covered previously (that’s the rule and it’s how we got banger episodes on Oppenheimer, Knock at the Cabin, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, and more this year). Until that time, we still get to luxuriate in some pretty remarkable miniseries as Griffin Newman and David Sims continue their mission to work through a director’s filmography one movie at a time. I was not as high on some of their choices in 2023 as I have been in years’ past, but there was still plenty to savor throughout the months. In 2023, they covered Danny Boyle (“Trainspodcasting”), Buster Keaton (“Podcast Jr.”), Park Chan-wook (“I’m a Podcast, But That’s OK”), and David Fincher (“The Curious Pod of Benjamin Buttcast”). Of course, Boyle and Fincher are two of my favorite directors, so I was glad to hear the pod tackle Trainspotting, Yesterday, Steve Jobs, Zodiac, The Social Network, Gone Girl, and more. But I also appreciated how they ventured out of traditional comfort zones by covering a non-English language director and a silent movie director from a century ago. It shows how flexible Blank Check can be, but none demonstrated it more than their year-capper “Wonkquaman” episode, which blended both Wonka and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. That is glorious purpose.
9. Unofficial Universal Orlando Podcast
I am very proud of the Unofficial Universal Orlando Podcast. I know it may be stupid to say that and this is just a meaningless ranking of podcasts that one random person likes, but I really mean it. I’ll be honest, though. For a while, I only subscribed to the UUOP because it was the sole podcast that actually covered Universal Orlando and, as a theme park nerd, I wanted that in my feed. But I was never that thrilled with the coverage of it and it took me a while to adjust to the rhythms and intonations of the hosts. However, over the past couple years, I have noticed a massive uptick in the quality of the show. The hosts — Lee, Tracey, Chris, and Michelle — are stronger and more confident. The special features and guests are thoughtful and well-considered. And, as the preeminent podcast for news and backstage details about the Universal theme parks, it covers all the events of the parks with the depth any park fan would want. They even talked about Universal’s Japanese foray this year! Whether it’s Mardi Gras, Halloween Horror Nights, the Holidays, or anything in between, UUOP is where I want to go to learn about it. Even when Universal announced their own official podcast, I was not interested. I’d found the right spot.
8. The PosCast
PosCast forever, baby. The PosCast, as we go over every year because it’s always awesome and always deserving of a spot on this list, is the temporally nebulous podcast hosted by sportswriter Joe Posnanski and television creator Michael Schur. A branch of Dan Le Batard’s Meadowlark Media, The PosCast underwent yet another evolution in 2023. It was not a transition to a new media network, however. Rather, The PosCast seemed to officially move away from a lot of the “segments” that defined the show (including the Yankee Minute, the Drafts, and the “Which Nickname Should This Baseball Team Have?” bit that determined the Angels are the Halos, the Marlins are the Fish, and so on). Instead, it became a devoted baseball podcast and a celebration of the sport’s most exciting season in years. When not negotiating during the WGA strike, Schur made sure to emphasize the greatness unfolding in baseball and, suddenly, The PosCast became the definitive channel by which the 2023 season was broken down in an accessible and entertaining fashion. I will never tire of their banter or their takes, which are palatable, moral, and not sensationalized for clicks to drive ESPN’s ad revenue. Not to mention, they still brought back the best segment of all, the Holiday Draft, to end the year. This year, the draft of the best holiday gifts, might have been the best series installment they’ve ever had. I can’t wait to re-listen to it while smashing a chocolate orange against the wall.
7. The Watch
Including The Watch on these lists every year almost feels like how LeBron James always finished in the top ten of MVP voting. Realistically, if we consider who LeBron James is and what he does, he should be winning MVP every single season. However, we all universally agree that this would be boring and so we make sure to clear space for Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, and Joel Embiid. The Watch is the same way. It’s a biweekly pop culture podcast that covers television, film, wet recipes, Philadelphia holiday travel, and more. It is hosted by Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan. They put out two high-quality episodes every week and often interview some of the best in the business (think about The Bear’s Chris Storer and Ebon Moss-Bachrach popping up for the “Episode of the Year” pod). They have incredible chemistry, insightful criticism, and a keen eye for the best topics to cover (whether it’s the streaming wars, industry development, strike progressions, or the latest episodes of shows like Succession and Fargo). Every week, what they do is incredible and delightful and — realistically — it should be honored with the top of the list every year. But I am also happily going to write up what makes them one of my favorite podcasts every year.
6. The Weekly Planet
Like the UUOP, The Weekly Planet is another beloved podcast that exists in a regular rotation of my weekly listening that I have not yet found room to include on a list before. That is, until 2023. It would be wrong to not eventually recognize The Weekly Planet because, like The Watch, it is so effortlessly entertaining and high-caliber. It deserves to be acknowledged even though James and Mason make it look so easy that I am guilty of overlooking it and taking it for granted at times. Not this time, though! The Weekly Planet had a sensational 2023 as it continued to hone its status as one of the best resources for news and reviews of genre movies and shows. One thing I appreciate about them is that their criticism is always honest and true to whom they are. Many movie review podcasts will see some of the hosts become overly laudatory or overly nitpicky (for the sake of wringing some sort of “criticism” out of praise or utter trashing), but James and Mason are always entirely earnest. They look for the good in films and are not afraid to lambaste them when they sniff out cynicism within them. The Weekly Planet was also responsible for one of my favorite individual podcast episodes of 2023: “Best, Worst & Weirdest Movies of the Last Ten Years.” To mark their tenth anniversary and five hundredth episode (I cannot believe I’ve been listening for nine of those ten years), they broke down the best, worst, and weirdest of cinema. The rapid-fire takes about the movies of the 2010s I’ve forgotten about made me laugh consistently and deeply for a lovely hour. The power of podcasts!
5. Podcast: The Ride
Podcast: The Ride is one of the best podcasts for those of us in the world who love both alt-comedy and theme parks. What a Venn diagram! Taking a sort of Blank Check approach to theme parks, Podcast: The Ride covers one sort of attraction or land or novelty American experience per episode and they do it with warmth and good humor. Truthfully, I struggle to lock in with some of the episodes that cover things I’m unfamiliar with, but the chemistry of the three hosts — Scott, Jason, and Mike — always sells me on it. In 2023, though, they released plenty of installments about aspects of theme parks I cherish and relate to and can laugh about all of the deep-lore, niche jokes and bits the trio comes up with. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, 50s Prime Time Café, Epcot Food & Wine Festival, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Soarin’, WDW Resort TV, The Muppets at Walt Disney World, Looney Tunes at Six Flags, the PeopleMover, and more made for memorable episodes of the show. However, my personal favorite was the one they conducted with No Hard Feelings’ and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ Andrew Barth Feldman about Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. It’s the perfect blend of theme park and dinner theater and total catastrophe (the hotel is already closed!) that the show specializes in, but Feldman was a totally game and enthusiastic guest who provided an in-depth account of what it was like to actually stay there. It’s one of 2023’s very best podcast episodes and helped elevate Podcast: The Ride even further in my mind.
4. The Town
The identity of The Ringer is well known by this point to those who operate within the same cultural sphere that the media outlet occupies. The Ringer loves to cover the latest in sports and pop culture and they like to apply cultural filters onto sports and sports filters onto culture. At The Ringer, they don’t just analyze Tom Cruise movies, they build a Hall of Fame out of it. They power rank Succession characters. They blend the two forms. Merging the sensibilities of The Ringer with the genuine insight and inside intel of Matthew Belloni, the former editor of The Hollywood Reporter and current editor of Puck, resulted in The Town. Capable of both breaking news and dissecting it, The Town had an impeccable year in 2023 as Belloni (and his realm of frequent guests, like producer Craig Horlbeck, writer Lucas Shaw, and more — including some truly big gets) guided the pod through a tumultuous year in the industry. He spoke with many on the frontlines of both the WGA strike and the SAG strike; he held brandished feet to the fire on many baffling Hollywood decisions that seem to prime the industry for a 1970s-esque overhaul; he made time for the games. Yes, in spite of the serious industry news that Belloni prides himself on and covers well, there is still room for some fun with the breakdowns of how “the town” operates. Topics like a Box Office Draft and a Power Ranking of Young Stars help make The Town some of the best of Belloni and some of the best of The Ringer, which makes it some of the best of podcasting.
3. The Big Picture
When The Big Picture began, Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins seemed to share the same goal: speak with filmmakers about their work and cover the Oscars race in depth. Since then (it was about six years or so ago), the mission has evolved and Fennessey has instead morphed the identity of the podcast into being one that encourages people of all ages to go to the movie theater and celebrate the culture of film, while also affirming the legacy that this current era of moviemaking possesses. Sometimes, that includes highly positive and euphoric moments in the medium, like a towering tome to Killers of the Flower Moon or a recognition of the moment to devote two weeks to both Barbie and Oppenheimer. Other times, it includes siding with negativity, as it seemed like Fast X, Maestro, and The Little Mermaid led to meltdowns about the current juncture of movies. All the time, it includes the imbued, Big Picture-stamped blend of considered criticism with jokey framing devices like the Movie Auction and the Movie Draft. Occasionally, it even breaks away from the movie calendar and allows for journalist Brian Raftery to host a multi-part oral history miniseries about Vietnam War movies entitled, “Do We Get to Win This Time?” The versatility! Between this and the chemistry of the hosts (though, I am always elated when producer Bobby Wagner and Ringer host Chris Ryan hop on the mics, especially for the former’s movie star alcohol taste tests), The Big Picture has certainly earned its keep on the Mount Rushmore of Ringer pods.
2. U Springin’ Springsteen on My Bean?
Whenever Martin Scorsese makes a new movie, you can pencil it in for Oscars longlists and Academy considerations. Whenever Adam Scott and Scott Aukerman make a new podcast about one of their musical obsessions, you can pencil it in for my Year in Podcasting list. As soon as that glorious cover art updated on my U2 feed, the anticipation within me blossomed like it was Christmas Eve. Some of my favorite podcasts of all-time are the ones about U2, R.E.M., Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Talking Heads that Adam Scott Aukerman worked on together because it’s not just that they critique, love, and introduce me to some pretty stellar music. It’s that they spend the first half of every episode doing the kinds of bits that two best friends who work in improv comedy can do together. They’re genuinely funny and they’re metacognitively aware of how absurdly silly it is that their podcast about Bruce Springsteen can often take detours into conversations about spelling, cannolis, and Richard Schiff. Sometimes, an episode about Bruce Springsteen is actually about Tom Petty for forty-five minutes! Either way, their forays are always the perfect mix of music and comedy, helping me feel an entire spectrum of emotions with every episode. Their Springsteen deep dive has been similarly edifying and entertaining at every turn (is this an episode of “Deep Dive”?). If one good thing came out of the SAG strike, it was this.
1. Strike Force Five
Speaking of good things that came out of the strikes, how about Strike Force Five? Obviously, if I had the ability to choose, it would be right to end the strikes as soon as possible. People and their livelihoods depended on those strikes ending fairly for both the writers and the actors. However, I will not let that deter me from celebrating what good things came out of it, even if we wish they never had to. Strike Force Five is absolutely one of these things. When the WGA strike began, Jimmy Kimmel took it upon himself to create a group thread with his fellow late night hosts (Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver) so that they could all communicate with each other and all stay on the same page about what the best ways they could support their staffs were. Deeper into the strike, Kimmel kicked it up another level and partnered with Spotify, Bill Simmons, and Ryan Reynolds’ myriad side hustles to create a podcast emceed by these five hosts with all the proceeds going to their staffs to help keep them afloat during the tough times. The concept alone is noble enough to find merit in the show, but what helped was that Strike Force Five was also incredible. In the first episode, the novelty of hearing the five of them all shooting the shit at the same time was delightful. From there, the behind-the-scenes tidbits and stories became genuinely riveting to any comedy and television nerd, like myself. And then, the routines grew stronger and the hosts became more comfortable and the show just took off exponentially. Jon Stewart and David Letterman swung by. Inside jokes began to compound with one another. Each of the twelve episodes was hosted in a rotation from one of the five and Jimmy Fallon’s attempts at hosting a Dating Game for the quintet and their non-present wives were a glorious disaster. Sometimes, getting people who are professionally funny into an environment together will enable them to create some of their best work in years. Strike Force Five was the podcast I was most excited to see enter my feed this year and I hope against hope that it will not be fully put to rest. Whenever thunder claps, I trust they will be there for us all.
What did you subscribe to in 2023?
More from the Best of 2023:
See also:
My 20 Favorite Podcasts of 2017
My 15 Favorite Podcasts of 2018
My 20 Favorite Podcasts of 2019
My 20 Favorite Podcasts of 2020
