In 2024, podcasts eclipsed traditional media outlets in their influence over the U.S. election as certain shows with massive audiences managed to score interviews with sought-after subjects trying to widen their reach.
Just look at Vice President Kamala Harris’ decision to talk to Alexander Cooper on Call Her Daddy, a popular podcast known mostly for raunchy sex jokes that crucially attracts young women. Or President-elect Donald Trump’s bro-cast tour on shows like The Joe Rogan Experience that are wildly popular among young men.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Read More: Call Her Daddy’s Alexandra Cooper Made Her Name Talking About Sex. Now She’s Pushing Beyond That
Sorry, but you won’t find any of those shows on this best-of list. While some are enjoyable listens, those hosts by definition are not asking our world leaders the hardest questions: That’s why many powerful people prefer to do interviews on those platforms rather than with traditional news outlets.
Still, you will find some of podcasting’s most famous faces—voices?—on this roundup. Call me nostalgic but I found myself seeking out old favorites this fall. Shows I had not listened to for years, like 99% Invisible and Modern Love, experimented with new topics and formats that drew me back into the fold. I eagerly tuned in to new shows from beloved podcasting veterans like Reply All‘s Alex Goldman, Missing Richard Simmons‘ Dan Taberski, or Still Processing‘s Wesley Morris. And the Lonely Island guys did the impossible: Recording a television recap podcast that’s actually funny and worth your time.
Here are the best podcasts of the year.
10. Finally! A Show About Women That Isn’t Just a Thinly Veiled Aspirational Nightmare
As the name might suggest, this audio diary show isn’t about becoming a girl boss or perfecting the high wire act of motherhood. In each episode, a different woman in a particularly fascinating circumstance records a day in her normal life. Some of the more enthralling stories include a recording from an 80-something pinup girl about her time shopping for vibrators and a telehealth abortion provider who works for the intentionally provocative Satanic Temple.
The host-less format is a risk—the episodes don’t have a particular unifying theme or message about womanhood. But we are safe in the hands of two podcasting veterans who know a little something about being a lady: Jane Marie investigated multilevel marketing schemes that target women in The Dream, and Joanna Soltaroff helped produce one of the first breakout comedy podcasts, 2 Dope Queens. The resulting show celebrates women—whatever their specific experiences may be.
Start Here: Finally! A Show About an 83 Year Old Calendar Girl
9. Things Fell Apart
Jon Ronson’s podcast on the culture wars is back for a second season that is even better than the first. Ronson, who wrote Men Who Stare at Goats and So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed among other works, has spent much of the last couple decades chronicling the erosion of our shared notion of truth. Things Fell Apart tries to understand how this fracture occurred by exploring the unlikely origins of major cultural shifts.
Each episode asks a question: How does a serial killer targeting Black sex workers in the 1980s connect to the killing of George Floyd in 2020? How does a bestselling book on trauma fuel campus protests? The stories themselves are engrossing. They take twists and turns that you won’t expect. But the overall effect is chilling.
Start Here: S2. Ep1: The Most Mysterious Deaths
8. My So-Called Midlife
Midlife is often marked by crises, boredom, and restlessness. Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code and all-around high-achieving woman, feels ready to blow up her monotonous existence as she stares down 50. On this show, she invites on accomplished women to offer guidance on finding happiness at a challenging time when kids are leaving the home, careers stall, and the body begins to shift.
Saujani takes a few cues from fellow Lemonada podcaster Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who attempts to extract wisdom on aging from women in their 70s and beyond in Wiser Than Me. This show is aimed at a younger demographic and Saujani brings an almost pleading vulnerability to the conversations: She seems to genuinely need guidance on how to endure. Her impressive array of early guests includes Louis-Dreyfus herself, famous economist and parenting guru Emily Oster, and none other than Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. They offer an array of useful life tips: always find a new way to challenge yourself at work, schedule sex with your partner, and take a 20-minute nap when you’re overwhelmed—in the Safeway parking lot, if you have to.
Start Here: It Could Be F*cking Great With Julia Louis-Dreyfus
7. 99% Invisible: The Power Broker
The preeminent podcast on design—from architecture to clothing to the staging of this year’s Olympics—deserves recognition nearly every year. This year, they decided to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Robert Moses biography, The Power Broker, with a book club of sorts. Show host Roman Mars and Daily Show writer Elliott Kalan examine Robert Caro’s deep dive into the man who had a greater impact on forming New York City than arguably anybody else in history, inviting guests like New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to talk about Moses’ legacy.
Under Moses’ supervision, the city built 35 highways, 13 bridges, parks, playgrounds, housing projects, Lincoln Center, Shea Stadium, and the 1964 World’s Fair. But the urban planner also bulldozed through entire neighborhoods to build his ideal city—and doomed New Yorkers to terrible traffic by refusing to expand certain roadways beyond a few lanes. The podcast provides the perfect excuse to finally dip into the 1,200-page tome.
Start Here: The Power Broker #1: Robert Caro
6. Modern Love
The Modern Love Podcast, an adaptation of the beloved New York Times column, has cycled through many formats over the years. Authors have read their essays on love, and so have celebrities. Hosts have conducted conversations with the writers and with readers. In honor of the 20th anniversary of the column, the podcast is yet again trying something new. In a series of recent episodes, host Anna Martin has asked celebrities ranging from Penn Badgley to Samin Nosrat to read essays and then spoken with them about the essays’ amorous themes.
The format works well. It’s rare to hear guarded people open up, but something about reading heart-wrenching piece of writing preps these celebrities for honesty. Several come ready to spill—no one more so than Andrew Garfield, a heart-on-his-sleeve actor whose viral episode brought many to tears. The following episode with Chicken Shop Date host Amelia Dimoldenberg is not quite as vulnerable but equally as intriguing (especially given Garfield and Dimoldenberg’s recent flirtations). You could say I’ve rekindled my relationship with Modern Love.
Start Here: Andrew Garfield Wants to Crack Open Your Heart
5. Empire City: The Untold Story of the NYPD
Chenjerai Kumanyika of Uncivil is back with a show that delves into the history and mythology of the NYPD. That story, inevitably, ties to the evolution of policing in America as a whole. The podcast begins with a disturbing video shot by the NYPD surveilling Kumanyika’s father, a civil right activist. Rewatching the footage inspired Kumanyika to take on this project.
Kumanyika demonstrates how the very foundation of the institution is built on uneven ground: During the Civil War, New York police officers earned payments by kidnapping free Black men and women in the city and shipping them South to be enslaved. He then follows the evolution of the NYPD and the many problematic structural decisions that eroded trust between the police and the people they are sworn to protect. Throughout eight episodes, Kumanyika interweaves personal narrative with rigorous research on the NYPD’s history to make the compelling argument that New Yorkers’ safety isn’t actually the prime objective of the nation’s largest police force.
Start Here: They Keep People Safe | 1
4. Hyperfixed
Reply All was one of the longest-running and most beloved podcasts in the tech space until it imploded in 2022. Since, the two former co-hosts have struck out on their own and, after some experimentation, landed on podcast concepts that are, frankly, extremely similar to Reply All. That’s not a criticism—many people dearly miss the original show.
PJ Vogt’s excellent Search Engine, which answers a wide range of questions about everything from animals in zoos to fentanyl in drugs, has only gotten better since it made my Top 10 list last year. Now comes Alex Goldman’s Hyperfixed, a help desk podcast that riffs on Reply All’s “Super Tech Support” segment. Goldman bills himself as an“overconfident idiot” all too eager to help with random problems that unfold in unexpected ways. An episode on a New Yorker who needs Goldman’s help getting her driver’s license expands into an investigation into why driving in New York is awful. An entry on perfecting a baking recipe diverts into the confounding history of the U.S. refusing to implement the metric system and an interview with award-winning chef Nancy Silverton. Though Goldman has only produced two episodes so far, the series proved immediately addictive and charming. I’m betting I’ll become a regular listener.
Start Here: Eva Needs to Measure
3. The Wonder of Stevie
As a dedicated listener to both Do You Like Prince Movies? from Grantland and Still Processing from the New York Times, I would tune in to just about anything Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic Wesley Morris creates. Morris formerly co-hosted those shows with other writers. The Wonder of Stevie is a different endeavor, an overview and deep analysis of the career of an iconic musician that Morris tackles solo, though he occasionally gets a helping hand from none other than former President Barack Obama. Morris interviews the likes of Questlove, Janelle Monae and Michelle Obama about Stevie Wonder’s career. (The Obamas’ Higher Ground helped produce the podcast.)
The podcast begins in 1972. Over the next five years, Wonder produced five albums and won half a dozen Grammys, one of the most impressive runs in music history. Even if you don’t care about Wonder, you should care about what Morris cares about: He is always able to succinctly divine meaning from great art. And this podcast in particular is a joyful celebration. He also heroically moderates a conversation in the final episode between Barack Obama and Stevie Wonder himself.
Start Here: Music of My Mind | 1972
2. The Lonely Island & Seth Meyers Podcast
Typically, podcasts that involve celebrities recapping their own shows tend to be self-indulgent, un-analytical, and not particularly revealing. But I fell hard for The Lonely Island & Seth Myers Podcast. Each episodes focuses on a different Lonely Island Saturday Night Live sketch. Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer offer insight into the stressful yet hilarious process of writing joke songs about d—cks in boxes with Justin Timberlake and coming up with swear words for Natalie Portman to rap.
It’s a cliche to praise podcasts for effortless chemistry, but it should be no surprise that a trio that has worked together for decades on songs like “I’m on a Boat” and movies like Pop Star have it. (So does Myers, who apparently is in a daily text exchange with Samberg about their Spelling Bee scores.) The podcast serves up unabashedly nostalgic content for those of us who came of age in the late 2000s, but it also lands at an existential moment for SNL on the eve of its 50th anniversary. Some 20 years ago, Lonely Island dragged SNL into the YouTube era and set trends that persist on TikTok today. Perhaps there are lessons to be gleaned from this throwback show for the future of comedy.
Start Here: Lazy Sunday
1. Hysterical
The most engrossing podcast Dan Taberski has produced since Missing Richard Simmons, Hysterical investigates a mysterious illness that spread among high school girls randomly exhibiting Tourette’s-like symptoms about a decade ago in Le Roy, New York. The incident is believed to be the largest case of mass hysteria since the Salem Witch Trials. The show explores the origins of hysteria, other modern examples, and what patients do when confronted with the frustrating diagnosis that their symptoms are “all in their head.”
While the history of hysteria is intriguing, Hysterical is at its strongest when Taberski is speaking with the women who were once afflicted by what they argue was a mysterious—but very real—illness. The scandal occurred near Taberski’s hometown in upstate New York, and he’s able to bring a local charm to his color commentary and interviews. He manages to make what might feel like a dour show on a serious topic feel light and brisk.
Start Here: Outbreak | 1
