Tech
Looking for a new podcast? These 7 demand a listen
I’m a voracious podcast listener. But like a lot of us, sometimes I can get stuck listening to my tried-and-true favorites—the hosts start to feel like friends after a while, which is one of the things that makes podcasts so addictive.
I still love all my podcast families (Conan O’Brien and the Smartless crew, I’m looking at you), to be sure, but you have to remind yourself every once in a while that there are so many podcasts out there, and you could be missing out on your next go-to.
With that in mind, I tore through a dozen or so new podcasts to arrive at this list of seven that I have added to my regular rotation. Maybe you’ll like a few of them, too.
All of these podcasts are available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you find podcasts. They were chosen based on a mix of top-podcast lists and my own personal interest.
7
Song Exploder
Ever wanted to know the stories behind some of the most iconic songs of all time, as told by the ones who actually wrote them? That’s Song Exploder in a nutshell. An easy 30-minute-or-so podcast, each episode focuses on a single song with its musician-producer host, Hrishikesh Hirway, guiding listeners through. But the best part is that doing most of the talking are the artists themselves, as they piece together each song from conception to writing to recording and beyond. As a big Tears for Fears fan, listening to members Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal talk Hirway through their iconic Everybody Wants to Rule the World (which interestingly started out as Everybody Wants to Go to War), was fascinating. Song Exploder is also a series on Netflix.
6
Twenty Thousand Hertz
As an audio guy, I like any podcast that has to do with sound, sound design, and the ways in which we consume sound. A former colleague of mine recommended Twenty Thousand Hertz to me, and I’m glad he did. Founded and created by audio expert and host Dallas Taylor, whose Defacto Sound studio provides sound design and mixing for clients such as Netflix, HBO, and Disney, Twenty Thousand Hertz nerds out on all kinds of rad audio topics in an insightful way and always with excellent-sounding clips and examples. In my example link above, one of my favorites, Taylor dives deep into iconic composer Koji Kondo’s inspiration behind legendary Nintendo sounds like the Super Mario Bros. theme. Other favorites include the story behind the film industry’s most-used sound effect, the Wilhelm Scream, and a fascinating look at how Wirecutter’s acclaimed headphone reviewer Lauren Dragan puts the latest cans to the test.
5
How Did This Get Made?
I do like a good movie podcast (my friend Matt has a good one, too), but I especially like How Did This Get Made because it’s hilarious and specializes in one of my favorite movie topics—ones that are so bad, they’re good. I was also drawn to HDTGM because I think that podcasts hosted by two or more people offer a higher level of fun banter and perspective than solo shows. Here, actor-comedian hosts Paul Scheer (The League), June Diane Raphael (Grace and Frankie), and Jason Mantzoukas (Big Mouth, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) knock it out of the park, and often have special guests to help them talk smack. Each hour-long episode examines one bad movie and asks the titular question. Standout episodes include Charlie Sheen and George Clooney’s first film, the craptacular Grizzly II: The Revenge, where actor Jake Johnson (Peter Parker in the Spider-Verse films) joins the fun.
4
This Is Actually Happening
While I’ve only listened to a couple of episodes of This Is Actually Happening, this highly-rated documentary podcast from Wondery had such a range of fascinating and intriguing topics on its episode list that I had to bite. Episodes (each beginning with “What if you…”) like What if you opened a portal to the world next door? and What if you were a gay, Mormon, drug-dealing, federal informant? were more than enough to entice me to listen. However, the episode that really got me was the one linked above: What if you were mauled by a grizzly bear? Over the course of the 54-minute episode, Jeremy Evans, author of Mauled: Lessons Learned from a Grizzly Bear Attack, tells his graphic and emotional story of the attack and long recovery. Beware, if you give it a go, it is not for the faint of heart. This Is Actually Happening is unlike the other podcasts on this list because it’s un-hosted, with “life-changing events told by the people who lived them,” as per the logline. I can’t wait to explore more.
3
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
I make a note of not listening to political podcasts, because there are only so many hours in the day and I prefer to not spend them in an anxiety-riddled rage. I do make one exception, however, and that’s Jon Stewart. I’m a longtime fan of The Daily Show, and Stewart is the best in the business at wrapping Washington’s latest shenanigans in intelligent humor, wit, sarcasm, insight, and outright hilarity. It’s the spoonful of sugar I need to help the jagged pill of American politics go down. Stewart often gets help dissecting the state of the union with the aid of guests from the media, the political world, and other areas of expertise. The hour-plus episodes are a bit long, but I tend to listen to my podcasts in the car, so breaking them up between stops at the grocery store and while puttering around town seems to work. Thankfully, Stewart also tackles non-political topics, like AI and even some of the movies and shows of the day.
2
Crime Junkie
I was on the crime podcast bandwagon back in the Serial days when Sarah Koenig blazed the trail for everything from Only Murders In the Building to this top-rated (#1 on Apple podcasts, #4 on Spotify) true-crime podcast. If you’re looking for easily-digestible crime stories that will give the gist enough to share anecdotally at parties, Crime Junkie‘s hour-long(ish) episodes are perfect. Every Monday, hosts Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat share crime stories from around the country, including homicides, missing persons, cold cases, the underreported, and more. While they’re not as in-depth as a show like Serial that dives deep into a single case, Crime Junkie‘s episodes are conversational and engaging (if sometimes a bit bantery), but the stories are fascinating and often nailbiting. A standout recent episode is MURDERED: Christion Olson, in which Flowers and Prawat dissect the death of a young man who mysteriously dies at home after being at a party with his friends.
1
F1 Explains
I, like many, became a fan of Formula 1 during the pandemic by binge-watching Netflix’s Drive to Survive. But once I devoured that, I graduated to being an actual F1 fan and obsessively following the sport on F1 TV. As I dug in, though, I had questions. A lot of them. Like, what does “box, box, box” mean and what is DRS? Or what’s the difference between soft, medium, and hard compound tires, and how do they know which to use and when? Oh, and what do drivers do if they have to go to the bathroom during a race? I happily discovered F1 Explains, where its excellent host, Christian Hewgill, and a revolving door of drivers, race engineers, strategists, team principals, and other bigwigs of the sport, lay it all out for you in easy-to-understand half-hour episodes.
Everyone and their brother has a podcast, nowadays, but the jury is still out on whether this is a good or bad thing. While there are a lot of excellent podcasts, I’ve come across a lot of stinkers. Hopefully, you’ll find a couple on this list that aren’t, and you’ll find a new avenue for entertaining and informative content.
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