(Want to skip the reading and just dive right into it? Here’s a playlist with samplers from all the podcasts I recommended in this post + some extras!)
Not a “Top 5” by any means because I love too many podcasts to pass such harsh judgment, but some good gateway podcasts for sure if you’re looking to get more into podcasts but not sure where to start.
I also included some extras by category at the bottom of the list if 5 recommendations wasn’t enough for you.
If you’re looking for a podcast player: I personally use Pocket Casts, but other popular options are Stitcher, Spotify, and iTunes. Time Magazine made a list if you’d like to see more.
Let’s get into it.
1. Planet Money
Planet Money was my gateway podcast. I literally listened to every single episode before I ever even considered looking for more podcasts to listen to (although I do not recommend following my example). It’s about economics in real life, presented in a relevant and entertaining way.
One of my favorite projects from them was the Planet Money T-Shirt Project, a multi-part series where they documented the creation of a t-shirt from conception to production to purchase to afterlife. They’ve also done similar series about launching a satellite and buying crude oil. Thanks to Planet Money, I slowly and naturally came to understand the reasons underlying things like the 2008 economic crisis, the philosophy and technology behind cryptocurrency, how the Fed makes decisions on monetary policy, and so on. And since these lessons are taught through real-life stories relevant to current events, it’s so much more fun than reading an economics textbook or business column.
They also run a great daily podcast called The Indicator, a spin-off of an old thing they did in their earlier podcasts where they would choose a number in the news as an economic “indicator” and explain its significance in current events.
Fast facts: NPR podcast, highly-produced, relaxed tone, weekly releases.
Suggested starter episodes:
#521 The Town That Loves Death: About end-of-life care, destigmatizing conversations around death, and how the processes and cultural norms around death affect healthcare spending.
#767 Georgetown, Louisiana: About slavery reparations, how they’re calculated, and thoughts from those involved.
#845 REDMAP: About a widespread and well-targeted Republican strategy using redistricting as a tool to reshape the political landscape.
#575 The Fondue Conspiracy: Did you know there was a Swiss cheese cartel? There was a Swiss cheese cartel.
2. Reply All
If someone were to take a penguin hostage and force me to choose a favorite podcast, I’d blurt out “Reply All” without hesitation. It’s a podcast about the Internet, which I know is a very broad topic, but they somehow pull it off. The co-hosts, Alex and PJ, are hands-down the two most disarmingly charming and hilarious hosts in podcasting that I’ve heard so far.
They also do a great segment with their boss, Gimlet Media’s founder and CEO Alex Blumberg (who also started Planet Money, and now hosts the StartUp podcast). It’s called “Yes Yes No” and it consists of Alex Blumberg coming to them with some cryptic tweet that he’s having trouble understanding so that Alex Goldman and PJ Vogt can explain it to him. As a millennial, it’s embarrassing for me to admit this, but I’ve learned a lot from Yes Yes No’s.
Overall, a truly quality podcast with an incredible team of nosy investigative reporters with sharp wit and a lot of heart.
Fast facts: Gimlet Media podcast, mostly highly-produced but often conversational, relaxed tone, weekly releases.
(Some of) my favorite episodes:
#36 Today’s the Day: Not a good starter episode, but truly the most magical one once you’ve gotten to know the team a little bit. It’s beautiful. It’s art. I cried.
#102 Long Distance (Parts 1 + 2): In which Alex and his producer Damiano gives scam callers a taste of their own medicine. They literally fly to India to track down a call center. This one is a wild ride.
#44 Shine On You Crazy Goldman: In which PJ and his producer Phia try microdosing at work. Also a bit of a wild ride. I guess most of their episodes are a wild ride, actually.
#104 The Case of the Phantom Caller: Creepy! Phone!! Scam!!!
3. Levar Burton Reads
This podcast is pretty straightforward: Levar Burton chooses his favorite short stories and reads them. Literally Reading Rainbow for adults. If you are a Levar Burton fan and/or enjoy short fiction, this is definitely for you. I’m only 4 episodes in and I’m already obsessed. This podcast has been dangerous for me to listen to while driving to work — I get way too absorbed in the content. (Same goes for The Truth, another podcast I just started listening to.) Good for running though!
Fast facts: Stitcher original podcast, highly-produced with conversational reflections at the end, weekly releases.
4. S-Town
How do I? Explain?? This miracle??? Of a podcast????
A friend recommended this to me and I put it off for a while, but once I had finished the first two episodes I was absolutely hooked. S-Town is about John, a man who hates the town he lives in, and the story he has to tell about it. The podcast sets itself up to tell a murder mystery, and it ends up being so, so much more than that. S-Town is about love, forgiveness, companionship, mental health, the cruelty of life, and the brutal consequences of being different. Aja Romano from Vox Media wrote a much more eloquent review (and another reflection) if you’d like to read more about it.
Fast facts: Podcast from Serial Productions (of This American Life and Serial fame), extremely highly-produced, narrative and reflective tone, 7 chapters total, complete.
5. Heavyweight
Jonathan Goldstein is an absolute treasure.
He has an incredibly unique and personal style of storytelling that is simultaneously hilarious and poetically profound. Everything is delivered in a deadpan, disarming tone that catches you by surprise when something suddenly resonates. He also has a special talent for eliciting fun responses from his interview victims, or maybe he’s just especially good at being annoying.
Heavyweight is a podcast about people and their regrets, and Jonathan’s role is to help them confront those regrets and move forward. He also has a few running gags throughout the series that I find quite endearing, like the backhanded way he mocks his boss, Alex Blumberg, or his exchanges with Jackie Cohen at the beginning of every episode. It’s a podcast full of deeply human stories told in an almost irritatingly casual way, and I love it to bits.
Fast facts: Gimlet Media podcast, highly-produced, deadpan/tongue-in-cheek/relaxed tone, 2 seasons complete (15 episodes), 3rd season just started airing at time of writing.
All the episodes are lovely, but here are a few of my faves:
#12 Jesse: About Jesse, who was hit by a car and now wants to thank the person who hit him. Some parts of this one made me cringe but it was worth riding through to the end.
#2 Gregor: About Gregor, a friend of Jonathan’s who once lent some CDs to a musician friend (Moby) who later became famous because of the music he created out of the inspiration he drew from those CDs. Much of this episode speaks to those fears everyone has about never realizing their potential.
#5 Galit: About Galit, Jonathan’s first girlfriend, and all the vulnerabilities and barriers he’s dealt with as a result of that relationship. Deeply introspective, honest, and resonant.
Additional recommendations:
(loosely organized by category with a * for my favorites, I can write more blurbs about these and give recommended episodes if people want)
Highly-produced podcasts about race or cross-cultural identity:
- Code Switch (NPR)
- Latino USA (NPR)
- Rough Translation* (Can you guess? NPR)
- The Nod* (Gimlet Media)
Some A+ Narrative Journalism:
- Embedded (NPR)
- This American Life (WBEZ)
- Serial (Season 3 is my personal favorite!)
- Revisionist History (Panoply)
- The Butterfly Effect (Audible Original Series)
- American Suburb (KQED)
A peak at the structures behind… everything?:
- Invisibilia (NPR)
- Hidden Brain (NPR)
- 99% Invisible* (Radiotopia network)
Miscellaneous delights:
- Everything is Alive* (Radiotopia)
- The Allusionist (Radiotopia)
- Song Exploder (Radiotopia)
- The Habitat (Gimlet)
- Science Vs. (Gimlet)
- Startup (Gimlet)
Podcasts I just started listening to:
- The Soundtrack Show (HowStuffWorks)
- Medium Playback (Medium’s flagship podcast)
- The Truth (Radiotopia)
- The Pitch (Gimlet)
