Throughout 2024, podcast creators asked us to think twice about our preconceptions: They followed stories that were supposed to be over, engaged with people who tend to get dismissed, and toyed with emerging technologies that make some people fear for humanity’s future. They explored city sewers, an historic baseball stadium, momentary fame, everyday household objects. This list represents the 20 best podcasts I heard this year, with a lean toward either new shows, or shows that have a renewed focus. Virtually all of them, even the most entertaining and quirky ones, suggested an underlying preoccupation with the power of narrative to shape our sense of reality. (As with every year, The Atlantic’s podcasts are exempt from consideration.) These series added depth and vitality to the audio landscape—they also packed an emotional wallop, inviting listeners to view the world with more scrutiny and empathy alike.
The comedian Jamie Loftus’s previous podcasts have ranged wildly in subject matter—Mensa meetings, Floridian spiritualists, the comic-strip character Cathy—but benefited equally from her attention to detail. With her newest series, Loftus trains her eye on the internet’s “main characters”: people who became short-lived viral sensations. She contextualizes their notoriety within the broader cultural moment that allowed for it, then invites these figures, who included Ken Bone, William Hung, and “Left Shark,” onto the show to reflect on their brushes with this very particular version of fame. By speaking directly with folks who were once known as internet punch lines, Loftus offers listeners a nuanced understanding of their experiences. Sixteenth Minute is a funny, fascinating series that starts by schooling us on memes and ends up displaying a deeply felt empathy.
Start with “Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife Pt. 1.”
As the co-hosts of Backed Up, the Cincinnati Public Radio reporters Becca Costello and Ella Rowen began by investigating a local story—why is sewage seeping into Cincinnati residents’ basements when it rains?—and ended up creating a podcast with wider appeal. This series demonstrates how national access to functional plumbing infrastructure is complicated by bureaucracy and climate change. Costello and Rowen approach the project with humorous gusto as they bring listeners along on a whirlwind six-part journey through city sewers and the local government. Their efforts involve pop-culture references, helpful plumbing metaphors, and a playful bid to discover the “real villain” behind the sewage crisis. But the fun never undermines their more serious aim of detangling the modern marvel of the metropolitan water system, a utility that residents might stop to think about only when it fails.
Start with “Episode 1: Sewers Gonna Sue.”
The series’s drawn-out name—Finally! A Show About Women That Isn’t Just a Thinly Veiled Aspirational Nightmare—brings to mind modern society’s frequent celebration of generic, superficial girlbossery. Jane Marie and Joanna Solotaroff are the stewards of this production, but they’re not its hosts, per se; each episode is an audio diary of a different woman’s day. Listeners hear from a former missionary turned middle-school teacher, a new mother reflecting on growing up with abusive parents, the owner of a plus-size boutique helping clients shop, and many more. Marie and Solotaroff’s complete lack of narrative framing feels fresh: Hosts rarely cut in to set up the who-what-where or to propel the story forward. Instead, the narrator recounts her day as it unfolds, and in unvarnished detail.
Start with “Finally! A Show About a 20-Something Chess Master.”
The 2014 chemical-weapon attack at the Hyatt Regency in Rosemont, Illinois, had what some may consider an unconventional target—the attendees of Midwest FurFest, a convention of self-identifying “furries” who recreationally dress in anthropomorphic animal costumes. The media roundly mocked the incident, which left 19 people hospitalized, an attitude reflecting prejudicial views of the event-goers’ lifestyle. But the journalist Nicky Woolf and his team of reporters offer this true-crime story the serious consideration it deserves: They lay out the facts of the 10-year-old cold case, explain the failures of the initial police investigation, and seek clarity on the details of the day through conversations with convention-goers. In the process, Fur & Loathing also illuminates a subculture that is often derided but that provides joy and fulfillment for its members.
Start with “Broken Glass.”
The Italian American writer Jo Piazza created this companion podcast for her novel of the same name, investigating the real-life mystery that inspired the book. She had always been told that her great-great-grandmother Lorenza died under peculiar circumstances more than 100 years ago. But in Piazza’s phone calls with aunts, uncles, and cousins, everyone remembers the story a little differently. The most popular theory is that Lorenza was killed by the Mafia, and Piazza regales listeners with her trip to find the truth in the Sicilian countryside. Part of the charm of The Sicilian Inheritance is its portrait of the chaos of living in a big, passionate family, one that’s full of multicourse lunches and gossipy second cousins. A family’s legends lend color and dimension to its history, and Piazza’s offers plenty of both.
Start with “Lorenza.”
Long Shadow’s previous seasons investigated the circumstances surrounding September 11 and the rise of the American far right. Season 3, In Guns We Trust, explores how guns came to be such a central part of our national culture. The host and journalist Garrett Graff, himself a gun owner, contextualizes the past quarter century of mass shootings by laying out the political and legislative maneuvers that have eroded gun-control laws over the previous 50 years. These sometimes esoteric actions had palpable effects: The so-called gun-show loophole, for example, allowed the private sale of firearms without a background check—which enabled the Columbine High School shooters to indirectly obtain their guns. Listeners who are all too familiar with Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Uvalde might nonetheless find illuminating Long Shadow’s examination of the political backdrop to these tragedies.
Start with “A Uniquely American Problem.”
This podcast’s simple premise—the host, Tom Rosenthal, approaches someone he’s never met in a London park and invites them for a chat—creates a surprising level of intimacy. Within minutes, listeners hear a man explain what it was like to lose his father, or a woman reveal how she feels stifled by her family even though they live several countries away. The key to the show’s appeal is Rosenthal’s interviewing style, which keeps him present in the conversation rather than gesturing toward its eventual audience; in other words, his interest appears genuine rather than performative. Strangers on a Bench demonstrates how ready people are to connect with those around them if given the opening, and how we might reach outward to find these conversations for ourselves.
Start with “Episode 1: A Fight.”
This series aims to investigate “the stories we were told were over,” and its inaugural topic, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, is a fitting choice. The host, Dan Leone, begins by traveling the Gulf Coast by boat with Louisiana residents as they remember the 11 workers killed in the initial oil-platform explosion; the scene sets up the show’s emphasis on the disaster’s human impact. Leone recounts the various decisions—or lack thereof—made by BP that led to cleanup workers’ later allegations of severe respiratory illness, among other devastating aftereffects. Interviews with chemists about BP’s gross mismanagement of the spill are shocking and edifying to hear, but Ripple’s most compelling feature is how it balances the disaster’s scientific and emotional aspects: It spends ample time, for example, on wide-ranging health issues that some exposed workers and locals have faced for nearly 15 years.
Start with “1. Company Canal.”
In the premiere installment of NPR’s Inheriting, the host, Emily Kwong, makes a bold promise: “On this show, we’re going to break apart the AAPI monolith.” Kwong sets about this mission by offering Asian American and Pacific Islander families in the United States opportunities to reflect on how living through particular moments in history—such as the Japanese incarceration during World War II, the Cambodian genocide, and the Vietnam War—can leave lasting generational effects. Both Kwong and the subjects themselves conduct the interviews, as loved ones open up to one another about operating a business amidst the 1992 Los Angeles uprising or living under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Kwong also offers suggestions to listeners interested in starting these conversations with their own family members.
Start with “Carol & the Los Angeles Uprising: Part 1.”
This limited series celebrates what’s considered Stevie Wonder’s classic period (1972–76), when he released his most famed work. Hosted by the cultural critic Wesley Morris, the series layers musical analysis of Wonder’s songs and insightful interviews with industry colleagues and acolytes. Morris, following a conversation with the music critic Robert Christgau, dissects how contemporary (and largely white) critics glossed over the fusion of pop and gospel that made Wonder’s art so revelatory. Musicians such as Janelle Monáe and Smokey Robinson, along with the former president and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama, share stories about how Wonder has inspired them. (The Obamas’ company, Higher Ground, co-produced the series.) A bonus episode even features an interview with the artist himself. But the show feels complete without it, following Morris’s own thorough, hours-long evaluation of Wonder’s musical output.
Start with “Music of My Mind | 1972.”
Sarah Koenig and the Serial team may never replicate the precise alchemy that made its inaugural season a phenomenon 10 years ago. To their credit, they aren’t trying to. Rather than scout out similarly disputed murder cases to investigate, Koenig and this season’s co-host, Dana Chivvis, have instead chosen to experiment with form and scale. Serial: Guantánamo (the series’ fourth installment) uses a wide lens to explore the history of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, from 2002 to the present day. The hosts track down more than 100 people, including both detainees and guards; their accounts of the scandals, interrogations, and protests within the prison provide riveting audio, the kind made possible by waiting on a story until it’s able to be told in full. The narrative further benefits from Serial’s signature flair, as Koenig includes her own uncertainty about and emotional reactions to what we’re all learning.
Start with “Ep. 1: Poor Baby Raul.”
This independently produced podcast covers a range of topics aimed at internet-addled listeners, such as the rise of the “influencer voice” and the emotional experience of abandoning a social-media platform. But its atmospheric sound design differentiates it from similar tech-focused shows. The host, Mike Rugnetta, is a professional audio designer who wants to strip conventional podcast expectations—pithy observations set over marimba music, say—down to the form’s technical studs. A segment about why teens are obsessed with the popular online game Roblox, for example, is bookended by a field recording of someone “touching grass”—that is, experiencing the analog world. Never Post also works as an intriguing exercise in free-associative storytelling: Audio from the Minnesota State Fair horse barn follows a segment about the history of the “Laser Eyes” meme, leaving listeners to interpret the connection between the two.
Start with “To BRB or Not to BRB.”
Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD
Empire City reckons with the modern state of policing through the lens of the New York City Police Department. The NYU journalism professor Chenjerai Kumanyika hosts this nine-episode series, which presents nearly 200 years of history—dating back to the mid-19th century, when an assemblage of constables, watchmen, and kidnappers laid the groundwork for the NYPD—as an immersive listening experience. The podcast conjures the sounds of the city during and after the Civil War, as Kumanyika describes how the department began to adopt the structure and aesthetics of a standing army. Weaving in stories of his own entanglements with police officers, and his young daughter’s budding understanding of law enforcement’s role in their daily life, the host argues that if the NYPD too often fails to protect the vulnerable, it’s because that wasn’t what the force was formed to do; its initial goal, he contends, was to uphold wealthy and influential citizens’ definition of “law and order.”
Start with “They Keep People Safe.”
The tech journalist Evan Ratliff confronts society’s anxieties about artificial intelligence head-on with this limited-run series, in which he uses language-learning models such as ChatGPT to replicate his own voice. Ratliff sets up the affectless “clone”—cultivated from his publicly available personal data and vocal clips—to field incoming phone calls from telemarketers, family, and friends alike; the outcome is a series of uncanny conversations that reveal the surprising capabilities (and limitations) of this fast-developing technology. Particularly riveting moments include Ratliff’s daughter chatting with the voice clone, and the AI Ratliff seeking counsel for the real Ratliff’s private concerns in a session with an AI therapist. These experiments use both humor and real insight to envision how we may manipulate the technology we fear could take over our lives.
Start with “Episode 1: Quality Assurance.”
Baseball devotees and non-fans alike have something to gain from listening to this series, about the historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. Co-produced by Baton Rouge’s and New Orleans’s NPR affiliates and hosted by the comedian Roy Wood Jr., the podcast details the 114-year-old baseball stadium’s tenure as the home of the Negro Leagues’ Birmingham Black Barons. Bolstered by both new interviews—with retired teammates and current local baseball coaches—and archival broadcast clips, it successfully portrays Rickwood as a microcosm of the racism, resistance, and revolution that were happening off the field. Wood himself grew up playing baseball in the city including at Rickwood Field, and his personal connection to the material enlivens the show’s recounting—one that, in a rare move, is defined not just by the main players, but also by the communities surrounding them.
Start with “The Holy Grail of Baseball.”
In the Dark returned after a six-year break with both a new production company—The New Yorker, which acquired the show in 2023—and a greatly expanded scope. The journalist Madeleine Baran and her fellow investigators spent more than four years researching what became Season 3: the continent- and calendar-year-spanning story of the 2005 Haditha massacre, in which members of the U.S. Marine Corps allegedly killed 24 Iraqi civilians. Although eight Marines were charged for their alleged role in the killings, only one was convicted of a crime. Eyewitnesses in Haditha provide gripping accounts of what they experienced, while the hosts attempt to clarify inconsistencies in various military personnel’s accounts; we even hear one of them chase the producer Natalie Jablonski off his front porch with profanity and threats. In probing this decades-old event, In the Dark makes a powerful case for pursuing a story as far as you can.
Start with “Episode 1: The Green Grass.”
Second Sunday’s first season premiered late last year and was an intriguing proof of concept; 2024’s more expansive, affecting follow-up is a testament to the value of giving a series time to hit its stride. The co-hosts Darren Calhoun and Esther Ikoro invite guests—focusing on queer Black people—to examine their connection to their religious beliefs, whether they be tenuous, tempestuous, or deeply rooted in family tradition. The subjects detail how, in the process of exploring their multifaceted identities, they have often redefined what God means to them. Each conversation comes across as a sort of sermon, setting interviewees’ responses against rich musical backdrops. Regardless of whether they have a personal relationship with faith, listeners may empathize with the desire to seek, as one guest puts it, “spirituality that is unbound by people’s bullshit.”
Start with “Mark Miller Plays With the Spirit.”
The writer Rose Eveleth has spent more than a decade researching this timely entry of NPR’s Embedded, whose release coincided with the 2024 Olympic Games. Eveleth interviews athletes such as the sprinters Christine Mboma and Maximila Imali about finding their naturally high testosterone levels—and thus “true” sex—scrutinized by governing bodies such as World Athletics. Their stories provide a personal touch and help illustrate the more harrowing aspects of their experiences, such as the fact that they have had to consider taking body-altering drugs to maintain their competitive eligibility. Beyond stressing the complexities of our biology, Tested questions the notion of “fairness” in sports: Why are some natural genetic variations considered more acceptable than others, and who gets to set the terms? Sex testing is an example of “how we try and impose order on a messy, confusing world,” Eveleth says, and these six episodes highlight the damage that can be wrought by that impulse.
Start with “Tested: The Choice.”
The Curious History of Your Home
This podcast explores the creation of genius household inventions that people have long taken for granted, such as clocks, toilets, and wallpaper. Its host, the historian Ruth Goodman, has an infectious interest in domestic history, a focus that’s likely more relevant to the listener than, say, the Napoleonic Wars. Goodman’s animated narration is paired with evocative music and soundscapes that enliven descriptions of modest homesteads; with these flourishes, information as seemingly banal as the evolution of dishwashing becomes mesmerizing. Listeners might come to question the way they wash dishes once they learn that wood ash was once preferred over soap, and that the former can actually have some distinct advantages over the latter. Though it is far from the first “quirky history” podcast, this series’ self-contained concept allows the listener to view the mundanities of daily life with newfound interest.
Start with “Wallpaper.”
The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast
Hearing four comedians get technical about their work is equal parts hilarious and enlightening, especially when they’re all Saturday Night Live alums. The Lonely Island—a.k.a. Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone—chat with the host of Late Night, Seth Meyers, about the trio’s best-known contribution to the long-running sketch show: their “digital shorts.” Those include such memorable shorts as “Lazy Sunday” (a self-serious rap about The Chronicles of Narnia), “Dick in a Box” (an R&B tune about the perfect Christmas gift, featuring Justin Timberlake), and the more recent “Sushi Glory Hole” (whose title is self-explanatory). The group discusses each video’s development and reception, while speculating as to why viewers connected so much with, say, Natalie Portman rapping obscenities. As a former head writer on SNL, Meyers deftly guides the conversation toward craft, while Samberg, Schaffer, and Taccone reflect on their work’s legacy with humility.
Start with “The Lonely Island Beginnings.”
