You Should Listen to Podcasts: 20 You’ll Definitely Maybe Love

March is #TryPod month, so try a new podcast or 20…

You should listen to podcasts. Really, you should. Podcasts turn long commutes into trivia night with friends. Doing the dishes becomes a chance to learn something fun you never knew you desperately needed to know. Podcasts get you through a workout or entertain you on a walk.

A podcast is basically a recorded radio show or an e-book. It’s an audio story, and it’s right there on your phone or device. Some are two minutes; some two hours. Some can be listened to alone; others are better in series.

The bottom line is podcasts are a new way for humans to tell stories, just like books and movies and television. You should listen to podcasts. So since March is #TryPod month, here are 20 of my favorite podcasts and a quick recommendation for each.

Be sure to add your favorite in the comments if it’s not mentioned!

Crimetown

People are obsessed with true crime shows, and it’s easy to see why. Everyone loves to solve a good mystery, and all the better if it’s real-life drama. Crimetown is by the makers of HBO’s The Jinx about murder suspect Robert Durst. It takes a deep dive into the endless mess of corruption found across many of America’s cities, with the first season focused on Providence, Rhode Island. Think of it as a poor man’s The Wire podcast.

Criminal

Criminal is a bit like Crimetown for people with commitment issues. It’s also about true crime — but this one focuses on smaller enclosed stories that it tells in one 20–30 minute setting and then leaves it there. Criminal is great if you just want a little true crime snack on a quick drive downtown.

Freaknomics Radio

You’ve probably heard of the best-selling book Freakonomics (if you haven’t, find a copy and read it ASAP). It’s an all-time favorite and a close look at “the hidden side of everything” with a mix of social economics, psychology, and pop culture. Freakonomics is for the kid in you that always asked “But whyyyy??” There’s a why question behind everything, and host Steven Dubner (a co-author of Freakonomics) points out that a lot of obvious “why” questions don’t even get asked anymore. You’ll learn things you never realized you should’ve known and you’ll see the world in a different light.

Good Job, Brain!

If you love trivia or pop culture, or just game night with friends, Good Job, Brain! is for you. Karen, Chris, Dana, and Colin are just a quartet of friends who love trivia and learning new things. Each show is around an hour and there are almost 200 episodes now, so you can pick a topic you like or start from the top and laugh and hang out with friends and learn about something new and interesting. This is the best trivia podcast out there.

How To Do Everything

How to Do Everything is great if you are looking for a quick five-minute lesson on something new. What’s the best way to pull a loose tooth or shake hands properly? How do you make the perfect s’mores or pick the perfect baby name? Mike and Ian host this podcast on NPR and each one is just 10 to 20 minutes, usually broken down into a few smaller segments, so it’s a great morsel if you need a quick bite.

In the Dark

Another true crime podcast, this one is particularly interesting to me because of a personal connection. In 1989 in the small nearby town of St. Joseph, Minnesota, an 11-year-old named Jacob Wetterling was abducted in plain sight of multiple witnesses by a man with pantyhose over his face. He was local and only a few years older than me and that story was always a haunting reminder that no child was ever truly safe. This is the story of that long-unsolved mystery abduction.

The Jonah Keri Podcast

Technically The Jonah Keri Podcast is probably a “sports” podcast, but it really isn’t one, and I think Jonah Keri prefers it that way. Keri is a da Vinci for the modern age, a jack-of-all-trades who follows any and all sports and pop culture and just has a lot of interesting conversations with fascinating people. He’s a huge geek and loves to nerd out with his guests, and they often do talk about a favorite sports team but also chat about life and work and everything else. Some of my favorite guests include Parks and Rec creator Mike Schur, Emmy-winning Simpsons voice Hank Azaria, and hilarious comedians Ron Funches and Sarah Tiana.

Pod Save America

This is the one podcast you need to be listening to. From Crooked Team, Pod Save America talks about the real side of politics and what you really need to know about what’s happening in Washington, D.C. What’s happening these days is a lot, and it’s often exhausting and depressing and can lead to us being overwhelmed and tuning it out. These guys keep it fun but informative and factual, and they know their stuff. Under President Obama, Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett were his speech writers, Dan Pfeiffer a senior advisor, and Tommy Vietor a spokesperson on the National Security Council. These guys are not just BSing, and they have great connections and bring on top-notch guests. Pod Save America is a breath of air in a 2017 world that needs it. The team also does Pod Save the World, recommended as well.

Question of the Day

If you enjoy thinking outside the box or being challenged about the normal perception of things, Question of the Day is a great bite-sized take on something new you should think about. One of the hosts Steven Dubner is the Freaknomics podcast host and co-author, so if you’re thinking this sounds like a mini-Freakonomics, you’re dead on. The other James Altucher is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever heard. He has a unique opinion on just about everything, and those opinions are sometimes infuriating, sometimes enlightening, and always interesting. No matter his take, Altucher challenges the way I think. There are 177 QOD podcasts, each around 10 to 20 minutes, so they’re a great one-off pod or good for binging, too.

Reply All

Reply All is another easily-consumable collection of one-off stories that are interesting and fascinating. Reply All’s focus is on the internet. Its stories are “about how people shape the internet, and how the internet shapes people.” And considering how interesting the internet is, and how relatively new it is in the big scope of things, there’s an endless supply of twisted and curious stories to be told. From Gimlet Media, PJ and Alex have now told almost 100 of those stories, around 15 to 30 minutes each. They were also part of the similar TLDR podcast on internet culture, now defunct, but 49 engrossing 10-to-15-minute stories of internet weirdness.

Revisionist History

Malcolm Gladwell is the best-selling author of fantastic books like Blink, The Tipping Point, Outliers, and others that challenge the way we think about everyday life. Similar to Freakonomics, Gladwell works in social psychology and behavior economics — why is everything the way it is? Why are people the way they are? Gladwell asks why questions and finds answers, and he is incredible at finding and telling fascinating people stories that best illustrate those answers. This podcast was essentially his latest book, with 10 stories around 30 to 45 minutes each ranging from philanthropy to free-throw-shooting big men to college admissions. If those things don’t sound interesting yet, I promise they will once you’re done listening.

Rob Has a Podcast

This is certainly the most niche podcast on the list. If you still watch Survivor or Big Brother, you should definitely complement your weekly reality show with Rob Cesternino’s outstanding podcast that unpacks everything. Rob was a Survivor contestant way back on Survivor: Amazon and is considered one of the greatest players to never win the game, a wonderfully backhanded compliment. He’s deep in the reality TV world and has connections to all the contestants, so you get strategic talk after each show, exit interviews with each person voted out, recaps with favorite past contestants, and more. Rob is a huge geek but you are too if you’re still watching these shows. The podcast is a must-listen companion to either show, and Rob also covers a number of other reality shows and television.

See Something, Say Something

This is a newer podcast by a handful of Muslim American friends who talk about life and culture and what it feels like to be a Muslim in America right now. To be perfectly honest, the podcast misses me at times and I don’t always follow the conversation, bu I think that’s exactly why it should be listened to. There’s a pretty good chance you don’t have the first clue what it’s really like to be Muslim in America in 2017 and all that entails, and not all of us have a friend that can unpack that for us. This is a great start.

Serial

Even if you’ve never listened to podcasts, chances are you still heard about Serial a couple years ago. Serial was the closest thing a podcast ever got to Game of Thrones type buzz, that “it” show that was part of the cultural conversation you just had to follow lest you miss out. One of the original true crime podcasts, Season One told the story of Adnan Syed, an ex-boyfriend-turned-murderer — or maybe innocent bystander or framed set-up man? You have to listen and make a judgment for yourself. The storytelling is gripping and the quality is top-notch. Season Two wasn’t quite as compelling, but you’ll want to grab the new pod S-Town up next — that one is getting some present-day buzz and might well be the next big hit.

Stuff You Should Know

SYSK is about anything and everything. Josh and Chuck take you down the rabbit hole on one particular topic. They start with the basics and teach you everything there is to know, so you’ll go from know-nothing to expert in under an hour. I’ve enjoyed episodes on Stonehenge, online gambling, Tupperware, homeschooling, fractals, junk food, tipping, broken hearts, and dying. If that doesn’t run the gamut, I’m not sure what does. There are hundreds of Stuff You Should Know podcasts, so you can cherry pick the topics that interest you or just dive in from the beginning and take it all in. If you’re a Learner, this one is for you.

TED Radio Hour

The “TED” stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, and TED Talks are basically mini-lectures at a free annual conference by some of the most interesting and smartest people in the world. Speakers have 18 minutes to present their idea, whatever it is, and those speakers range from Bill Clinton to Bono to Billy Graham to thousands of others. TED Radio Hour synthesizes a few related talks into an hour-long podcast — though all these talks are free online if you’d like to watch or listen to them that way as well.

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know

Yes, a third Steven Dubner podcast. TMSIDK is essentially Freakonomics turned into a game show, co-hosted by smart funny people like Katie Nolan, Seth Godin, and Hannibal Buress, played by Joe Smoe in the audience who knows a little something interesting and is willing to share it. It’s light, it’s fun, and it’s educational, a little mix of a number of the podcasts already on this list above. You’ll laugh and you’ll learn something new.

Trivial Warfare

This is another great trivia podcast. It started with just a pair of trivia nerds Jonathan and Chris asking each other trivia questions and letting you play along at home and has since expanded to a wider cast of hosts and a handful of listeners-turned-guests competing as well. My friends Aria Gerson, wpwells, and Lee have all been contestants on the show so that’s a fun bonus, too. If you enjoy a good night of pub trivia or Trivial Pursuit, you’re sure to enjoy Trivial Warfare.

TV Avalanche

Uproxx hosts Alan Sepinwall and Brian Grubb spend an hour a week talking about the avalanche of television happening before our very eyes, and they really don’t hold back. If a new show comes out, you’ll get a 5-to-10 minute review and a good idea of whether you should bother watching. The two also hit some of the major moments on bigger shows in pop culture too. If you’re a huge TV nerd that likes to know what’s new out there struggling to keep on top of everything, this is the perfect podcast. Sepinwall used to do the Firewall and Iceberg TV podcast so I’m excited he’s finally back on a new one, and he and Brian have a great fun chemistry.

The Watch Pod

This is The Ringer’s TV and movie podcast but it’s a lot different than the pod just above this one. Instead of reviewing everything out there, hosts Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan are supernerds and dive into the deepest corners of pop culture nerdery to tell us the stories behind out favorite stories. They tend to get terrific guests on the show and spend an hour with a producer or writer of an excellent show or a popular actor after a huge movie hit, and they hit every geeky angle possible. This is another pretty niche podcast and I end up only listening to the ones on shows or movies I care about, but when they do hit that perfect niche, there’s nothing better.

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