As you may have heard, there are a ton of podcasts available for your listening pleasure these days. Perhaps too many, depending on who you ask. Radio’s digital cousin really exploded in popularity back in late 2014 with Serial, an investigative journalism podcast developed by NPR darlings This American Life. Once people discovered such easily accessible diversions in their smartphones’ earbuds, the market for (free) audio entertainment grew exponentially. By this point, it seems that everybody and their dog now has their own podcast.

It stands to reason that you’ve likely received several podcast recommendations from friends and colleagues. In fact, I’d wager that most, if not all, of these recommendations came completely unsolicited, just springing out of normal conversation with some variation of, “You know, if you’re interested in this topic, I listened to a really good podcast…”, or “Oh man, if you like [insert any comedian’s name] then you have to hear this podcast!” I know how these conversations tend to go because I’m often that dude myself.

So after a few years—and probably several hundreds of hours—of casual podcast listening, here are my Top 10 podcast recommendations, with a few honorable mentions included as well. Enjoy!

10. Rabbit Hole

Let’s start with some capital-J Journalism: Have you ever wondered how people get radicalized through watching YouTube videos? I know I have! Luckily the folks at the New York Times have you covered.

Rabbit Hole is a limited-series podcast, with just eight episodes. It’s a great listen, if mostly a depressing journey through bleak subject matter. But arguably this one is an important reference point for understanding our modern information/media landscape.

9. SBS Japanese - SBSの日本語放送

Next up, something extremely niche. When I started listening to podcasts in 2014, the number one thing I was looking for in my audio entertainment was simply native-spoken Japanese. Worried about forgetting all of the vocabulary & grammar I had learned living in Japan, I merely wanted to listen to the language being spoken. The topic didn’t even matter, I just wanted to hear Japanese.

However this was surprisingly difficult to find. Originally I subscribed to an NHK News podcast. But with three lengthy podcasts released DAILY—and much of the same stories repeated—the NHK was just way too much; simply not a good fit. I needed something similar, but on a smaller scale.

Somehow I ended up stumbling across the SBS Japanese podcast, and it turned out to be perfect.

Produced by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), an Australian broadcaster, this podcast generally covers news and Japanese cultural events happening in Australia. New episodes appear frequently, maybe five or six in a week, and range in length from 5 - 15 minutes. It’s just the right amount of Japanese audio for me to give a listen whenever I need it. I do genuinely recommended this podcast for anyone trying to learn Japanese, or to just remember the stuff they’ve already learned.

8. Insert Credit

This one might also be a bit niche. When I’m looking for some idle entertainment, I often look for discussions of video games old & new…but honestly, mostly old. (This is, of course, quite evident by the theme and content of this blog overall.) So if you too are looking to hear some video game talk, my top recommendation is the Insert Credit podcast.

Insert Credit is open discussion of video game topics run almost like a gameshow. Host Alex Jaffe asks a series of questions to a panel of video game experts, which includes Frank Cifaldi, Brandon Sheffield, and at least one special guest. Not only is the show consistently funny, but discussions are often incredibly interesting…at least to video game nerd like me. And also it has the best podcast music out there, written by Kurt Feldman.

A recent episode of Insert Credit was particularly good, in which Azurelore Korrigan articulated the single best critique of video games I've ever heard. This moment was so good, in fact, that they featured it on YouTube.

Of course, Insert Credit is far from the only video game podcast out there, and there a few others that deserve honorable mentions….

Similarly Good:

The Video Game History Hour also features Frank Cifaldi (he’s part of Insert Credit) and Kelsey Lewin, co-directors of the Video Game History Foundation, as hosts. Each episode they interview an expert guest about a specific video game topic and it’s always a fun time.

Retronauts has to be the original classic gaming podcast. Hosts Jeremy Parish and Bob Mackey are video game journalists who’ve contributed to the likes of EGM, 1Up.com, IGN, Gamasutra, etc., and they bring on a whole slew of expert guests for weekly discussions of retro games (and movies). They also provide the best solid definition of what a “retro game” even is.

Finally, Eggplant: The Secret Lives of Games is the nichest of the niche, but I still find it fascinating. Originally launched as “The Spelunky Showlike”, Eggplant began life as purely Spelunky podcast. It has now expanded to include much more, featuring interviews with independent game creators that “dive deep into the art, craft, and process of making games”.

7. Your Undivided Attention

The single most important podcast you’re not listening to is probably Your Undivided Attention, from the Center for Humane Technology. Co-hosts Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin examine the multitude of societal ills created by the Attention Economy, discussing in detail how “social media’s race for attention manipulates our choices, breaks down truth, and destabilizes our real-world communities”.

It’s not all bad news, though! Tristan & Aza also explore possible solutions with the expert guests they interview. So there’s some hope amid all the well-warranted Internet Age despair.

6. Function with Anil Dash

Much like the previous recommendation, Function with Anil Dash is a Vox podcast how tech is changing culture and what that means for everybody.

Anil Dash is an entrepreneur, writer, CEO of Glitch, a Prince mega-fan (though I guess that’s not particularly relevant), and an extremely thoughtful podcast host. He interviews “developers, designers, and culture experts” about everything from mental health to algorithmic bias, and every episode is well worth your time.

5. Heavyweight

There’s something about Heavyweight, a Gimlet production, that strikes me as being the strongest use of podcasting as a medium. It’s really just regular storytelling in an extra personal This American Life style, but it resonates so strongly in the audio-only format. Somehow listening to people express their regrets, their anxieties, their hopes for reconciliation, lands so much harder on my ears than I think it ever would on my eyes. Like, I sincerely doubt these stories would have the same effect in writing, or even a video format.

Whenever I listen to an episode of Heavyweight, I prepare myself to cry. Because it has made me cry a lot. Seriously, like almost every goddamn episode. And despite its consistency, it usually takes me by surprise as well. Because Heavyweight is generally a pretty funny program.

Host Jonathan Goldstein is a really unique character, kind of like extra neurotic Jon Ronson, but extremely Canadian. Most of the show is Goldstein just bumbling through trying to be a good “interlocutor”, helping some third parties work through a novel problem, persistent quibble, or longstanding conflict. And then, near the end of each episode, he somehow breaks through. And in turn, it always breaks me.

So yeah, I recommend Heavyweight. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and it will make you laugh again.

4. Resistance

Resistance, another podcast from Gimlet, is the real deal. This is a show about “people refusing to accept things as they are”. Amid the social unrest of 2020, this show emerged to discuss the contentious topics everyone had on our minds. It spoke directly on issues of race, police violence, and protest in all its forms.

The show’s host, Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr., is a poet, writer, and producer born in Freetown, Sierra Leone. As young black man and an immigrant, his voice brings incredible authenticity to the personal stories reported from “the front lines of the movement for Black lives, told by the generation fighting for change”. This is such a legitimately awesome podcast, I really can’t recommend it highly enough.

3. The Dream

The Dream, from Little Everywhere, is a podcast about “Multi Level Marketing” programs—or to put in the common parlance—Pyramid Schemes.

Well-produced and highly personal, The Dream is not just about these absolute/total scams that sucker millions upon millions of Americans every year. It’s also about regular people seeking a sense of control in everyday life. And how their own aspirations can end up being weaponized against them.

Season 2 of The Dream shifts focus from MLM’s in general, to the Wellness Industry in particular. They look at “wellness” from many angles, investigating all sorts of pills, powders, juices, essential oils (aka “Snake oil”), crystals, magnets, Gwyneth Paltrow—just tons of useless (or actively harmful) crap touting made-up “frequencies” based on nothing at all. Again, it’s fascinating stuff.

2. The Ezra Klein Show

Ezra Klein is, hands down, the single best interviewer working today. He has the most interesting guests, asks the most insightful questions, and always produces super candid, thought-provoking conversations. And then on top of that, his guests always provide amazing book recommendations, so you can keep the cerebral party going long after an episode is done. Ezra and his podcast are simply unparalleled.

I first started listening to Ezra Klein sometime after the 2016 election, when he interviewed Ta-Nehisi Coates. Their conversation was so real, so extremely compelling, and yet completely lacking any kind of hopeful fluff. Even though I was only tuning in for Ta-Nehisi, the 90-minute conversation convinced me to subscribe, just to see if any other conversions struck my fancy. The podcast was mostly focused on politics and policy after all, so how much of that can you really stomach? Well, in the years that followed, it became one of my most-listened-to podcasts and an all-time favorite. Check it out!

The Ezra Klein Show podcast was originally produced by Vox—a company which Ezra was actually a co-founder of, and also served as the website's editor-in-large for some time. Then in 2021, he left Vox to take a columnist position at the New York Times. Interestingly, while he took his name with him, the original podcast has continued on as “Vox Conversations”. Hence, the following sub-recommendation….

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Vox Conversations carries on the “The Ezra Klein Show” tradition of thought-provoking conversations…just without Ezra Klein himself.

UPDATE: Vox Conversations is now called The Gray Area with Sean Illing. Still highly recommend it.

1. Reply All

Oh man, Reply All has had a rough year… The smash-hit podcast, Gimlet’s crown jewel, had been riding high for so long, and then had an unceremonious fall from grace. Still, it retains the top spot in my list for now; my most recommended podcast.

For the story of how Reply All fell apart, I recommend the synopsis in this NYT article. Long story short version: Reply All’s producer Sruthi Pinnamaneni and cohost PJ Vogt made a four-part series about embedded racism at food magazine Bon Appétit, called “The Test Kitchen”. Sruthi hosted the episodes, conducting interviews with various people of color who described the challenges they faced in the workplace. Two episodes in, however, a former Gimlet employee name Eric Eddings took to twitter to express his distaste for the hypocrisy of their reporting. Because, as it turns out, not only had Sruthi & PJ contributed to exactly the same type of toxic work environment at Gimlet, they had also been dismissive of/openly hostile to the unionization effort aimed at alleviating that toxicity. Basically, out of everyone at Gimlet who could have reported on Bon Appétit, these two were just the exact wrong choice…like an aggressively bad option.

When Eddings shared his experiences on twitter, the issue blew up. Gimlet moved quickly, announcing that the remaining two episodes of “Test Kitchen” would not be aired. It was also announced that Sruthi was leaving the show—though this was something that apparently had been planned to happen after “Test Kitchen” had completed anyway. More shocking was that PJ Vogt, one half of the duo that had been hosting Reply All from its inception, was also departing.

Reply All continues to have two hosts these days: longstanding cohost Alex Goldman, and relative newcomer Emmanuel Dzotsi. However, outside of a brief housekeeping message explaining Sruthi and PJ’s departures, the podcast had been silent since Test Kitchen, Chapter 2 in mid February. Then, on April 29th, they released a short episode called “The Test Kitchen Revisited” in which Emmanuel and Alex talk though the mistakes Reply All made, and how they’ll be moving forward. Apparently regular episodes will return June 10th.

Even though they are clearly going through a transition right now, Reply All still has some of my favorite audio programs ever in their back catalogue. If you’re only interested in the hearing the top-shelf best stuff, I recommend these specific episodes:

Two-parter: #102 Long Distance & #103 Long Distance, Part II
- It also has a follow-up: #164 Long Distance: The Real Alex Martin
#158 The Case of the Missing Hit
#104 The Case of the Phantom Caller
#97 What Kind Of Idiot Gets Phished?
#115 The Bitcoin Hunter

UPDATE: Reply All has called it quits. Their final episode went out June 23, 2022.