The 10 best podcasts of the year, listed here in alphabetical order, represent a broad sampling of the medium’s many formats — chat shows, documentaries, storytelling, interviews, true crime. Whether cracking open one of the darkest cases in American military history, giving voice to members of a vast diaspora, or interrogating the craft of audio journalism itself, these shows make a strong argument for the vitality of the field.
Cement CityThis 10-part documentary is simple in concept but formidable in execution. To find out what is ailing small towns in America’s onetime manufacturing hubs — the kinds of places politicians and pundits obsess over every four years — the veteran magazine journalist Jeanne Marie Laskas and the audio producer Erin Anderson picked one and moved there. Like, really moved, as in bought a house and made friends with the neighbors. Their dispatches — artfully woven together from over three years and innumerable hours of reporting from their adopted home of Donora, Pa. — create an extraordinarily immersive portrait of day-to-day life in a troubled but irreducibly vibrant community. (Listen to Cement City from Audacy and Cement City Productions.)
Critics at LargeThe critics in question — Vinson Cunningham, Alexandra Schwartz and Naomi Fry — are not only companionable guides to the need-to-know cultural products and controversies du jour, but a credit to their profession itself. The hosts’ spirited and generous deconstructions of a wide range of modern texts — TikTok trends, Oscar movies, beach reads — demonstrate the difference between opinions (easy, ubiquitous) and insights (hard-won, rare). You’ll laugh, you’ll learn, you’ll impress your group chat. (Listen to Critics at Large from The New Yorker.)
Deep Cover: The Nameless ManA cold case from 1989 is at the center of this surprisingly moving and sure-footed true crime podcast. Jake Halpern, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, tells the story of a puzzling murder and possible hate crime from two sides: that of the federal agents who grew convinced that they’d identified the murderer, and that of the victim’s family members, who had been waiting decades for answers. The twisty, novelistic narrative that unfolds never feels excessive or out-of-hand. Instead, Halpern uses the case — which eventually resulted in a criminal trial and a verdict — to reveal how people extract justice and meaning from a system that is ill-equipped to provide either. (Listen to Deep Cover: The Nameless Man from Pushkin Industries.)
Embedded: TestedRose Eveleth’s limited documentary series focuses on the history of sex testing female track and field athletes, from fascist pseudoscience in the 1930s to a contested classification system still in use in world competition today. But the panic it exposes — over the nature of womanhood and the elusive boundary between the sexes — is not limited to sports. At a time when debates over who is allowed to use what bathroom are once again headline news, Eveleth’s patient reporting provides a useful case study of what happens when deeply held beliefs are forced into contact with the messiness of reality. (Listen to Embedded: Tested from NPR and CBC.)
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