Top 10-ish Podcasts of 2018

In 2018 I listened to episodes or the complete series of at least 28 different podcasts. Here’s my 9 favorites, with three honorable mentions. These aren’t necessarily podcasts produced in 2018, but rather those I listened to this year.

Butterfly Effect – This is a delightful, funny, disturbing, surprising, peripatetic, touching audio documentary about the ways in which PornHub has changed the world. Not a straightforward or conventional documentary, the larger story of PornHub’s advent and subsequent consequences is told through such entrancingly interwoven small, intimate stories that I, who admittedly didn’t know much about PornHub or the porn industry going in, suspect even more informed listeners will be fascinated. You’ll probably like it if you like Reply All. Written by Jon Ronson and hosted on Audible.

Caliphate – Caliphate is an intense, highly-produced audio documentary about the process and experience of reporting on ISIS. Rukmini Callimachi, who is a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, and producer Andy Mills, report a story about what the process of becoming an ISIS fighter actually looks like/sounds like, what investigating ISIS as journalists actually looks like/sounds like, and the story of young Yezidi women who escaped ISIS after being kidnapped by the group. Reported by Rukmini Callimachi, Produced by Andy Mills. Published by the New York Times.

Citations Needed—A podcast on the intersections of media, PR, power, and “the history of bullshit,” Citations Needed is an indie (read: listener-funded! Support them if you can!) podcast produced by journalists Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson. They critique mainstream media discourse on current events, dig into tropes of PR (i.e. friendly cops), and have long, in-the-weeds interviews with really well-informed, interesting guests. Some good episodes to start with: Episode 45: “The Not-So-Benevolent Billionaire: Bill Gates and Western Media”; Episode 57: “A Matter of Survival – Trivializing Trans Rights as a Boutique “Identity Issue.”

Intercepted – A slightly-too-long speech by host Jeremy Scahill always follows this podcast’s pleasantly creepy cold opens, but I forgive the length of these segments because it’s admittedly refreshing to hear someone sound just as horrified about current events (and media framings of those events) as I feel. Furthermore, the interviews that follow—with politicians, community organizers, scholars, artists, musicians, and more—are super rich, informative, and even inspiring! Start listening to whatever episode’s most recent, or these are some good ones: “Double Negative;” “George H.W. Bush, American War Criminal"

Ottoman History Podcast – Ah! I love this podcast. I found it through the endnotes to Alia Malek’s memoir The Home that Was Our Country, and it’s “scholarly internet radio” about the history of the Ottoman Empire. I certainly haven’t listened to every episode (it’s been running since 2011!) and am often a total newcomer academically to the episode topics, but have learned so much through listening to the passionate, fascinating, and in-depth interviews recorded here. Some favorite episodes if you’re looking for where to start: Episode 385: “Imagining Iraq”; Ep 366: “George Jackson in the Sun of Palestine”; Episode 331: “Migrants in the Late Ottoman Empire”. Final accolade: No advertising! Listener-funded! Support them if you can!)

Planet Money – Planet Money is, of all things, NPR’s podcast about the economy. But it’s so good! The episodes are short, engaging, and actually make complex economic realities understandable. Planet Money is also good at drawing in political events outside of the directly economic to create a more deeply contextualized understanding so that I’m always hearing or reading about something in the news and realizing I already have a little knowledge about the matter thanks to Planet Money. Start listening to whatever episode’s most recent, or these are also good ones: Episode 643: “Taxi King”; Episode #869 “Student Loan Whistleblower”.

Reply All – Sometimes it’s loopy, marvelous spelunking trips deep into Twitter, sometime its thoroughly researched investigations into how modern policing came to be so horrendous and destructive. Whichever type of episode it is, Reply All has actually made me both laugh and cry. Hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman, Published by Gimlet Media. Start listening to whatever episode’s most recent, or these are also good ones: #127 “The Crime Machine, Part 1;” #83 “Voyage into Pizzagate.”

Slow Burn — Season 2 — If you missed Season 1, I recommend going back to listen to that first. Season 1 is about Nixon and Watergate, whereas Season 2 covers the Clinton impeachment. Slow Burn is hosted and reported by Slate’s Leon Neyfakh, who tells the story of these massive national scandals through surprising, revealing, often intimate interviews with people who were there at the time—not necessarily at the heart of the scandal, but somewhere adjacent to the heart. I’m gonna admit that I was actually galvanized to buy a Slate Plus membership for the sole purpose of listening to Slow Burn’s bonus episodes, and in my opinion it was worth it.

Trumpcast – I enjoy all the hosts of Trumpcast, but it’s the episodes hosted by Virginia Heffernan that really puts this podcast in my Top Ten. Her amusing, unusual word choice, insightful questions and interpretations, and the clear enjoyment she takes from her conversations are what make this podcast more interesting than merely “A quasi-daily podcast from Slate chronicling Donald Trump's rise to the presidency and his current administration.” But it’s that, too! I also appreciate that the podcast is somewhat silly; it’s a nice break from all the slime and horror that Trump’s presidency necessarily entails. Probably best to just start listening with whichever episode is most recent, but here are some that I particularly enjoyed: “The Depths of Disinformation in 2016;” “Where the Trump Tweets Began.”

Honorable Mention:

Democracy Now! – For keeping it real on a daily basis

Lexicon Valley – For being a funny and delightful podcast on linguistics that simultaneously introduces me to lots of old music

Serial – Season 3—For pulling back the curtain on the court system. Honestly only an honorable mention because I haven’t quite finished the entire season yet, and what if the last two episodes are uncharacteristically terrible?