Browse · Podcasts · 39 picks

Podcasts worth subscribing to

There are more podcasts than anyone can sample, and the charts mostly show the ones with the biggest marketing budgets. These shelves are the shows people keep recommending to each other, sorted by what you want from the next hour.

A podcast library is different from the other shelves. A season-long documentary is something you finish; a weekly comedy show is something you live with. So the shelves below are sorted by what kind of listening a show asks for. The first is for stories with a beginning and an end. The second is for shows that leave you knowing something. The third is for company, the fourth for fiction, and the last is for shows about movies, books, music and games, since you are on a site for tracking those.

Each entry has two lines of ours: why it is on the shelf, and who it suits. Years are when a show first aired. Episode counts are left off because the good ones keep going, and a few here have ended, which is noted.

Add any of them to your podcast library with one tap. The entry starts unrated and unfinished, and you can log episodes as you listen.

Stories told over a season

7 shows

Documentaries with a beginning and an end. Most of these are under a dozen episodes, and they are built to be heard in order.

True crime, Journalism · 2014

Serial

with Sarah Koenig

The first season re-examined a 1999 murder conviction in Baltimore over twelve weekly episodes, and it is the reason most people have a podcast app. Later seasons moved to a Cleveland courthouse and Guantanamo. Koenig narrates like someone still working things out, which is why it holds up.

Start with season one, even now. It is the template every other show on this shelf is working from.

Documentary · 2017 · Complete, 7 episodes

S-Town

with Brian Reed

A man in Alabama emails a reporter about a murder in his town, and the story becomes about the man himself. Seven chapters, released at once, and it reads like a novel. There is no mystery to solve in the usual sense; there is a person to understand.

One long weekend. Best heard without reading anything about it first.

Investigative journalism · 2016

In the Dark

with Madeleine Baran

Season two followed Curtis Flowers, tried six times for the same crime in Mississippi, and the reporting helped get his conviction overturned by the Supreme Court. The team spent a year in the town. It is slow, careful and, in the end, consequential.

Season two first. The reporting helped get Curtis Flowers's conviction thrown out.

Storytelling · 2016

Heavyweight

with Jonathan Goldstein

Goldstein helps people go back to a moment they never resolved: a friendship that ended, a question never asked. He is funny about himself and gentle with everyone else, and some episodes end in actual reconciliations.

Episodes stand alone. It lands hardest if you have an unfinished conversation of your own.

True crime · 2018

Bear Brook

with Jason Moon

Bodies found in barrels in a New Hampshire state park, unidentified for decades, and the new genetic genealogy techniques that finally named them. It is a story about method as much as crime, and it avoids the ghoulishness the genre falls into.

For people who want true crime that treats the victims as people. Season one is six episodes.

Documentary · 2020 · Complete, 8 episodes

Wind of Change

with Patrick Radden Keefe

A rumor that the CIA wrote the Scorpions' power ballad that soundtracked the end of the Cold War. Keefe, a New Yorker writer, chases it through former spies and German rock stars, and the chase is more interesting than any answer could be.

Eight episodes, and the story keeps getting stranger.

History · 2017

Slow Burn

with Slate

Each season retells one political crisis from the inside: Watergate, Clinton's impeachment, the road to the Iraq war, the LA riots. The focus is on what it felt like at the time, when nobody knew how it would end. Hosts change by season.

Pick the season about the event you half remember. The Watergate season is the one to start with.

Learn something on the walk

12 shows

Shows you come out of knowing more. Episodes stand alone, so start anywhere.

Science · 2002

Radiolab

with Latif Nasser, Lulu Miller

Science and ideas told with sound design that other shows still imitate. It began with Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich; the current hosts kept the curiosity and lost some of the editing tricks. The back catalog is enormous.

Start with an older classic like Colors or Space, then try a recent one to see how it has changed.

Design · 2010

99% Invisible

with Roman Mars

The design of things nobody notices: flags, manhole covers, the beep a truck makes when it reverses. Mars has an easy voice and the research is thorough. Fifteen years in, the show still finds new corners.

A good first podcast for someone who says they do not like podcasts.

General knowledge · 2008

Stuff You Should Know

with Josh Clark, Chuck Bryant

Two hosts explain one topic per episode, from how tunnels are dug to the history of a snack food, and they have been doing it for well over a thousand episodes. The pleasure is the rapport as much as the facts.

For long drives. Pick any topic that sounds boring and see if they can make it interesting.

History · 2006

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History

with Dan Carlin

Episodes are four to six hours long and arrive a few times a year. Carlin is not a historian and says so; he is a storyteller with a huge reading list, and his series on the First World War and the fall of the Roman Republic are the ones people pass around.

For a single enormous commute. Blueprint for Armageddon is the usual starting point.

History · 2020

The Rest Is History

with Tom Holland, Dominic Sandbrook

Two British historians who are actually friends, covering everything from the Persian Wars to the Titanic in multi-part runs. It is fast, well-sourced and often very funny. New episodes several times a week.

History without the gravitas. Start with any multi-episode series on a topic you like.

Economics · 2008

Planet Money

with NPR

Economics explained through one story at a time: the show once bought a toxic asset to see what would happen, and once made a t-shirt to follow it around the world. Twenty minutes, several times a week.

Listen if you have ever nodded through a conversation about interest rates.

Psychology · 2015

Hidden Brain

with Shankar Vedantam

Why people do what they do, one study or one idea per episode, with the researcher usually in the room. Vedantam is a calm interviewer who asks the question you were about to.

For the walk home from work. Episodes are under an hour and leave you with one idea.

Science · 2015

Science Vs

with Wendy Zukerman

Takes a popular claim, from intermittent fasting to the five-second rule, and checks it against the actual studies. Zukerman is funny, the citations are listed, and the answer is often more interesting than yes or no.

A quick, honest answer to the thing a friend keeps saying at dinner.

Technology, True crime · 2017

Darknet Diaries

with Jack Rhysider

True stories from the dark side of the internet: hackers, penetration testers who break into banks for a living, nation-state attacks. Rhysider explains the technical parts without slowing down, and he gets the people who did it to talk.

Episodes stand alone. Each one explains how a real breach happened.

History · 2013

Revolutions

with Mike Duncan

Ten revolutions, one per season, from the English Civil War to the Russian Revolution, told in order in half-hour chapters. Duncan's earlier show on Rome is also still up. In 2024 he returned with a fictional eleventh season set on Mars.

Each revolution is told in order over dozens of episodes. Start with the French Revolution, which runs over fifty parts.

Storytelling, Economics · 2019

Cautionary Tales

with Tim Harford

Disasters and mistakes, from plane crashes to the Millennium Bridge, and what they teach about how people think. Harford writes for the Financial Times, and the show has actors reading the parts.

Half an hour per episode, each one a story with a lesson you will remember.

Curiosity · 2023

Search Engine

with PJ Vogt

One question per episode, from why there are so few airline pilots to what it is like to lose a fortune in crypto. Vogt co-founded Reply All, and this is the follow-up: a question, a few phone calls, and an answer that usually arrives somewhere unexpected.

For people who liked Reply All and were sorry it ended.

Comedy and conversation

7 shows

Shows you keep for the company. You will not remember most episodes, and that is the point.

Comedy, Interviews · 2018

Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend

with Conan O'Brien

O'Brien interviews a guest each week and spends about half the time arguing with his assistant and his producer, who are the real co-hosts. Few interview shows are this consistently funny, and the guests seem to be having the best time of anyone.

Start with any guest you already like, then stay for the episodes with nobody you have heard of.

Comedy · 2020

SmartLess

with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, Will Arnett

One of the three hosts brings a surprise guest the other two do not know about. The guests are big and the hosts mostly tease each other. It is famous for a reason; the chemistry is real.

Easy listening for a long car journey. Episodes run about an hour.

Improv comedy · 2009

Comedy Bang! Bang!

with Scott Aukerman

Aukerman hosts a fake talk show where comedians drop in playing invented characters, and nobody breaks. Fifteen years of recurring characters have built a world. It is the deep end of comedy podcasts.

Give it three episodes. Once you know who Paul F. Tompkins is playing, you are in.

Comedy · 2010

My Brother, My Brother and Me

with Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy

Three brothers answer questions from the internet, badly, with affection. It is kinder than most comedy shows and the running jokes go back fifteen years. The McElroys also make The Adventure Zone, on the fiction shelf.

Laughs with nobody as the target.

Comedy, Food · 2018

Off Menu

with Ed Gamble, James Acaster

A guest describes their dream meal, course by course, and two comedians heckle their choices. The format is an excuse; the fun is watching Acaster find the one thing about someone's bread choice that becomes a twenty-minute bit.

A British show, so expect some references to fly past. Any episode works.

Comedy, Trivia · 2014

No Such Thing as a Fish

with The QI Elves

The researchers behind the quiz show QI each bring their favorite fact of the week and go off on tangents about it. Half an hour, weekly, and you will repeat at least one fact at dinner.

For people who liked QI and want the writers' room.

Comedy, Storytelling · 2022

Normal Gossip

with Kelsey McKinney

Anonymous gossip about strangers, retold to a guest who reacts in real time: a knitting circle feud, a wedding gone wrong. McKinney hosted the first four seasons; the show has since changed hosts and kept the format.

Drama with no stakes for you, which is the best kind.

Fiction, horror and tabletop

4 shows

Audio drama and actual-play shows. These are the closest a podcast gets to a TV series.

Fiction, Comedy · 2012

Welcome to Night Vale

with Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor

Community radio from a desert town where every conspiracy theory is true and the city council is not human. Cecil Baldwin's voice as the host carries it. Two hundred and fifty episodes in, it is one of the longest-running fiction podcasts anywhere.

Start from the beginning; the slow-building romance is better in order.

Horror fiction · 2016 · Complete, 200 episodes

The Magnus Archives

with Jonathan Sims

An archivist records witness statements about supernatural events, one per episode, and the statements slowly connect into a single story. Two hundred episodes, finished in 2021, with a planned ending. A sequel series, The Magnus Protocol, started in 2024.

For horror fans. Episodes are twenty minutes; the first ten are standalone enough to judge it.

Actual play, Comedy · 2014

The Adventure Zone

with The McElroys

Three brothers and their father play Dungeons & Dragons, and what starts as a joke campaign becomes, by its end, a moving story. The first campaign, Balance, is complete at sixty-nine episodes and is the one to hear.

No tabletop experience needed. The rules are explained badly and it does not matter.

Horror fiction · 2019

Old Gods of Appalachia

with Steve Shell, Cam Collins

Horror set in an alternate Appalachia where the mountains hold something old and company towns dig too deep. Shell narrates in his own accent and the writing has a storyteller's rhythm.

Night Vale, if it were scarier and sadder.

About the things you track

9 shows

Shows about movies, books, music and games. Since you are here, you probably want at least one of these.

Film · 2017

The Rewatchables

with Bill Simmons

A panel re-watches one movie per episode and argues about it with a set of recurring categories: best quote, most rewatchable scene, who won the movie. It is about the films you have seen ten times, which turns out to be a bigger subject than it sounds.

Pick an episode about a film you love. If you disagree with them, that is half the fun.

Film · 2015

Blank Check with Griffin & David

with Griffin Newman, David Sims

One director's whole filmography, one film per week, with the premise that a big early success gives a director a blank check to make anything. The hosts are a comedian and a critic, and the series on Spielberg and Miyazaki are long and loving.

Pick a filmmaker and start at their first film; the show goes through a director in order.

Film history · 2014

You Must Remember This

with Karina Longworth

The first century of Hollywood told in researched, scripted seasons: the Manson murders and the film industry, the blacklist, Polly Platt. Longworth writes every word and it reads like a book you are being read.

Each season is self-contained. Try it when you have run out of film documentaries.

Music · 2014

Song Exploder

with Hrishikesh Hirway

A musician takes one of their songs apart, track by track, and explains how it was made. The host edits himself out, so it is just the artist and the stems. Fifteen to twenty minutes.

Find an episode about a song you know. You will never hear it the same way.

Storytelling · 1995

This American Life

with Ira Glass

An hour a week, a theme, and a few stories about it, running for thirty years. Many of the people on this shelf started here. The archive is vast and searchable by topic.

Start with the episode on any subject that interests you. There is one.

True crime, Stories · 2014

Criminal

with Phoebe Judge

Stories about crime from odd angles: people who were wrongly accused, a man who stole a house, the history of the lie detector. Judge has the calmest voice in the medium and never sensationalizes.

True crime for people who think they do not like true crime.

Storytelling · 2009

The Moth

with The Moth

True stories told live on stage, without notes, by ordinary people and the occasional famous one. The best are about five minutes long and stay with you for years.

For a short commute. Each episode has a few stories, so you can stop anywhere.

Anime, Conversation · 2020

Trash Taste

with Joey Bizinger, Garnt Maneetapho, Connor Colquhoun

Three YouTubers living in Japan talk for two hours about anime, manga, games and the strangeness of being foreigners in Tokyo. It is loose and sometimes crude, and the audience is enormous for a reason.

For anime fans who want company. Skip around; there is no order.

Books · 2015

Backlisted

with Andy Miller, John Mitchinson

Two book people and a guest talk about one older book that deserves a second look. It has sent a lot of out-of-print novels back into print. Warm, well read, and British.

For readers who want their to-read pile to get longer.

Keep the ones you pick

OmniTrackr is a free tracker for the podcasts you get through, alongside your movies, shows, games, books and albums. Save a few from this page now; they move into your library the moment you create an account.

Create a free accountHow the podcasts tracker works
  • Manga worth startingA manga shelf is a commitment problem. The best-known series run to dozens of volumes, and the short ones rarely get recommended because nobody has to ask how long they are. These shelves sort by that question first.
  • Audiobooks worth the listenThe narrator is the difference between an audiobook you finish and one you abandon in week two. These shelves are chosen for the performance as much as the book, and every entry names who reads it and how long it runs.
  • Popular titles across every formatThe movies, shows, anime, games, books and albums members track most.
  • Discover trailsEditorial trails that connect four formats through one idea.

How this page is put together

These shelves are OmniTrackr's own picks, written by the site and checked against each show's own feed and publisher pages. Nothing on this page is a member rating, and nothing is sponsored. The chart at the top is the current top shows on Apple Podcasts in the United States and refreshes a few times a day.

Years are when a show first aired. Hosts are the current ones unless the entry says otherwise. Shows that have finished are marked; the rest were still publishing when this page was written.

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