Maybe 2017 was the year of the albatross, but at least one thing’s been pretty great: we’re in the golden age for podcasts. Here are a few of the year’s best, from old favorites to groundbreaking storytelling that sticks with you.
99 Percent Invisible: This Is Chance: Anchorwoman of the Great Alaska Earthquake
I tend to skip live podcast recordings, but 99 Percent Invisible skillfully pulls off this theatrical retelling of how a radio reporter, Genie Chance, weathered a tremendous earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska. It speaks to the fragility of life and the importance of grit and perseverance in the face of adversity, and the quote from Chance at the end made my heart soar.
All Things Considered: Not A Random Attack
This isn’t a podcast, but it’s among the most compelling audio I’ve ever heard. After their colleagues, David Gilkey and Zabihullah Tamanna, were killed during an ambush in Afghanistan, NPR began investigating what really happened and why. Using audio from the attack itself, this segment exposes the journalists’ raw vulnerability amid tragedy, while simultaneously arming them with the strength and authority of telling one’s own story and reporting the truth.
Criminal: All the time in the world
As per usual, Criminal has had a stellar year, but I was most struck by this piece where host Phoebe Judge visits Texas State University’s body farm, a place where researchers study how bodies decompose. Judge made a place that most of us would find completely revolting sound fascinating and even peaceful.
Homecoming is a fiction podcast, so rather than highlight an individual episode, I’d like to point you in the general direction of the whole show. Starring Catherine Keener and David Schwimmer, Homecoming is moving, funny and surprising every step of the way. In the second season, actress and all-around badass Amy Sedaris played a greater role, which highlighted the discomfort of attempting a leadership role at a company that’s questionable at best.
How To Be Amazing: Andy Borowitz
Guest host Dean Obeidallah speaks here with New Yorker columnist Andy Borowitz, and it is hilarious. His description of writing for “The Facts of Life” killed me, and he also gets into the differences between satire and fake news.
Radiolab: Nukes
2017 marked the only time in my life when the threat of nuclear weapons became real for me. So I appreciated this Radiolab episode, which gets into the actual decision-making that goes into dropping a nuclear arm. The episode also describes in painfully stark terms (and even starker sound art) what a nuclear bomb is like.
Reply All: Man of the People
This episode isn’t just one of my favorite episodes of the year. It’s for sure an all-time favorite that I want everyone I know and don’t know – just anyone with ears – to hear.
The episode gets into the bizarre life of a charlatan who exploited radio to manipulate people and somehow popularized country music along the way. That’s the gist, but then there’s the nature of his con, which is nuts. As in, it literally involves goat testicles.
S-Town: The complete series
This American Life and Serial produced this Southern gothic podcast that digs into the life of an eccentric, brilliant and troubled man from a small town in Alabama. The way S-Town tells his story is also brilliant with its knack for slowly revealing the complexities and contradictions of a cast of characters who are not what they seem at first (or second or third) glance.
Strangers: Do You Like My Little Lie?
I started listening to Strangers late last year, and it quickly became one of my favorites. This episode is chilling and gave me multiple bouts of goose bumps. It takes place shortly after Christmas, when a woman’s father asked her to clean the room where her grandmother had died.
Terrible, Thanks for Asking: Chapter 2
I’m new to Terrible, Thanks for Asking, but was instantly charmed by host Nora McInerny, who walks listeners through completely depressing things with humor and considerable insight. This personal episode gracefully holds McInerny’s grief and rebirth parallel to that of Casey, whose wife died the same day as her husband.
United States of Anxiety: The Birth of Climate Denial
Our hyper-partisan culture is a hellscape that will for sure keep us warm this winter, but sometimes it’s nice to get some perspective on how that might have happened. In this episode, United States of Anxiety tackles climate change, one of the most polarizing issues around. This episode shows that not only did environmentalism have non-partisan origins, the media can take credit for defining climate change as something you can either believe in or not, rather than reality backed by science.
WTF: Jason Mantzoukas
I find WTF a kind of hit-or-miss show, but Marc Maron’s interview with actor and improv genius Jason Mantzoukas is a serious win. I had no idea before listening to this that Mantzoukas, who has been more or less pigeonholed as a character actor, was so driven, book-smart and adventurous. Case in point: He was arrested in Morocco while studying ethnomusicology abroad before he got into comedy.