podcasts to listen to
Been pulling together a list of the best podcasts individual podcast episodes I listened to this year (regardless of original release date).
These are all painfully good.
1619: The Birth of American Music - The story of American music and its relationship to Blackness. This, to me, is the perfect audio story.
Dolly Parton's America: I Will Always Leave You - The story of Dolly Parton's rise to stardom and the story behind writing hits like "I Will Always Love You" and "Jonele".
Constellation Prize: Crossing Guard - Really what I needed when I needed it. Very 2020. Loneliness. A brilliant, brave idea, and some really brilliant storytelling techniques.
Constellation Prize: Two Years with Franz - Another one from the same podcast. Created about two years before the others. Again an unbelievable premise. Took a while to get into it but undeniably brilliant by the end.
The Cut: The Joy of Sext - The pinnacle of "current event" podcasting. Insightful, well researched, and strung together by some great interview subjects.
Reply All: The Case of the Missing Hit - it was a tough choice between this and Zardulu (which originally aired in 2016). The Case of the Missing Hit is on the top of many people's best episodes of 2020 for a reason. It's just a really ambitious idea. It's proof that sometimes just doing the thing is what makes it great.
Forget every other list of "best podcasts of 2020". I've read them all. This is the one that matters most.
Will add to this list as I think of more.
The more obvious choices from some familiar names:
Radiolab: Dispatches from 1918 - Writing, podcasts, videos etc. about the pandemic never quite landed from me. It was always the last thing I wanted to hear about. This was the only one that felt entertaining and interesting to me. It showed that their contribution to the world - the thing they do consistently - was still worth doing no matter what they were doing it about.
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Mortification and Civilization - One of the best examples of what the medium can be like. Which is to say beautifully uncomplicated. Chose this episode because it covered a theme - civilization - that I often think about. But easily could have chosen any of the others.
Heavyweight: Vivian - While listening to this episode I cried because I was jealous of how meaningful making something like this must be.