100 Outstanding Podcasts of 2019

Our favorite podcasts of the year, as chosen by the Bello Collective and friends

For the fourth year — and our 100th issue — The Bello Collective is proud to share our list of 100 outstanding podcasts. The selections in this list were determined by The Bello Collective writers, editors, and friends, and appear in no particular order. For more great audio to add to your queue, visit our lists from 2018, 2017 and 2016.

The Bello 100 list is presented by Podchaser, the premiere podcast database and your daily source for podcast discovery. Open to anyone on any platform, you can use Podchaser to rate & review podcasts and episodes, track creator & guest appearances, create playlists, follow friend activity, and much more. And by the PodMov Daily newsletter from the team at Podcast Movement, delivered fresh every weekday morning with the latest industry news and podcaster resources. We thank them for their support.

Less Than, Approximately, Greater Than, “#1 - Clafoutis”

Gimlet Media

If I’d known that in wishing for Samin Nosrat to have a podcast I needed to ask for more than one episode… I would have done it (I’m sorry, universe. Just think of what a gift this would be to Podlandia!), but until then: the expanded universe of “The Roman Mars Mazda Virus” episode of Reply All will have to suffice. In testing the weird (non-alphanumeric) character theory of why certain podcast names break some car stereos, the Reply All team made a few easter egg episodes, including this one-off feed about how to cook by feel, hosted by Nosrat with special guest Alex Goldman.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Samin Nosrat

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello Contributor and Podcast Librarian at RadioPublic

Still Processing, “M.J.”

New York Times

Still Processing by The New York Times is an excellent way to learn about popular culture and politics from the lens of an underrepresented minority group. Hosts Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham discuss music, literature, video, Netflix, memes and other forms of pop culture, always providing the lens of being black in America today. You should listen to this podcast to learn about American society and cultural ideas other than the mainstream (white) and dominant narrative. After listening for awhile, the hosts become your friends and cultural guides in a complicated and often racist cultural production.

Website | Podchaser | Hosts: Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham

Chosen by Ramsey Tesdell, Sowt Podcastings

All My Relations, “Decolonizing Sex”

Independent

All My Relations is my favorite interview and conversational podcast that debuted this year; hosts Dr. Adrienne Keene and Matika Wilbur dig into the issues, relationships, and ideas Native American peoples are involved in and faced with today. The episode that has sat with me the longest is definitely the second conversation with Dr. Kim Tallbear (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate) as she delves into her work on critical polyamory, compulsory monogamy, and disrupting the settler colonial marriage structure. Every episode of All My Relations strikes against the white settler-colonialism that has stolen space for itself, and “Decolonizing Sex” makes plain how deep and far those invasive tendrils go.

Website | Podchaser | Hosts: Matika Wilbur and Adrienne Keene

Chosen by Elena Fernández Collins, Bello Staff Writer and creator of the Audio Dramatic newsletter

The Comedian’s Comedian, “Sofie Hagen”

Independent

The interview format for podcasts has become so prevalent now that I feel like the bar for good ones keeps getting higher. I need to be surprised. This show is primarily about stand up comedy, but host Stuart Goldsmith uses this subject as a way of talking about life, art and politics more broadly. His guest here, the Danish comedian and activist Sofie Hagen, talks incredibly frankly about the racist, misogynist comedy scene where she started out in Denmark, but is also honest about why she’s now choosing to pivot away from being a vocal activist for the sake of her career. Like all the best conversations, this one leaves you pondering issues in your own life, such as: what is the right balance between self preservation and speaking out?

Website | Podchaser | Host: Stuart Goldsmith

Chosen by Caroline Crampton, writer for Hot Pod and The Listener

Truth Be Told, “Joy”

KQED

It’s been months since I first heard this episode, and I still can’t stop thinking about it. It takes the complicatedness of the world to bring us an advice podcast like this, one that takes on big, personal questions particularly pressing and present for people of color, and it also takes the same complicatedness to bring us such pure, ebullient joy through spontaneous song. Things are hard, and things are beautiful, and music is the perfect encapsulation of these intertwined states in this debut episode.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Tonya Mosley

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello Contributor and Podcast Librarian at RadioPublic

The Secret Room, “Objectum Sexual”

Independent

On this show, anonymous people call in and tell the host their secret, including many stories that have never been shared before. In this episode, a caller shares a unique sexual orientation called objectum sexual, in which one forms sexual and/or romantic attractions to objects. This is a perfect example of how a podcast has opened up my eyes to the hidden world around me.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Ben Hamm

Chosen by Paul Kondo, Bello Contributor and creator of the Podcast Gumbo newsletter

The New Yorker Radio Hour, “Roger Federer Opens Up”

The New Yorker/WNYC

The New Yorker is unlike any other publication, in my opinion, having the history and patience to produce excellent journalism and society shaking writing from young, old or new and established writers.

Host David Remnick leads the listeners through challenging interviews with influential people, explores the power and peril of producing journalism in the age of internet and vitriol, and culturally important issues and people. Having been the editor of The New Yorker since 1998, with many awards including a Pulitzer Prize, Remnick has the history, experience, and context to interview anyone without pause, and doesn’t hesitate to ask thoughtful questions no matter how hard the interviewee avoids the topic.

I enjoy this podcast for many reasons, but especially because I learn something from each episode.

Website | Podchaser | Host: David Remnick

Chosen by Ramsey Tesdell, Sowt Podcasting

Women of Harry Potter, “Pansy Parkinson”

Not Sorry Productions

A spin-off of the Harry Potter and the Sacred Text universe, Women of Harry Potter centers marginalized characters in the Harry Potter universe by bestowing a blessing. This episode is complicated: Vanessa Zoltan offers a blessing for forgiveness for the choices and actions of teenagers, and Ariana Nedelman pushes back. Together, they encourage us to more closely examine how we look at our younger selves and peers with empathy and perspective.

Website | Podchaser | Hosts: Vanessa Zoltan and Ariana Nedelman

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello Contributor and Podcast Librarian at RadioPublic

Mad Chat, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”

Independent

Sandy Allen’s Mad Chat unpacks what our pop culture is telling us about madness and mental health. I marathoned the TV show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend — what did it do to my brain? How has it shaped the world I see when it comes to mental illness? What about BoJack Horseman, Killing Eve, or Donnie Darko? Sandy is the expert who warmly and compassionately explains it to us with a guest, who always chooses the subject of the show. It’s important, has great guests, and is funny. There’s nothing like it.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Sandy Allen

Chosen by Lauren Passell, Bello Contributor and creator of Podcast: The Newsletter

Love Letters, “Too Big to Fail”

The Boston Globe / PRX

Dream crossover episode alert: love and relationship advice expert Meredith Goldstein interviews expert interviewer Anna Sale about two of her favorite topics: love and money. The third season of Love Letters is about turning points, dubbed the “How will I know?” season, and in Anna Sale’s relationship with her boyfriend, the turning point was around a couch, a comfy yet uncomfortable stand-in for a discussion that was actually about the future.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Meredith Goldstein

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello Contributor and Podcast Librarian at RadioPublic

The Homecomers, “Mental and Spiritual Well-Being in Agricultural Spaces”

Independent

It’s one of the only things that is absolutely necessary to keep us alive, but the food system is literally killing the people who are the backbone of it all. Debbie Weingarten shines a light on the intense pressures of being a farmer, including the tight financial margins, the isolation, and the ongoing trauma of losing family land and livelihood, and asks us to flip the script: how do we begin to value our food growers not only for what they grow but also for their labor and their expertise?

Website | Podchaser | Host: Sarah Smarsh

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello Contributor and Podcast Librarian at RadioPublic

All Fantasy Everything, “Slang Words You Wish Were Cool Again”

Headgum

Here’s the pitch: All Fantasy Everything elevates the “Friends Talking About Stuff” podcast genre to new incredible new heights. Now, stay with me. Ian Karmel, David Borie, and Sean Jordan are professional comedians who are genuinely amazing friends and genuinely hilarious. You can tell they spend the majority of their days together, as they whip jokes, sick burns, and sweet compliments at each other at high speeds. The fantasy draft structure, where you pick something to be on your team in a defined “drafting” order, is the ostensible reason why they’re there, but they’d having these conversations regardless of the microphones. Start with this episode, which demonstrates how much these guys can think about things that you’ve never considered.

Website | Podchaser | Hosts: Sean Jordan, Ian Karmel, and David Borie

Chosen by Eric Silver, Bello Contributor and Head of Creative at Multitude

Adult ISH, “Cuffed ISH (ft. Sexologist Shan Boody & our exes…)”

YR Media and Radiotopia

Yes, they went there: after a suggestion from guest Shan Boody for the hosts to take the time to learn more about themselves by spending some time talking about their past relationships, Nyge Turner and Merk Nguyen call up their exes. It’s awkward as hell, along with being reflective, cute, and refreshing.

Website | Podchaser | Hosts: Angela Nguyen and Nygel Turner

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello Contributor and Podcast Librarian at RadioPublic

The B-Sides, “Resistance Music”

Independent

Pop music makes us feel good, but it often isn’t taken very seriously. Hosts Hannah, Becky and Mimi want to change that with The B-Sides, a podcast for progressives who love pop music. The hosts go deep on underrated pop music and the politics behind it — like the history of resistance music, why we should know Jack Antonoff, what pop music is today, and what Lizzo means in Trump’s America. The companion newsletter is lengthy and informative, and each episode comes with a playlist.

Website | Podchaser

Chosen by Lauren Passell, Bello Contributor and creator of Podcast: The Newsletter

Minor Adventures with Topher Grace, “Whitney Cummings takes a lie detector test!”

Unqualified Media

Amongst the many celebrity-hosted shows that have come out in the last several years, Minor Adventures with Topher Grace stands out because it abandons the typical chat show format. In each episode, Grace takes his guests on a surprise adventure. In this episode, comedian Whitney Cummings and Grace take a lie detector test. It’s 45 minutes of light, amusing, and panic-inducing fun as they are tested by a no-nonsense professional.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Topher Grace

Chosen by Paul Kondo, Bello Contributor and creator of the Podcast Gumbo newsletter

Gay Future, series

Gay Future Productions

Gay Future has proven itself to be the most biting satire of homophobia and fascism during the Trump era. It effectively imagines that “this is the future liberals want” meme to its most dystopic extreme: it’s 2062 and everyone must be gay and categorized (by a John Travolta sorting hat). The podcasts leans on — and mocks ruthlessly — the tropes of a young, orphaned hero’s quest and a rag-tag crew rebelling against the evil empire. Practically every line delivers a joke that is both clever and cutting (there’s a Kylie Minogue birthing facility, Wig Snatch Island, and the Chloe Sevigny Forest), and the sci-fi sound design is fantastic. But what makes the entire series a standout is the realization that while the extremes and classifications of queer culture is critiqued, the overt and subtle harms of a heteronormative society get exaggeratedly mirrored in this “never released YA novel by Mike Pence.”

Website | Podchaser | Ensemble

Chosen by Phoebe Lett, The New York Times

CARAVAN, “I See a Darkness”

The Whisperforge

Whisperforge’s CARAVAN was one of my favorite fiction releases of the year, putting immigrant voices front and center, most audibly in the form of protagonist Samir, a young, queer, Southeast Asian man who falls into a vast and unknowable canyon during a camping trip with his best friend (and secret crush). The eighth episode, “I See a Darkness,” leaves the audience hot, bothered, and a little bit heart-broken. We spend a lot of time inside of Samir’s head, because part of the draw of CARAVAN is listening to what Samir really thinks, versus what he’s saying aloud. In this episode, Samir draws into himself to indulge in steamy wish fulfillment with a dream version of the vampire, Miguel.

Website | Podchaser | Created by Tau Zaman

Chosen by Elena Fernández Collins, Bello Staff Writer and creator of the Audio Dramatic newsletter

Mija, series

Studio Ochenta

Mija is a trilingual production (it is available in English, Spanish and French) where Lory Martinez explores her family’s immigrant history. Through soundscapes and first-person accounts, Lory weaves together a sound-rich oral history that has topped the charts in Europe.

Website | Podchaser | Creator: Lory Martinez

Chosen by Martina Castro, Podcaster@s

Guerra 3, season two

Podium Podcast

This is probably one of the most important fiction podcasts in Spanish of the year. Conceived as a cinematic production (with professional actors, writers, and complex sound design), Guerra 3 gathered a lot of attention last year with its Season 1. Not only the sound is polished, the plot is dystopian and relatable: a Spanish journalist travels to North Korea to cover a sports event and ends up revealing World War 3. The story has continued this year with Season 2, that goes deeper in sound richness and narrative. This new season also means that Podium Podcast (a podcast network created by the biggest broadcasting company in Spain) is willing to sponsor audio fictions like this one and go for bigger projects from now on.

Website | Podchaser | Ensemble

Chosen by Laura Ubate, Podcaster@s

Nipe Story, “Stupid Death by Brenda Siara”

Independent

This was the year that I realised podcasts were the best way to experience short fiction, a format that I’ve always struggled to get into on the page. This show from Kenya showcases well-produced readings of short stories from African authors, selected and introduced by host Kevin Mwachiro. This particular story, written by Brenda Siara and read by poet Sitawa Namwalie, stayed with me as a striking and universal portrayal of the relationship between grief and anger that is also deeply rooted in its Nairobi setting.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Kevin Mwachiro

Chosen by Caroline Crampton, writer for Hot Pod and The Listener

Victoriocity, “The Circus”

Independent

Clara Entwhistle and Inspector Fleet returned for a much-anticipated second season of Victoriocity, and it did not disappoint. One of my all-time favourite audio dramas, this steampunk comedy detective series set in an alternative Victorian London is clever, funny, and endlessly inventive. The pairing of Tom Crowley (Fleet) and Layla Katib (Entwhistle) continues to drive the show, but there’s a wide-ranging cast, including the brilliantly weird cyborg Queen Victoria and her beleaguered husband, Prince Albert. In a short-run series like this, it is difficult to pick out a single episode, but “The Circus” stood out for its imaginative plot, great supporting characters, and truly immersive sound design.

Website | Podchaser | Ensemble

Chosen by Conor Reid, Bello Contributor and Podcasting Editor at HeadStuff

The Carlötta Beautox Chronicles, “The Schtick Hits the Fan”

Independent

More. Audio. Sitcoms! Jersey girl Carlötta Beautox has landed in Hollywood to launch her career as an actress… but til she does, she’s keeping a diary as she travels around LA working odd jobs, and running into celebrities, and getting into all kinds of situations. In this episode, we’re dropped right in the middle of a major situation: Carlötta unknowingly finds herself inside a beta-test for a new holistic treatment that’s part of a grand scheme to destroy American culture, and she gets *this close* to her 15 minutes of fame.

Website | Podchaser | Creator: Ann Sloan

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello Contributor and Podcast Librarian at RadioPublic

Slaughterhouse Road, series

Independent

By its own description, Slaughterhouse Road is “a tragic alt-country australiana romantic horror musical podcast set in a jaded small town on Australia’s east coast.” Honestly, how could I pass that up? That’s about as original as it can get. Original doesn’t always mean great, but this 45-minute series delivered, especially with its fantastic music.

Website | Podchaser | Creator: Jessica Hamilton

Chosen by Paul Kondo, Bello Contributor and creator of the Podcast Gumbo newsletter

Accession, “1943 — Nightlife”

Independent

Accession lives within the space of audio experimentation and the experience of art; in “Nightlife,” T.H. Ponders produces the rhythmic beat and sway of a juke joint in 1943. But they take a backseat as the voices of other wonderful creators — Keisha TK Dutes, Conscious, Morgan Givens, and Ronald Young, Jr. — flesh out the sound and story of what it’s like living and surviving in the Harlem Renaissance. This episode writes a possible story within the painting “Nightlife,” by Archibald Motley, giving historical context to his reaction to World War II as well as more familiar voices, like Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks.

Website | Podchaser | Created by T.H. Ponders

Chosen by Elena Fernández Collins, Bello Staff Writer and creator of the Audio Dramatic newsletter

Still Lives, “The Quiet”

Independent

The true beauty of Still Lives is that it sounds exactly like winter after some sort of Apocalyptic event. It is an intimate portrait of the lengths a family will go to to survive, the place of the “other” within our society, and the lengths we will go to to protect our own. The way it is stripped of all unnecessary sound pushes the story to the forefront.

Website | Listen on Podchaser | Ensemble

Chosen by Calen Cross, Bello Staff Writer

Moonface, series

Independent

I spent too long trying to figure out which episode of Moonface to pick; in the end, I refused to do so. James Kim’s Moonface is one of the most beautiful works of audio I have listened to this year. In six episodes, Kim weaves his own experiences into a fictionalized narrative in the form of Paul, a gay Korean-American man who doesn’t speak Korean and therefore cannot converse intimately with his mother. Paul’s journey arcs through his relationships and sincere love of the art of audio, his struggles with racism and internal desires to be white, and his attempts to come out to his mother. Moonface lives agonizingly close to the heart, raw and reaching profound depths with every aspect, down to the episode credits music choices, woven together so tight they can’t be uncoiled.

Website| Podchaser | Created by James Kim

Chosen by Elena Fernández Collins, Bello Staff Writer and creator of the Audio Dramatic newsletter

Exeter, “The Gun in the Woods”

Sundance Channel

What if you only had the audio track of a really good movie? That is what Exeter feels like. A small town murder, a cop looking for redemption, and a cold case that haunts everyone. It feels like a trope, but the acting makes it work so well that I am waiting for the movie adaptation. My recommendation is for the first episode of season 2, so if you’re new to the series, go back and start at season 1.

Website | Podchaser | Ensemble

Chosen by Calen Cross, Bello Staff Writer

Radio Rental, “Laura of the Woods”

Radio.com

Radio Rental brings us true stories told by the people who experienced them, with narration and production that puts chills down my spine. Many of them are just disturbingly eerie — the kind of scary stories that have happened to us, or make us wonder if we have experienced our own darkness and peril without realizing it. I find myself getting goosebumps and throwing my hands to my face while listening. Beware: “Laura of the Woods” is particularly terrifying.

Website | Podchaser

Chosen by Lauren Passell, Bello Contributor and creator of Podcast: The Newsletter

The Truth, “The Body Genius” (miniseries)

Radiotopia

This is a five-part murder mystery miniseries from Jonathan Mitchell’s consistently excellent The Truth. Chris Cafero plays Evan, a Hollywood personal trainer who constantly reminded me of Brad Pitt’s character in the film Burn After Reading. He’s hard-working and dedicated to his clients but, as he’s ready to admit, more about the brawn than the brains. When he gets caught up in a gruesome murder at his gym, he quickly realises he is in way over his head. The first-person narrative allows us to get inside Evan’s head, laughing at his naïveté and over-the-top LA gym bro observations, while still absolutely rooting for him to come out on top. Also, bonus points for the best use of podcast episode GIFs I’ve ever seen.

Website | Podchaser | Ensemble

Chosen by Conor Reid, Bello Contributor and Podcasting Editor at HeadStuff

Passenger List, series

Radiotopia

I greeted this premiere with intense anticipation because it’s a crossover of creators I never expected to see. John Scott Dryden, legendary British producer of audio fiction like the 2000 adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, Tumanbay, and Life/After, working alongside rising-star American writer-director Lauren Shippen of The Bright Sessions? The collaboration does not disappoint: Dryden’s love of intrigue and Shippen’s masterful command of drama twine into a taut, shimmering braid of a show.

Kelly Marie Tran stars as Kaitlin Le, a student in New York obsessed with the disappearance of Atlantic Flight 702, which disappeared between Heathrow and JFK. Her brother Connor was aboard, an her grief over his loss drives her to make perilously risky decisions: there’s nothing she won’t say to get leverage over someone with a portion of the truth, nobody she won’t impersonate, no danger she won’t place herself in. It’s a clever, well-researched, and fiendishly well-acted show that doesn’t overstay its welcome; it’s a piece of audio fiction I recommend to anyone with an interest in film thrillers or tense TV mysteries.

Website | Podchaser | Ensemble

Chosen by David Rheinstrom, host of Radio Drama Revival

Unwell, “The Storm”

HartLife NFP

The creeping dread lingering the corners of Unwell scratches at the windows in the sixth episode. Unwell clinches Gothic horror and the Midwest in every beat of the season, harnessing classic tropes and themes to their maximum potential and subverting the harm that Gothic literature laid down. “The Storm” screeches like an ancient hinge on a door you can only hear and not find. I love how the boarding house is its own character, exquisitely designed down to the sound of the pipes in each room and the different creak of every door, and how in this episode the house takes its first full, horrifying breath.

Website | Podchaser | Ensemble

Chosen by Elena Fernández Collins, Bello Staff Writer and creator of the Audio Dramatic newsletter

Mockery Manor, “Where Childhood Never Dies”

LOLS

As a lover of Disney and also darkness, I feel like the fictional Mockery Manor was made just for me. It’s a narrative mystery series set in the summer of 1989, when the Mockery Manor amusement park is gearing up for its 1989 grand re-opening, and with it, its owners are hoping to bury the park’s disturbing history once and for all. The show promises to explore the idea that “the past doesn’t go away just because you want it to, and the dead don’t always stay buried.”

Website | Podchaser | Creators: Laurence Owen and Lindsay Sharman

Chosen by Lauren Passell, Bello Contributor and creator of Podcast: The Newsletter

Make-Believe, “City on Fire: Chicago Race Riot 1919”

Independent

The first season of Make-Believe is mostly comprised of fascinating and engaging retellings and reimaginings of folktales from marginalized cultures. However, the last episode of 2019, a docudrama about the summer of 1919 that wrecked and remade the topography and face of Chicago, hits right where it hurts: in the parts of history so often erased or elided over. With voice actors and real historical documents, Make-Believe and WBEZ Chicago recreate that summer, the people forgotten, and the long-lasting impact on the Black community in Chicago, starting from Eugene Williams, a Black swimmer who died after being hit by a white man throwing rocks. Every scene is crafted with great care, to both honor and respect the people who suffered, and to put 1919 into the context of current understandings of Chicago.

Website | Podchaser | Ensemble

Chosen by Elena Fernández Collins, Bello Staff Writer and creator of the Audio Dramatic newsletter

The Amelia Project, “Bartholomew BEEP-face Chucklepants Knucklecracker”

Independent

Produced in Vienna, Oslo, and Paris by a team of theater artists, The Amelia Project is a comedy with an awfully grim premise: the titular project is a secretive organization dedicated to helping people fake their own deaths, on the condition that their problems are sufficiently interesting, as determined by a silken-voiced, haughty Interviewer (Alan Burgon) or his colleague Alvina (Julia C. Thorne). The show consists of standalone episodes, but in this second season, a frame story (MI5 is onto them!) accelerates the plot. The two voices you’ll hear in the opening minutes of the episode are the two unlucky MI5 agents who have been poring over endless recordings, trying as hard as they can to build a case against Amelia.

This particular episode features Felix Trench, playing a dolorous man saddled with the name Bartholomew Fuckface Chucklepants Knucklecracker, the party leader of the The Funky Fancy Fatuous Fishy Fizzy Flashy Flirtatious Frolicking Freewheeling Farting Facile Farcical Farfetched Feebleminded Featherbrained Faddish Facetious Funny as Fuck Party, or the FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFP for short. You see, there’s a general election coming up, and though he’s the party leader of a thoroughly obscure rump party, Knucklecracker is concerned that there’s a very real chance he might become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Accordingly, he wants to disappear.

Website | Podchaser | Ensemble

Chosen by David Rheinstrom, host of Radio Drama Revival

The Deca Tapes, “The Cook”

Independent

The Deca Tapes is a locked room murder mystery set in space. WIth its blend of whodunnit, dystopia, and science fiction, it’s Agatha Christie meets Brave New World meets something like Duncan Jones’s Moon. Ten nameless characters have been confined together and given a role and strict instructions on the part they are to play (e.g. “The Teacher” or “The Entertainer”) . One by one, they narrate and confess their stories and backstories, as a number of mysteries are slowly unraveled. It seems wrong to pull out just a single episode of such an interwoven show, but “The Cook” (Episode 3) is the point after which there is simply no way I was going to stop listening until the entire mystery was revealed. Cleverly plotted and impeccably produced throughout by Lex Noteboom, The Deca Tapes is a gripping, unnerving, and wonderfully written piece of audio fiction.

Website | Podchaser | Ensemble

Chosen by Conor Reid, Bello Contributor and Podcasting Editor at HeadStuff

Masala Jones, “Premature”

Independent

Samar Rajamouli dropped out of medical school and became a porn star, perhaps not fully expecting the toxicity, the racism, and the desperation he would then have to struggle with. “Premature” sticks out to me as the episode to remember, as an emotional turning point within the story when Samar’s dinner with his family and his new leading role don’t go exactly the way he planned. It’s an episode that brilliantly encompasses everything that Masala Jones covers: growing up in an immigrant family, racism and toxicity and its intersection with sex positivity, and the wink-and-smirk humor that’s necessary when faced with heart-wrenching reality.

Website | Podchaser | Created by Venk Potula and Leland Frankel

Chosen by Elena Fernández Collins, Bello Staff Writer and creator of the Audio Dramatic newsletter

Zero Hours, “What Happens When the Beat Drops”

Independent

How would you react if the world around you started crumbling? Does the panic set in before you start looking for a way out? Do you make peace with yourself? Zero Hours is an anthology with massive emotional range that examines seven different stories about cataclysmic events, personal and global, separated by 99-year intervals starting at 1722. The present-day story, “What Happens When the Beat Drops”, is the coalescence of every angry, bitter, exhausted voice of 2019, every ironic meme and every vicariously traumatic headline. Briggon Snow and Cecilia Lynn-Jacobs embody icy business and heated frustration throughout their dialogue, a palpable tension as they haggle over the bomb detonator sitting between them.

Website | Podchaser | Ensemble

Chosen by Elena Fernández Collins, Bello Staff Writer and creator of the Audio Dramatic newsletter

Meet/Cute, “Club Night!”

Independent

Leave it to an audio sitcom to go from a night in, to clubbing, to a psychedelic trip in a matter of minutes. We are there for the whole ride, and it’s not just because the main characters are podcasters. This episode is the big, bold turning point scene in a romcom where feelings are professed and enemies become BFFs (all under the influence, of course).

Website | Podchaser | Ensemble

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello Contributor and Podcast Librarian at RadioPublic

Quid Pro Euro, “Trade”

Independent

This comic fiction podcast will appeal to anyone who enjoyed Peter Serafinowicz’s early-2000s show Look Around You, a loving parody of educational science films from the 80s. Here, writer/actor Felix Trench and sound designer Zachary Fortais-Gomm present a “European Video Production”: a series of instructional tapes on the institutions of the European Union, allegedly from 1995, complete with grainy VHS texture.

Quid Pro Euro, despite being a satire, is in many ways a love letter to the European Union from two residents of the United Kingdom, part of the generation that very firmly did not want to leave the EU. The satire ranges from gentle (there’s a woman whose job is to come up with more bureaucratic departments for the EU to establish) to absurd (the leader of the EU is a mysterious, dashing criminal mastermind named Barracuda). This episode, “Trade” illustrates the principle of European commerce by, what else? a prisoner exchange between two criminal gangs. No prior knowledge of the series is required to enjoy this episode.

Website | Podchaser | Creators: Zachary Fortais-Gomm and Felix Trench

Chosen by David Rheinstrom, host of Radio Drama Revival

Accentricity, “Learning to Talk”

Independent

Whether it’s a chat show or a narrative, an interview or an investigation, (almost) all podcasts have one thing in common: talking. Accentricity zooms in on that one unifier in “Learning to Talk,” an episode in which we meet young people in all stages of language development, from babbling baby to conversational kid. It’s charming and informative, and it’ll appeal to all types of talkers.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Sadie Durkacz Ryan

Chosen by Galen Beebe, Bello editor

The Anthropocene Reviewed “Air Conditioning and Sycamore Trees”

WNYC

I had only listened to one episode of this series before I recommended it in the Bello newsletter. Shortly after, I then listened to every episode, and while each one will make you feel, none packs as much of an emotional punch as John Green’s review of Sycamores. In The Anthropocene Reviewed, Green has a penchant for making every subject both a deeply felt view into his soul and the soul of our collective consciousness. (Contributor Ramsey Tesdell also recommends “Capacity for Wonder and Sunsets.”)

Website | Listen on Podchaser | Host: John Green

Chosen by Calen Cross, Bello Staff Writer

StartUp, “Our Company Has Problems”

Gimlet

This is a list of outstanding audio, so even though this episode made me want to tear my hair out, it needs to be on here. This episode is unshakably 2019: a middle-aged man complains about how the audio company that he founded — and got everyone to fall in love with only a few short years ago — is failing. While he encounters challenges that the independent podcast community have been working to solve for years, he confesses the ugly feelings he has for his co-founder and wishes someone would come save him from his mess. That someone is a massive tech company and he gets millions of dollars for his trouble.

StartUp stands alone as required listening as the industry ages. The first season reminds us of the excitement and real engagement that a podcast outfit can create. The final season is a look at the start-up ethos creeping in, that it’s ok to give up everything that you made in exchange for a chunk of change and a whole lot of sympathy from the listeners.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Alex Blumberg

Chosen by Eric Silver, Bello Contributor and Head of Creative at Multitude

ICYMI: Earlier this year, Bello Editor Ashley Lusk wrote about why StartUp was a powerful podcast.

Kerning Cultures, “Lebanon, USA”

Kerning Cultures

“Lebanon, USA” is a delightful story from Kerning Cultures about a Lebanese man who sets out to travel to all 47 towns in the United States called Lebanon. Along the way, he finds old connections and forges new ones between his home country and many of its namesakes.

Website | Podchaser | Episode producer: Alex Atack

Chosen by Galen Beebe, Bello editor

The Alarmist, “Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: Who Is To Blame?”

Earios

Listen to the beginning of any episode of The Alarmist, and I think you’ll be hooked. Rebecca Delgado-Smith hilariously and dramatically introduces herself as The Alarmist, a woman with the ability to mentally transform any situation into the worst-case scenario. With comedian friends, Delgado-Smith sets out to find who is to blame for disasters in history, uncovering things you never knew, but probably should, about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the Irish Potato Famine, the Siegfried & Roy tiger attack, and more. As Delgado-Smith says, “They say history repeats itself. Not on my watch!”

Website | Podchaser | Host: Rebecca Delgado-Smith

Chosen by Lauren Passell, Bello Contributor and creator of Podcast: The Newsletter

Constellations, “Isn’t it Lovely?”

Independent

“If I were to ask, ‘Isn’t it lovely?’ what would you say?” Phoebe Wang’s work of sound art grabs the listener and pulls them into a swirling, disorientating dance as elegant music is intermittently ruptured by sharp memories and sonic rabbit holes. This episode was originally created as a five channel audio installation — part of Constellations’s Resonant Bodies exhibition in Toronto. In it Wang explores what it means to choose to keep going in a world that isn’t built for you. “Isn’t it lovely? Sometimes. I think I’d say sometimes.”

Website | Podchaser | Creator: Phoebe Wang

Chosen by Eleanor McDowall, Radio Atlas

Ed: Note: Constellations is really one of those projects that defies categorization — it could credibly show up in all three of the categories in this year’s list. So, mentally place wherever you most need it and go listen.

This Land, “The Land Grab”

Crooked Media

In This Land, Cherokee Nation writer Rebecca Nagle guides listeners through the history of Carpenter v. Murphy, …a murder case currently facing the Supreme Court and postponed to next year’s term midway through the podcast, which has raised the question of whether the Five Tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole) still own half the land in Oklahoma. “The Land Grab” tackles allotment, Native American reservations, the history of Cherokee Nation’s land, and white people’s insidious scheme to destroy the culture and presence of Native peoples. It’s an incredible, haunting, and infuriating insight into how deep the racism runs and the lies told to the history textbooks.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Rebecca Nagle

Chosen by Elena Fernández Collins, Bello Staff Writer and creator of the Audio Dramatic newsletter

The Clearing, series

Gimlet Media and Pineapple Street Media

Sometimes, the tape makes the podcast. Such is true in The Clearing. The tape is definitely outstanding — like, holy moley, I can’t believe they have that, regularly-think-about-it level outstanding. The tape needed a podcast, and that’s why I’m including it in this list. If you’re a fan of crime stories, you’ll like this one (the short version: a daughter helps to tell the story of her father’s crimes and the search for the truth). And if you want to hear a gift from the podcast gods, this is where you’ll find it.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Josh Dean

Chosen by Galen Beebe, Bello editor

Twenty Thousand Hertz, “The Booj”

Independent

This is an episode with an initially incomprehensible title that almost immediately had me shouting aloud: “YES! I know! Exactly!”. I’ll let you discover what “the Booj” is for yourself, but suffice it to say this is a brilliant tour through the fads and fashions of movie trailers. Much like every episode of Twenty Thousand Hertz, “The Booj” explores and breaks down the everyday sounds of the world around us. This episode stands out, however, for its blend of information and humour, including a pitch-perfect fake trailer at the end. You will never watch a trailer the same way again.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Dallas Taylor

Chosen by Conor Reid, Bello Contributor and Podcasting Editor at HeadStuff

Throughline, “Strange Fruit”

NPR

Throughline is one of the best history podcasts being made right now. I could have picked pretty much any episode, but this spotlight on Billie Holiday’s life is particularly amazing for the way it peels back the curtain on her performances and personal life to reveal Holiday’s unsung courage.

Website | Podchaser | Hosts: Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei

Chosen by Calen Cross, Bello Staff Writer

Have You Heard George’s Podcast?, “A North West Story”

A George the Poet production for BBC Sounds

George the Poet, and his producer-collaborator Benbrick, redefined the audio landscape with this awe-inspiringly inventive independent podcast in 2018. After sweeping the British Podcast Awards, it’s now been picked up by BBC Sounds for its second series. “What do you want from me? Is the sound of my voice keeping you company?” In this fifth episode he artfully weaves between personal, poetic storytelling and searing structural analysis — scrutinising systems of power with a sharp eye, even those that exist between himself, the BBC and his listeners.

Website | Podchaser | Creator: George Mpanga (George the Poet)

Chosen by Eleanor McDowall, Radio Atlas

Finding Fred, “Beth”

iHeartRadio / Fatherly / Transmitter Media

If Finding Fred doesn’t pull at your heartstrings, are you even human? In each episode, host Carvell Wallace asks writers and cultural critics like Ashley C. Ford, W. Kamau Bell, Fred’s biographer Maxwell King, and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood producers and cast member Francois Clemmons, about how Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood became a powerful piece of our culture, and what it means to them. I didn’t like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood when I was a kid — I thought his “you’re perfect just the way you are” message was corny — but I needed to hear his message now, as an adult. This show is a hug.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Carvell Wallace

Chosen by Lauren Passell, Bello Contributor and creator of Podcast: The Newsletter

American Submitter, “Hidden Treasures (They Want to Be Known)”

Independent

The cast is intimate: a father, a mother, a nanny, and a toddler. The story is everday: a couple chooses a nanny, a nanny cares for a child, a child learns about the world. It’s precisely the intimacy and the everydayness that makes this story outstanding. There’s an outstanding amount of love and trust in the interactions we hear — interactions that show what it takes to raise a child, what it is to be a child, and what it takes to be a working parent. The production is outstanding, as well. It’s more than atmospheric; it’s thick with sound.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Imran Ali Malik

Chosen by Galen Beebe, Bello editor

The Lonely Palette, “Behold the Monkey”

Hub & Spoke

If you are a regular reader here, you know that I am a huge fan of Tamar Avishai’s take on works of art, so when I heard that she was going to give us an analysis of the infamous Ecce Homo, all I could think of was a comical take on the “beast” Jesus, the botched restoration of a painting in a small church in Spain. Instead, we were granted a very thoughtful piece on the relationship between art and the audience, on what is considered important by the art community versus what is important to individual communities, and even a critique of the internet age.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Tamar Avishai

Chosen by Calen Cross, Bello Staff Writer

Nice Try!: Utopian, “Herland: Reimagine Utopia”

Curbed and Vox Media Podcast Network

Avery Trufelman’s Nice Try! has been a breath of fresh air in the podcast space as it unpacks various attempts at building utopia. The episode “Herland” is a deeper critique of utopias as heteronormative, white, and male-dominated in their conceit. Utopias exist only in fiction, but Trufelman and her guests unfold the reasons why exploring them in fiction can help in dismantling the colonialist patriarchy. Trufelman discusses attempts at feminist utopias, the 1979 novel Herland, and what it means to build welcoming, queer spaces within the imperfect city. It sets exactly the right tone for the end of the season on utopias, because it leaves us not at one final destination, but at a point on a path that branches in endless directions.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Avery Trufleman

Chosen by Elena Fernández Collins, Bello Staff Writer and creator of the Audio Dramatic newsletter

Headlong: Running From COPS, series

Topic

Headlong: Running From COPS is a multi-faceted look at COPS, the longest-running reality show on TV. The podcast investigates COPS’s ethics (or lack thereof). It’s an excellent cross section of criminal justice and media criticism. I’ve never seen COPS, but having listened to this podcast, I feel like I have.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Dan Taberski

Chosen by Galen Beebe, Bello editor

30 for 30, “The Sterling Affairs”

ESPN

There is a moment early in the first episode of the Sterling Affairs, the fifth season of the story-behind-sports podcast from ESPN, that stops you in your tracks. Reporter Ramona Shelburne is interviewing Shelly Sterling, wife of former LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling. As the episode begins, you think Shelly will defend her husband and spin the leaked audio file of the racist rant that would lead to his ousting from the NBA. Instead, Shelly tells the story of how she confronted Donald’s mistress at the Beverly Hills mall and reamed her out in front of the Sunday shopping public.

As you listen to this dramatic retelling, you hear the intimacy and trust that Shelburne must have earned with Shelly Sterling to get that story on tape. And the moment dawns on you: “Oh, this is why this media giant got into audio.” Because they have the resources to make this incredibly thoughtful, cutting, and well-researched series a reality.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Ramona Shelburne

Chosen by Eric Silver, Bello Contributor and Head of Creative at Multitude

13 Minutes to the Moon, “We choose to go”

BBC

How do you take a dramatic historical event and make it more dramatic? Take the final thirteen minutes of the descent of Apollo 11 to the moon — the actual audio and the events within that timeline — and expand the story behind each sound, each bit of conversation, each silence. Then add a soaring score, first-person stories, and an engaging host. The serialized podcast format allows for a beautiful and lush retelling of the first moon landing.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Kevin Fong

Chosen by Calen Cross, Bello Staff Writer

School Colors, series

Brooklyn Deep

I’ve long been wishing for a documentary series about public schools in the US, and School Colors delivered. This 8-part series tells the story of race and power in Central Brooklyn’s schools, starting with the 1968 fight for control between the community and the teachers union. A miniseries on that story would have been good enough, but the show then moves into the present to examine current struggles between public and charter schools, and community members old and new.

Website | Podchaser | Hosts: Max Freedman and Mark Winston Griffith

Chosen by Galen Beebe, Bello editor

Rashomon, “Sharon and Sammy”

Independent

Rashomon went all-out this season, looking at many different stories from many different perspectives: this time, the common thread is one sperm donor in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We get glimpses into many different families and the lives of many offspring, and our journey into family relationships and genealogy is kicked off with Sharon and Sammy.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Hillary Rea

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello contributor and podcast librarian at RadioPublic

Following Harriet, series

INGREDIENT Creative for Virginia Tourism Corporation

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: 2019 was the year of the bio-pod — documentary podcast series about famous individuals. This bio-pod tells the story of American abolitionist Harriet Tubman. It’s the story of a powerful young woman who fought against horrific circumstances to change her own life and the lives of so many others, and it remains an important story. As Kasi Lemmons, director of the film Harriet, says in the last episode, “[Tubman’s] courage outweighed her fear. I think that that’s what we need in this time right now. Our courage needs to outweigh our fear, and we need to believe that through force of will we can change things. We can change our country.”

Website | Podchaser | Host: Celeste Headlee

Chosen by Galen Beebe, Bello editor

Dolly Parton’s America, “Sad Ass Songs”

WNYC

Host/producer Jad Abumrad has described this show as a “big, sprawling, oddly shaped thing that doesn’t fit any genre.” I think this is a perfectly accurate summation of the first six episodes, and in my opinion, is a huge compliment. Dolly Parton’s America somehow combines a music podcast, a biography, an examination of the culture wars, a memoir, and a non-linear narrative that feels just experimental enough that it could only work as a podcast made by Abumrad. This whole series is a must-listen and will make a Dolly Parton fan out of even the most actively-avoids-country-music types (like me).

Website | Podchaser | Created by Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee

Chosen by Erik Jones, Bello Staff Writer and creator of the Hurt Your Brain newsletter

Sick, series

WFYI and Side Effects Public Media

A couple went to the doctor for help making a baby, and the doctor helped them make a baby that was biologically his. This is the true story of Donald Cline, an Indianapolis doctor who impregnated dozens of women with his own sperm in the 1970s and 80s. In Sick, reporters Lauren Bavis and Jake Harper examine how this happened and how it affected the parents and (now-grown) children involved.

Website | Podchaser | Hosts: Lauren Bavis and Jake Harper

Chosen by Galen Beebe, Bello editor

An Arm and a Leg, “My Neighbor the Health-Care Ninja”

Independent

There are moments in this episode where the recorder just runs. You hear Dan Weissmann the reporter and Dan Weissmann the human doing the thing we all need when it comes to talking about money and our health and the systems that are playing with all of it for US residents: listening, person to person, and acknowledging the hardness, the realness, and the amazingness that we are alive and helping each other get through it. Episodes like this remind me that we not only need more people like Meredith Balogh, the health-care ninja, we also need more Dans, too.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Dan Weissmann

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello Contributor and Podcast Librarian at RadioPublic

Crackdown, “Change Intolerance”

Independent

We are constantly told about the war on drugs. Journalists from all media outlets cover this important topic. So how is this podcast any different? This podcast is “about the drug war, covered by drug users as war correspondents.” To give a little backstory, methadone has been legally and successfully used to help those addicted to heroin. In 2014, the province of British Columbia switched almost 15,000 methadone users to a new formulation with dire consequences. Is anyone willing to help those affected?

Website | Podchaser | Host: Garth Mullins

Chosen by Paul Kondo, Bello Contributor and creator of the Podcast Gumbo newsletter

Hot and Bothered, “Best Friend Lady Pirates”

Not Sorry Productions

For a show that’s technically about writing romance novels, I decided the most exemplary episode of the year was not exactly about writing, and not exactly romance, either. (I also toyed with the idea of highlighting one of the unsolicited advice episodes of the show, which also take the act of writing into a totally different place to learn more about how we relate to ourselves and each other… but I digress.) And yet, this episode is just as important as the rest: it’s about self-love and friend love, the kinds of loves we don’t talk about nearly enough and that deserve just as much space in our love-filled existences.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Vanessa Zoltan

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello contributor and podcast librarian at RadioPublic

The Elephant, “Money, Controversy and the Many Challenges of Removing CO2 from the Air”

Independent

Bring up climate change, and you’ll generally summon impending doom and questions about humanity’s ability to save or destroy our planet. The second season of The Elephant brings hope we may become our own saviors if we can embrace carbon capture. After listening to these interviews with industry innovators and experts, I actually have some hope we might just get it right.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Kevin Caners

Chosen by Calen Cross, Bello Staff Writer

Radiolab, “Bit Flip”

WNYC

It takes a special kind of production genius to be able to explain something very visual using only audio. Throughout this fascinating story (that I won’t spoil), you’ll get explanations that completely work around dense subjects like cosmic rays, how computer bits operate, and how these two interact in completely unexpected ways that may or may not change election results. It’s an instant classic that instills a sense of wonder like only Radiolab can.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich

Chosen by Erik Jones, Bello Staff Writer and creator of the Hurt Your Brain newsletter

The Double Shift, “On Not Having It All”

Critical Frequency

In this departure from the usual storytelling for The Double Shift, host Katherine Goldstein shares her own story about working as a mother. Spoiler alert: reporting on it doesn’t make it easier. Goldstein shares the ups and downs of raising her show along with raising a family, but luckily for us, her openness and transparency demonstrates her incredible prowess while sharing and examining the hard stuff in touching and poignant narrative form.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Katherine Goldstein

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello contributor and podcast librarian at RadioPublic

Some Noise, “The Frisco Series”

Independent

This was a year where the podcast spotlight shone on the people who make up neighborhoods — where we pushed the idea of identity to its most local. There Goes The Neighborhood, Greater Boston, White Lies, and South Side all did this well, but I was particularly drawn to the 3-part “Frisco” series from Some Noise, which looks at the stark realities of life in tech-studded San Francisco. Homelessness. Money. Gentrification. Politics. Come for Najib Aminy’s audio and stay for his extensive show notes.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Najib Aminy

Chosen by Ashley Lusk, Bello editor

Awful Grace, “Again the Never Came”

Independent

This is a sad, and painful, and poignant piece. It starts with 13-ish minutes of scrolling through the radio (or TV?) channels, pausing on each just long enough to decide it’s not what the scroller want to hear. The episode is over an hour long, and I thought, listening to the beginning, An hour of scrolling — this’ll be interesting! But then the impact comes. The year is 2001. The date is September 11th. The place is New York City. The first tower has just been hit.

The rest of the episode is news footage from that day, and a 911 call. It’s not narrated. Or rather, it’s narrated by people who know the moment is historic but don’t yet have all the details or the distance of time. Narration can make a piece easier to take in, and sometimes easier to make, but building in hindsight can also build in distance. Without it, time collapses, and the emotion presses through. I recommend scheduling some down time when you’re done with this one.

Website | Podchaser | Creator: Robert Andersson

Chosen by Galen Beebe, Bello editor

Strong Songs, “Dancing Queen by ABBA”

Independent

There are a lot of great music podcasts out there, but a new one that I discovered and loved this year is Strong Songs. In this episode, host Kirk Hamilton breaks down the lush, pop-gem Dancing Queen by ABBA, into its most basic elements, helping the audience understand what makes it such an iconic song. It’s the music class we all wanted.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Kirk Hamilton

Chosen by Paul Kondo, Bello Contributor and creator of the Podcast Gumbo newsletter

Brain on Nature, “The Accident”

Independent

New Zealander Sarah Allely had a bicycle accident in 2015 that left her unable to read, write, watch TV or listen to podcasts. She lost the ability to prioritise sounds and feeling, and could no longer tell whether something was background noise or the voice she was supposed to be listening to. In this series, she chronicles how spending time in nature helped her to recover as well as explaining the science behind why this kind of therapy worked. Crucially for me, though, she uses sound design, music and clever writing to simulate for the listener what her post-accident state was actually like. A rare and brilliant example of audio that shows, rather than just tells.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Sarah Allely

Chosen by Caroline Crampton, writer for Hot Pod and The Listener

Meat, “Stella’s Cut”

Independent

Trigger warning: This episode contains descriptions of female genital mutilation.

A few years ago, Jonathan Zenti produced what I would have called the best episode of the year — and that was a pretty crowded year. These days he stays busy with a number of other projects, but suddenly, randomly, and seemingly out of nowhere, Zenti will drop another episode of Meat. It’s hard to explain why I find these episodes so moving — perhaps its Zenti’s willingness to bare his soul and insecurities so fully, so aware they could be fodder for reproach, or…perhaps it’s just his accent — but they always leave me in a bit of a sonic trance. In this episode, Zenti revisits an formative experience from his late 20’s where he meets Stella and comes face to face with his own toxic behaviors.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Jonathan Zenti

Chosen by Ashley Lusk, Bello editor

The Longest Shortest Time, “The Sperm Series”

Stitcher

There’s an art to ending things, and The Longest Shortest Time is neck-deep in it this year (the long-running show is wrapping up at the end of 2019) and doing all the things that made the show so head over heels lovable in the first place in quick succession. Before the podcast says farewell, its most recent host said goodbye in the best possible way: by documenting some of her own family-making processes. There are hints of Andrea Silenzi’s previous podcast, Why Oh Why, in “The Sperm Series,” blending tech with her own journey, some real, some imagined, while making us wonder about where and when we need to back away from our phones and do things “the old-fashioned way.”

Website | Podchaser | Host: Andrea Silenzi

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello Contributor and Podcast Librarian at RadioPublic

The Big One: Your Survival Guide, series

KPCC

As host Jacob Margolis explains, there is a 50 percent chance Southern California will be subject to a crippling 7.8 magnitude earthquake sometime in the next 30 years. Over 9 episodes, The Big One places you, the listener, in a likely scenario as you navigate the fallout and a new world order where help isn’t on the way. The series also seamlessly weaves in the voices of emergency management experts and a wealth of helpful preparedness tips. The Big One is an extraordinary form of service journalism wrapped in an immersive fictional (for now anyway) format.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Jacob Margolis

Chosen by Ashley Lusk, Bello editor

Afroqueer, “Criminalization and Colonization”

Independent

Our friends from Afroqueer provide a much needed African perspective to the podcast landscape, but also from a queer angle as well. They tell the, unfortunately, mostly painful stories of being queer in Africa. Having been chosen for the Google/PRX Podcast creators program, the podcast has recently released its second season. In this episode, “Criminalization and Colonization,” host and executive producer Selly Thiam explores the origins of the criminalization of homosexuality, tracing the orgins back to the colonial history.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Selly Thiam

Chosen by Ramsey Tesdell, Sowt Podcasting

Singing Mountain, “Midnight Mass at Our Lady of Pixels”

Independent

If you had told me at the beginning of this year that my most-listened-to podcast episode would be an hour-long compilation of the best pipe organ music from videogame soundtracks, I would not have believed you. And yet, here I am: an unashamed devotee of this analysis by Drew Mackie of all the ways in which the organ colours and influences the narrative of the games in which it appears. The choice of music is wonderful, as is Mackie’s choices about when to intervene with explanation and when it allow the thunderous chords to speak for themselves. A masterclass in music curation and criticism.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Drew Mackie

Chosen by Caroline Crampton, writer for Hot Pod and The Listener

The Allusionist, “Apples”

Radiotopia

What I really wanted to write about is something you can’t listen to on your podcast player. But I need to give some immense buckets of love to the best podcast live show I saw in 2019, The Allusionist’s “No Title.” In a world where a live show usually means “doing the podcast exactly how we do it in the studio, but with an audience,” The Allusionist made a true piece of stage-craft in the tradition of what you usually here in your podcatcher. It’s smart, funny, and extremely Helen-Zaltzmanian, with an extra shoutout to Martin Austwick for the accompaniment and dry commentary that makes the show really feel live. Follow The Allusionist on Twitter to catch the end of this amazing tour, but if there isn’t a live show near you, you can still subscribe to the podcast. Start with “Apples,” which how new varieties of apples get their names.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Helen Zaltzman

Chosen by Eric Silver, Bello Contributor and Head of Creative at Multitude

The Daily, “A Third Grader’s Guide to the Impeachment Hearings”

New York Times

Amidst a landrush of impeachment podcasts, it was an 8 year old who asked the real questions on our collective minds: “What is ‘quid pro quo?’ How many people are listening when the president makes a phone call? What are the hearings?” In this memorable episode of The Daily, reporter Mike Schmidt and host Michael Barbaro sit down with Leo, a third grader, to discuss the impeachment inquiry.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Michael Barbaro

Chosen by Ashley Lusk, Bello editor

Sleepwalkers, “Truth to Power”

iHeart Media

Artificial Intelligence. How much do you think about it? Is it only when you’re watching a sci-fi movie or when you see a funny poorly-made fake video? What happens when we can’t tell if a video is fake? The repercussions can be frightening. The scariest moment for me is when they talk about how anyone can claim plausible deniability. Anyone can tell you a video is a lie and now it’s not as obvious that they are wrong even though you’re seeing it with your own trusty eyes.

Website | Podchaser | Hosts: Oz Woloshyn and Karah Preiss

Chosen by Paul Kondo, Bello Contributor and creator of the Podcast Gumbo newsletter

The Constant, “Endlings”

Hub & Spoke

“Endling” is possibly the saddest word in the world: it’s the last known surviving individual of a species. This is the story of how humans took the passenger pigeon — which numbered well into the billions — and hunted them into extinction through our arrogance and willful ignorance. The episode will leave you in disbelief. The subject matter is elevated by Mark Chrylser, the rare host who can single-handedly carry a single-voice podcast through his humor and writing.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Mark Chrisler

Chosen by Erik Jones, Bello Staff Writer and creator of the Hurt Your Brain newsletter

Finding Van Gogh, “The Missing Neurologist”

The Städel Museum

Nearly 30 years ago, Vincent Van Gogh’s “Portrait of Dr Gachet” disappeared from Germany’s Städel collection. As the museum prepared to open a new exhibition on Van Gogh last fall, they traced the portrait’s history and storied past, and reporter Johannes Nichelmann attempts to once again locate its whereabouts. Finding Van Gogh is both a history lesson and a subtle whodunnit told with precision and care. The full series is available in both English and German.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Johannes Nichelmann

Chosen by Ashley Lusk, Bello editor

Today, Explained, “All Shows Must Die”

Vox

Today, Explained has been a staple of my daily information diet. Host Sean Rameswaram and his rowdy crew consistently make me feel like I’m learning something important at a really fun party. I thought that the bonkers-fun A capella song at the end of this episode made it a good gateway episode, because it also provided a nuanced conversation about art, political divide, and leisure time. Other episodes that are top of mine: #RickyRenuncia, Sri Lanka’s Easter Attacks, How to Save a Life.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Sean Rameswaram

Chosen by Dana Gerber-Margie, Bello co-founder and editor emeritus

The Cut on Tuesdays, “Your Driver Is Here”

Gimlet and New York Magazine

Trigger warning: This episode contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence.

The Cut on Tuesdays is usually lighter fare — a sort of mental power pose for your day — but “Your Driver is Here” is anything but light. This episode tells the story of Alison, a Lyft passenger who was likely drugged and driven across state lines without her consent. Alison’s story is hard to hear, but we must all act as witnesses. My reaction to this episode was so visceral that I jerked away when a male passenger brushed against me on the subway. Please listen with care. (Contributor Paul Kondo also recommended “Escape from Shame Jail: On Apologies.”)

Website | Podchaser | Host: Molly Fischer

Chosen by Ashley Lusk, Bello editor

Radio Atlas, “ROW-cub”

Independent

As much as podcasting opens up a whole world of new experiences and cultures to the listener, we are limited by what’s available in our own language. Since I’m only capable of listening in English, I’m a big fan of Eleanor McDowall’s Radio Atlas project, which subtitles excellent audio from around the world and thus opens it up to a new audience. This short piece by Neena Pathak completely floored me the first time I heard it. It perfectly encapsulates lots of themes in one four-minute conversation: what it’s like to communicate through a language barrier, how to live with a broken heart, the complications of existing within an immigrant family down the generations, and much more. You’ll find more in it every time you listen.

Website | Podchaser | Creator: Neena Pathak

Chosen by Caroline Crampton, writer for Hot Pod and The Listener

Tell Them, I Am, “Amirah”

KPCC

Everything about this series is thoughtful: the length, the timespan in which it was released, the range of voices on the show, the beautiful personal narrative scripting from Misha Euceph. Each episode offers a daily portrait of a Muslim, released every day of Ramadan, each telling a universal story of who we are in a series of small, meaningful moments. After Amirah encounters a swarm of bees in the woods as a kid, she contemplates her relationship with nature and forgiveness.

Website | Podchaser | Created by Misha Euceph

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello Contributor and Podcast Librarian at RadioPublic

The View From Somewhere, “The View From Nowhere”

Independent

Lewis Raven Wallace’s serialized deep dive into the myth of journalistic ‘objectivity’ begins with this story of how one post on his personal blog — ruminating on what it means to be a neutral reporter in the Trump era — lead to him losing his job in public radio. “Objectivity is the ideology of the status quo!”, remarks his producer Ramona Martinez as she and Wallace thoughtfully dismantle the notion of the neutral journalist, capable of documenting life dispassionately from the sidelines. The View from Somewhere manages to present both a powerful exploration of how objectivity has been used to maintain problematic power structures whilst simultaneously seeking new utopian frameworks for how to make journalism better. Essential listening.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Lewis Raven Wallace

Chosen by Eleanor McDowall, Radio Atlas

1619, “Lands of Our Fathers” Part 1, 2

New York Times

In 1619, enslaved Africans first landed on the shores of what would become the United States. 1619, a 6-part series from The New York Times, examines the ramifications of this event — some of which span generations. This particular arc tells the story of black farmers in the South, including their role as worker and expert, the institutional discrimination that is inherent in all of the systems and organizations that are in place to assist farmers and the lawsuit that pointed out the discriminatory practices of the USDA.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Nikole Hannah Jones

Chosen by Calen Cross, Bello Staff Writer

Feeling My Flo, “Two Dads, Two Daughters, Two Periods”

Lantigua Williams & Co.

Everyone experiences menstruation differently. In this episode, sisters Ceci and Liv Eisenhardt talk about the feelings of getting their periods along with their dads Mark and Erik, with just the right balance of seriousness, humor, and reflection that comes with any good family story.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Kamilah Kashanie

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello contributor and podcast librarian at RadioPublic

Walking, “Things Have an End, But Feeling is Infinite”

Independent

This year I’ve been hungry for podcasts that feel just a little nontraditional — maybe they play with format or sound or linearity. On the surface, John Mooallem’s Walking is pretty straightforward: It’s John, walking. But without visuals or narration, I’m left imagining John’s walk for myself. Where is John today? What kinds of birds am I hearing? Did I just hear John make a turn? John’s out of breath — was that a hill? This podcast has been by turns a sleep aid, a meditation device, an escape. There are not a lot of podcasts out there that can shapeshift in quite this way.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Jon Mooallem

Chosen by Ashley Lusk, Bello editor

The Report, series

Lawfare and Goat Rodeo

Politically, my 2019 is defined by the tense buildup leading up to the Mueller Report release, the public anticlimax, and the continued unveiling experienced by those of us who didn’t take AG Barr at his word. Podcasts came through for us by digging deep into the Mueller Report itself, whether that was via a verbatim recounting (Mueller Report Audio), a dark dramatized version (The Mueller Report), in-depth discussion (Mueller, She Wrote) or through narrative. Ultimately I got the most out of this version, The Report, which combines narration, readings, and interviews to open wide our decayed democracy.

Website | Podchaser | Ensemble

Chosen by Dana Gerber-Margie, Bello co-founder and editor emeritus

The Hilarious World of Depression, “Miz Cracker Looks in the Mirror”

APM

The Hilarious World of Depression has a pretty consistent format: a popular comedian or creative person reveals their mental illness, they talk about their childhood and how the mental illness manifested, they remember what it was like to get successful and how it got harder to keep everything together, and now they’re coping and doing ok. It’s effective, especially when you crave hearing stories from fellow riders on the depression and anxiety highway. But Miz Cracker, the drag queen who broke out in season 10 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, takes a different tact: her story is littered with failure and setbacks and misgivings. And it’s refreshing to hear that mental illness is hard, and it doesn’t really get easier — it just is what it is. The interview also offers one of the few accurate representations of just how hard it is to get an actually good therapist. Miz Cracker’s interview is smart, funny, real, and pretty dark, which is all we could have hoped for from an episode of THWoD.

Website | Podchaser | Host: John Moe

Chosen by Eric Silver, Bello Contributor and Head of Creative at Multitude

99% Invisible, “From Bombay With Love”

Radiotopia

99% Invisible remains the gold standard of podcasts for me. The episodes are on the shorter side, it is polished and well-produced, and most importantly, the topics are always unexpected and interesting. For a show about design, I end up learning more about how the world works than I do from most other shows in my feed. This episode was a highlight for me, in which we learn how the USSR didn’t want to import western movies and instead opted for embracing India’s Bollywood. The story works as a completely fascinating tale of two distinct cultures finding common ground.

Website | Podchaser | Episode producer: Vivian Le

Chosen by Erik Jones, Bello staff writer

Las Raras, “EN LA CÁMARA”

Adonde Media

From the heart of revolutionary Chile, a podcast about freedom, history and society, Las Raras explores humanity in an exceptionally entertaining and moving way. The Spanish-language podcast recently joined the Adonde Media network, and has produced some exceptional episodes, as Chile currently undergoes a revolutionary moment with dangerous reminders of an authoritarian past.

Painfully beautiful, this episode tells the story of a gentleman who retrofitted a campervan to be his home, but most importantly a camera. Hosts Catalina May and Martin Cruz join him as his setups his “camera” to take a picture of a volcano. From the storytelling to the sound design, this episode is breathtaking. Additionally, there is a beautiful video filled with drones shots that helps bring to life the story from In The Camera.

Website | Podchaser | Hosts: Catalina May and Martin Cruz

Chosen by Ramsey Tesdell, Sowt Podcasting

Seriously…, The Pleasures of Brecht

BBC Radio 4

A tender, sensory list of pleasures inspired by Brecht’s poem written for a new lover. “Fascinated faces. Snow, the change of the seasons. The newspaper, the dog, dialectics, taking showers, swimming…” This documentary holds the listener in their own body as they consider the scents, textures and sounds which make their hearts race or the hairs on the back of their neck stand on end. Ever-deepening as it progresses, Phil Smith’s typically musical and evocative work considers the fundamentals of what it means to be a human being in a turbulent age. “So what can help us be here — which may be the greatest gift we can give our troubled world right now… to be here — open. Let’s try listing our pleasures for one.”

Website | Podchaser | Producer: Phil Smit

Chosen by Eleanor McDowall, Radio Atlas

Criminal, “He’s Still Neutral”

Radiotopia

Stories about human kindness or unexpected community are an important antidote to the onslaught of negative headlines that chip away at our collective faith in humanity. This story was one of my favorite such antidotes this year. A man in a neighborhood with constant crime gets fed up and impulsively places a Buddha on a small patch of grass as a last-ditch effort to effect change. What happens next completely blew him away and will restore your faith that our default mode is actually one of goodness.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Phoebe Judge

Chosen by Erik Jones, Bello Staff Writer and creator of the Hurt Your Brain newsletter

NB: My non-binary life, “Home”

BBC

The penultimate episode of a series that was set up in the first episode: host Caitlin Benedict is coming out as non-binary, and part of that process includes their family. This intergenerational conversation between Caitlin and their dad puts us in the room where the exchanges are that special blend of well-meaning, thoughtful, sometimes off, sometimes right on, and of course, demonstrating with every question that living and growing and relating with ourselves and the people closest to us is an ongoing process.

Website | Podchaser | Hosts: Caitlin Benedict and Amrou Al-Kadhi

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello Contributor and Podcast Librarian at RadioPublic

Better at Everything, “Position Yourself as a Learner”

Macmillan

There are a ton of podcasts about self-improvement — not all of them very original. What I liked about this episode was the concept that we shouldn’t go through life learning new concepts only when necessary, but should make learning an intentional practice. We all have an unlimited capacity to grow and learn, but we have to put some focus on learning by having an open mindset toward growth at all times.

Website | Podchaser | Hosts: Anthony Rao and Paul Napper

Chosen by Paul Kondo, Bello Contributor and creator of the Podcast Gumbo newsletter

Scattered, series

WNYC Studios

If you’re reading this, you likely appreciate that audio is an ideal artistic medium to build empathy. Visual biases disappear, and the listener’s ears are submerged within a narrated point of view. Many podcasters have harnessed this empathetic medium for conveying the many experiences of American immigrants amid modern political movements built on xenophobia. For our American climate of fear-mongering and demonization, “Scattered” is an antidote. It is masterfully entertaining and emotionally devastating, at once the incredibly personal experience of a son of Cuban refugees and also a depiction of the universal struggle to understand one’s parents. Chris Garcia, its charming and thoughtful host, takes a pilgrimage through time, migration, and family in order to honor and understand his late father’s connection to their familial homeland. Like his father’s relationship to Cuba, Garcia’s own journey is layered with beauty and pain, blending moments of hilarity and trauma into a gorgeous existential trek that is the embodiment of the American family story.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Chris Garcia

Chosen by Phoebe Lett, The New York Times

The Score: Bank Robber Diaries, “First Time Out”

Western Sound/Acast Studios

In the sea of true crime, it’s rare to hear someone who was on the robbery side of bank jobs to say his piece. Even rarer is not only to say it, but participate in the production of the show. Co-producer “Beirut Bandit” Joe Loya shares his transformation in interviews with Ben Adair, and fast-paced cinematic sound design keeps the pace with the fast-talking storytelling.

Website | Podchaser | With Joe Loya and Ben Adair

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello Contributor and Podcast Librarian at RadioPublic

Copper & Heat, “Understaffed & Undocumented w/ Teresa Montaño”

Independent

Labor costs are a particularly pressing issue within the restaurant industry, and in this episode, Chef Teresa Montaño wrestles with speaking publicly about what it takes to hire and keep kitchen workers. Ultimately, she decides to speak about her experience opening and staffing two restaurants in LA, and about the competing tensions of cost of workers, undocumented employees, and the intense need for staff at the same time that demand for restaurants is high.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Katy Osuna

Chosen by Ma’ayan Plaut, Bello contributor and podcast librarian at RadioPublic

Hunting Warhead, Hacker vs. Hacker

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Norway’s Verden Gang (VG)

Trigger warning: intense descriptions of child abuse.

From the podcast name and cover art, I thought I knew what I was getting into: something to do with cyber-warfare and espionage and maybe nuclear weapons. I was not prepared for what this series really revealed: the millions online dedicated to images of child sexual abuse and torture on the dark web. This series is hunting Warhead, the online persona of a nondescript man living in Canada who ran the website Child’s Play. It is about the international cooperation it took to find him, the lengths law enforcement will go to stay undercover, deciphering between thoughts and actions of pedophilia, and the effect one person’s evil choices can have on a community.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Daemon Fairless

Chosen by Dana Gerber-Margie, Bello co-founder and editor emeritus

The Daily, “The Jungle Prince”

The New York Times

A three-part series released on The Daily feed, this piece sounds like a fairytale: a queen, a princess, and a prince living deep in the jungle, the last of the Shiite Muslim royal line, haunted and mystical. And then the piece itself is marvelling about how it sounds like a fairytale. But then, actually, this piece is about the painful realities that give us these fairytales — how colonialism, genocide, war, independence, random lines drawn on a map, and then displacement can lead to a family, devastated, deep in the jungle.

Website | Podchaser | Reporter: Ellen Barry

Chosen by Dana Gerber-Margie, Bello co-founder and editor emeritus

Remarkable Providences, “Under an Evil Hand”

The Whisperforge

I have listened to many podcasts about the Salem Witch Trials, and read many books about it, too, but this is the first time I’ve been able to imagine the social and political context brewing in Salem in the late 1600s. Hearing about the trials historically and politically, with less emphasis on the “witches,” we see that a perfect storm allowed the trials to happen. Remarkable Providences patiently and thoroughly tells us what we’ve always needed to know about Salem. Host Kate Devorak humorously inserts herself while treating the subject with reverence.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Kate Devorak

Chosen by Lauren Passell, Bello Contributor and creator of Podcast: The Newsletter

Unravel: Snowball, season 4

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

This season of Unravel took me on such an unexpected journey from a little town in New Zealand to a Trader Joe’s parking lot on the central coast of California. It is a show about love fraud: a con artist named Lezlie, her failed restaurants and failed marriages, and a brother trying to make sense of what happened to his family.

Website | Podchaser | Host: Ollie Wards

Chosen by Dana Gerber-Margie, Bello co-founder and editor emeritus

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this list, including our intrepid Bello Collective writers and contributors Elena Fernández-Collins, Erik Jones, Calen Cross, Eric Silver, Conor Reid, David Rheinstrom, Lauren Passell, Paul Kondo, and our good friends Caroline Crampton, Ma’ayan Plaut, Eleanor McDowall, Phoebe Lett, Ramsey Tesdell, Martina Castro, and Laura Ubate. Galen Beebe created the header images for this list. Special thanks to our editor emeritus Dana Gerber-Margie for her contributions and support.

This list was edited by the Bello Collective co-editors Ashley Lusk and Galen Beebe.

Special thanks to our presenting sponsors:

PodMov Daily newsletter from the team at Podcast Movement, delivered fresh every weekday morning with the latest industry news and podcaster resources.

Podchaser is the premiere podcast database and your daily source for podcast discovery. Open to anyone on any platform, you can use Podchaser to rate & review podcasts and episodes, track creator & guest appearances, create playlists, follow friend activity, and much more.

The Bello Collective is a publication + newsletter about podcasts and the audio industry. Our goal is to bring together writers, journalists, and other voices who share a passion for the world of audio storytelling.

Subscribe to the Bello Collective weekly newsletter for more stories, podcast recommendations, audio industry news, and more. Support our work and join our community by becoming a member.