A list of the top 100 “most innovative, influential, and informative” podcasts of all time. The list includes 99% Invisible, The Big Dig, Code Switch, Heavyweight, In Our Time, Radiolab, Slow Burn, and You’re Wrong About.
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It doesn’t have “Kill James Bond”?! It’s by far my favorite podcast and it’s a shame more people haven’t heard of it. It’s a delightful and insightful dive into movies, starting with the entire James Bond series, hosted by November Kelly, Abigail Thorn, and Devon.
It is really the only podcast I ever feel strongly enough about to specifically recommend to people as part of casual conversation.
Nothing from Relay.fm? The Incomparable is so underrated.
Memory Palace, Pablo Torre Finds Out, Normal Gossip are all recommendations from me. Yes PTFO is sports, but it's also SO much more.
They included two of my top three all-time: Dead Eyes and In the Dark. They missed the incomparable and delightfully weird Mystery Show.
It was so short-lived but it's as close to perfect as a podcast can be!
Happy to see Ologies on there, it’s consistently great.
I recommend Open to Debate (formerly Intelligence Squared US) and Getting Better (formerly Getting Curious) as well.
Well, they made me scroll through (a list without WTF or Wiser than Me?). Fly on the Wall and Strike Force Five (though it was a limited time) get me through my workouts, and I miss those in the list.
Many of these are radio shows.
Others are famous people's outlets that get more listeners than they would if they were hosted by someone not famous.
Not sure that calling this a "best podcasts" list is an accurate description of what these are…
It also has a bunch of spin-off shows from other shows already on the list. There's no improv comedy either, which is one of the best mashups of mediums out there.
I'm no big fan but skipping Joe Rogan in a list where "influential" is a factor is wild.
Not on Time’s list, but A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs is tops on my list. I urge Kottke.org readers to check it out. P.S., no ads!
This isn’t on the list, it’s a relatively new show, but I feel like Kottke fans might enjoy it - it’s called 500 Open Tabs, it’s co-hosted by two comic artists (close friends) who just choose a topic (tab) to deep dive into and tell each other about. It has a really fun Discord community and I found out about Kottke through someone posting there!
Surprised not to see No Such Thing As A Fish here.
This misses the Slate Political Gabfest. Andy Bowers is the oft-ignored grandfather of podcasting. Before Serial, the Gabfest was the best of what there was.
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