First up in my Best of 2019 series is a look at my favourite listens of the year: podcasts.
Yeah, I know podcasts (particularly the ones I subscribe to) don’t represent my typical food, drink and travel content. But I spent a lot of time listening to them and a bit of time creating my own.
For me, travelling without getting to listen to my favourite podcasts would be considerably less enjoyable. They make wait times, long flights and train journeys more tolerable. Starting and ending days by myself in unfamiliar places are better as well when I have the chance to catch up with the shows I follow.
I work on two podcasts (my solo tikichris Talks project and All Consumed, which I co-produce with journalist Neil Davey). So podcasting is often on my mind. That seems to be the case with all sorts of other folks too though – whether they have any desire to podcast or not. What podcasts people are listening too and which are worth checking out is an increasingly common topic of conversation.
So, here’s my list of favourite podcasts of 2018 (and yes I’m really into politics and shows produced by WNYC).
Items appear in alphabetic order, not ranked.
Best Podcasts
The Brian Lehrer Show
WYNC talk show host Brian Lehrer leads the conversation about current affairs in the New York area, as well as US and international politics. I started listening to Brian Years ago when I lived across the river from New York in Hoboken, New Jersey. The New York stuff doesn’t apply much to me these days but it’s still interesting. The national and international content is riveting and excellently analysed by Brian and his knowledgeable guests. I’m a far better informed person for listening to this show.
This is the second year in a row this podcast has made my ‘best of’ list.
The Daily
Twenty minutes a day and five days a week, host Michael Barbaro and guest journalists break down the day’s biggest news event for this New York Times podcast.
This is the second year in a row this podcast has made my ‘best of’ list.
Statistician Nate Silver and team cover the latest in politics, tracking the issues and “game-changers” every week with insightful and sometimes provoking analysis that’s data-based and usually proved right.
This is the second year in a row this podcast has made my ‘best of’ list.
Series two of this serial investigative journalism hosted by Madeleine Baran and a team of reporters, examines the case of Curtis Flowers, who has been tried six times for the same crime. He’s won appeal after appeal, but every time, prosecutor Doug Evans just tries the case again. It’s like To Kill a Mockingbird meets Groundhog Day but sadly true (though there is a glimmer of hope).
For one hour a week, On the Media “lifts the veil” to reveal the process of how media, especially news media, is made and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad.
This is the second year in a row this podcast has made my ‘best of’ list.
Trump, Inc. is a joint reporting project from WNYC Studios and ProPublica that digs deep into questions about how President Trump’s business works and who might be profiting from his administration.
This is the second year in a row this podcast has made my ‘best of’ list.
Where Should We Begin? With Esther Perel
Couples therapist Esther Perel shares recorded sessions with real anonymous couples speaking with her in her office about the travails of relationships. Each episode in the series presents an intimate and poignant portrayal – sometimes bittersweet, sometimes brutal, sometimes delightful and always tapping into some sort of universal truth of the human experience.
More of the best of 2019 to follow!
