Erotic thrillers, phone flirting, a faceless ghost possibly related to Hugh Dancy, seven hours of the Dave Matthews Band, and suspicious sushi tuna that gives you the runs: 2023 might have been the podcast world’s year from hell, but its participants are still pumping out all sorts of wonderful and weird stuff that leave their peers buzzing.
Welcome to the third annual Vulture Podcast Survey, where even the city of Boston might receive a nice word. We started this project back in 2021, working off the belief that it would be interesting to conduct an industry-wide survey figuring out which shows most captured the attention of the people who actively shape the podcast world. Below, you’ll find this year’s results.
But first, some words on process. As in previous years, we reached out to a few hundred people across the podcast field — producers, hosts, independent creators, executives, agents, engineers, and so on — and polled them on the three podcasts they liked most from the year. Votes would be anonymous, and all respondents were given the same two limitations: They can’t pick a show they’ve worked on or are affiliated with directly, and their selections had to be actively publishing new episodes this calendar year. Voters were given the opportunity to explain their picks, but that wasn’t compulsory. Everyone quoted gave us permission to do so. Most are named, while others are left anonymous for various reasons.
Our outreach this year yielded over 180 responses. Two things to note: First, a considerable number of voters ended up submitting more than three picks. Sometimes they were generous with honorable mentions, sometimes they just plowed through the limit. In those cases, the honorable mentions were disregarded and I took the first three picks that were provided as votes. Second, given that there’s been emerging conversation about how the definition of a “podcast†is changing to also include video-first operations, it’s worth noting that almost all responses we received emphasized podcasts as an audio medium. I imagine we’ll wade deeper into the video-audio complications in future surveys, but it seems we’re not quite there yet.
Let’s talk results. The number of podcasts receiving more than one vote was 82, which is up from 77 last year. (Overall, 235 individual shows received at least one vote.) In this list, we present the 15 shows with the most votes in ascending order. For cases in which a few shows brought in the same number of votes, we ordered them alphabetically. Also, there were five shows that placed in the last two surveys with enough votes to get them repeat appearances in this year’s results. We kept two in the main ranking and broke out three; explanations are given in an addendum. We also decided to include five extra picks with smaller vote tallies that came with fun comments, so we could spread the love around.
Phew. Okay, that’s enough throat-clearing. Let’s get to it.
15. Knowledge FightÂ
For almost seven years, Jordan Holmes and Dan Friesen’s Knowledge Fight, ostensibly a comedy podcast, has critically analyzed Alex Jones and the sprawling universe of profit-seeking conservative propaganda that’s sprung up around the guy. The project received a pop of support in this year’s tally with some eager to express appreciation for the duo’s long-running efforts.
“Knowledge Fight has continued to be a crucial resource for people tracking Alex Jones and the nexus of influential figures around him, which now include Elon Musk, Tate, etc.,†jointly wrote Mia Wong and Robert Evans of the Cool Zone Media network. “When two comedians set out to do a podcast about InfoWars they could not have foreseen becoming some of the world’s foremost experts on the increasingly influential world of right-wing conspiracy theorists.â€
14. The Big Dig
Who knew people felt so fondly about Boston? Well, not Boston per se. Rather, voters lauded Ian Coss’s audio documentary about the political struggle around the city’s extensive effort to pull off a major infrastructure project — colloquially known in the region as the “Big Dig.†Feelings on the city itself remained so-so; one voter wrote that Coss’s series “almost made Boston seem like an interesting place.â€
Anyway, some argued that GBH’s The Big Dig further represents a high point for public media in the medium. “Exactly the type of content that highlights the best of public media and what is possible from public media institutions,†wrote Jason Saldhana, chief of business development and content at PRX.
13. Bandsplain
Got a spare six hours to burn on two heads talking about the Talking Heads? Or if you’re crunched for time, how about a brisk two and a half hours on Death Cab for Cutie? Buddy, you’re in for a treat. Yasi Salek’s conversational opuses on cult bands, beloved artists, and why people love them has been around since 2021, but this year saw a bump in love from the podcast community. Perhaps it took a little time for Salek’s discipline and commitment to the bit to really kick in.
Some even seemed to be in awe of the thirst for mayhem required to lead a project like this. As Fresh Air producer Seth Kelley put it: “There’s something so chaotically pleasing about starting a sentence, ‘So I’m listening to this two-part, seven-hour podcast about PJ Harvey, and …’â€
12. You Must Remember This: Erotic ’90s
Gaze long enough into Richard Gere’s hair and the abyss will gaze back into you. Karina Longworth’s stalwart Hollywood film podcast appeared in the honorable mentions of this survey last year off the strength of her fantastic 12-part study of American sexuality through the lens of ’80s erotic thrillers. Erotic ’90s, the even more ambitious second half of Longworth’s inquiry that’s almost twice as long (at 21 episodes!), was a feat that didn’t go unrecognized by a larger pool of people.
“A truly killer season,†one producer wrote.
Among the more passionate arguments came from Tracy Alloway, co-host of Bloomberg’s Odd Lots. “Lots of people will identify You Must Remember This as an entertainment podcast,†she wrote. “But I always think of it as a business podcast that does a fantastic job of going behind the scenes of the industry decisions that go into making particular movies or TV series. Erotic ’90’s is a great entry into this category, delving into the commodification of sex and (primarily) women in entertainment.â€
11. The 13th StepÂ
New Hampshire Public Radio has a long reputation for punching well above its weight in podcasting with a decorated portfolio that includes Bear Brook, Outside/In, and Civics 101. But many respondents felt that the station has never gone further, or taken more risk, than with The 13th Step, which sees the journalist Lauren Chooljian expanding on her reporting on sexual misconduct allegations against the head of the state’s largest network of addiction recovery centers — an investigation that ultimately led Chooljian and the station to endure unsettling threats.
“Lauren Chooljian is a remarkable reporter telling a deeply upsetting story that I hope has real impact,†said Jonathan Menjivar, host of Classy and a senior producer at Pineapple Street Studios. “It’s rare to get a microscopic and satellite view of an issue at the same time like this.â€
10. Weight For It with Ronald Young Jr.
Respondents to last year’s survey identified Ronald Young Jr. as a Podcaster to Watch, and this year’s batch showed up for his project with Radiotopia, an interior cultural-analysis series that explores American’s complicated relationship with weight.
“I’ve rarely heard anyone discuss the subject of body weight — their own, and society’s attitude toward it — with such candor and deep thoughtfulness,†wrote Laura Beil of Dr. Death, Sympathy Pains, and this year’s Exposed: Cover-up at Columbia University. “The episode with the recorded doctor’s visit was painful to hear. It’s the podcast everyone should listen to before you have another conversation with anyone about their weight (or any conversation about body weight, for that matter).â€
Particular praise was directed to Young’s handling of his own story. “I think it can be easy in memoir-driven shows for a host to position themselves as a palatable hero with dismissible shortcomings,†said writer, editor, and director Aaron Edwards. “Ronald doesn’t fall into this trap. He’s a reliable narrator willing to examine when his own brain is unreliable.â€
9. The Town with Matthew Belloni
This is the second time in a row that Matt Belloni’s ongoing audio chronicle of Hollywood’s rapid weirdening garnered enough votes to place in this list. Ordinarily, we would’ve carved out the entry to prevent repetition — see “A Note on Repeats,†below — if it wasn’t for the whole, you know, existential dual strikes thing.
Voters pretty much felt the same way. It had indeed been a massive year for the podcast, which proved to be essential listening for many as Hollywood was rocked by the largest labor action in a generation. “Voted this last year, and then there was a strike and this show understood how to navigate these waters and explain what was going on throughout that difficult process,†read one representative response.
But some also focused their reflections on the substantive style of the show more generally. “Beyond all the newsy relevance, though, I find the podcast weirdly relaxing, which I think has something to do with Matt’s hosting style,†wrote one executive producer. “I feel like he values my time and keeps things snappy and informative, and that eases my mind.â€
8. Classy with Jonathan MenjivarÂ
Class is a sticky and tricky thing to tackle, and so it’s a testament to the success of Jonathan Menjivar’s effort, which draws inspiration from his experience as a working-class kid turned Brooklyn Media Person, that it drew a ton of support from podcast makers. (Many of whom are presumably also grappling with the same class strangeness that he feels.)
The specificity of Menjivar’s writing was consistently identified as a high point. “As a fellow Latine who grew up in suburban Southern California and now works in podcasting, this series spoke to me on an almost cellular level,†wrote one independent producer. “I hear a lot of people in media — not just public radio or podcasting, but across all platforms — talk a big game about covering Latine stories or Latine issues, and more often than not I find the execution of their efforts extremely corny. This pod manages to feel very Latine at its core, while not being obviously so and still speaking to a broader audience. I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time.â€
7. This American Life and Slate’s What Next: “The Callâ€
“Easily the single hour of audio I’ve thought the most about this year.â€
That verdict comes from Ellen Horne, director of the Podcast and Audio Reportage program at NYU’s journalism school. She was far from the only one who felt that way about this hourlong episode, led by Mary Harris, that explored every facet of one call connected to the Never Use Alone Hotline, an overdose prevention service.
“The Call†came out of a collaboration between Slate’s daily news podcast What Next (for which Harris is anchor) and This American Life, and many respondents additionally mulled over how the latter tends to be undervalued these days given its standing as one of the oldest audio institutions operating today.
“I realize people mostly take This American Life for granted these days, but this searing episode will stay with me for a long time,†said Casey Newton, the editor of Platformer and co-host of Hard Fork. “It uses a classic TAL conceit — talk to everyone connected to a single phone call — and weaves an amazing tale of addiction, heartbreak, and redemption. Who the hell else in media is trying this hard 25 years in?â€
6. Hang UpÂ
For several years now, there’s been a growing push to adapt reality television to the podcast format in some form or another, which makes sense given the intense popularity of the genre around the world. And in Hang Up, made by Caitlin Pierce, Zakiya Gibbons, and Ben Montoya, voters appear to have found an exceptionally strong version of the reality-podcast concept that sees one person — the “star†— fielding a succession of calls from six potential suitors. There’s a fun twist here: one suitor is eliminated at the end of every episode, and in the finale, the winning suitor has the choice of going on an all-expenses-paid trip with the star … or taking a cash prize.
“Hang Up really felt like a fresh show, a new approach and a new style that I hadn’t heard in podcasting before,†said Mitra Kaboli, host of last year’s Welcome to Provincetown. “Dare I say that it is, in my opinion, the best rendering of a reality show in podcast form.â€
5. The Ezra Klein ShowÂ
This is the second time The Ezra Klein Show has made this list, after making the cut when this survey project first debuted back in 2021. But its appearance here is specifically pegged to Klein’s body of interviews on the deepening crisis in Gaza, which some argue are among the best, most even-handed pieces of journalism on the subject.
“An incredible high-wire act,†wrote one prominent podcast host. “Ezra is calmly processing one of the most loaded topics we’ve had in awhile, in real time. Also, the series was a quiet master class in the kinds of thoughtful, dialogic spaces that podcasting at its best can summon. If podcasting this year needs to justify its existence, I’d point here.â€
4. Ghost Story
Tristan Redman might’ve pissed off his in-laws in pursuit of a ghost story that turns into a murder mystery that also turns into an interrogation of his wife’s family’s mythology, but he delighted voters with his utter willingness to go the spooky distance. I mean, he and producer Annie Brown even wrangled together a seance for the benefit of good tape!
“Charming†is the operative word. “I went into this a skeptic, but found Tristan to be so charming and the show to be a nesting doll for so many fascinating ideas,†wrote Justin Sayles, host of The Wedding Scammer and producer at the Ringer.
“Is it possible for a ghost story turned murder mystery to be … charming?!†said Amory Sivertson, co-host of WBUR’s Endless Thread. “Yes it is. The first episode is one of the best I’ve ever heard in terms of setting up a complicated story and fully hooking you.â€
“I laughed, I cried, I started hearing weird noises in the house,†wrote Veronica Simmonds, a senior producer at CBC Podcasts. “But seriously, this show was a fun but incisive reminder never to forget our matriarchs.â€
3. You Didn’t See Nothin’
Voters were taken by the style of You Didn’t See Nothin’, which saw the Chicago artist Yohance Lacour blend memoir and investigative journalism to produce something truly distinct from his efforts to revisit a hate crime turned racial-reconciliation fairy tale that took place in his past.
“Only Yohance could tell this story in this way, and only audio could capture the extraordinary sound and rhythm of his storytelling,†wrote Jenna Levin, a creative executive at Higher Ground Audio. “You Didn’t See Nothin’ not only does this hybrid genre justice, it innovates on the form. Intimate and propulsive investigation, poetic, and musical sound — a show that truly felt fresh and exciting.â€
The fact that the show arises from a partnership between a nonprofit (the Invisible Institute) and a larger media corporation (USG Audio) was not lost on voters. “Invisible Institute has made two beautiful and slightly overlooked podcasts now, but I hope they don’t stop,†said Mangesh Hattikudur, host of Skyline Drive. “I’m always trying to find shows that sound different, sound fresh using the same tools everyone is employing, and this did to me.“
“This series proves that our medium can live up to a noble ideal and do great storytelling at the same time,†wrote the editor and sound designer John DeLore, who’s also the co-founder of Audio Flux. “And in this moment of, let’s call it ‘industry contraction,’ I think there’s a value in thinking about how nonprofit journalism orgs like Invisible Institute might be better than Big Podcast corps to take the lead on work like this in terms of allowing the space, time, and resources to do the necessary reporting.â€
2. The RetrievalsÂ
This one also happens to be my own pick for the best podcast of the year: Susan Burton’s five-parter on a medical crime at the Yale Fertility Center and how it embodies the structural dismissal of women’s pain left a deep impression on voters — despite, or perhaps because of, the sheer difficulty of its material. “To be honest, it was a hard listen for me, mostly because I’m a sensitive person and the subject matter is so intense,†said Megan Tan, host and creator of Millennial, Snooze, and Now or Never. “But every time I finished an episode, it made me look at the world differently.â€
As is usually the case with Serial Productions, there’s a begrudging quality to some of the votes, primarily tied to the production’s provenance as part of the increasingly powerful New York Times Audio operation. “I didn’t want to nominate a New York Times/Serial production because those two (now combined) organizations have sucked so much attention out of the podcast world already,†wrote one podcast editor. “But if I’m being honest, nothing has inspired me more — with use of tape, with writing, with impressive journalism — than The Retrievals did this year.â€
1. Search EngineÂ
This is the third time we’ve done this survey, and in each iteration, the show that comes out on top tends to do so in unambiguous, resounding fashion. And so it is with PJ Vogt’s Search Engine, which came away with the most votes by a huge margin. The show, which features the former Reply All co-host and his team exploring all sorts of questions that have a habit of leading back to the fundamental strangeness of the way we live today, only launched at the beginning of summer, but it’s already strung together an opening run that’s left behind a strong mark.
Praise for Search Engine was consistently phrased in superlative terms: “PJ is just one of the all-time writers in podcasting today.†“Who knew? PJ Vogt is the best at making podcasts.†“Re-creating the magic of Reply All is an impossibly tall order, but Search Engine manages to touch those heights while being an entirely different show.â€
“I love explanatory journalism, and it’s explanatory journalism at its best,†said Ezra Klein, host of The Ezra Klein Show. “Simple questions that unfold into wondrous answers and, more than that, explorations.â€
In a moment when narrative podcasts are struggling to get institutional support, some pointed to the show as a potential model for how the path forward might look. “I know the exercise of this is how to make a satisfying, well-made podcast without going to the moon and back every week on the production churn of an always on series,†said Kate Osborn, head of development at Kaleidoscope. “I think the coffee episode and the diamonds episode are good examples. Somehow I listened to these, they felt really well produced, but if you look hard at them, they’re just two-ways — sometimes relying on a single interview.â€
It should be noted that Vogt himself recently wrote that the podcast has not yet achieved profitability. Perhaps the show will get there soon. Either way, Search Engine is off to a strong start, and its many admirers have their fingers crossed.
A Note on Repeats
There were five shows from the past two years that garnered enough votes to make repeat appearances on this year’s list: The Ezra Klein Show, Heavyweight, If Books Could Kill, Normal Gossip, and The Town.
As you might’ve already noticed, we kept The Ezra Klein Show and The Town in the ranking because, in the case of the former, voters identified a subset of episodes that were distinct this year, and in the case of the latter, there was a particular newsy resonance to the show’s contributions.
We opted to break out If Books Could Kill (which came in eighth last year) and Normal Gossip (which topped the last survey) here, because arguments for those picks were mostly tethered to their general level of excellence and we prioritized opening up more space for new entries. They would’ve placed tenth and 13th in this survey, respectively. You can read about them in the 2022 survey, and I should note that If Books Could Kill also popped up in my best podcast list for this year.
Heavyweight, though, is a special case …
On Heavyweight …
Jonathan Goldstein’s Heavyweight had already received a steady trickle of votes before news that Spotify was not renewing the show broke earlier this month. After that, a wave of support came crashing in; at last count, it would’ve placed sixth.
At this time, Heavyweight’s future remains uncertain. There’s been some reporting that a few potential suitors have expressed interest in picking up the show, but however things shake out, it felt appropriate to carve out a separate section to honor what many podcasters argue is an all-time great — just in case this is the last we’ll see of Heavyweight.
“It’s just perennially one of the best that’s out there,†wrotes Isaac Kestenbaum, the director of Salt Institute for Documentary Study.
“Heavyweight is consistently my favorite podcast,†said one producer. “I’ve loved what Jonathan Goldstein has done his entire radio career from This American Life through to Wiretap at the CBC. I adore his writing and his self-deprecating style. But most important, I love Heavyweight because of its life-affirming stories that both capture my attention and move me. Episodes are more likely to make me shed a tear than any other podcast I know.â€
Other Interesting Picks
The Blindboy PodcastÂ
Just two votes came in for this independent podcast by David Chambers, the comedian and one-half of the Irish hip-hop duo the Rubberbandits, but boy, was I sold on the passion of the sell.
“Idiosyncratic, esoteric, frequently hilarious, they mirror an authentic train of thought so you never know what to expect,†said John Shields, the director of podcasts at The Economist. “Chambers is clearly a genius and this is the best example I know of a trait many great podcasts have in common: privileged access to an interior life.â€
“I love this guy,†wrote Rumble Strip’s Erica Heilman. “He’s thoughtful and hilarious and he makes a show that, when it is about himself, isn’t boringly self-referential. There’s a little bit of Joe Frank vibe†— referring to the legendary radio maker — “and I love him.â€
Celebrity Book Club with Steven & LilyÂ
Steven Phillips-Horst and Lily Marotta’s near-religious exegetical readings of celebrity memoirs is a Vulture-staff favorite, but I’ll clear the floor for this impassioned paean from a host of a widely beloved podcast:
“There are quite a few celebrity-memoir book-club podcasts out there, but no one is doing it like Steven and Lily. They’re hilarious, for one. But it’s not just that. They’re also pouring over these books in a way that is beyond belief (considering you could call this a comedy podcast). Their deep dives get at the very essence of the memoir and its author: What does she wear? What does she eat? How does she live? (These three questions make up an end-of-episode segment that really sums it up.) Sure, they’re not new to the scene, but the more they gab, the better this pod gets.â€
Lights Out
Curated by Falling Tree, one of the U.K.’s great radio stewards that comprises Eleanor McDowall and Alan Hall, Lights Out was a BBC Radio 4 anthology series housing all kinds of one-off audio documentaries that defy easy categorization. The shingle published about a dozen pieces in the past year before the BBC decided to pull the plug on the project, and a few voters wrote in to express their dismay.
“Lights Out is a key representation of why I started working in podcasts to begin with and I wish these efforts would gain more support rather than less,†wrote Garrett Tiedemann, a sound designer and mix engineer at Campside Media. “It’s beautifully designed and since each episode is a self-contained story, it allows movement and experimentation unique to each story. You never know what to expect other than that it will be worth the time and will open up your mind to new possibilities for storytelling and for living.â€
Two episodes were consistently singled out in the responses: Talia Augustidis’s “Dead Ends†and “Dust,†adapted by the Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason and the Scottish artist Katie Paterson from Magnason’s book On Time and Water.
Odd Lots
Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal’s gloriously wonky business podcast has popped up consistently in the tallies since we’ve been doing these surveys, and a few particularly passionate votes came in year — a good reason as any to break it out here.
“Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway cast a deliberately absurdly wide net in their finance (and finance-adjacent) podcast with interviewees who range from interest-rate geeks to tractor-supply experts to the creator of Magic: the Gathering,†said Katie Baker, a features writer at the Ringer. “One thing I love about the hosts is they never, ever sound like know-it-alls.â€
Noah Kulwin, co-host of the Blowback podcast, simply says: “Odd Lots is the best business interview program around.â€
Unreformed: The Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro ChildrenÂ
“I don’t think I’ve ever really cried listening to a podcast before, but there were moments toward the end of this show where I had to pull my car over,†said Vann Newkirk II, senior editor at The Atlantic and host of Holy Week, on Josie Duffy Rice’s dive into the painful history of a juvenile-reform school for Black children in Alabama. “In any form, I think the story of the children at Mt. Meigs deserves telling, but Josie’s deep empathy gives this show moments of catharsis that elevate it.â€