7 Podcasts We Can’t Wait to Listen to This Fall

Nobody can predict the future. Just like how nobody could have predicted that, after an extensive period of everyone simply averting their eyes from what seemed like an inevitable car crash, a major presidential ticket shake-up would cause both Democratic Party hopes and the politics podcast economy to roar back to life — or that a series of audio essays by one li’l ol’ podcaster may very well have played some role in the process.

Thankfully, we’re not in the business of predicting the future here. We just curate it. And with this list previewing fall’s offerings, we’re most intrigued by a few returning shows, some lost-gestating projects from creators we haven’t heard from for a while, and a couple of unexpected creative trends. Who knew that wacky interpretation of the self-help genre was such rich territory? Here are seven shows we can’t wait to add to our podcast queue.

September

How to Do Everything (NPR, September 4)

Mike Danforth and Ian Chillag’s weird, dry, and thoroughly fun “survival guide to life and assorted things� call-in show originally ran from 2011 to 2016, and it’s set to roar back to life as part of the Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! podcast feed. This season, the duo focus on how a town in the shadow of the Alps figured out a way to get sunlight, how chimpanzees recognize one another by their butts, how to get out of quicksand, and so on.

The Worst Podcast (Canadaland, September 4)

Alan Zweig, the Canadian filmmaker known for idiosyncratic docs like I, Curmudgeon and Vinyl, turns to the audio-interview format with a fittingly outré premise. Each episode finds Zweig prodding a different celebrity guest to talk about their personal worsts in life—from the worst thing they ever did to the worst thing they ever told someone. Guests include comedian Paul F. Tompkins, podcast host Anna Sale, and novelist Rick Moody.

Empire City (Wondery and Crooked Media, September 9)

Chenjerai Kumanyika, the award-winning journalist of Seeing White and Uncivil renown, uncovers the origins of the NYPD, the world’s largest police force. He threads a line between the plight of abolitionists, the institutionalization of policing, and even how the true-crime genre shapes our view of law enforcement.

Personal Best: Season 3 (CBC, September 10) 

Andrew Norton and Rob Norman’s not-quite-self-improvement show returns to help more ordinary people achieve extraordinarily banal things in their lives. In the past, the two have covered goals such as landing a backflip, learning how to sell something, and delivering a baby cow (as a way to get in touch with nature). Listeners should expect more of the same in this new season, including mustering the courage to dine alone and developing a less awkward handshake. It’s the little things.

Split Screen: Thrill Seekers (CBC, September 23)

Love + Radio’s Nick van der Kolk leads this season of Split Screen, the CBC docuseries franchise exploring the complicated corners of pop culture. Thrill Seekers revisits Space Cadets, an experimental British reality-TV show from 2005 where 12 contestants have to do exactly as they’re told but are kept in the dark as to what the show actually is. Across six episodes, van der Kolk digs into the backstory of this strange production and what happened afterward to everybody involved.

October

Revelations With Jack Dunphy (Talkhouse, October 15)

Jack Dunphy, whose Sundance entry Bob’s Funeral won the Short Film Jury Award for Nonfiction this year, leads this interview series in which he processes his own sobriety and speaks with artists about how they endure their personal traumas through creative work. Upcoming guests include filmmaker Caveh Zahedi, animator Joe Cappa, the late radio host Dayna Keyes, and writer Laura Albert, also known as JT LeRoy.

Groupies: Women of the Sunset Strip From the Pill to Punk (KCRW and Golden Teapot Productions, October 16)

Published as the new season of Lost Notes, KCRW’s always-stellar music-audio docuseries, Groupies will explore Hollywood’s rock scene in the ’60s and ’70s through the perspective of three successive generations of superfans. Over eight parts, the doc follows how the freewheeling counterculture scene met the widespread availability of the birth-control pill and how that transitioned into glam rock and punk. Hosting the season is Dylan Tupper Rupert, who was part of the founding team of the Bandsplain podcast, while critic and journalist Jessica Hopper, who led Lost Notes’s second season, returns as an executive producer. Expect to hear from figures who lived through the scene, like Pamela Des Barres, Courtney Love, Kid Congo Powers, and Creem co-founder Jaan Uhelszki.

More From Fall Preview

• Nicole Scherzinger Never Stopped Dreaming
• Charli XCX Is Too Brat to Fail 
• Adam Pearson Is No Wallflower

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