Our Top Podcasts of 2020

There was a lot of good work in 2020, too many to fit onto one list, so below are ten shows that stuck with me the most this year. Here’s to 2021 being a better year, with even more good podcasts.

99% Invisible

Listening to an episode of 99% Invisible is always a little magical. With host Roman Mars’s warm voice giving the show its enchanting effect, the podcast offers deep dives into design subjects like architecture and urban planning as well as more unusual topics that illustrate how design pervades every aspect of modern life. It’s narrative, journalistic podcasting like the sort you’ve certainly heard on other programs, but is always delivered with substantial takeaways that you’re bound to think about weeks and even years later. 99% Invisible is about design, as well as history. But more than that, it’s about how Mars and his wonderful team of producers see the world and interpret beauty amidst chaos. It’s been almost 10 years since 99PI first hit the airwaves, and the show has come a long way from its roots as a one-man podcast lovingly crafted in Mars’s bedroom. The sound has gotten a little lusher, the episodes have gotten a little longer, and there’s even a forthcoming book out this fall. The show’s rise in popularity has been accompanied by a wonderful evolution in style, and I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed every period of 99% Invisible’s history, from the baby Roman minisodes to its multi-part spinoff series like producer Avery Trufelman’s Articles of Interest. It is impossible to say the following 15 episodes are unequivocally the best the team has produced, but this list certainly provides a sample of the high-quality fare on offer from beautiful downtown Oakland, California.

Criminal

What happens when you find out that the person who stole your identity wasn’t a stranger but someone you’ve known all your life? How do you manage after having been locked in a classroom while an active shooter roams the corridors? How do you feel when you discover the man you’ve fallen in love with doesn’t exist? And what is it like growing up the daughter of an international marijuana kingpin? Criminal casts its net wide. It considers no crime too grievous, too trivial, too grisly, or too quirky: murder, counterfeiting, extortion, assault, hacking, hijacking, stalking, streaking, identity theft, book theft, plant theft. Everything is held up to the light. The podcast, which began in 2014 (before Serial), has found both a devoted following and wide acclaim. It continues to stand out in what has become (since Serial) an increasingly crowded field. Criminal is happy to dwell in the details of minor crimes (the outfit one wears before streaking at the Super Bowl, the routine of a man who gives every police officer he sees the finger) but it also regularly tackles more serious issues, including immigration, police brutality, abortion, domestic abuse, paedophilia, hate crimes, the death penalty, to name only a few. The producers never forget that these are structural problems—deft narration sets specific crimes in their historical and social context—but the show is most interested in the individuals “who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle.” Ultimately, this is a podcast about people. Why do we commit crimes? How do we respond when they are committed against us?

Articles of Interest

This year, Avery Trufelman, a longtime reporter and producer for “99% Invisible” and the current host of “The Cut,” returned with the second season of her limited series “Articles of Interest,” which not only continued to engage me with a topic I’d never thought I cared much about—clothing—but changed the way I thought about, of all things, luxury. The season begins with a museum’s collection of creepy dolls and its role in the preservation of fashion in postwar France; it goes on to consider ideas about beauty, value, and specialness with episodes about knockoffs (via the influential Harlem designer Dapper Dan), diamonds, suits, perfume, and wedding dresses. In exploring how our desires can manifest themselves “in strange and seemingly frivolous ways,” Trufelman illustrates how essential those desires truly are.

Winds of Change

The best podcasts often help us see something anew—“Cops,” sleep, an old Moby album—and, to the surprise of many of us, this year that included “Wind of Change,” the 1990 perestroika-focussed power ballad by the German hair-metal band the Scorpions, whose piercing whistle and anthemic force inspired millions of Soviet and European “children of tomorrow” to “ring the freedom bell.” The podcast “Wind of Change,” from the New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe, Pineapple Street Studios, Spotify, and Crooked Media, investigates a juicy rumor: was the C.I.A. secretly responsible for writing the song? Combining the joy of chasing down answers with the glee of embarking on a whimsical quest, Keefe takes listeners on an adventure around the world and through Cold War history. Though it takes the form of a romp, mightily enhanced by the production chops of Henry Molofsky, “Wind of Change” gets us thinking about the role of culture, and specifically music, in influencing hearts and minds.

Catch and Kill

For the past two years, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow has been following a trail of clues from his investigation of Harvey Weinstein to other blockbuster stories about the systems that protect powerful men accused of terrible crimes in Hollywood, Washington, and beyond. Of course, he didn’t bring that information to light on his own. A compelling cast of sources — from brave whistleblowers to undercover operatives — decided the fate of these investigations, sometimes (and often) risking everything in the process. The new Catch and Kill podcast — the companion to Farrow’s bestselling book of the same name — brings us their stories, in their own words, for the first time. Farrow recently told The Guardian that the idea for the podcast came early in the reporting process when he and then-NBC News producer Rich McHugh were working on the Weinstein story for the network. “We recorded hours of our conversations in real time as the story was getting killed by our network executives,” Farrow said. “And you can hear the real moments about reacting to those pieces of news and how we reacted in the moment.”

Real AF

Way back in 2015 Andy Frisella (founder of Supplement Superstores, Paradise Distribution, and the renowned fitness brand 1st Phorm International) got pissed off and decided to start a podcast about everything it takes for you to become your own MFCEO. No bs, no fluff, no commercials, just the real shit. The MFCEO podcast shot to no.1 on just about every business podcast site and a following was born. Fast forward to 2020 and Mr. Frisella decided fuck it, let’s change the game again. The Real AF podcast came out and Andy just kept on trucking. This is not for sensitive listeners but if you give it a chance and are not afraid to ask yourself the tough questions and be honest, it will change your life.

The Joe Rogan Experience

The podcast that changed it all. After signing with Spotify there was a lot of concern that Joe had sold out and the corporate overlords will steal it’s soul to extract every cent they possibly can. A couple of months later and a couple of really strange hissy fits from some Spotify staffers, it’s safe to say the JRE is not stopping for anyone. Weird, whacky, enlightening, frustrating, mind altering, eye opening; that all describes the JRE. Talking about Scientology to smoking blunts with Elon Musk, Joe has the curiosity of toddler that’s been given the keys to a new house and we are all better for it.

50 Things That Made the Modern Economy

Do you have 10 minutes? Do you like learning new stuff super easily and super quickly? Ever wondered what made the modern economy but couldn’t be bothered to spend a hell of a lot of time to find out? 50 Things That Made The Modern Economy is made for you. From pencil’s to the like button to pornography, Tim Harford explores it all in easily digestible bites that doesn’t just cultivate you curiosity, it gives you a ravaging hunger to learn more.

Jocko Podcast

Jocko Willink might just be the baddest man on the planet. And listening to the Jocko podcast will cause chest hair to sprout. In the last year he has kept on doing what made the podcast popular but the episodes where he spoke to John Stryker Meyer and his adventures in Vietnam with the MACV-SOG is absolute gold. No one deep dives into a book and military history like Jocko and the MACV-SOG chronicles are amazing. If you do not know what a Prairie Fire means then you need to listen to this and thank whoever it is you pray too.

Order of Man

Ryan Michler started the Order Of Man in 2015 after asking himself some serious questions and not being able to answer them. Protect. Provide. Preside. If you’re looking to learn what it takes to become more of the man you were meant to be, you’ve come to the right place. Like many of men that he’s talked with, you may be asking why this is so important. Do you want to make more money, have more meaningful relationships, take your career to the next level, or become a stronger leader in your business and community? Regardless of what the world may have you believe, all of that can be accomplished by magnifying and becoming more of what you already are – a man. If you’re ready to man up, I invite you to check out his blog and podcast. You’ll learn from guys just like yourself who have taken their careers, relationships, health, and lives to the next level.