This year saw podcasts attract widespread attention for their influence on the political agenda (a hack that goes back to 2015, when Obama caused outrage with his raw take on race on Marc Maron’s WTF).
Spotify continues to push “video podcasts”, but apart from the technical problems they present, they hold no appeal for those who love audio at least in part because it frees them from screens.
The podcasts below, my picks for the year, do much more than that: they inform, illuminate, touch the heart and unleash the imagination.