20. White Smoke: America’s Chemsex Killer
To call this a true-crime show is to risk underselling the level of sensitivity and insight it brought to the murders at its heart. It might have focused on the awful, barely believable drug-fuelled, sex-related deaths of gay men caused by wealthy US political donor Ed Buck. But it was also an immersion into gay subcultures – from the world of ballroom to the chemsex scene, looking at the latter’s power dynamics, terminology, most commonly used drugs and terrible potential for exploitation. White Smoke used a unique perspective to bring satisfying depth to its story – and it was excellent.
19. Who Shat on the Floor at My Wedding?
“Poodunnit?” That was the big question in this word-of-mouth hit series that seemingly came out of nowhere this year (it was actually released in 2020). Karen Whitehouse and her wife, Helen McLaughlin, enlisted the help of amateur sleuth friend Lauren Kilby, to investigate who left a poo on the bathroom floor at their wedding. Over 13 episodes, they probed guilty-looking guests, spoke with a clinical forensic psychologist and got a lie detector out. It was ludicrous, gross and totally original – a true-crime gem. No spoilers here about who did it: this is definitely one to catch up on. Follow the turd trail!
18. Holy Week
“Everywhere in America, daily life stopped. Dinners turned cold. Families watched the news with dread.” The assassination of Martin Luther King on 4 April 1968 ushered in a week of uprisings that have now largely been forgotten. For this series, the Atlantic’s senior editor, Vann Newkirk, spent a year interviewing people about the unrest, the larger civil rights movement and the racial legacy that marked modern America. Holy Week was a vital piece of historical investigation, as well as a challenge to contemporary assumptions about race and politics in America. An electrifying listen.
17. You Didn’t See Nothin
“I spent most of the last decade locked up on federal drug charges. And from those TV rooms in prison, it seemed like every other week it was another Black person, dying at the hands of white folks. Every time, I thought of Lenard Clark.” So began this seven-part series, in which the journalist and storyteller Yohance Lacour revisited the racially motivated assault of young Lenard Clark, who was beaten into a coma in 1997. With period recordings and the rich delivery of Lacour, You Didn’t See Nothin sounded unlike the majority of white-dominated history podcasts. The forensic way the series questioned a media story of racial reconciliation and healing, immediately ushered in after the attack in the late 1990s, was not just relevant but revelatory.
16. The Immortals
Plasma infusions. Fountains of midlife. Post-human machines. This chilling series about man’s search for immortal life triggered existential crises everywhere: would we want to live for ever if we could? Tech reporter and psychologist Aleks Krotoski was endlessly intrigued and at times horrified as she met a billionaire who pumps his son’s blood around his body and scientists who believe an age-stopping pill will soon exist. With questions of faith and morality thrown into the mix, it was a big head-scratcher – to say the least.
15. Political Currency
On paper, this sounded dull as hell: two ex-chancellors look at the economic ramifications of politics. But as a listening experience, it was a brilliantly gossipy take on world news stuffed with some absolute gems of insider titbits from huge political moments. From the time the Tories feared their days may be numbered because David Cameron’s son pooed in Rupert Murdoch’s pool to claims that Boris Johnson nearly started fist fights in meetings while London mayor, it swiftly became one of the most fun political pods going.
14. Wiser Than Me
Elaine! From Seinfeld! Talking to Jane Fonda! And Fran Lebowitz! And Amy Tan! In this very simple interview format series, the actor and comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus spoke to older women about their long and fruitful lives. At 85, Jane Fonda covered divorce, funerals, fitness and working with Katharine Hepburn. Now 80, the author Isabel Allende touched on birth and blueberry weed edibles. Rhea Perlman, 75, sounded almost exactly as you remember from Cheers, only now she’s a grandmother, talking about Saturday Night Live and being pregnant on set. A reminder that women still have great lines even when their faces are lined.
13. Rylan: How to Be a Man
From covering Eurovision to a huge interview with Cher, 2023 secured Rylan’s status as a national sweetheart – and this gorgeous podcast proved just how far he’s come since the X Factor days. He was warm, intelligent and witty as he asked a lineup of diverse guests – Amir Khan, Hamza Yassin, Janet Street-Porter – what it means to be a man in the modern world. Of course, they readily opened up; after all, who wouldn’t want to chat to Rylan?
12. Buried
Given that this staggering environmental podcast told its tale in episodes that were brilliantly brief (only 15 minutes long), you might think it didn’t have much of a yarn to spin. You’d be wrong. Buried’s staggering revelations about organised crime infiltrating the UK’s rubbish disposal industry – and illegally dumping astonishing quantities – traversed deathbed confessions and cover-ups. There were awful visits to the Northern Irish Mobuoy site at the centre of the scandal and a look at similar cases worldwide, which should make us absolutely fear the rise of the new eco-mafia. The interview with the Italian priest who now lives under armed guard after attempting to tackle the issue in his country was jaw-dropping.
11. Love, Janessa
How do you fall in love with a photo, a message, a fake? In this seven-part series, journalist Hannah Ajala tried to find the real Janessa Brazil; the adult entertainment star whose face has apparently been used to launch a thousand romance scams all over the world. As a BBC World Service and CBC co-production, Love, Janessa combined a wry, British tone – largely thanks to Ajala – with a very North American style that culminated in a stark interview with Janessa herself.
10. The Rest is Entertainment
It’s pretty much a contractual obligation for podcasting duos to claim that they’re friends. So when the Guardian’s Marina Hyde and Richard Osman opened their new weekly look at pop culture by claiming to be pals, it was easy to be sceptical. Until, that is, you took in the easy chemistry, the casual hilarity and the seemingly effortless way they crafted an entertainment show as full of genuine industry insight as zingers. A real treat.
9. Pod Save the UK
The UK spin-off of Pod Save the World brought us a fresh and funny twosome – satirist Nish Kumar and the Guardian’s Coco Khan – to chew over the week’s political and cultural news. The pals cut through the bullshit on everything from the housing crisis to the Covid inquiry, the Israel/Palestine conflict, the Russell Brand scandal and the return of David Cameron – alongside guests including Rob Delaney, James O’Brien and David Lammy. But Kumar and Khan always had time to chat about Eurovision and Beyoncé concerts, too – making this a political podcast to have some serious fun with.
8. A Very British Cult
For this BBC series, journalist Catrin Nye spent 18 months investigating Lighthouse, a “life coaching” organisation that has cost some members tens of thousands of pounds and others their entire family. We heard testimonies that sounded more like confessions, from a group of people pulled in by the coercive, controlling tactics of this shadowy group run by a man who, according to his own website, is “making a positive impact with our human family and earthly home”. This felt like a podcast with high stakes, investigating real vulnerability, but in a specifically British context. Instead of parking lots and guns, we had pubs, bedsits and a freezer full of meat. It was all the more distinctive for it.
7. Class of ‘88
Given his A-list status, it seems strange that Will Smith has a podcast, but if you’re going to launch an audio series as a megastar, you may as well make it as good as this one. Class of ‘88 is a documentary and interview series about the moments, artists and albums that created what Smith calls “a sonic revolution” in hip-hop and, inevitably, mainstream music and culture. Guests included Queen Latifah, Chuck Dee, DMC, Salt-N-Pepa and yes, of course, Jazzy Jeff. A lively, funny, anecdote-packed nostalgia fest.
6. The Retrievals
There aren’t many podcasts that will have you bent double, in the street, wincing with pain and fury. The Retrievals was a five-part series that investigated the excruciating pain experienced by female patients undergoing egg retrieval at Yale fertility centre. Undergoing it, we find out, sometimes with no anaesthetic at all, because one of the nurses was secretly stealing the fentanyl and replacing it with saline. The Retrievals was a sharp insight into America’s opioid addiction crisis, private healthcare and how we judge female pain.
5. Think Twice: Michael Jackson
Who is he and what is he to you? In this fascinating 10-parter, journalists Leon Neyfakh and Jay Smooth recalibrated the legend of Michael Jackson, 10 years after his death, but from quite different perspectives. Neyfakh only had an “ambient sense” of one of pop’s most controversial figures in the 90s; while Smooth, who was on the Michael Jackson train for as long as he could remember, describes the star as being “like an extended member of the family”.
4. The Coldest Case in Laramie
This Serial production did what Serial has been doing since the start: telling gripping stories about a murder. Kim Barker, a Times investigative reporter with a gravelly voice, a career in asking difficult questions, and experience as a war reporter in Afghanistan, went back to her home town of Laramie in Wyoming, to try to uncover what happened to a young woman, Shelli Wiley, who was killed in 1985. What she discovered were the failings of the police, how a case falls apart and what it means to go back to your childhood home.
3. The Girlfriends
What do you get when you combine heartbreak, sisterhood, mystery, true crime and gossip? The recipe for a winning podcast. The Girlfriends was a funny, sometimes unsettling, often sassy show about a group of women who all dated not just the same man, but the same murderer. Host Carol Fisher met the people who, back in 1980s Las Vegas, formed a club to eat noodles, chat about their ex and wonder what happened to Gail, his first wife who apparently disappeared in 1985. These women’s experiences and recollections of Bob – the tall, good-looking, Jewish doctor – would become the evidence on which he was convicted.
2. Believe in Magic
Like his previous podcast hit, The Missing Cryptoqueen, Jamie Bartlett relentlessly peeled back layer after layer of another wild real-life scandal in Believe in Magic. It was a hugely addictive deep dive into the story of Megan Bhari, a teen diagnosed with cancer who gained the support of One Direction and David Cameron when she launched a charity. Donations and Disneyland trips ensued, and led a group of mothers to question Megan’s illness – until she suddenly died. But things became murkier from there, as Bartlett followed the trail and spoke to family members including Megan’s mum. It’s a tragic story, but Bartlett was sensitive and determined as he uncovered and answered questions at every turn – the very same questions it was hard not to shout as a listener.
1. Ghost Story
By rights, no show should be this effortlessly bingeable when it comes with such a complex set-up. Part paranormal investigation, part whodunnit, this wild series saw journalist Tristan Redman drawn into an investigation of his wife’s ancestors after it turned out that her great-grandmother may have haunted his childhood bedroom. There were trips to paranormal experts, a huge murder investigation involving ex-professional detectives that threatened to point the finger at a beloved ancestor of his wife’s family, multiple seances, a scandal about fake spy memoirs that engulfed the BBC, universities and top academic publishers – and even one tense moment involving Downton Abbey’s Hugh Dancy. It was, after all, his family Redman married into – which, we soon find out, is full of lots of hugely distinguished people, who become increasingly angry the more the show went on. Compelling, fascinating, funny: there was no show like it this year – or any year, really.
• This article was amended on 21 December 2023. Lenard Clark, the subject of You Didn’t See Nothin, was beaten into a coma, not murdered as an earlier version said.
