The Best Podcasts of 2019 (So Far)

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Dolly Parton’s America is a new entry into the ever-expanding library of podcasts. Hosted by Jad Abumrad at WNYC, the series is a nine-part look into Dolly Parton and how she’s come to affect and represent America. Through a combination of interviews with Parton herself and expert commentary on the singer’s impact, the podcast offers a rare glimpse (not a cliché… it’s pretty rare) into Parton’s past with depression, feminist issues, folklore, and of course… a couple of boob jokes. After all, it’s practically Dolly’s superpower to be able to make one better than any of the men who attempt to jest in her presence.—Justin Kirkland

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Katya Zamolodchikova is one of the most popular drag queens in the community at this point, but when she sits down with Craig MacNeil, the duo have some of the most random, insightful conversations in the podcast space. With an ever growing career in drag, Whimsically Volatile is way broader than an outsider might think. Topics can range from love to drug use to LGBTQ issues, but one thing is certain—the podcast will never leave you bored. —Justin Kirkland

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Limetown is actually four years old, but it’s more relevant than ever. While most people turn to podcasts for a non-fiction look at the world, Limetown is a fictional podcast reporting on the strange occurrences in Limetown, Tennessee: the site of over 300 disappearances on the same day. The series is being turned into a Facebook Watch series, but like most originals, there’s something that just can’t be beat by the original. —Justin Kirkland

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If you like a bit of mystery, along with a bit of country music folklore, then Set it Straight with Midland might be the podcast you’ve been looking for. The country trio tackles one rumor lodged in the history of country music, discusses it, talks to their own guest about whether or not it's true, and then an expert comes in to help lead the trio as close to the truth as they can get. The country trio is surprisingly charismatic, and if you like being on the edge of the next popular thing, act fast: the team just kicked off Season One. —Justin Kirkland

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You really don’t realize how much mainstream sports outlets have cut out social and political issues until you’ve listened to an episode of Edge of Sports. Hosted by The Nation’s sports editor, Dave Zirin (who’s a walking sports encyclopedia), Edge of Sports brings in athletes, filmmakers, and writers for refreshing behind-the-headlines conversations. The FIFA-USWNT pay gap controversy, the agency of the modern athlete, whether or not the NCAA should pay its players—it’s all covered in Edge of Sports. It’ll make you a smarter sports fan.—Brady Langmann

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Spectacular Failures is just the opposite—with short episodes that don't feel like a chore, Lauren Ober dives into some of the biggest business failures of all time, ranging from episodes about MoviePass to the incredible belly flop of a Christian theme park put together under the umbrella of notorious televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. With equal parts entrepreneurial cringe and insightful business savvy, Spectacular Failures is the type of podcast for the analytically-minded and the tragically-curious.—Justin Kirkland

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There's an excitement when you start a podcast out, but longevity is a difficult feat—especially when your topic of choice is murder with a comedic spin. Yet Karen Gilgariff and Georgia Hardstark are like friends at the party that you huddle in the corner with because you're too ashamed to let everyone else know how fascinated you are with the ins and outs of murder. With an approach that wavers between curious fascination and sympathetic voyeurism, My Favorite Murder is a odd deep dive into the psyche of history's most screwed up killings.—Justin Kirkland

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If you think that classical music is boring, you've got a lot of company—it’s one of the least popular genres in the country. But there’s actually a lot to love. Not only is the music infinitely varied and just as moving as any more popular genre, but the stories behind the greatest compositions in history offer portraits of some fascinating artists and their work. On Decomposed, pianist Jade Simmons guides you through the stories of composers you know, like Beethoven, and some you may not, like Clara Schumann. Best of all, the show plays recordings of the music in question, contextualizing the works within the lives of their composers, which makes the show a great introduction to appreciating classical music. —Gabrielle Bruney

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Host Misha Euceph presents this introspective and intimate interview series, which features conversations with Muslim artists, actors, performers, and athletes like Queer Eye's Tan France and Arrested Development star Alia Shawkat. Most episodes clock in at a digestible 15 to 20 minutes long, which makes this the perfect break from those meandering long-form interview shows. —Gabrielle Bruney

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After tackling the Nixon and Clinton impeachments on Slate's Slow Burn, Leon Neyfakh decamped to subscription podcast company Luminary for his latest series on American political intrigue. Fiasco examines the 2000 election and Florida recount, exploring the real stories that have faded over the course of two decades into a few well-known phrases like "Brooks Brothers riot" and "hanging chads." The first episode is about the surprising way the controversy surrounding Cuban child refugee Elian Gonzalez had a major impact on American history. —Gabrielle Bruney

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The welfare queen is one of America's most famous racist archetypes—the reckless, lazy, black single mother who fraudulently mooches off of public support rather than working. The myth that the welfare rolls were filled with such scammers helped the nation justify dismantling its cash aide programs. But the myth started with one woman—Chicago's Linda Taylor. And as Josh Levin, host and author of The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth shows, Taylor was very much an aberration not at all representative of the families who relied on public assistance. Aside from defrauding the government of thousands of dollars in welfare funds, she was a serial con artist, and potentially a murderer. —Gabrielle Bruney

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We've all listened to a true crime podcast that takes a close look at some decades old crime. But Gangster Capitalism is a deep dive into a case that's fresh from the headlines—this spring's college admissions scandal, which found celebrities like Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin indicted on charges that they allegedly bribed and schemed their children's way into some of the nation's top colleges. Hosted by filmmaker Andrew Jenks, Gangster Capitalism breaks "Operation Varsity Blues" wide open, combining on-the-ground reporting with thoroughly-realistic sounding actor recreations of FBI transcripts of phone calls between the scam's ringleader, William "Rick" Singer, and his wealthy clientele. —Gabrielle Bruney

Host Avery Trufelman has a ton of experience in telling stories about design; she's a producer on famed pod 99% Invisible and helms her own show about clothing design, Articles of Interest. With her new podcast, Trufelman takes on perhaps the trickiest design problem of all—how to make a utopian society. Each episode, she examines efforts to make an ideal community, from Jamestown to Levittown, and outlines what happens when a perfect world goes bad. —Gabrielle Bruney

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There are a lot of true crime podcasts out there, and many of them cover absolutely horrifying misdeeds. The third season of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Uncover tackles the sort of terrible crime that may have become fodder for a tawdrier show: The series looks at the investigation of Toronto serial killer Bruce McArthur, who targeted immigrant gay men of color, people marginalized on multiple fronts and whose disappearances initially inspired only lackluster attention from authorities. Hosted by journalist Justin Ling, the show is done in a tactful, empathetic style, and is filled with historical context about Toronto’s LGBTQ history. —Gabrielle Bruney

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This July will mark the 50th anniversary of one of the most astonishing scientific achievements in human history—the Apollo 11 moon landing. This BBC World Service podcast, hosted by Dr. Kevin Fong, introduces listeners to the team behind the landing, who, astonishingly, had an average age of just 27 when they put men on the moon. It also offers a moment-by-moment accounting of the final 13 minutes of the flight's descent to the moon's surface and features theme music by Hans Zimmer himself—the legendary composer's first ever music for a podcast. —Gabrielle Bruney

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As solo artists, Aimee Mann and Ted Leo are accomplished singer-songwriters. Together, the duo has recorded as a band called The Both. And now they have a podcast, in which Mann and Leo invite guests (ranging from comedian Wyatt Cenac to songwriter Dan Wilson) to discuss their own creative processes. The result is an engaging behind-the-scenes look at all of the vulnerabilities that come with being an artist and a reminder that it doesn't happen naturally—it takes hard work. —Tyler Coates

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Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang are, at heart, enthusiasts. With Las Culturistas, the pair have turned cultural obsession into an art form and something bigger than simple appreciation. Each week sees a new guest stopping by to chat about current pop culture topics and the formative cultural moments that made them who they are today. Things get personal, things get inspirational, and things can get catty—the seminal episode-closing segment I Don't Think So, Honey sees the hosts and guests ranting about an infuriating topic of their choosing. (The occasional live shows of lightning-round I Don't Think So, Honeys are hilarious and cathartic.) Each episode feels like an invite these two friends have extended to join their inner circle and dish about what's on all of our minds. —Tyler Coates

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Elizabeth Holmes is one of the most infamous entrepreneurs to come out of Silicon Valley—nearly as famous as the man she admired, Steve Jobs, although much more notorious. The brilliant wunderkind assembled a multi-million dollar company in Theranos which, along with her radical blood testing invention, was set to disrupt the medical industry forever. That is, if her invention worked. Based on a three-year investigation and using numerous interviews with Theranos staff (as well as legal deposition tapes), The Dropout tracks the dramatic rise and fall of Holmes and her company. —Tyler Coates

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Sometimes the most exciting podcast episodes are not borne from the news cycle or some grisly true crime, but from the idiosyncratic obsession of a podcast host's brain. Thank goodness, then, for Mo Rocca. The humorist and CBS Sunday Morning correspondent gathers the various facts and trivia inside his own brain for his own personal spin on the obituary. One episode may look at the dearly departed characters who have passed away on popular sitcoms (with the help of TV legends like Henry Winkler and Sandy Duncan); others may look at individual icons like Audrey Hepburn and Sammy Davis Jr. Mobituaries, as a whole, focuses on the people with whom Rocca has always been fascinated—and offers an unconventional examination of their legacies in our greater popular culture. —Tyler Coates

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Movie podcasts are a dime a dozen, but what sets Blank Check apart is its hosts Griffin Newman and David Sims' obsession with movies in context—specifically the context of the director at their helm. Following the catalogs of celebrated auteurs (as of this writing, the duo are focusing on Tim Burton), the podcast looks at the individual efforts of major film directors episode by episode, picking apart those filmmakers' strengths (and idiosyncratic weaknesses) that are essential to their larger oeuvre. While the occasional episode breaks free from a director-specific miniseries to focus on a timely new release, the podcast's strengths rely in its hosts tendency to focus on a larger talent in order find appreciation in a director's artistic merits. —Tyler Coates