From thousands upon thousands of new shows, highlights of the trends we saw *a lot* this past year
I love categorization, in no small part because it’s a fairer and more representative way to start showcasing exactly what’s out there in the wide world of podcasts. An investigative report next to a deep-dive history show next to a gripping crime and murder show: this happens everywhere (even in my podcast queue) and this sort of pears-and-pomegranate approach can feel like an orchard, or a fruit salad, or a smoothie on any given day.
As our way of wrapping up our first full year of helping listeners discover, engage with, and reward creators of podcasts, we’re taking an arranged fruit gift basket approach to our year-end Explore section of the RadioPublic app. Through the end of the year, we’re featuring the following collections of shows, highlighting a cross-section of podcasts that launched in 2017 that encapsulate ten striking trends we saw in podcasting this year.
All the links in this article will automatically open in the RadioPublic app (for iOS or Android) if you’re reading this article on your phone, or you can begin listening to recent episodes of each show on the web. Happy new year, listeners everywhere, and onward, podcasters!
Shows featured the week of December 19
Investigative reporting from public radio stations
- 74 Seconds (MPR News and American Public Media)
- Cosby Unraveled (WHYY)
- Do You Remember? (MPR News, American Public Media, and Current)
- Midnight Oil (Alaska Public Media)
- SubSurface (Montana Public Radio)
- The Taxman (Colorado Public Radio)
- Written Inside (WBEZ)
History shows
- The 1600 Sessions (The White House Historical Association)
- Constitutional (Washington Post)
- How’s Your Day? (94.9 KUOW Public Radio)
- Looted (Zoë Kontes)
- Ridiculous History (HowStuffWorks)
- Slow Burn: A Podcast About Watergate (Slate)
- Stories From The Eastern West (Culture.pl)
- Uncivil (Gimlet Media)
Feminist shows
- Burn It All Down (Burn It All Down)
- The Call with Erica Williams Simon (Man Repeller)
- Ladies, We Need To Talk (ABC Radio)
- Unconditional (Annalise Nielsen and Entertainment One)
- Women Rule (Politico)
- Yes, Girl! (Essence Magazine)
Food shows
- Beyond the Plate (Andrew Kaplan)
- Consumed (Jenny Brule)
- The Fridge Light (CBC)
- Fussy Eater (FBi Radio)
- House of Carbs (The Ringer)
- Hungry (Otis Gray)
- Mouth Feelings (WhatsaCreative)
Crime and murder shows
- Alibi (Paul McNally)
- The Cleaning of John Doe (Vanessa Phearson)
- Crime in Color (Crime In Color)
- Deliberations (audioBoom)
- The Fall Line (The Fall Line)
- The Lost (Radio New Zealand)
- Small Town Dicks (Yeardley Smith and Zibby Allen)
Riding the wave of podcasting in 2018? Tell us about your new show or season before you launch.
Shows featured the week of December 26
Daily news shows
- The Daily (The New York Times)
- The Daily Zeitgeist (HowStuffWorks)
- The FOX News Rundown (FOX)
- The Good News Podcast (Cards Against Humanity)
- The Outline World Dispatch (The Outline)
- theNewsWorthy (Erica Mandy)
- Up First (NPR)
Fiction shows
- 36 Questions (Two-Up Productions)
- Bronzeville (AudioHQ)
- Celestial Blood / Sangre Celestial (KCRW)
- Fruit (Issa Rae Productions and Stitcher)
- LeVar Burton Reads (LeVar Burton and Stitcher)
- Mission to Zyxx (audioBoom)
- Steal the Stars (Tor Labs / Gideon Media)
- The Strange Case of Starship Iris (Procyon Podcast Network)
Shows for kids
- Book Meese (Book Meese)
- Circle Round (WBUR)
- Pickle (WNYC Studios and Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
- Summer Reading (USA TODAY)
- This Kid Life (Sydney Opera House)
- Wow in the World (NPR)
Portraits of people
- Dirty John (L.A. Times and Wondery)
- The Messenger (The Wheeler Centre)
- Missing Richard Simmons (First Look Media, Pineapple Street, and Stitcher)
- Mogul: The Life and Death of Chris Lighty (Gimlet Media and Loud Speakers Network
- Say Yes: An Elliott Smith Podcast (The Guestlist and Kill Rock Stars)
- S-Town (Serial andThis American Life)
Shows about personal identity
- #SafeWordSociety (Kristen McCallum and Lamika Young)
- Disability Visibility (alice wong)
- Ethnically Ambiguous (Feral Audio)
- The Gender Knot (Nastaran Tavakoli-Far)
- It’s Not A Race (ABC Radio National)
- Latina Theory (audioBoom)
- Other: Mixed Race in America (Washington Post)
- Second Wave (94.9 KUOW Public Radio and PRX)
