Whether you’re getting ready for a long drive or just need company while you clean the apartment, there’s never a bad time to come across a promising new podcast. (Speaking to himself: clean apartment.) Luckily, 2021 is awash with new content in the genre, whether it’s brand new shows or fresh seasons of our trusty old favorites . Here’s a guide to Vogue editors’ favorite podcasts of the year:
Radiolab’s Ukrainian series
This isn’t a new series – you hardly need us to promote Radiolab’s once groundbreaking, still innovative audio experience – but this two-part series, in collaboration with NPR A rough translation that breaks the mold of the show. It’s closer to current events than usual fare, tracing the ad hoc and almost guerrilla effort to get abortion pills into Ukraine following Russia’s invasion last year, in part to address the sexual violence committed as part of that attack. What begins as a complex operation for a deceptively simple mission turns into a broader, more heartrending reflection on the aftermath of the war. It’s chilling and heart-wrenching to hear. — Chloe Schama
Coldest case in Laramie
To say that might be the understatement of this year’s Serial The team knows how to make investigative podcasts, but they’ve definitely recaptured the magic of their 2014 days with this series, in which New York Times reporter Kim Barker travels back in time to visit her From his hometown of Laramie, Wyoming, investigates 80 the murder of a young woman named Shirley Wiley. Barker tells the story of Wiley’s death – a story that gains new relevance in 2021 when the man arrested for her murder, a former Laramie police officer , the charges against him were dropped — in a way that’s fascinating in a field that doesn’t lean toward the lurid, exploitative. (Note: This podcast is best started at the beginning of a long drive, when you have time to read it all in one sitting.) -Emma Specter
The Town with Matthew Belloni
I’m a sucker for Hollywood-centric podcasts, whether they’re dealing with old-school history (read: you gotta remember this) or more Modern Industry Gossip (Who Weekly, I Love You!). So, I may be the target audience for The Town, so take my recommendation with a grain of salt, but Parker’s founding partner, Matthew Belloni, has an uncanny knack for using his reporting background to break down Hollywood’s most important stories — from streaming service domination versus the viability of the franchise model — it actually makes me feel like my understanding of the TV and film industry is cloudy. (This year’s exploration of the Disney vs. Ron DeSantis fiasco is especially helpful in understanding the upcoming 2024 election.) —ES
You Must Remember This: Erotic 1985s
Karina Longworth is one The OG podcast hero, transforms her seemingly esoteric obsession into a deeply nuanced and impressive cultural investigation of what you have to remember. This year she followed up her -episode Erotic 12 The multi-part chapter series is almost twice as long – 17 installments. The prologue focuses on the impact of the NC-17 rating on adult and more mainstream films and feminism more generally. This is just one example of her skill at turning such oft-forgotten moments into cultural touchstones. — CS
She Wants More
On the eve of her seventh wedding anniversary, author and journalist Jo Jo Piazza delves into the thorny and little-known topic of female infidelity with episodes richly captivating with titles such as “Is Everyone Having an Affair Now?” and “Can a Partner Give You Everything?” As counterintuitive as it may seem, Piazza recommends listening together with your partner—it could lead to some really interesting conversations. It’s like three women turned into a transformation. — Michelle Ruiz
Celebrity Book Club
Celebrity memoirs have reached a saturation point and are now regularly dominating bestsellers list, and I continue to be drawn to many of them, especially on Audible. For nearly every star title, there’s also an episode of the podcast from comedians and BFFs Steven Phillips Horst and Lily Marotta to digest and dissect its confessions. This year, they took over your celebrity book: almost as dirty and wild as inhaling Prince Harry’s Spare
Listening to the CBC Hysterical 2-part recap with terribly bad British accent. — MRHard Fork
Technology columnist Kevin Roose’s first podcast The New York Times‘s “Rabbit Hole” Is a Fascinating Dystopian Journey: Examining How YouTube’s Insidious Recommendation Algorithm Turns Seemingly Anyone into an Addict and a Conspiracy Theorist . His new New York Times weekly series, Hard Fork, with journalist Casey Newton, presents a brighter, chattier and more optimistic take on the latest happenings in tech. But it also hits hard — Roose and Casey are relentless about Elon Musk’s Twitter weakness, the downfall of cryptocurrencies, they dissect Sydney’s debacle, and Microsoft’s Bing AI chatbot memorably tries to break the bank in a Hours broke Roose’s marriage with long chat sessions (an encounter that went viral when Roose wrote about it in the Times
). I listen to Hard Fork every week and am amused and a little uneasy about the future we are about to head into. —Taylor AntrimThe Run-Through
Forgive us for expressing a little admiration for our colleagues , but Vogue‘s podcast, hosted by Chioma Nnadi and Chloe Malle, has become essential for anyone looking for a good conversational explanation of the day’s events of listening – especially those that touch the fashion world. If you need someone to explain why everyone is reading (and caring so much about) Kerby-Jean Raymond’s profile in New York or the Balenciaga controversy is all or just the stylist Actuallydoing, this is the place for you. If what happened in The Office was once legend (or fictional box office flick), now you hear them every week. – CS
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