I love podcasts. I love having something to fill the quiet, I love the amount of customized podcatchers that there are to listen with, I love how thriving the indie scene is in this space, and I love that it is a medium built with audio as a focus. It’s hard for me to gauge how many podcasts I listened to over the past year, but I do know that I’ve actively listened to and I’m caught up on 30 different shows.

As much as I love them, podcasts can also often become a trap for me. I can’t multitask. I know I can’t multitask. My brain is not built to handle multiple inputs and tasks. This is a large part of why I struggle with typing and music. It’s hard for me to have my hands doing different things. The siren song of podcasts is that it makes me think that I can multitask. And I often am doing multiple tasks when I listen to podcasts. I might be driving, or cleaning, or playing a mobile game. Yet deep in my heart I know that I’m not engaging in either task particularly well. This certainly isn’t helped by the fact that I choose to listen to podcasts at a minimum of 2x speed, but I constantly have to double check my work or rewind my podcast to make sure I didn’t think something.

Yet I can’t stop myself from reaching to podcasts to fill this desire. I constantly struggle with a desire to feel like I’m being ~productive~. I have a fairly loose definition of what productivity means, but at the most base definition I constantly feel like I need to be doing something. I need to be working, or exercising, or reading, or doing just something. And if I can be doing ~two~ things at once, surely this is even more of an inherent good. This is a toxic mindset, and I’m aware that it is toxic. Yet we live in a culture that constantly encourages this exact sort of toxic productivity, “rise and grind” mindset. For a long time I thought myself above this. I wasn’t lusting for money, counting my macros, or raising a blood boy. It took a lot of soul searching and internalized work to realize how this mindset had seeped into my life. How much of my media obsession, my desire to consume, catalogue, and review media stems from the same sort of productivity mindset that I saw loathe. One podcast I listen to weekly that won’t be on this list, Better Offline, talks about the infinite growth mindset of capitalism and how it’s ruining tech and more broadly society. And as much as I try to push back against capitalism broadly, I’m still a product of this society.

Has this awareness led to broad changes in the way I act? Not as much as I’d like. I still consume obsessively, log obsessively, and I desire more projects excessively. So much of our current culture is designed on finding some sort of escape hatch out of the capitalist grind. If I can just work better, post better, be better, then money and simplicity will follow. But it never is that easy. What’s the answer to this? I don’t know. I think building meaningful relationships and community is a good place to start. Personally, I’m trying to be more intentional in my actions. Instead of trying to do everything, I’m trying to do the things that matter to me. I don’t need to read, see, hear everything. I can try to improve the depth of my experiences rather than the breadth. I can take the time to rest and be present, and sometimes that means not doing anything at all, even when doing so still makes my skin crawl. We are not machines. We are not worker drones. We are not hogs for the slaughter. I want to live and love and experience the joys and beauty of the universe. I want to share those experiences with others. It’s a pretty bleak time right now, and this has been a fun little outlet for me. It’s not perfect by any means, but I appreciate you being here for this experiment. Now onto the focus of this piece, my favorite podcasts of 2025.

Honorable mentions

Remap Radio. Hosted by Rob Zacny, Ricardo Contreras, Patrick Klepek, and Janet Garcia. 177 episodes of varying lengths. Updates twice weekly. 4⭐

Everything old becomes new again. Remap Radio and its associated shows features some of my favorite video game and more broadly cultural commentary in the game currently. Born from the ashes of Waypoint and the bankruptcy of Vice, Rob, Patrick, and Cado managed to create something beautiful, and I’m so glad they did. Waypoint was one of the first websites that felt that it was treating videogames as cultural artifacts rather than tech products. The newsroom focused on how game narratives played into larger cultural touchpoints, whether game systems stood to further or play against a game’s larger purpose, and how designers built off of both games and other media that had come before. Then they were able to look outside of the scope of the game itself to cover larger topics of labor, gun violence, and protest. But after nearly 600 episodes, it seemed like all the work the Waypoint crew had built up would be gone, swept away by the sins of its parent company.

I’m incredibly glad that the crew was able to continue on and found their own independent site. I’m glad that they’ve been able to expand out of just talking about video games to talking about movies, tv, board games, sports, and home improvement. Yet there are a couple reasons why Remap is in the honorable mentions rather than a numbered entry this year.

First, Remap is no longer a journalistic outfit. Now that the crew has to manage all of their business operations, they understandably have less time to seek out stories and interviews. Hell, it can be hard enough for them to play games. But there is no denying that they have shifted more towards personality content, and while I love their personalities, this has slightly dulled the teeth of some of their critique.

Second, there is a Renata Price shaped hole in my heart. Waypoint always walked a narrow line of accessibility and pretension, with former leaders Austin Walker and Danielle Riendau coming from academia. Renata was a later addition to the crew who had clearly been influenced by the work of Austin, Danielle, and other like minded writers and critics in how she approached the job. But when Waypoint shifted into Remap, she did not stick along for the ride. And I’ve been finding myself missing her voice quite a bit.

The final reason is simply the fact that much of my favorite Remap content is paid content, and I can’t in good faith put this at the top of my list if people can’t hear the best bits without forking out cash. Not that I don’t want the Remap guys supported, clearly I support them. But listen to their base show first to see if they’re your style. Hearing Rob and Patrick talk about home ownership and aging on the show HOA is one of my favorite bits of Remap, but I understand the price gate may keep people out. For a taste of why I love that show, check out Patrick’s newsletter Crossplay about the intersection of parenting and gaming. For a good example of what makes Remap special, this episode (admittedly 3 hours long) covers a lot of good ground.

52 Pickup. Hosted by Gita Jackson and Alex Jaffe. 37 episodes ~75 minutes apiece. Updates every other week. 4.5⭐

Speaking of cultural critics I love who came from Vice, the incomparable Gita Jackson, now of Aftermath, is who brought me to this show. You all know I love comics, quite deeply, yet Western serialized comics have always been hard for me to get into. With all the retcons and reboots, the difficulty of finding an entry point, and the price of being a fan have all made me balk at jumping into the Big Two. Yet superheroes were my entry to comics, and I’ve always wanted to find a way into.

52 Pickup is in many ways a bookclub. Gita and cohost Alex Jaffe bring the audience through the archives of the DC series 52. 52 brought together some of the best writers and artists working at the time to create a weekly comic series (something unheard of at the time and to a large part even now) focusing on all the freaks and weirdos of the DC Universe. Specifically, who picks up the bill if Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are all awol. Gita and Alex bring so much comics love and knowledge into this series, diving into the heart of what makes not just this series, but comics as a whole speak to so many people. Why do we love superheroes? What makes DC so popular? Logistically how is any of this possible. All these and more are answered with such humor and intelligence I’m constantly delighted by each new entry. Alex and Gita are such a delightful duo that it doesn’t even matter that I came in knowing essentially nothing about 90% of the heroes they’re talking about. It’s an excellent jumping in point if you want to understand the greater comics industry, and even if you don’t, the series is a true delight. If you’re interested, there’s no better place to start than Episode 0.

Organized Money. Hosted by David Dayen and Matt Stoller. 18 episodes ~50 minutes apiece. Updates Weekly. 4.5 ⭐

Organized money is all about how monopolies are ruining the fabric of society. Matt Stoller is one of the best people out there breaking down how monopolies work and the work that is being done both against and for monopolies. Organized Money is a great entry point into the laws around this topic, and gives some hope for the future if as a society we ever enforce the law against our megacorporation overlords. I’m constantly impressed by how well David and Matt break down these extremely complex topics in a way that is understandable and digestible. Sometimes, Matt especially, can be a bit too apolitical for my tastes, but I think they do a good job of capturing that antimonopoly sentiments is something that can cross ideological lines if people actually choose to open their eyes and understand what’s going on. This episode on sports betting is one I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I first heard it. There’s a lot going wrong in the world right now, and I think this show does a good job of breaking down one major driver of what’s wrong. Is business and monopoly alone what is wrong, no not at all, but it serves to help explain one big piece of the puzzle. Also I'm just a sucker for their intro.

Panic World. Hosted by Ryan Broderick and produced by Grant Irving. 24 episodes ~75 minutes apiece. Updates Weekly. 4⭐

This show is an extension of the newsletter Garbage Day, which explores the most important things happening in online culture. However, Panic World is not just regurgitating what is said on Garbage Day, but taking a different approach to the online world. Panic World explores different media panics that originated online and how those moral panics shaped society. The show admittedly had one of the biggest duds I experienced last year, but most of the time I find that the crew does an excellent job handling the topics with nuance. Additionally, the Tumblr episode with Vera Drew was one of the best gender commentaries I experienced all year, and that’s taking into account that I listen to three different shows explicitly focused on gender. I think (for the most part) that Ryan does a great job in selecting guests, and in talking about the real world impacts of online discourse with a good amount of nuance, and how we’ve been thrust into cross-generational and cross-cultural divides with no plan on how to address differences in values and communication. This show isn’t interested in providing answers, but does a good job of showcasing how these panics spiral out of control.

5)Versus Wolves

Hosted by John “SuperEyepatchWolf” Walsh and Woolie Versus. 14 episodes ~4 hours apiece. Updates monthly. 4.5⭐

Self described as history’s most powerful book club, Versus Wolves follows longtime friends, YouTubers, and occasional collaborators SuperEyepatchWolf and Woolie Versus as they recommend things to each other. As they both come from the anime and gaming space, many of the recommendations touch on these areas, but they’ve also gotten more out there, such as recommending “trying Caribbean food,” or “go boxing.” At the end of the episode, they rank everything they’ve tried on a continuous scale, leading to incidents like trying to compare the discography of Kendrick Lamar to a videogame.

I’ve been a fan of John for a while. He has the most delightful voice, and his media critiques have always been fun, even if they sometimes lack depth. Woolie I’m less familiar with, but the banter between the two hosts is always excellent. It’s clear that these two guys are incredibly good friends, and they love to support each other and fuck with each other in the ways only good friends can. While they want to share good media with each other, they are also consistently trying to one up the other, or to cause pain. It’s a very fun dynamic, aided by the fact that they do not even remotely try to constrain themselves on time. Additionally, John and Woolie are both very openminded about whatever experience they’re recommended, and earnest in their joy and enthusiasm when they do end up liking something. This is not meant to be some sort of deep dive critique, but simply a book club where two people share what they love with a friend they love. And it’s a pretty fun time. A good episode to see if you like the vibe is this episode comparing Twin Peaks and Caribbean food.

4)NeverPost

Hosted by Mike Rugnetta, Georgia Hampton, Hans Buetow, and Jason Oberholtzer. 40 episodes ~1 hour apiece. Updates every other week. 4.5⭐

Mike Rugnetta and his old show PBS Idea Channel where hugely influential to the way I think about the internet, media, and culture. So when I heard that he was launching a new show focused on the ways the internet creates and shapes culture, I knew that I was in for a treat. But what I didn’t know coming in was that Mike had created an excellent team around him to make the experience even better. Mike, Hans, and Jason all have a wealth of experience in the audio business, and Georgia and the rest of the team are excellent writers, researchers, and thinkers. Mike initially pitched the show as being like the local newspaper for the community of the internet, something that never really sat right with me, but in their year in review episode, that pitch was changed to say they are like a local magazine, and boy did that click.

This show isn’t about breaking news or exploring the most important events of the hour, although those topics are still touched on. Instead, the show excels in doing features about various corners of the internet. There are episodes on the gamification of dating, the prevalence of plastic surgery in reality TV, and my personal favorite episodes on how social media impacts how we grieve and using AI to digitally resurrect loved ones. The conversations are thought provoking and incredibly well-researched and reasoned. Additionally, the crew throws in little audio experiments as interstitials between stories, and while I don’t always find them enjoyable, I’m always interested to see what they’ll be. This is a show that makes me think about the world in new and different ways, and I love how this show constantly forces me to shift my perspective on the mundane to realize just how amazing society and the world are if looking at things with an open mind. Finally, I love the insights that the crew is able to provide about the business and production side of things. I think it’s really easy as audience members to not fully appreciate the work and effort that goes into making these shows, and the colossal undertaking it is to try to turn any of these shows into a business/career. Neverpost is not there yet, and they are very upfront about that. I appreciate the degree of radical transparency they bring to the table and I’m fascinated by the nitty gritty aspects of trying to make independent media work.

3)Weird Little Guys

Hosted by Molly Conger. 31 episodes, ~1 hour apiece. Updates weekly. 5⭐

I’ve never been a fan of true crime podcasts. I always found the genre to be somewhat exploitative towards victims and that there is a genuine risk of lionizing the criminal in these circumstances. Weird Little Guys dances the line of true crime, but handles the subject matter with a tact and grace that I respect. Each episode, Molly Conger explores a different far right extremist, the crime(s) that made them infamous, but more importantly, the context of how they got to this place. As Molly frequently states “There are no Lone Wolves.” This show does an excellent job of showcasing the apparatus that has existed in the fringes of society to attract people into white supremacist and/or Nazi groups. She shows how many of these men, and it’s almost always men, are struggling with delusions of grandeur while being the worst sorts of failures. These people are liars and blowhards, and so often their plans fail spectacularly.

Hearing this, it’s easy to think that this show might undercut just how dangerous and unstable these individuals are. This is absolutely not the case. Molly does an excellent job of showing the real harm that these people cause, and the information network that exists to celebrate and spread this ideology. One of my favorite parts about the show is that it shows how someone gets sucked into this lifestyle, it’s incredibly hard to pull yourself out. That doesn’t excuse the fact that anyone became an extremist in the first place, nor does it excuse any of the harm that these people cause, but I do think that it provides insights on how as a society we might be able to push back against hate and keep people from falling into extremism. A good primer episode is this one that discusses why Nazis are obsessed with taking out the power grid, or this one about how the Klan tried to intimidate a gay bar and were met by lesbian fire eaters in response. This can be a difficult show to listen to, but I find it incredibly worthwhile.

2)The 404 Media Podcast

Hosted by Jason Koebler, Emanuel Maiberg, Joseph Cox, and Sam Cole. 85 episodes ~45 minutes apiece. Updates weekly. 5⭐

Once again, the downfall of Vice has managed to create something beautiful. Jason, Emanuel, Joseph, and Sam all used to work at Vice’s tech vertical Motherboard, but when that ship sank they created 404 Media in its place. 404 is focused on providing tech journalism, but the crew does such an incredible job of showing how tech impacts all aspects of life. Their article output is truly insane, and even before I was paying them, I was regularly getting 4+ hard hitting articles in my inbox every week. I truly don’t understand how they are able to produce so much quality content in such short amounts of time, but I’m forever impressed and grateful that they are.

The 404 Media Podcast is their weekly roundup show that covers the best and biggest stories they’ve published in any given week. Their articles deal with intensely important topics, and while they take their work incredibly seriously, the core quartet are also able to have fun and laugh at the absurdity of some of the things that they deal with. It’s clear that these people are not just coworkers but friends. I’ve found out so many important stories from this show, from learning about how a solar storm managed to decimate crops and increase grocery prices by taking out tractors, to how a group of civilian investigators were able to track and help take down a wanted sex trafficker, to just how frequent data breaches are. 404 is constantly at the forefront of breaking news, and they manage to deliver that news in such a concise, intelligent manner. I learn so much about what is going on in the world from this show, and I hope more independent journalists are able to follow in 404’s footsteps.

1)Worlds Beyond Number

Hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan, Erika Ishii, Aabria Iyengar, and Lou Wilson. 53 episodes ~90 minutes apiece. Updates every other week. 5⭐

I don’t tend to go for narrative podcasts. I’m not entirely sure why that is. Maybe it’s because I’m caught between being able to create a world for myself as with books and being given a world as with movies and tv. That’s not to say I’ve never gone for narrative podcasts. I followed along to the first season of Critical Role as a podcast and I’ve dabbled with others such as Welcome to Nightvale, Hello From the Magic Tavern, and The Adventure Zone. None of them have really managed to stick for me. However, I have been aggressively advertised to regarding Dropout.tv.

Dropout is the darling of indie media. They were one of the first “big” names to do it successfully. And so I was fed a steady stream of content showing me just how talented Brennan Lee Mulligan, Lou Wilson, and Erika Ishii were. I’d known about them previously from a distance. I was an early subscriber to Geek and Sundry and I enjoyed College Humor videos that came my way. But I’d never been an avid fan of these creators. But there was a buzz around them, especially when it came to actual play. So I was curious when I heard that four key creators from this sphere were going to create their own rpg focused show. What sold me was learning that Taylor Moore, formerly of Rude Tales of Magic, was going to be their producer. I love Rude Tales and was curious to see where this experiment would go.

What I got was the best actual play show I’ve ever experienced. The first campaign of the series, The Wizard The Witch and the Wild One started with level one characters. I was prepared to strap in and see the journey that I’ve seen happen across actual play so many times before: the level one characters would fight some rats or bandits or some other sort of low level enemy while eventually working their way up to larger and larger threats. But that is not the case in this show. Brennan as Game Master has done an excellent job of thrusting the player trio into a variety of high stakes scenarios, but never creating challenges that the players can’t deal with. It’s a masterclass of utilizing game mechanics to create meaningful stories right from the jump, and it has really shown me why Brennan is considered one of the best in the business at this.

And that is to say nothing of the excellent performances given by Aabria, Erika, and Lou. Each has managed to so fully embody the characters that they’ve created, providing excellent depth and emotion to their performances. Underscoring everything is some truly fantastic audio design from Taylor. I’ve consistently been amazed by the pace, depth, and nuance of the story presented. Actual play presents the promise of seeing talented creators come together to collaboratively build a story. Most of the time, I’ve found that promise to fall flat, and instead when I enjoy an actual play it’s off the strength of character work and performance of the players rather than the actual narrative. Worlds Beyond Number has entirely surpassed my expectations with the strength of the story being told. Because this is a narrative show, the only place to start is Episode One (or you can join their Patreon to get a prologue, but that’s entirely optional and up to you). This show never ceases to amaze me, and there was no contest that it would be the top spot.

And there you have it. My favorite podcasts in 2024. Thanks for sticking around not just through this but through all my 2024 recap content. I’m excited to move forward with reviews and critiques. If you make it this far, let me know what you’d like me to check out. I’m always looking for more great media.

See you next time

Soma