The 50 Best Podcasts of 2020
This year’s 50 Best came together a little differently than before. Just five years ago we could address a fledgling podcastsphere with the 50 best episodes of the year—not shows. Now, something like 1.5 million podcasts exist. Even if only half of those were active in 2020 we still couldn’t possibly hear them all, no matter how pathological our dedication to listening. So, of course, this year’s list is constrained by what we heard and by our requirement that all selections be newly released in 2020. (We still considered existing podcasts that tackled entirely new premises or plots. As with every year, we’ve recused ourselves from considering The Atlantic’s podcasts.)
We also had to contend with the challenges raised by the coronavirus pandemic. Some shows from the start of the year couldn’t hold our attention as the crisis wore on. Important podcasts made during March, April, and May relayed the latest guidance and stats or shared personal dispatches from frontline professionals. But if you wouldn’t want to revisit them today, they’re not on this list. Shows produced later in the pandemic had an even higher bar to meet: They had to adapt to the new context and make listeners care, knowing what we’re facing and what we’ve lost.
Many of these shows were in the works long before the virus started to spread. Podcasters produced serious works about swindlers, con artists, and cheats. Creators analyzed lies and their taxonomy, their genesis, their purveyors, and their victims. They scrutinized sexual violence, financial chokeholds, abuses of power, the partisan divide, and vulnerabilities tied to race and gender. Entire plots centered on the attempt to reconcile different versions of reality. In some, people wanted to point a finger at someone or something. But answers weren’t as ample as questions, and the pursuit of a middle ground often proved to be a red herring.
We think you’ll enjoy these 50 shows no matter your situation in life right now. They will enlighten you, transport you, and distract you from the weight of the world with the weight of someone’s else’s world. These stories captivated our minds and hearts when we needed them most.
50. Seen and Not Heard
Seen and Not Heard is a fictional story created by Caroline Mincks about Bet Kline, a woman who has almost entirely lost her hearing and is adjusting to her new reality. The show depicts her daily life, using the podcast form to explore how ableism manifests. We experience Bet’s frustration in learning American Sign Language when no one else around her will. Her decision to avoid group outings makes sense once you experience them from her perspective, including the muffled sounds of conversations she can’t make out. Her family, her friends, and even a date resist repeating throwaway comments she doesn’t hear, and Bet becomes exasperated by the cumulative effect of being excluded so many times. Listeners will hear themselves in the people who fail her. Seen and Not Heard outlines the gaps in understanding between those who can and can’t hear—an excellent achievement for a show in any format, but especially one that relies on audio.
Gateway Episode: “Prologue One: Community”
49. Couples Under Lockdown
The psychotherapist and beloved podcaster Esther Perel arrived with Couples Under Lockdown at this year’s height of global panic. When mandated quarantining hit much of the world, so too did new feelings about isolation, marriage, moving, safety, and contro. Perel demonstrates how to deal with these emotions by putting the root cause of relationship woes under a microscope. Just before the crisis, one couple relocated to Lagos, Nigeria, where they wrestled with balancing their emotional needs against their American privilege and the poverty surrounding them. Another couple in New York started to divorce before COVID-19 and now can’t fully separate, heal, or pursue new relationships while also safely co-parenting their children. While their situations might be unique, the issues underlying each couple’s conflict are resonant. Episodes start out like an impossible knot that, by the end, become less tightly wound. The message to listeners is that whatever they’re tied up in can be loosened a little, if only they, like Perel, can isolate the threads.
Gateway Episode: “Bavaria, Germany”
48. The Cam Chronicles
In 2008, Cam Newton was arrested for reportedly stealing another student’s laptop at the University of Florida. It’s the type of incident that might seem to be mere youthful indiscretion—but because the alleged perpetrator was a Black quarterback in the Southeastern Conference, it became a radioactive scandal. After intense media scrutiny, Newton left behind one of college football’s best teams. Tall, handsome, and charming, Newton later returned to win a national championship with Auburn and an MVP award in the NFL. (He’s since been accused of and making .) In , writer Tyler Tynes extracts the truth from the rumors that have long clung to the star. Newton doesn’t participate in the podcast beyond a brief cameo, but interviews with the quarterback’s father and coaches seek to reclaim the legacy of a man whose story the public took control of long ago. Tynes makes the case that Newton is simply both spectacular and flawed—but when you’re a Black athlete with those traits, the world tends to hold
