As 2024 comes to a close, our team has rounded up some of the most memorable podcasts of the year. From true crime stories to heartwarming interviews and captivating fictional worlds, these shows have kept us listening, laughing and reflecting. Whether you’re looking for deep cultural insights, thrilling mysteries or entertaining banter, our list of staff favorites showcase the diverse voices and powerful narratives that made 2024 a remarkable year in podcasting.
Clarkesworld
I'm a bit of a sci-fi geek and fantasy lover, so I have to give Clarkesworld some love. For anyone who's curious, Clarkesworld is a sci-fi magazine with a podcast where narrator and host Kate Baker reads short story submissions with atmosphere and tension. If you drive long distances and need to be entertained by a good out-there story, give the podcast a try. — Leslie Gonzalez, Web Producer
Critical Role
If sci-fi isn't your thing and you're more into fantasy, I am elbow-deep in Critical Role Campaign 3. It's a series/podcast of nerdy video-game and television voice actors who play Dungeons & Dragons, and they’re currently at the apex of their latest campaign. Dungeons & Dragons is a table-top role-playing game where players create characters and become immersed in a narrated story conducted by a game master. Players roll dice and role-play as their characters as they tackle puzzles and plot arcs filled with danger, adventure and drama. — Leslie Gonzalez, Web Producer
Free Jane
This captivating local story was produced right here at KPBS! — Kristen Padden, Marketing Manager
Inheriting
Inheriting moved me in a way few podcasts do. It explores how war, assimilation and identity ripple through AAPI families across generations. One episode, where a Vietnamese father and son talk about their different connections to Vietnam, stayed with me. When the father sings a song he wrote about his lost homeland, I sobbed. My heart ached, yet there was a strange comfort in hearing this story — and this emotion — brought to light. Every episode weaves history and personal narratives together in a way that’s memorable and impactful. The stories told weren’t my own, but they felt so culturally familiar that I immediately shared the podcast with my family and friends. — Chrissy Nguyen, Arts Editor
Normal Gossip
I unapologetically love this podcast. The dream production team of Kelsey McKinney and Alex Sujong Laughlin turns the tiniest "morsels" of gossip into masterful, anonymized storytelling, complete with organic reactions and input from thoughtfully selected (and often quite famous) guests. Each episode starts with the host and guest discussing their relationship with gossip, and it always makes me reconsider how unnecessarily maligned the age-old art form is. Sometimes the endings of the stories are a bit “disappointing,” but thanks to the great scripting and storytelling skills of the team, the journey we take along the way is always wild, funny and memorable. — Julia Dixon Evans, Arts Reporter
Search Engine
I’m going to pick a specific episode: “Who’s behind these scammy text messages we’ve all been getting?” from Search Engine. Now in its second year, Search Engine is the multi-format — with both documentary and interview episodes — return of PJ Vogt who was once half of the hosting team of Reply All, one of the first truly great podcasts. I love the show as a whole, but this episode is my favorite, by far. Do you remember, within the last year or so, when we all started getting texts that said weird things like “Hi Sarah” or “Thanks for coming to the party”? This episode goes all the way to Cambodia to discover the unimaginably twisted story of who is sending them. — Anthony Wallace, Arts Podcast Producer
Wiser Than Me With Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus brings inspiration from iconic older women, sharing their wisdom and life lesson in each episode. — Kristen Padden, Marketing Manager
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