The 9 Best Podcasts to Listen to This Holiday Season
Picture this: You’re sitting in the airport en route to mom and dad’s house to eat a lot of pie and sit on the couch with a beloved family pet. All of a sudden, you hear that fated announcement booming out of the loudspeaker: Your plane has been delayed. Instead of sitting and tweeting mean things at an airline (although you can do that too), consider the following salve: listening to a great podcast.
Holiday travel is notoriously full of stressful unknowns, so what better way to unwind and chill out than listening to the soothing voice of podcast hosts tell you about celebrity gossip (Who? Weekly) or The Sopranos (Pod Yourself a Gun). Traveling with young children in a cramped rental car? The move just might be an episode of This Podcast Has Fleas. Secretly hoping your in-laws got you some nice skincare products as a gift? Goop Presents: Beauty Closet should be just the thing to get you in the spirit. Taking planes, trains, and automobiles in December will probably never be fun, but with a great podcast, anything is possible.
Who? Weekly
Who? Weekly is the brainchild of Lindsey Weber and Bobby Finger, two entertainment writers who do a bi-weekly deep dive into the various celebrities, reality TV contestants, YouTube stars, and influencers populating that week’s tabloids. In the world of their podcast, celebrities are categorized into Thems and Whos—think the obvious A-listers (Reese Witherspoon, Beyoncé) vs. anyone whose name always seems to be on the tip of your tongue (Rita Ora, Bella Thorne). Whether they’re riffing on Scarlett Johansson’s shuttered popcorn shop in France or if Brie Larson’s Oscar win helped her ascend from Who to Them (verdict: unclear), Finger and Weber’s banter is exactly what you want from a pop culture podcast: consistently hilarious, never mean-spirited, and always in on the joke. —Keaton Bell
You’re Wrong About
You’re Wrong About isn’t a true-crime podcast in the traditional sense, but it feels just as addictively revelatory. In each episode, hosts Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes highlight a particular incident, person, crime, or trend from history and the ways these stories were told to the public, received, misrepresented, and misconstrued over time. Episodes on the Challenger disaster and Roe v. Wade make for fascinating history lessons, but it’s when Hobbes and Marshall train their journalistic eye on figures who had their lives and reputations destroyed by various factors (Anna Nicole Smith, Tonya Harding, Marcia Clark) that it feels almost essential. Fast-paced, occasionally very funny, and always enlightening, You’re Wrong About deserves to be your next podcast obsession. —Keaton Bell
Dolly Parton’s America
As history’s greatest country artist—with her own theme park, a new Netflix series, and over 3,000 songwriting credits to her name—Dolly Parton is even more relevant in 2019 than when she was first begging Jolene to stay away from her man. In Dolly Parton’s America, host Jad Abumrad spends nine episodes trying to better understand Dolly’s appeal and how she became the great unifier—beloved by Republicans and Democrats, young and old, gay or straight—in such an intensely divided climate. Come for the delightful interview portions with Dolly, but stay for the way Abumrad dissects her relationship with second-wave feminism, politics, and American culture at large. —Keaton Bell
The Ringer Network
I get my pop culture podcast fix from The Ringer Network: specifically The Watch (for TV) and The Big Picture (for movies). The hosts of both pods skew nerdy in their taste (the sentiment is largely pro-Marvel and pro-Star Wars, with The Big Picture’s Amanda Dobbins providing some welcome skepticism on both fronts) but the conversation is smart, brisk, funny, and bracingly up to date. —Taylor Antrim
Blank Check
I’m not much of a podcast person (something I’d love to change in 2020!), but one show that I’m eager to get back into over the break is Blank Check, hosted by the actor Griffin Newman and culture writer David Sims (of The Atlantic). The idea is that after early, breakout successes, certain film directors received a “blank check” to make whatever they liked over subsequent years; in dedicated miniseries Newman and Sims explore the filmographies of people like Ang Lee, James L. Brooks, Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, and Nancy Meyers. (Meyers’s episode was memorably subtitled “Something’s Podda Cast.”) Although the episodes are quite long, it’s an easy—and very funny and informative—listen for anyone who loves da moviesh. —Marley Marius
This Podcast Has Fleas
While my two kids, ages 5 and 7, generally keep me from achieving any kind of noise-cancelling-headphones bliss of any kind while we’re traveling, a podcast that they’re obsessed with does a pretty amazing job of keeping us all entertained and occupied—and keeps them happy and, for the most part, not trying to beat each other up. It’s called This Podcast Has Fleas, it’s from public radio station WNYC, and it generally follows the adventures of a kind of hip cat named Jones and a dog named Waffles—they each host their own podcast, in their own way, and of course, trouble ensues. Alec Baldwin comes in now and again to play a goldfish. The whole thing manages to be sweet, and funny, and not cloying in the way of so much kid-centric programming. Sanity awaits! —Corey Seymour
Pod Yourself a Gun
If The Sopranos is your show of choice, you need to be listening to Pod Yourself a Gun. On this podcast, hosts Matt Lieb and Vince Mancini go through the critically acclaimed show episode by episode, and it’s weirdly compelling (unless you hate The Sopranos, in which case, a) you’re a monster, and b) this one isn’t for you. —Emma Specter
99% Invisible
In the vein of *people* talking about *things*, 99% Invisible focuses on how seemingly nondescript items throughout history have gone on to impact daily life for many Americans. For example, a recent episode focuses on the way a 1930s-era viral marketing campaign for mannequins went on to influence the merchandising strategies of retail stores as we know them today. If you—or your copilot—aren’t much for history or design, the velvety voice of producer Roman Mars will lull you into an easy sleep when you’ve finished taking your turn at the wheel. —Jenna Adrian-Diaz
Goop Presents: Beauty Closet
There are few things I love more than a deep dive into a niche rabbit hole. (Although, as an industry on track for a $24 billion valuation by 2024, clean beauty may no longer be considered a niche.) Goop launched this clean beauty–focused podcast just this year, and it’s so far hosted everyone from industry titan Tata Harper to model-favorite makeup artist Rosemarie Swift, and Gwyneth Paltrow herself. A few drops of Goop face oil, and you’re all set for a long trip. —Jenna Adrian-Diaz
Originally Appeared on Vogue
