Making a "best of" list is incredibly difficult. There were so many strong releases and admirable work from our colleagues this year. So, in no particular order, here are some of our team's picks for the most memorable podcasts from 2019. We've included new releases as well as older shows that are still going strong. Our criteria was podcasts that launched in 2019 or existing podcasts that did some outstanding new work or were so consistently excellent, we just couldn't leave them off the list. You'll notice we didn't mention any of the amazing CBC podcasts that were released this year — it just didn't seem fair! Instead you'll find a round up of CBC podcasts at the bottom of the page. http://www.cbc.ca/1.5382944
Black music, forged in captivity, became the sound of complete artistic freedom. It also became the sound of America. On today’s episode: Wesley Morris, a critic-at-large for The New York Times. “161...Show More
On kiddie pools and racism. On sharing a towel with Officer Clemmons. On how to say, and not to say, I love you.
The Dropout tells the story of the rise and fall of former Silicon Valley darling Elizabeth Holmes, the youngest self-made female billionaire. She dropped out of Stanford to launch her company Therano...Show More
Drug users are the experts. We’ve survived. We know policy better than policy-makers. We know law better than lawmakers. We know pharmaceuticals better than pharmacists. We know nobody’s coming to sav...Show More
Opportunity might still be knocking… we’ll be back with new episodes in January.
If you disagree with someone — if you find what they think appalling — is there any value in talking to them? In the early 1970s, the talk show host Dick Cavett, the governor of Georgia Lester Maddox,...Show More
The decades-long plan to stitch together countries and cultures into the European Union was ultimately blamed for two crises: mass migration and crippling debt. Together, those events contributed to a...Show More
How do we regain hope when our dreams end in ruin? In “Lost Dreams,” we hear the stories of three people who followed their deepest passion and endured devastation: Perdita Felicien, a world-champion ...Show More
Eric Kelly was so successful at fighting off bullies as a kid in Brooklyn, that he grew up to become an Olympic level boxer, until a bar fight ended his career.
We begin with a simple question: How did the queen of the boob joke become a feminist icon? Helen Morales, author of “Pilgrimage to Dollywood,” gave us a stern directive – look at the lyrics! So we di...Show More
How real is the longest running reality show in TV history? We begin our investigation of COPS.
As long as there have been guns, there have been songs about guns. But American culture's relationship with guns is changing. Does popular music reflect that? We take a look at the history of music's ...Show More
We back at it, Con-gregation! This is Scam Goddess, the #1 pod dedicated to all things fraud! This week Laci welcomes comedy’s #1 sleepy boy Andrew Ti (Mix-ish, Yo, Is This Racist?) to cover one of Si...Show More
12-year-old Earth boy and musical prodigy, Sebastian “Seabass” Galloway, gets recruited at a school recital by a super-intelligent spacecraft, D.E.B.R.A., and lesser-intelligent sidekick, R.A.N.D.Y., ...Show More
In the series debut George invites his listeners to step into the speakers and join him on a meandering ride aboard his own train of thought. The Poet muses on the interplay between crime and music in...Show More
April reads a news story and everything changes.
How Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s wildly popular Christian theme park was upended by fraud, scandal and lavish spending. You can follow Spectacular Failures on Twitter and Facebook using @failureshow. W...Show More
When Andres asked the Cuban government for permission to leave the country in 1969, he got a letter with a set of instructions.
In which Tally lays out her situation and tries to jump-start her filmmaking career, asking big questions to her family members along the way.
This is the story of how our subject goes from the outskirts of the city to a seat in the building at the heart of its power. Before he was the Mayor of Toronto, and before all the insanity that came ...Show More
Igor Ostrovskiy is a private investigator in New York. In 2017, he was contracted to surveil Ronan Farrow on behalf of a secret client. Igor would eventually learn that the secret client was Black Cub...Show More
Mourning and remembering poet/musician David Berman of Silver Jews and Purple Mountains, as a fan, a journalist, and a friend. Featuring an archival CFRU radio interview with David and previously capt...Show More
Bridget Landry’s chaotic life is thrown for a loop when she gets besieged with robocalls. Written by Sandi Farkas, directed by Amanda Lipitz. Executive producers Mimi O’Donnell, Carrie Coon, Amanda L...Show More
podcastplaylist recommended:
Gimlet's Motherhacker is a fictional story about a woman who joins a phone scam ring as a way of supporting her family. It's a very interesting story of human resiliency and what we will do to support...Show More
podcastplaylist recommended:
This podcast covers the drug war from a unique perspective — by using drug addicts as "war correspondents."