? EARS TO THE GROUND-

We’ve curated a list of the best podcasts of the year, so you don’t have to do the work yourselves: It’s that time of year when everybody and their mother is out with a “best of” list — and we’re no different. To save you the trouble of running through all the top lists, we bring you a shortlisted version of choices from the New York Times, New Yorker, Time, Vulture, and The Guardian.

#1- The King of Pop continues to reign, as Think Twice: Michael Jackson is in the leaderboards of the best podcast. Journalists and hosts Leon Neyfakh and Jay Smooth revisit MJ’s complex and controversial story. Despite the series of serious allegations waged against him, to this day he remains a cultural icon. Neyfakh and Smooth use original interviews with people close to the matter to try and answer some questions about the singer’s life and what we should make of it.

You can listen for yourself on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Audible.

#2- Classy with Jonathan Menjivar: In this podcast, Menjivar tries to reconcile his blue-collar upbringing with his luxury, cashmere-ridden present life. His episodes detail stories and investigations into class consciousness, dynamics, and how it shapes perspectives on life and the world. He’ll bring on guests to collect diverse views to add to the narrative. The host looks to inspire vulnerability in his listeners and push them to reflect on their own stances and experiences with classism and the nuances of economic status.

You can find it on Apple Podcasts andSpotify.

#3- The Retrievals: Produced by Serial and The New York Times, The Retrievals explores the shocking details of a corrupt fertility clinic in Yale. The five-part series tells the tragic story of dozens of women who wanted to manage their infertility through IVF and suffered inexplicable excruciating pain during egg retrieval at the clinic. What made the issue more dire was that the medical staff administering the procedure didn’t know why — and would only figure it out months later. Susan Burton, author and part of This American Life, tells us the tale of what really happened.

Check it out onSpotify and Apple Podcasts.

#4-Search Engine: Hosted by PJ Vogt, this podcast’s theme is … that there isn’t one. True to the host’s motto — that no question is too big or too small — he provides answers to all sorts of subject matter from black market fish sales, to the fentanyl crisis, to why cannibalism is a no-no. This show is for everyone who goes on late night googling spirals and now has an arsenal of random facts that would keep their dinner guests entertained.

You can find this podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Substack.

#5- You Didn’t See Nothin: Yohance Lacour, the host, investigates the brutal attack on 13 year-old Lenard Clark in 1997 that put him in a coma by the hands of older white teens solely on the basis of him being a black teenager living in a predominantly white neighborhood. One of Lenard’s attackers came from a powerful family in Chicago and was able to reframe the narrative to one of racial reconciliation and cooperation, but Lacour was not satisfied. Growing up in similar conditions, he felt a connection to this story and wanted to bring justice to the hate crime and give us honorable journalism as opposed to the disappointing coverage the tragedy received.

You can listen in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and NPR.

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