Forget the celebrity brand extensions.
The art of podcasting is still as vibrant as ever.
Best of 2022
The best entertainment of the year, as chosen by Vultures critics.
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Here are our ten favorite podcasts from 2022 plus a handful of honorable mentions.
10.Sounds Like a Cult(Independent)
10.
Hats off to a simple concept executed with panache.
Read Nicholas Quahsinterview with the hosts ofSounds Like a Cult.
9.ImaginaryAdvice, The True Crime of Your Frozen Death (independent)
9.
One has to admire the sheer confidence on display here.
8.ThePrince(The Economist)
8.
For news-podcast heads,TheEconomisthas proven to be an intriguing player of late.
Its one of the best audio documentaries Ive heard this year.
7.HeidiWorld(iHeartMedia)
7.
(See the assorted audio works of Lili Anolik, Vanessa Grigoriadis, etc.)
The story told inHeidiWorldis expansive, digressive, and ambitious.
6.Welcome to Provincetown(Rococo Punch, Room Tone, Stitchers Witness Docs)
6.
5.The 11th, His Saturn Return (Pineapple Street Studios)
5.
Sai Sions glorious hour-long audio drama is a galactic coming-of-age story.
4.Mother Country Radicals(Crooked Media)
4.
When family history and political history collide, the result is quite something.
3.The Trojan Horse Affair(Serial Productions and the New YorkTimes)
3.
Read Nicholas Quahsinterview with the hosts ofThe Trojan Horse Affair.
2.NormalGossip(Defector Media)
2.
The gossip is ultimately banal, deliberately contrasting the commodified value of celebrity gossip.
But the pleasures that arise are mysteriously elemental, grafting onto your brain like an earworm you cant shake.
A good piece of gossip can take your breath away.
A great piece of gossip can ruin your life.Normal Gossipbottles up the thrill of that possibility.
Read Nicholas Quahsinterview withNormal Gossiphost Kelsey McKinney and producer Alex Sujong Laughlin.
1.Dead Eyes, Tom (Headgum)
1.
WhenDead Eyesstarted in early 2020, it was a little tricky to see where things would go.
The effect is sublime.
I wonder if therell be anything like it ever again.
Read Vulturesreview ofDead Eyes.
Honorable Mentions
All podcasts are listed by U.S. release date.
Frog of the Week(independent)
Ah, what the hell.
This Is Dating(Magnificent Noise)
This Is Datingis tricky to describe.
Episodes are guided along by producers Jesse Baker and Hiwote Getaneh, who make the show with Eleanor Kagan.
Read Vulturesreview ofThis Is Dating.
In 1990, when McKinnon was 10, his older brother was killed by a speeding police cruiser.
The town took them in, and the whole affair eventually became a media sensation.
Of course, nothing is what it seems.
It makes me miss writing with other people.
Read Vulturesreview ofCrypto Island.
For industry nerds like myself, its utter catnip.
They make fine companion pieces.
Kinda has the slight energy of Andrew Sean GreersLess,but lets not oversell it.
Theres no greater indication, perhaps, of the U.S.s backward slide.
Choosing Sides: F1(iHeartMedia and Sports Illustrated)
One can easily spot the play here.
(Or newer sports.
Pickleball, perhaps?)
My Mother Made Me(Radiotopia Presents)
My Mother Made Meis a gem.
But what makes it really special is the palpable gratitude that drives the whole project.
To have a parent that really connects with you is a remarkably fortunate thing.
Even more so is having the opportunity, and the tools, to honor that connection.
Read Vulturesreview ofCrooked City.
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