
The best podcasts of 2023
12/22/23 • 39 min
2 Listeners
To find the best podcasts of the year, we talked to two veritable experts in the form: Leah-Simone Bowen, host of ‘Podcast Playlist’ from the CBC, and Nick Quah, podcast critic for Vulture. In order to make it on their lists this year, both Leah and Nick said shows had to really push the envelope in format or reporting.
From heavy investigations to a show that Nick calls “cotton candy sprinkled with more cotton candy,” here are the best podcasts of 2023. For links, pics and more info, check out our website!
- ‘The Redemption of Jar Jar Binks’
- ‘The Retrievals’
- ‘Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas’
- ‘If Books Could Kill’
- ‘Everything is Alive Presents: The Animals’
- ‘Murder on Sex Island’
- ‘Bloodlines’
- ‘Ghost Story’
To find the best podcasts of the year, we talked to two veritable experts in the form: Leah-Simone Bowen, host of ‘Podcast Playlist’ from the CBC, and Nick Quah, podcast critic for Vulture. In order to make it on their lists this year, both Leah and Nick said shows had to really push the envelope in format or reporting.
From heavy investigations to a show that Nick calls “cotton candy sprinkled with more cotton candy,” here are the best podcasts of 2023. For links, pics and more info, check out our website!
- ‘The Redemption of Jar Jar Binks’
- ‘The Retrievals’
- ‘Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas’
- ‘If Books Could Kill’
- ‘Everything is Alive Presents: The Animals’
- ‘Murder on Sex Island’
- ‘Bloodlines’
- ‘Ghost Story’
Previous Episode

The best books of 2023
We are reflecting on a year of reading by tallying up the books that we just can’t stop thinking about. Two professional readers – Miwa Messer, host of Barnes & Noble’s book podcast Poured Over, and Andrew Limbong, host of NPR’s Book of the Day podcast – join us to share their best of the year lists.
Here are the books mentioned in the episode. For pictures, links and more details, head to our website!
Andrew’s picks:
‘Landscapes’ by Christine Lai
‘Poverty by America’ by Matthew Desmond
‘Roaming’ by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki
‘Ringmaster’ by Abraham Josephine Riesman
Miwa’s picks:
‘Loot’ by Tania James
‘Ordinary Notes’ by Christina Sharpe
‘Open Throat’ by Henry Hoke
‘Chain Gang All-Stars’ by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Greta’s picks:
‘The Vaster Wilds’ by Lauren Groff
‘The Country of the Blind’ by Andrew Leland
‘The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi’ by Shannon Chakraborty
‘Same Bed Different Dreams’ by Ed Park
Listener picks:
‘The Fragile Threads of Power’ by V.E. Schwab
‘Shrines of Gaiety’ by Kate Atkinson
‘Land of Milk and Honey’ by C Pam Zhang
‘In the Lives of Puppets’ by TJ Klune
‘Monsters’ by Claire Dederer
‘Black River Orchard’ by Chuck Wendig
Next Episode

The best TV shows of 2023
Despite two historic writers’ and actors’ strikes, there was a lot of TV to watch this year. We turned to two TV critics to weigh in on their favorites: The New Yorker’s Inkoo Kang and Vulture’s Kathryn VanArendonk
For links, pics and more details, head to our website!
- Beef (Netflix)
- Reservation Dogs (Hulu)
- Succession (Max)
- Fellow Travelers (Showtime)
- The Bear (Hulu)
- Wrestlers (Netflix)
- For All Mankind (Apple TV +)
- I'm A Virgo on (Prime VIdeo)
- Starstruck (Max)
- Scavengers Reign (Max)
- Deadloch (Prime Video)
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/nerdette-172463/the-best-podcasts-of-2023-40154774"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to the best podcasts of 2023 on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy