The 10 Best Podcasts That Started in 2024

The podcast landscape is oversaturated, but 2024 still produced shows that cut through the noise with genuine originality, sharp production, and perspectives that justify their existence in an already crowded medium. These ten new podcasts are worth adding to your rotation.

Worth knowing which of these genuinely launched in 2024, because several did not: Heavyweight has run since 2016 and Decoder Ring since 2018. For shows that actually started in 2024, take Hysterical, Dan Taberski's series on a cluster of tic-like symptoms among teenagers in Le Roy, New York; Shell Game, in which Evan Ratliff cloned his own voice with AI and let it answer his phone; and Empire City, Chenjerai Kumanyika's history of how the NYPD was built.

Heavyweight returned from a hiatus that felt permanent, and Jonathan Goldstein's show about helping people resolve old grievances remains one of the most emotionally intelligent podcasts ever produced. Each episode is a miniature documentary about regret, reconciliation, and the stories we tell ourselves.

Wiser Than Me by Julia Louis-Dreyfus features the actress interviewing women over 70 about aging, wisdom, and what they wish they'd known earlier. Guests like Jane Fonda and Isabel Allende deliver insights that are simultaneously practical and profound.

Decoder Ring from Slate, hosted by Willa Paskin, investigates the origins of cultural phenomena with the rigor of investigative journalism and the accessibility of conversation. Each episode is a perfect 30-45 minutes exploring why things are the way they are.

The Retrievals from Serial Productions investigated a fertility clinic scandal at Yale where patients' pain medication was stolen and replaced with saline. The five-episode limited series is a devastating examination of how women's pain is dismissed by medical institutions.

Some of the best of this now sits behind subscriptions. Serial Productions was bought by The New York Times in 2020, so The Retrievals and its follow-ups live inside an NYT audio subscription. Most independent shows sell ad-free feeds through Patreon or Supporting Cast at £4 to £8 a month, which for a show you hear weekly is the cheapest cultural habit you have.

Normal Gossip by Kelsey McKinney turns anonymous stories from real people's lives into narrative entertainment. McKinney reads detailed stories of interpersonal drama to a guest who reacts in real time. It satisfies the human need for narrative about other people's messy lives without ethical issues.

Other notable 2024 launches include Stolen Youth about coercive control, Ghost Story about a haunted house investigation, Dead Eyes about Pete Holmes' quest to understand why Tom Hanks fired him, Kill List for respectful true crime, and The Town for entertainment industry insider analysis.

The app matters more than people expect. Overcast's Smart Speed shortens silences without pitching voices up and tells you how much time it has saved; Pocket Casts does the same with trim silence. Both are free at the level most people need. Neither helps on YouTube, which is now where a very large share of podcast listening happens, because shows are shot for camera and the video is the product.

One test for a new show: listen to episode three, not episode one. First episodes are made months earlier, often with different production, and every podcast is at its most self-conscious at launch. If episode three still has a reason to exist, the show does.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/charts/top-podcasts