popular podcasts

Stories to enjoy on long drives, lunch breaks and sleepless nights.

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By Katie McPherson

Podcasts are one of the most rapidly growing ways of sharing news, information and entertainment. There’s a genre for everyone and each podcast within it has a distinct personality. Some have risen to the top and keep listeners coming back each week.

Lore

Good storytelling is an art, and Aaron Mahnke takes ancient folklore and modern urban legends to new heights. Lore covers sightings and stories of monsters, illnesses, everything eerie and—we can only hope— things imaginary or in the past.

Must-listen episode: “Episode 53: Trees and Shadows,” about a werewolf-like creature that will have you eyeing the roadside on dark drives home

terrible, thanks for asking

episode leaves the listener with some invaluable life lessons.

Stuff You Hould Know

Need a digest explanation on literally anything? Josh and Chuck are senior editors at HowStu Works.com and explain everything from complex theories of logic to why walruses are so stinkin’ adorable.

Must-listen episode: “The Dyatlov Pass Mystery,” on why a group of frozen Russian hikers have fascinated the world for years

Do you love grieving and heartache? Neither does author and hilarious host Nora McInerny, but she became famous for it after her husband died of brain cancer and her obituary for him went viral. On her podcast, she interviews people who have gone through unimaginable things. If you ask them how they are, their honest answer would be, “Terrible, thanks for asking.” But each

Must-listen episode: “Route 91,” where Nora interviews a survivor of the Las Vegas Route 91 mass shooting criminal True crime fans will love Criminal, which covers every type of crime known to man. Host Phoebe Judge does thorough research and conducts heart-pounding interviews—sometimes with the victims and sometimes with the criminals.

Must-listen episode: “A Bump in the Night,” where Phoebe interviews a young woman who slowly realized she didn’t live alone in her new apartment

modern love: the podcast

Want to hear one of the internet’s most beloved New

York Times columns read aloud by celebrities or the essayists themselves? This is your pod.

Must-listen episode: “When A Couch is More Than A Couch,” in which a woman fixates on finding the perfect couch to cope with her recent cancer diagnosis

Sawbones

If you like all those TLC shows about medical oddities, here’s a podcast on the strange-butreal history behind modern medicine. Dr. Sydnee McElroy serves up the knowledge, and her layperson husband, Justin, asks the hilarious questions.