The Best 11 Podcasts Master List of 2023

Captain Ron -

Hey Poddy People!

It's already the end of the year and we have little time to read all these lists that come out. Just for you, I combed over 16 publications and created a master list of the top 11 podcasts they had in common. You'll see the number of publications they had in common between the (). The cut-off was 5 publications in common. Refresh: The number one podcast from the 2021 list was 9/12 and Welcome to Your Fantasy.

Updated 12/30/23 - Added The Atlantic and The Economist

You can click on the images for the reviews and descriptions. Sources are listed below.

Here we go!

11. Weight For It - ohitsBigRon Studio (4 lists in common)

Critic Podcast Reviews - Weight For It
Weight For It unpacks the nuanced thoughts of fat folks, and of all folks who think about their weight all the time. Through narrative storytelling, host, Ronald Young Jr. hopes to have the conversations that we tend to avoid when it comes to our bodies.
Great Pods

10. Heavyweight - Gimlet, Spotify (4 lists inn common)

Critic Podcast Reviews - Heavyweight
Maybe you’ve laid awake and imagined how it could have been, how it might yet be, but the moment to act was never right. Well, the moment is here and the podcast making it happen is Heavyweight. Join Jonathan Goldstein for road trips, thorny reunions, and difficult conversations as he backpedals his…
Great Pods

9. Grapevine - NBC News (4 lists in common)

Critic Podcast Reviews - Grapevine
In August 2022, at a packed school board meeting in Grapevine, Texas, a mom approaches the microphone and describes the exact nightmare that Republican politicians have been warning about. She accuses a teacher of convincing her child to change genders. As a result, she says, “I lost my son.” But wh…
Great Pods

8. The Coldest Case in Laramie - Serial Productions, The New York Times (5 lists in common)

Critic Podcast Reviews - The Coldest Case In Laramie
Kim Barker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times, revisits an unsolved murder that took place while she was in high school in Laramie, Wyoming, nearly 40 years ago. She confronts the conflicting stories people have told themselves about the crime because of an unexp…
Great Pods

7. The 13th Step - New Hampshire Public Radio (4 lists in common)

Critic Podcast Reviews - The 13th Step
An investigation into the widespread culture of sexual misconduct and abuse persistent in the addiction treatment industry.
Great Pods

6. Normal Gossip - Normal Gossip (4 lists in common)

Critic Podcast Reviews - Normal Gossip
Normal Gossip delivers juicy, strange, funny, and utterly banal gossip about people you’ll never know and never meet. Host Kelsey McKinney discusses reader-submitted comedic gossip with guests, diving into the lives and decisions of complete strangers. The second-hand truth really is stranger than f…
Great Pods

5. You Didn’t See Nothin - USG Audio (4 lists in common)

Critic Podcast Reviews - You Didn’t See Nothin
Part investigation and part memoir, “You Didn’t See Nothin” follows Yohance Lacour as he revisits the story that introduced him to the world of investigative journalism, and examines how its ripple effects have shaped his life over the past quarter-century.In 1997, Lenard Clark was beaten into a com…
Great Pods

4. If Books Could Kill - Michael Hobbes, Peter Shamshiri (5 lists in common)

Critic Podcast Reviews - If Books Could Kill
The airport bestsellers that captured our hearts and ruined our minds
Great Pods

3. Classy with Jonathan Menjivar - Pineapple Street Studios, Audacy (5 lists in common)

Critic Podcast Reviews - Classy with Jonathan Menjivar
“The show came about because I grew up working-class,” says Jonathan Menjivar, creator and host of Classy with Jonathan Menjivar, Apple Podcasts’ Spotlight show for September 2023. “I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about that, and I wanted to talk to people about it.”Menjivar was a blue-collar…
Great Pods

2. Search Engine - PJ Vogt, Audacy (6 lists in common)

Critic Podcast Reviews - Search Engine
No question too big, no question too small. On Search Engine, host PJ Vogt answers the kinds of questions you might ask the internet when you can’t sleep. If you find the world bewildering, but also sometimes enjoy being bewildered by it, we’re here for you. Publishes Fridays.
Great Pods
  1. The Retrievals - Serial Productions, The New York Times (8 lists in common)
Critic Podcast Reviews - The Retrievals
Dozens of women seeking to become mothers came to a fertility clinic at Yale. A (five-part) narrative series about the shocking events that unfolded there. From Serial Productions and The New York Times.
Great Pods

Well, there you have it! Another list is done. Honorable mentions go out to the following podcasts that I thought I would see more of on these lists.

Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Magnificent Jerk, The Girlfriends, Think Twice: Michael Jackson, Scamanda

List Sources: The New York Times, New Yorker, LifeHacker, Good Housekeeping, Vulture, Audible, Vogue, Town & Country, Mashable, The Guardian, Uproxx, PodcastReview.org, Huffington Post, CBC, The Atlantic, The Economist

About Great Pods: Great Pods is a website that uses podcast critic reviews and ratings to help you find & decide your next podcast listen.