MVP MVP MVP! Say it with me! MVP MVP! That's for Most Viewed Podcast.
It's that time of year and you get ready all the lists you can hope for. For us, we don't pick 'em. We let the web visitors like you pick via the podcast pages you visit. So I bring you, the top 2 4 podcasts of 202 3.
Top 24 of 2023 - You can click on any of the images to read the reviews and listen on your favorite app. Of the top publishers with the most in the most viewed category, 3 are from Serial | The New York Times and iHeart. 2 are from the BBC.
24. Empire - Goalhanger Podcasts (History)
Critic Podcast Reviews - Empire
How do empires rise? Why do they fall? And how have they shaped the world around us today?William Dalrymple and Anita Anand explore the stories, personalities and events of empire over the course of history.
23. The Horror of Dolores Roach - Gimlet (Fiction, Drama) - Released on 2018 and saw interest surge via the 2023 Prime Video TV adaption
Critic Podcast Reviews - The Horror of Dolores Roach
With blood on her hands, the infamous Dolores Roach has fled the recent shocking destruction in Washington Heights and gone into hiding deep under New York City in an abandoned subway tunnel. But she’s not alone underground, and her dark night of the soul is interrupted by an extremist faction of si…
22. The Kids of Rutherford County - Serial, New York Times (True Crime Society)
Critic Podcast Reviews - The Kids of Rutherford County
From Serial Productions and The New York Times in partnership with ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio, “The Kids of Rutherford County” is reported and hosted by Meribah Knight, a Peabody-award winning reporter based in the South.For over a decade, one Tennessee county arrested and illegally jail…
21. People Who Knew Me - BBC (Fiction Drama)
Critic Podcast Reviews - People Who Knew Me
A woman uses 9/11 to fake her death. 14 years later, she is forced to confront her past. Emily Morris uses 9/11 to fake her own death and run away to start a new life in California as Connie Prynne. Fourteen years later, now with a teenage daughter by her side, Connie is diagnosed with breast cance…
20. Call Jonathan Pie - BBC (Fiction)
Critic Podcast Reviews - Call Jonathan Pie
Political journalist Jonathan Pie gets a radio phone-in show and as his personal and professional worlds collide we see why he’s so incredibly angry about absolutely everything.
19. SmartLess - Amazon, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, Will Arnett, Smartless Media, Wondery (Comedy) - Ongoing series
Critic Podcast Reviews - SmartLess
“SmartLess” with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett is a podcast that connects and unites people from all walks of life to learn about shared experiences through thoughtful dialogue and organic hilarity. A nice surprise: in each episode of SmartLess, one of the hosts reveals his mystery guest…
18. Murdaugh Murders Podcast - Mandy Matney (True Crime)
Critic Podcast Reviews - Murdaugh Murders Podcast
Previously known as the Murdaugh Murders Podcast, True Sunlight is the intersection of True Crime, journalism and systematic corruption. Welcome to the new face of MMP.True Sunlight is the antithesis of True crime. True Sunlight values accuracy over “access journalism”. True Sunlight is shed with em…
17. The Girlfriends - iHeartPodcast Network, Novel (True Crime)
Critic Podcast Reviews - The Girlfriends
It’s 1995 and Carole Fisher is a high-flying divorcee looking for love in Las Vegas. It’s slim pickings in the medical community she works in. But then Bob comes to town. Bob Bierenbaum is a plastic surgeon who flies planes and speaks several languages. Her mom loves that he’s Jewish - but there’s s…
16. Dear Alana, - iHeartPodcast Network, Tenderfoot TV (Society)
Critic Podcast Reviews - Dear Alana
When Alana Chen died at the age of 24 in Boulder, she left behindtwo dozen journals chronicling a deep faith, love of fashion, and passion to become a nun. Shealso harbored a secret. At 14, she confessed to her priest that she was attracted to women. Thatpriest convinced her not to tell her paren…
15. Who shat on the floor at my wedding? - Who shat on the floor at my wedding? (True Crime Comedy) - Released in 2020 and saw a resurgence via viral social media
Critic Podcast Reviews - Who shat on the floor at my wedding?
A true story involving two brides and one turd. What do you do if someone defecates on the floor at your wedding? Re-evaluate your friends and family? No, you launch an investigation to find who did it. Join the brides, Helen Mclaughlin and Karen Whitehouse, and the extremely under-qualified “Detect…
14. We Were Three - Serial, New York Times (Society)
Critic Podcast Reviews - We Were Three
A story of lies, family, America, and what Covid revealed, as well as what it destroyed.
13. The Mantawauk Caves - Blumhouse, iHeartPodcast Network (Fiction)
Critic Podcast Reviews - The Mantawauk Caves
On the night of May 10, 2007, three boys entered a cave in Mantawauk County, Tennessee. Only one made it out alive. The other two were found ten days later. They had been attacked by someone - or something. The investigation that followed revealed town secrets as old as the caves themselves and put…
12. Huberman Lab - Scicomm Media (Science) - Ongoing series
Critic Podcast Reviews - Huberman Lab
Huberman Lab discusses neuroscience — how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health. We also discuss existing and emerging tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works. Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist…
11. Sold a Story - American Public Media (Society) - Released in 2022
Critic Podcast Reviews - Sold a Story
Millions of kids can’t read well. Scientists have known for decades how children learn to read but many schools are ignoring the research. They buy teacher training and books that are rooted in a disproven idea. Emily Hanford investigates four authors and a publishing company that have made millions…
10. From the Oasthouse: The Alan Partridge Podcast (Comedy) - This was an interesting one. Most of our traffic is from Google SEO, so series(season) 1 of the From the Oasthouse ranks better than the new season which launched in 2023 and I believe that is what the folks were looking for.
Critic Podcast Reviews - From the Oasthouse: The Alan Partridge Podcast (Series 1)
Broadcaster, writer, philanthroper and one of the first public figures to suggest high-visibility clothing for people manning temporary car parks, the public Alan Partridge is a cherished institution. But what of the unseen Alan? For the first time, this famously private man welcomes us into his…
Critic Podcast Reviews - From the Oasthouse: The Alan Partridge podcast (Series 3)
Few humans in the history of civilisation have had a third series of their podcast commissioned. Fewer still have produced one that’s actually any good. Partridge Gordon Alan, or Alan Gordon Partridge to write his name the correct way round, is one of them. Now as comfortable at the controls of a…
9. The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett - Steven Bartlett (Interview, Business) - Ongoing series
Critic Podcast Reviews - The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett
A few years ago I was a broke, university dropout, at 18 I built an industry leading social media marketing company, and at 27 I resigned as CEO. At 28 I co-founded Flight Story – a marketing and communications company, and thirdweb - a software platform, making it easy to build web3 applications. I…
8. Case 63 - Spotify Studios (Sci-Fi) - Season 2
Critic Podcast Reviews - Case 63
CASE 63 IS OUT NOWSeason Two of Case 63 transports us back to 2012 where Eliza Beatrix Knight wakes confused and naked in a bathroom at JFK airport, having failed her mission. Taken to a hospital, she is treated by Dr. Vincent Caldwell - a resident psychiatrist with a familiar voice. Beatrix is now…
7. The Retrievals - Serial, New York Times (True Crime Health)
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.
6. Strike Force Five - Strike Force Five (Comedy)
Critic Podcast Reviews - Strike Force Five
Late night talk show hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver are teaming up for a new podcast to support their striking writers and out of work staffs. Strike Force Five! welcomes you to a conversation between five rival colleagues for an inside look at late ni…
5. Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra - MSNBC (History) - Released in 2022
Critic Podcast Reviews - Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra
Sitting members of Congress aiding and abetting a plot to overthrow the government. Insurrectionists criminally charged with plotting to end American democracy for good. Justice Department prosecutors under crushing political pressure. Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra is the all-but-forgotten true stor…
4. The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling - The Free Press (Society)
Critic Podcast Reviews - The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling
The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling is an audio documentary that examines some of the most contentious conflicts of our time through the life and career of the world’s most successful author. In conversation with host Megan Phelps-Roper, J.K. Rowling speaks with unprecedented candor and depth about the…
3. Under Cover of Knight - Apple, Spoke Media (True Crime)
Critic Podcast Reviews - Under Cover of Knight
In 1996, Sue Knight was found dead in her Athens, TX, home. Her will named a loose acquaintance as the executor of her estate, but after an alleged phone call from the CIA and a dire warning from the local sheriff, the executor stopped asking questions. More than 25 years later, Sue’s memory haunts…
2. Scamanda - Lionsgate Sound (True Crime Scam)
Critic Podcast Reviews - Scamanda
Amanda is a wife. A mother. A blogger. A Christian.A charming, beautiful, bubbly, young woman who lives life to the fullest.But Amanda is dying, with a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know.She starts a blog detailing her cancer journey, and becomes an inspiration, touching and captivating her loca…
Archetypes - Archewell Audio (Women, Conversation) - Released in 2022 with comments belowCritic Podcast Reviews - Archetypes
Archetypes with Meghan Markle - a podcast where we investigate, dissect, and subvert the labels that try to hold women back. (Only on the Spotify App)
Archetypes, for a second year, was the most visited podcast page, and just like the year before, with its mixed reviews, remained on the press's mind when the partnership with Archewell Audio was canceled by Spotify in 2023.
However, the NEW contender was strong this year with Scamanda taking over the world by storm consistently on Great Pods in 2023. For that, they receive our Great Pods Podcast of the Year . Sorry, I don't have a plaque or balloons, but hopefully, this post is worth something! The story was well told and equally shocking on how far Amanda would go for her cancer lie.
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Happy Holidays and Happy New Year wherever you may be and thank you for making 2023 memorable.
Peace, love, and GAP.
Captain Ron