Personal Best
5.0/5
Critic Rating
Personal Best celebrates small ambitions, half-wins and the quiet satisfaction of getting less bad at things. Each week we help ordinary people work through the little things they’d never bring to a life coach — like having the courage to dine alone at a fancy restaurant or getting less awkward at handshakes. Let us be your self-improvement sidekicks!
Critic Reviews
Score: 5
Lauren Passell • Podcast The Newsletter • Sep 23, 2024
"The first episode was oddly specific but also felt relatable. This show has a sense of silliness, sweetness, sincerity, and fun I think is rare. I don’t know or care if this stuff is working. It’s about the journey."
Score: 5
Sarah Stiefvater • Pure Wow • Sep 30, 2020
"...the hosts devise bizarre ways to help them achieve said goals, to hilarious and heartwarming effect."
Score: 5
Eliana Dockterman • Time • Jun 5, 2018
"Our neighbors in Canada have produced one of the funniest podcasts to hit our earbuds in years. Like the brilliant podcast Heavyweight — in which the host tries to settle old scores, often to hilarious ends — Personal Best is less a show about self-improvement than it is about self-discovery."
Score: 5
Nicholas Quah • Vulture • Mar 27, 2018
"Personal Best is one of my favorite listens of the year so far, and I welcome it into my eardrums like a warm ray of sunlight after a long winter. Norman and Norton’s comedic (and therapeutic) genius really shows in the solutions they concoct. Often bizarre and overly convoluted, the solutions on Personal Best are almost always surprising, but even more surprising is the frequency with which the show’s harebrained schemes and adventures lead to genuine moments of discovery and tenderness. In that pursuit, it bears a mighty resemblance to Comedy Central’s brilliant Nathan for You....I’m struck not just by how rare it is to encounter a piece of nonfiction audio that’s designed to be genuinely pleasant and authentically big-hearted...Personal Best is bubbly and optimistic."
