2021 Year in Review: Favorite Podcasts

Before reviewing the best podcasts of the year, I have an announcement to make.  I will no longer be posting Podcast of the Week columns on this blog, thus this a finale as a feature for Panorama of the Mountains.  With that said, let’s look back at the highlights of 2021.

Podcast Hall of Fame

I’ve added four new podcasts to my Podcast Hall of Fame.  These are podcasts that I look forward to listening to each and every episode even if that may not be reflected in the running tally of podcasts that appear in Podcast of the Week.

Class of 2021

• A History of Rock in 500 Songs
• KEXP Song of the Day
• The Current Song of the Day
• Today’s Top Tune

Class of 2020

• The Cine-Files
• Decoder Ring
• Hub History
• Unspooled
• Levar Burton Reads
• This Day in Esoteric Political History
• Throughline
• What Next

Class of 2019

• 99% Invisible
• Hit Parade
• The Memory Palace
• The Mortified Podcast
• Risk!
• The Thirty20Eight
• Throughline
• Twenty Thousand Hertz
• Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me

Short Series of Note

• Hark! The Stories behind our favorite Christmas carols
• Judas and the Black Messiah
• One Year: 1977
• Radiolab :: The Vanishing of Harry Pace
• Radiolab :: Mixtape
• Reparations: The Big Payback
• Seizing Freedom
• Stuff the British Stole

Favorite Podcast Episodes

• Radio Boston :: Four Black Leaders In Boston Who Are Carrying On The King Legacy
• Politically Re-Active :: Nikki Giovanni
• Afropop Worldwide :: The Black History of the Banjo
• Radiolab :: What Up, Holmes?
• 99% Invisible :: The Real Book
• Throughline :: Policing in America
• Twenty Thousand Hertz :: Foley Artists
• Decoder Ring :: That Seattle Muzak Sound
• Twenty Thousand Hertz :: Stay Tuned
• Hit Parade  :: What a Fool Believes
• This American Life  :: Essential
• Decoder Ring :: Truly Tasteless Jokes

 

FINAL TALLY OF PODCAST OF THE WEEK APPEARANCES

• Afropop Worldwide – 2
• AirSpace – 1
• Best of the Left – 2
• The Brattle Film Podcast – 1
• Code Switch – 2
• Consider This – 4
• Decoder Ring – 4
• Disney History Institute – 1
• Fresh Air – 2
• Futility Closet – 1
• Have You Heard? – 2
• A History of Rock in 500 Songs – Entire series
• Hit Parade  – 2
• Hub History – 3
• Judas and the Black Messiah – Entire series
• The Last Archive – 3
• LeVar Burton Reads – 1
• Lost Massachusetts – 3
• The Moth – 1
• The Memory Palace – 2
• 99% Invisible – 8
• One Year – 2
• Politically Re-Active – 2
• Planet Money – 2
• Radio Boston – 6
• Radiolab – 14
• Reparations: The Big Payback – 1
• Scientific American – 4
• Seizing Freedom – 2
• Sidedoor – 2
• Slow Burn – 1
• The Story Collider – 1
• Strong Songs – 1
• Stuff the British Stole – entire series
• The Thirty20Eight – 1
• This American Life  – 4
• This Day in Esoteric Political History – 16
• Throughline – 10
• The Tomorrow Society – 1
• The Truth – 1
• Twenty Thousand Hertz – 7
• Unf*cking the Republic – 2
• Unspooled – 1
• Up First – 1
• The War on Cars – 1
• What Next – 7

Podcasts of the Week Ending December 11

Decoder Ring – Truly Tasteless Jokes

This episode discusses a series of joke books that were inordinately popular in the 1980s.  By extension, it explores the shift of how transgressive language was initially used by the Left as part of the movement to advance free speech.  But these books made offensive jokes so ubiquitous that they became old hat.  Eventually only people on the right were interested in sharing offensive jokes.

99% Invisible – The Epic of Collier Heights

The story of the creation of a Black Mecca, a prosperous African American neighborhood in suburban Atlanta which was created by aggressively acquiring property around segregated white areas.

This Day in Esoteric Political History – The Coup in Wilmington (1898)

Wilmington, NC was governed by democratically-elected white and Black leaders until white supremacists staged a violent insurrection in 1898.

Running Tally of Podcast of the Week Awards for 2021

• • Afropop Worldwide – 2
  • AirSpace – 1
  • Best of the Left – 2
  • The Brattle Film Podcast – 1
  • Code Switch – 2
  • Consider This – 4
  • Decoder Ring – 4
  • Disney History Institute – 1
  • Fresh Air – 2
  • Futility Closet – 1
  • Have You Heard? – 2
  • A History of Rock in 500 Songs – Entire series
  • Hit Parade  – 2
  • Hub History – 3
  • Judas and the Black Messiah – Entire series
  • The Last Archive – 3
  • LeVar Burton Reads – 1
  • Lost Massachusetts – 3
  • The Moth – 1
  • The Memory Palace – 2
  • 99% Invisible – 8
  • One Year – 2
  • Politically Re-Active – 2
  • Planet Money – 2
  • Radio Boston – 6
  • Radiolab – 14
  • Reparations: The Big Payback – 1
  • Scientific American – 4
  • Seizing Freedom – 2
  • Sidedoor – 2
  • Slow Burn – 1
  • The Story Collider – 1
  • Strong Songs – 1
  • Stuff the British Stole – entire series
  • The Thirty20Eight – 1
  • This American Life  – 4
  • This Day in Esoteric Political History – 16
  • Throughline – 10
  • The Tomorrow Society – 1
  • The Truth – 1
  • Twenty Thousand Hertz – 7
  • Unf*cking the Republic – 2
  • Unspooled – 1
  • Up First – 1
  • The War on Cars – 1
  • What Next – 7

Podcasts of the Week Ending November 26

99% Invisible – Cute Little Monstrosities of Nature

How dog breeds came to be and how breeding is harming our best friends.

Twenty Thousand Hertz – It’s Not TV. It’s HBO

I apparently am not alone in remembering the awe I felt at the introductory theme song that preceded feature presentations on HBO in the 1990s.  Here is how it was made.

A History of Rock in 500 Songs

I just discovered this podcast although it started back in 2018.  Like the title says, each episode breaks down an important song in the history of rock music going back to the genre’s roots in the 1930s.

 

Running Tally of Podcast of the Week Awards for 2021

• • Afropop Worldwide – 2
  • AirSpace – 1
  • Best of the Left – 2
  • The Brattle Film Podcast – 1
  • Code Switch – 2
  • Consider This – 4
  • Decoder Ring – 3
  • Disney History Institute – 1
  • Fresh Air – 2
  • Futility Closet – 1
  • Have You Heard? – 2
  • A History of Rock in 500 Songs – Entire series
  • Hit Parade  – 2
  • Hub History – 3
  • Judas and the Black Messiah – Entire series
  • The Last Archive – 3
  • LeVar Burton Reads – 1
  • Lost Massachusetts – 3
  • The Moth – 1
  • The Memory Palace – 2
  • 99% Invisible – 7
  • One Year – 2
  • Politically Re-Active – 2
  • Planet Money – 2
  • Radio Boston – 6
  • Radiolab – 14
  • Reparations: The Big Payback – 1
  • Scientific American – 4
  • Seizing Freedom – 2
  • Sidedoor – 2
  • Slow Burn – 1
  • The Story Collider – 1
  • Strong Songs – 1
  • Stuff the British Stole – entire series
  • The Thirty20Eight – 1
  • This American Life  – 4
  • This Day in Esoteric Political History – 15
  • Throughline – 10
  • The Tomorrow Society – 1
  • The Truth – 1
  • Twenty Thousand Hertz – 7
  • Unf*cking the Republic – 2
  • Unspooled – 1
  • Up First – 1
  • The War on Cars – 1
  • What Next – 7

Podcasts of the (two) weeks ending November 20

Consider This – Young Activists At U.N. Climate Summit: ‘We Are Not Drowning. We Are Fighting‘

Some of the most powerful voices for action on the climate crisis are the youngest.

Radiolab – Mixtape

Radiolab ran a five-part series on the history and influence of the cassette tape (one of my all-time favorite pieces of technology) and they are uniformly excellent, so I’m listing them all here:

• • Dakou
  • Jack and Bing
  • The Wandering Soul
  • The Cassetternet
  • Help?

Throughline – Nikole Hannah-Jones and the Country We Have

In interview with investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones about The 1619 Project, soon to be released as a book, and the backlash against it.

What Next – How Schools Surveil Your Kids

Remote learning allowed the introduction of surveillance tools on children’s computers that are now becoming standard.

Running Tally of Podcast of the Week Awards for 2021

• • Afropop Worldwide – 2
  • AirSpace – 1
  • Best of the Left – 2
  • The Brattle Film Podcast – 1
  • Code Switch – 2
  • Consider This – 4
  • Decoder Ring – 3
  • Disney History Institute – 1
  • Fresh Air – 2
  • Futility Closet – 1
  • Have You Heard? – 2
  • Hit Parade  – 2
  • Hub History – 3
  • Judas and the Black Messiah – Entire series
  • The Last Archive – 3
  • LeVar Burton Reads – 1
  • Lost Massachusetts – 3
  • The Moth – 1
  • The Memory Palace – 2
  • 99% Invisible – 6
  • One Year – 2
  • Politically Re-Active – 2
  • Planet Money – 2
  • Radio Boston – 6
  • Radiolab – 14
  • Reparations: The Big Payback – 1
  • Scientific American – 4
  • Seizing Freedom – 2
  • Sidedoor – 2
  • Slow Burn – 1
  • The Story Collider – 1
  • Strong Songs – 1
  • Stuff the British Stole – entire series
  • The Thirty20Eight – 1
  • This American Life  – 4
  • This Day in Esoteric Political History – 15
  • Throughline – 10
  • The Tomorrow Society – 1
  • The Truth – 1
  • Twenty Thousand Hertz – 6
  • Unf*cking the Republic – 2
  • Unspooled – 1
  • Up First – 1
  • The War on Cars – 1
  • What Next – 7

Podcasts of the Week Ending November 6

This American Life :: An Invitation to Tea

A man was held at Guantanamo Bay for 14 years on charges of terrorism that the US government was never able to prove.  In this episode, he speaks with three of his former captors.  The conversations are a lot friendlier and well, stranger, than you might imagine.

 

Running Tally of Podcast of the Week Awards for 2021

• Afropop Worldwide – 2
• AirSpace – 1
• Best of the Left – 2
• The Brattle Film Podcast – 1
• Code Switch – 2
• Consider This – 3
• Decoder Ring – 3
• Disney History Institute – 1
• Fresh Air – 2
• Futility Closet – 1
• Have You Heard? – 2
• Hit Parade  – 2
• Hub History – 3
• Judas and the Black Messiah – Entire series
• The Last Archive – 3
• LeVar Burton Reads – 1
• Lost Massachusetts – 3
• The Moth – 1
• The Memory Palace – 2
• 99% Invisible – 6
• One Year – 2
• Politically Re-Active – 2
• Planet Money – 2
• Radio Boston – 6
• Radiolab – 9
• Reparations: The Big Payback – 1
• Scientific American – 4
• Seizing Freedom – 2
• Sidedoor – 2
• Slow Burn – 1
• The Story Collider – 1
• Strong Songs – 1
• Stuff the British Stole – entire series
• The Thirty20Eight – 1
• This American Life  – 4
• This Day in Esoteric Political History – 15
• Throughline – 9
• The Tomorrow Society – 1
• The Truth – 1
• Twenty Thousand Hertz – 6
• Unf*cking the Republic – 2
• Unspooled – 1
• Up First – 1
• The War on Cars – 1
• What Next – 6

Podcasts of the Week Ending October 30

Consider This – The Great Resignation: Why People Are Leaving Their Jobs In Growing Numbers

“Take this Job and Shove It (2021 Remix) feat. Labor Organizing”

Sidedoor – Bloodsuckers!

LEECHES! They’re our friends!

This Day in Esoteric Political History – Central Park’s Black Village is Demolished (1857) w/ Bobby Wooten

The story of Manhattan’s Seneca Village, a prosperous predominately Black settlement destroyed to build Central Park

Throughline – The Dance of the Dead 

Halloween is an adaptable holiday that has gone through numerous changes from its origins in pre-Christian Ireland to today’s corporate synergy.

 

Running Tally of Podcast of the Week Awards for 2021

• Afropop Worldwide – 2
• AirSpace – 1
• Best of the Left – 2
• The Brattle Film Podcast – 1
• Code Switch – 2
• Consider This – 3
• Decoder Ring – 3
• Disney History Institute – 1
• Fresh Air – 2
• Futility Closet – 1
• Have You Heard? – 2
• Hit Parade  – 2
• Hub History – 3
• Judas and the Black Messiah – Entire series
• The Last Archive – 3
• LeVar Burton Reads – 1
• Lost Massachusetts – 3
• The Moth – 1
• The Memory Palace – 2
• 99% Invisible – 6
• One Year – 2
• Politically Re-Active – 2
• Planet Money – 2
• Radio Boston – 6
• Radiolab – 9
• Reparations: The Big Payback – 1
• Scientific American – 4
• Seizing Freedom – 2
• Sidedoor – 2
• Slow Burn – 1
• The Story Collider – 1
• Strong Songs – 1
• Stuff the British Stole – entire series
• The Thirty20Eight – 1
• This American Life  – 3
• This Day in Esoteric Political History – 15
• Throughline – 9
• The Tomorrow Society – 1
• The Truth – 1
• Twenty Thousand Hertz – 6
• Unf*cking the Republic – 2
• Unspooled – 1
• Up First – 1
• The War on Cars – 1
• What Next – 6

Podcasts of the Week Ending October 23

99% Invisible – I Can’t Believe It’s Pink Margarine!

This controversial history of margarine you never knew you needed to know!

Radiolab – Of Bombs and Butterflies

How an artillery range may help an endangered species prosper.

This Day in Esoteric Political History – The Textbook Wars Spiral Out of Control (1974)

Shockingly violent opposition to school textbook and curriculum changes in the West Virginia in the past seem to a harbinger of things to come in our present day.

Running Tally of Podcast of the Week Awards for 2021

• Afropop Worldwide – 2
• AirSpace – 1
• Best of the Left – 2
• The Brattle Film Podcast – 1
• Code Switch – 2
• Consider This – 2
• Decoder Ring – 3
• Disney History Institute – 1
• Fresh Air – 2
• Futility Closet – 1
• Have You Heard? – 2
• Hit Parade  – 2
• Hub History – 3
• Judas and the Black Messiah – Entire series
• The Last Archive – 3
• LeVar Burton Reads – 1
• Lost Massachusetts – 3
• The Moth – 1
• The Memory Palace – 2
• 99% Invisible – 6
• One Year – 2
• Politically Re-Active – 2
• Planet Money – 2
• Radio Boston – 6
• Radiolab – 9
• Reparations: The Big Payback – 1
• Scientific American – 4
• Seizing Freedom – 2
• Sidedoor – 1
• Slow Burn – 1
• The Story Collider – 1
• Strong Songs – 1
• Stuff the British Stole – entire series
• The Thirty20Eight – 1
• This American Life  – 3
• This Day in Esoteric Political History – 14
• Throughline – 8
• The Tomorrow Society – 1
• The Truth – 1
• Twenty Thousand Hertz – 6
• Unf*cking the Republic – 2
• Unspooled – 1
• Up First – 1
• The War on Cars – 1
• What Next – 6

Podcasts of the Week Ending October 16

Scientific American – Beethoven’s Unfinished 10th Symphony Brought to Life by Artificial Intelligence

It took 200 years and an algorithm to finish Beethoven’s final symphony.

This Day in Esoteric Political History – The Hojo Incident

Racial prejudice in Delaware creates an international incident when restaurant staff refuse to serve a diplomat from Ghana.

Throughline – The Nostalgia Bone

As someone who is extremely nostalgic, I found this an interesting history.

 

Running Tally of Podcast of the Week Awards for 2021

• Afropop Worldwide – 2
• AirSpace – 1
• Best of the Left – 2
• The Brattle Film Podcast – 1
• Code Switch – 2
• Consider This – 2
• Decoder Ring – 3
• Disney History Institute – 1
• Fresh Air – 2
• Futility Closet – 1
• Have You Heard? – 2
• Hit Parade  – 2
• Hub History – 3
• Judas and the Black Messiah – Entire series
• The Last Archive – 3
• LeVar Burton Reads – 1
• Lost Massachusetts – 3
• The Moth – 1
• The Memory Palace – 2
• 99% Invisible – 5
• One Year – 2
• Politically Re-Active – 2
• Planet Money – 2
• Radio Boston – 6
• Radiolab – 8
• Reparations: The Big Payback – 1
• Scientific American – 4
• Seizing Freedom – 2
• Sidedoor – 1
• Slow Burn – 1
• The Story Collider – 1
• Strong Songs – 1
• Stuff the British Stole – entire series
• The Thirty20Eight – 1
• This American Life  – 3
• This Day in Esoteric Political History – 13
• Throughline – 8
• The Tomorrow Society – 1
• The Truth – 1
• Twenty Thousand Hertz – 6
• Unf*cking the Republic – 2
• Unspooled – 1
• Up First – 1
• The War on Cars – 1
• What Next – 6

Podcasts of the Week Ending October 9

Disney History Institute – Disney World’s 50th Anniversary

50 years of the Florida resort and theme parks through the lens of one pianist who performs on Main Street, U.S.A.

Sidedoor – Make Way for Elephants

How people in India and China are learning to coexist with elephants.

This American Life  – My Bad

Stories of great embarrassment and what we learn from them.

What Next – Are We Ready for the Next Pandemic?

Pandemic preparedness means more than technological solutions but also a commitment to bold social welfare programs

Running Tally of Podcast of the Week Awards for 2021

• Afropop Worldwide – 2
• AirSpace – 1
• Best of the Left – 2
• The Brattle Film Podcast – 1
• Code Switch – 2
• Consider This – 2
• Decoder Ring – 3
• Disney History Institute – 1
• Fresh Air – 2
• Futility Closet – 1
• Have You Heard? – 2
• Hit Parade  – 2
• Hub History – 3
• Judas and the Black Messiah – Entire series
• The Last Archive – 3
• LeVar Burton Reads – 1
• Lost Massachusetts – 3
• The Moth – 1
• The Memory Palace – 2
• 99% Invisible – 5
• One Year – 2
• Politically Re-Active – 2
• Planet Money – 2
• Radio Boston – 6
• Radiolab – 8
• Reparations: The Big Payback – 1
• Scientific American – 3
• Seizing Freedom – 2
• Sidedoor – 1
• Slow Burn – 1
• The Story Collider – 1
• Strong Songs – 1
• Stuff the British Stole – entire series
• The Thirty20Eight – 1
• This American Life  – 3
• This Day in Esoteric Political History – 12
• Throughline – 7
• The Tomorrow Society – 1
• The Truth – 1
• Twenty Thousand Hertz – 6
• Unf*cking the Republic – 2
• Unspooled – 1
• Up First – 1
• The War on Cars – 1
• What Next – 6

Podcast of the Week Ending October 2

99% Invisible – Corpse, Corps, Horse, and Worse

The irregularities of English language pronunciation and spelling are endlessly frustrating but also fun.   An interview with Arika Okrent, author of Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don’t Rhyme and Other Oddities of the English Language.

Running Tally of Podcast of the Week Awards for 2021

• Afropop Worldwide – 2
• AirSpace – 1
• Best of the Left – 2
• The Brattle Film Podcast – 1
• Code Switch – 2
• Consider This – 2
• Decoder Ring – 3
• Fresh Air – 2
• Futility Closet – 1
• Have You Heard? – 2
• Hit Parade  – 2
• Hub History – 3
• Judas and the Black Messiah – Entire series
• The Last Archive – 3
• LeVar Burton Reads – 1
• Lost Massachusetts – 3
• The Moth – 1
• The Memory Palace – 2
• 99% Invisible – 5
• One Year – 2
• Politically Re-Active – 2
• Planet Money – 2
• Radio Boston – 6
• Radiolab – 8
• Reparations: The Big Payback – 1
• Scientific American – 3
• Seizing Freedom – 2
• Sidedoor – 1
• Slow Burn – 1
• The Story Collider – 1
• Strong Songs – 1
• Stuff the British Stole – entire series
• The Thirty20Eight – 1
• This American Life  – 3
• This Day in Esoteric Political History – 12
• Throughline – 7
• The Tomorrow Society – 1
• The Truth – 1
• Twenty Thousand Hertz – 6
• Unf*cking the Republic – 2
• Unspooled – 1
• Up First – 1
• The War on Cars – 1
• What Next – 5