What makes a great podcast? Here are five classics you should hear right now

In A Pod of One’s Own, Caitlin Thompson is your go-to guide and curator of the best shows from the world of podcasts.

Allow me to introduce myself: I’ve been making, listening to and generally hyping on-demand audio since the first days of the internet. It is so satisfying − and, I’ll be honest, personally vindicating − to see that in 2018, millions of people around the world and about 10 million and growing just in Canada, are on board with the immersive, intimate and, in some cases, life-changing qualities of audio storytelling.

After the industry’s near-death experience in the early 2010s when nobody could find or fund them, podcasts are finally too big to fail (thank you, Apple podcast app!). Which also means: There are a lot of podcasts. I’ll help you find your way to the best shows out there, from entry-level series and episodes that will convert the uninitiated to deep cuts that’ll surprise and delight the most loyal “Friends of the Pods” out there.

What do I know? I’m a digital journalist who launched the audio departments at the Washington Post and Time and an alumni of WNYC, New York’s public radio station (and I make a print tennis magazine called Racquet on the side). I’m a dual American-Canadian citizen − my heart remains in Montreal − who travels extensively and tries to be conscious of the U.S.-centric focus of most podcast conversations in North America. I’d much prefer to recommend a smattering of shows from across the globe, with plenty from my native land, for your ears to take in. I hope you enjoy accents.

I created and launched the Racquet Magazine Podcast, a weekly interview show about life, love and tennis with some professionals, but I also host a tremendously unprofessional tennis chat show called The Main Draw, with Peabody-winning audio journalist Chris Neary. The latter show is definitely mediocre in terms of production and import, but it’s incredibly fun to make with a friend and allows two non-professional tennis commentators the chance to talk (and use well-timed explicit language) about a sport we love.

And that last point is important: Nowadays podcasts are brought to you by some of the largest media companies, most seasoned radio veterans and slickest audio production houses around. But this world still has room for − and it has to keep making and protecting space for − the DIY amateurs who, with no more than a laptop and microphone or two, get their chance to be armchair pundits, bedroom storytellers or one-person tour guides to the weirder corners of the world.

For the future of the medium, it’s important to have new voices constantly joining the conversation and helping to spur more narrative innovation. It democratizes the talk-audio space by allowing unheralded creators to find their own audiences that might be overlooked on broadcast radio or by established podcast producers. In some cases, they become overnight successes. See: Pod Save America, Anna Faris is Unqualified and ESPN 30 for 30.

I’m not a believer that impeccable microphone quality and twee production sensibilities necessarily make for the most gripping listener experience (hello, NPR), but as a rule, any good podcast has to have two of these three qualities to catch my attention: great theme, great host(s), great format. With that in mind, I’ll start with some can’t-miss shows for you to check out during this, the courtship phase of our podcast relationship. You can search for all of these shows by name on your favourite podcast app.

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