When the whole car’s had enough purple mountain majesties, and you hear the back seat plotting mutiny, interesting podcasts can quell the uprising and keep everyone happy.
Here are the best podcasts for road trips. No matter who’s riding along, one of these is bound to be the perfect listen as the miles roll by.
Sci-Fi Political Satire Afrofuturistic Buddy Comedy: Adventures in New America
An odd couple plans heists to pay for health care while attempting to survive the wilds of New York City and “a secret cabal of Tetchy Terrorist Vampire Zombies from outer space.”
A densely realized alternate world that feels uncannily like the here and now.
It revels in the absurd while making a social statement.
Difficult to find your footing at the beginning.
Is it meant to be funny? Over-dramatic? Ironic?
Though it’s set in the not-too-distant dystopian future, AiNW has the weekly serial feel that pulled families together around the radio through the first half of the 20th century.
Current Events Discussed by Smart People: It’s Been a Minute With Sam Sanders
Perhaps no media outlet has leaned more completely into producing interesting podcasts than NPR. Great weekly shows like It’s Been A Minute do what NPR does best—assemble an interesting group of people around a mic, bring in guests, and together, they discuss the intersection of news, media, pop culture, and how we as a nation are responding to it.
The host and panel never fail to engage the listener.
The on-air chemistry makes listening a delight.
Conversations sometimes turn into preaching to the choir.
Word Nerdery From Two Former Dictionary Editors: Fiat Lex
Fresh off the success of Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, author Kory Stamper and her co-host Steve Kleinedler deliver a surprisingly engaging discussion on dictionaries, words, and the ways in which language constantly changes.
A geeky guilty pleaure for language lovers.
Intriguing conversations on obscure topics.
Sometimes the word geeks try to out-nerd each other.
The promised Season 2 never happened.
The announced Season 2 never happened due to job and life changes encountered by the hosts.
Straight-Up Documentary Podcast: Serial, Season 3
Season 3 of Serial breaks form with the “one story—a true story—over the course of a season” formula. Instead, it tells one year’s worth of stories from inside the Cleveland, Ohio, criminal justice system.
The production is flawless.
Host Sarah Keonig stays out of the way of the story.
Compelling one-hour story-telling.
Production values that make Serial stand out can wear thin.
Multiple stories are hard to connect with.
True-Crime Parody: A Very Fatal Murder
A Very Fatal Murder sends up the entire true-crime podcast genre. It’s all here: a small Midwest town rocked by a mysterious murder, a well-meaning but self-centered host, digressions on the “crime” as a reflection on American society, and it’s all served up with tongue firmly in cheek, just as you’d expect from The Onion.
The Onion delivers humor just north of Mad Magazine.
Portrays middle-America flawlessly.
On-point parady of real true crime podcasts.
Not as funny as The Onion meant it to be.
The script could have used more work.
An Absorbing Take on the American Classic: The Moby-Dick Big Read
The entirety of Melville’s novel about the big one that got away read aloud, one chapter per episode, by the likes of Tilda Swinton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Steven Fry, Fiona Shaw, John Waters, former British PM David Cameron, China Miéville, and 129 others. Every chapter has its own feel and personality, but the entire 136-chapter book comes together as a surprisingly unified whole.
Listening to the classic is an eye-opening experience.
Talented cast of 136 well-known and obscure (to some) readers.
Occasionally, a chapter has too many sound effects.
Freewheeling Nerdery: The Adventure Zone
Launched in 2014 and still going strong, The Adventure Zone follows three brothers (Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy) and their Dad (Clint) on a lengthy Dungeons & Dragons campaign. It’s strangely engaging.
The McElroys have a great time playing the game with each other.
Hosts fully aware how silly some role-playing game concepts can be.
The storylines can be a little confusing if you start listening in the middle.
Season four of the McElroy brothers’ listen-while-we-play-RPG-games podcast launched in May 2021 and is as much fun as its predecessors. The new campaign, Ethersea, is played in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition.
Deep Dives on Lifetime Original Movies: Mother, May I Sleep With Podcast
Lifetime’s Original Movies. Implausible plots, stars on the downsides of their career trajectories, and so much scene-chewing the actors have dental riders on their contracts.
The host pulls you in with attention to details.
It’s the ultimate guilty pleasure.
You don’t need to see the movie to enjoy the podcast.
The host’s overuse of the word “like.”
You either love it or hate it. There’s no middle ground.
Hosted by Hello Giggles co-founder Molly McAleer, Mother, May I Sleep With Podcast? breaks down every Lifetime movie and discusses the plot, actors, dialogue, and everything else that makes Lifetime Originals the deep-fried Twinkies of junk television.
IMDB’s Lifetime Movies/Originals Movies List shows 640 titles. Over the course of five seasons, it feels like MMISWP? has the staying power to get through all 640.
Radio Drama for the Age of Siri: Sandra
Gimlet Media’s Sandra is a well-produced and scripted podcast that asks questions like “What if the artificial intelligence powering the voice assistants we’ve all gone cuckoo bonkers for wasn’t artificial at all?” and “What if that cute little box is always listening?”
A well-produced podcast.
Clear story-telling and a breezy plot.
Kristen Wiig is a perfect choice for Sandra.
Only seven episodes.
Lacks a satisfactory ending.
Sandra is a tautly written, all-too-plausible look at the tech that has a deeper, more pervasive hold on us than anyone would like to admit. Of note, Kristen Wiig as the voice of Sandra is pitch-perfect.
At only seven episodes, the podcast is short, maybe because Sandra was in development for TV.
Dystopian Monster Hunter Comedy: Bubble
Something’s not right in Fairhaven, an idyllic enviro-bubble with an awesome music scene, all the best new restaurants, and beautiful people. They’re just trying to live their lives, make a living, and avoid destruction by bloodthirsty psychic aliens.
Great production and an engaging story.
Easy to binge-listen.
Contains more jokes than you can count.
You only get eight episodes.
Sometimes, it feels like the writers are doing more ridiculing than satirizing.
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