Conspiracy theories. Viral performance art. Heartbreak. This year, if nothing else, managed to completely avoid being boring. And in 2016, through personal stories, nuanced analysis, and escapist fiction, podcasts helped us make sense of all of it—from weird Internet phenomena to the election-cycle-that-must-not-be-named. Podcasts also offered proof that when it comes to inventive storytelling, audio is just getting started. Keep reading for the 10 best podcast episodes of 2016. And if these excellent 'casts give you the audio bug, head back into our weekly roundup archives to listen to more.
The best Reply All episodes are Internet rabbit holes explored to the extreme, and “Boy in Photo” offers enough twists and turns for even the most insatiable sleuths. In 2006, an ILX message board rallied around a photo of two girls and one lonely-looking guy, whom the message board named “Wayne.” The members of the message board followed the lives of the characters on social media for the next 10 years. In this episode, host PJ Vogt apprehensively travels to the Philadelphia suburb where he grew up to track down the real Wayne—and find out what really happened that night. Listen Here
Meet Edward Blum, Supreme Court matchmaker. In six landmark cases, the "legal entrepreneur" has hand-picked just the right plaintiffs necessary to change American laws through the highest court in the land. More Perfect, the Radiolab spinoff all about the Supreme Court, is worth listening to in its entirety. Start with the unlikely path of how one 911 call led to the end of sodomy laws, and the essential role of strategy in choosing representative cases. Listen here.
Each week on Flash Forward, host Rose Eveleth imagines a future based on fictional scenarios, from the strange disappearance of the Internet to nefarious space pirates. This episode, about the political ramifications of our digital histories, is especially prescient as we lurch towards a new administration. It also has an interview with Laura Olin, who ran Obama’s presidential campaign Twitter account, in which she discusses changing American standards about a politician’s previous beliefs. Listen Here
Criminal reliably offers bizarre stories of true crimes that will stay with you. In "Money Tree," hear about Axton Betz-Hamilton: When she was 11, someone stole her parents’ identities. As a college student with bills to pay, she realized that they had stolen her identity, too—and then she set out to determine who that person was. What she found hit closer to home than she—or we—ever would have thought. Stick around for the twist. Listen Here
Dr. Bright's therapy patients have some normal concerns: unrequited teenage love, parent-child relationships. But they've got some more abnormal worries, too, like uncontrollable time travel and Kilgrave-like mind control. Part Professor X, part Sigmund Freud, Dr. Bright's specialty—treating “the strange and unusual”—makes for very fun audio intrigue. The season finale doesn’t disappoint, but start from episode one and binge away a weekend on Dr. Strange’s couch. Listen Here
One woman's body adorns libraries and city halls and museum courtyards across the country. But who is she? Like the best 99% Invisible episodes, "Miss Manhattan" investigates an architectural element hidden in plain sight. It's the story of Audrey Munson, "America's first supermodel," and her path from serving as inspiration for over 30 statues at the Met to a sensationalized murder scandal to becoming a rollerblading eccentric in a small town. Listen here.
2016 has been a great year for fiction podcasts: Archive 81, Hector Vs the Future, Alice Isn't Dead, The Deep Vault, The Radio Adventures of Eleanor Amplified. But Homecoming, from the inventive brain of Eli Horowitz, offers audio fiction of a different kind: There's no found footage or reporterly set-up here. Instead, you’re dropped right into a psychological thriller about what went down at a military reentry facility—and it stars Catherine Keener, Oscar Isaac, and David Schwimmer. Listen Here
Yeah, This American Life isn't new—but its storytelling is still the gold standard for a reason. In "Tell Me I'm Fat," comedian and author Lindy West, producer Elna Baker, and writer Roxane Gay tell vivid, alarming first-person accounts of how living as a fat person means being treated as a second-class citizen. As West says, being fat can feel like “a thin person who's failing consistently for your whole life.” This harrowing episode will stay with you. Listen here.
What do you do with a populace so divided there's no hope? We don't know the answer for America, but in Seneca, Nebraska, the citizens trusted in democracy—and put their existence up to a vote. After small-town squabbles became irreconcilable differences, the denizens hit the polls to decide whether to unincorporate, or whether there was any value in keeping the town together. Listen here.
On Heavyweight, Jonathan Goldstein acts as a professional meddler, helping people fix (or at least relive) something from their past. In the first episode, the host starts with his own family, talking his octogenarian dad and uncle through the missed bar mitzvahs, ruined bris, and shirked funereal responsibilities that have kept the brothers apart for 20 years. Like the rest of the Heavyweight season, Goldstein's prying into his own family history is a delight. Listen Here
