Best of Impactful Podcasts 2024
Sounds Like Impact's version of a "Best Of" 🏅
The complete second annual #SoundsLikeImpact “Best of Impactful Podcasts” round-up is here!
The point of this list is to celebrate podcasts that highlight a societal issue–or issues–in a meaningful, thoughtful and compelling way. I look for shows that tell stories that are solutions-oriented, or that have the potential to inspire social change.
This roundup is more about providing a list of shows for readers to prioritize (we only have an attention span for so much!). It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go back and listen to anything shared previously on
that isn’t on the final list. Also please remember, any list is subjective! These are shows that I listened to and loved, and that does not devalue those absent or imbue any kind of superiority for those present.As a reminder, the basic qualifying criteria are as follows:
Narrative (story driven)
Launched in 2024
A mini-series / a complete season / limited series
All episodes available (before this list published). The cutoff for my review was all episodes published by end of November.
Navigating this list:
Trailers are embedded when available, and should play regardless of whether you have a Spotify account.
You can get the playlist of all the shows’ episodes on Spotify only. However, each of the listen links are Pod.link, so you can choose the player of your choice.
The hyperlinked “About” text links to the show website, when available, and the text that follows is the show description, aka not my words.
“Best of” List Contents (listed in order of release month)
Ripple
HUMO: Murder & Silence in El Salvador
Inheriting
White Picket Fence
Scene on Radio: Capitalism
Tested
Master Plan
Race to the Bottom
The Tenant Association
Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD
Rebel Spirit
Homeland
Under some entries is a related interview, recommended CTA and/or a rec for another show of a similar theme or style. Happy listening and doing! 😉
Also please share this list with others!
🌟 The List 🌟
Ripple
Released: January 2024
Topic Tags: Environmental, fossil fuels, disaster response, public health
Format: Season, 8 episodes
Publisher: Western Sound / APM
Why It’s Impactful: History is never really done with us; Ripple makes that quite clear. By delving into the aftermath of the BP / Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and re-contextualizing what exactly led to the chaos that unfolded, we arm ourselves with a roadmap for the future…should we make the same mistakes. Ripple is a thoughtful exhumation that validates the necessity of investigative journalism.
About: The largest oil spill in American history captivated the public's attention for the entire summer of 2010. Authorities told a story of a herculean response effort that made shorelines safe and avoided a worst case scenario. Was that really the whole picture?
From Western Sound and APM Studios, Ripple is a new series investigating the stories we were told were over.
In Season One, we travel hundreds of miles across the Gulf Coast to learn the ongoing effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill - which are still impacting many coastal residents more than a decade later.
Similarly themed work to listen to: For regular updates on the fossil fuel industry, listen to Drilled. If you want to go back in time to revisit the past with a fresh POV, consider Happy Forgetting or Backlash (on Audible).
Take Action: Environmental CTAs
HUMO: Murder & Silence in El Salvador
Released: April 2024
Topic Tags: Corruption, human rights; Content Warning: Violence
Format: Limited Series, 8 episodes
Publisher: FACTum / SONORO
Why It’s Impactful: There are right and wrong ways to delve into the world of true crime; HUMO does things the right way. Host Daniel Alvarenga not only reveals how deeply personal this story is, he also makes it clear that this story is not just about tragic murders that took place. Through HUMO, Alvarenga gives voice to an ever growing chorus proclaiming that journalists are under threat, and for that reason, democracy everywhere is at stake. HUMO is available in both English and Spanish.
About: "HUMO: Murder and Silence in El Salvador", narrated by Daniel Alvarenga, is a gripping account of a nation's deep-seated issues with violence and government corruption. Starting with an investigation into a mass grave, this story unfolds into a broader examination of the systemic problems that plague El Salvador. Daniel, a Salvadoran-American journalist, shares his personal connection to the crisis, making this series a poignant exploration of the consequences of silence and the imperative of resistance.
Read my interview with creator Daniel Alvarenga.
Similarly themed work to listen to: Sacred Scandal: Nation of Saints by Salvadoran-American journalist Jasmine Romero looks into a family member’s disappearance and the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero (no relation), a seismic event that provides context for the El Salvador Alvarenga paints a picture of today.
Take Action: Consider supporting the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Inheriting
Released: May 2024
Topic Tags: AAPI, race/ethnicity, oral history; Content Warning: Trauma
Format: Season*, 8 episodes (+ 1 special episode & 1 live show)
Publisher: LAist
Why It’s Impactful: As I said in Tink Media’s Audio Delicacies, when it comes to American history and culture, Asian Americans are often left out of the conversation entirely. This is why I recommended starting with the episode on Japanese American incarceration, something that I'm sure many Americans are unaware of. Also, the show team creating a Resource Guide to help others tell their own stories, and partnered with The Asian American Education Project to share related curricula. That’s impact!
About: "Inheriting" is a show about Asian American and Pacific Islander families, which explores how one event in history can ripple through generations. In doing so, the show seeks to break apart the AAPI monolith and tell a fuller story of these communities. In each episode, NPR’s Emily Kwong sits down with one family and facilitates deeply emotional conversations between their loved ones, exploring how their most personal, private moments are an integral part of history. Through these stories, we show how the past is personal and how to live with the legacies we’re constantly inheriting.
Similarly themed work to listen to: The Magdalenes and I features oral histories from the survivors of the Magdalene laundries in Ireland. If you’ve seen The Woman in the Wall on Paramount+, you may have heard of this dark history.
*My understanding is Inheriting is trying to do another season.
White Picket Fence: Season 5
Released: June 2024
Topic Tags: Gender dynamics
Format: Season, 5 episodes
Publisher: Wonder Media Network
Why It’s Impactful: White Picket Fence season 5 is not a podcast about marriage. It is a podcast about a society evolving, and those who are threatened by how traditional structures are being upended. If you are concerned about abortion, non-heterosexual marriage, caregiving, family planning that involves IVF or adoption, you should listen to this podcast. It does an excellent job of exposing what’s under the surface of the backlash we are seeing today.
About: White Picket Fence interrogates the structures of inequity affecting women since America’s founding, from childcare crisis to the politics of motherhood. On the newest season, host Julie Kohler investigates the institution of marriage to uncover what’s behind this latest push for the return of a traditional family structure. Join us in exploring where America—and Americans—have fallen short and what we can do to create a better future.
Similarly themed work to listen to: The A Files: A Secret History of Abortion, need I say more?
Scene on Radio: Season 7 - Capitalism
Released: June 2024
Topic Tags: Capitalism, Economic Inequality
Format: Season, 12 episodes (+ 1 bonus episode)
Publisher: Scene on Radio
Why It’s Impactful: Season 7 of Scene on Radio is the economics class we all should have gotten. Luckily for you, if you listen to one episode a week, that’s a semester. Distilling the history of capitalism into 12 ~1 hour episodes is no small feat when you aren’t given 3 credit hours a week. But Scene on Radio does this seamlessly, while also integrating references to material covered in other seasons. What makes this season really sing is that it ends on a note of what is possible, and that’s a frame of mind we should all start to adopt.
About: Capitalism moves mountains, sometimes literally. It’s unchallenged as the world’s dominant economic system. And yet, in its current form, capitalism is on trial as it hasn’t been for at least half a century. People across the political spectrum are questioning the status quo. Millions, young people especially, now see capitalism as the problem, not the solution. Others fear throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
In Scene on Radio Season 7, Capitalism, host and producer John Biewen and co-host Ellen McGirt—longtime business and economics reporter and Editor in Chief of Design Observer Magazine—outline the history of capitalism, from its emergence in Europe 500 years ago up to the present. And they explore alternatives, from reforms of capitalism as we know it to more radical transformations.
Similarly themed work to listen to: Go back and listen to other Scene on Radio seasons, such as Season 4: The Repair.
Tested
Released: July 2024
Topic Tags: Gender dynamics, sports
Format: Limited Series, 6 episodes
Publisher: NPR / CBC
Why It’s Impactful: Even if you did’t watch the Olympics, I’m almost certain you heard about Imane Khelif, the Algerian female boxer that was accused of being in the wrong sex category. Tested came out in the run up to the Olympics, and as it unfolded, but is necessary listening to give context to how we even got to the outrage around Imane in the first place. Tested is a podcast for those who are ready to start asking the right questions about social systems, and chief among those questions is who decide(d/s) and why?
About: Since the very beginning of women’s sports, there has been a struggle to define who, exactly, gets to compete in the women’s category. A century later, this struggle is still very much alive.
Last year, track and field authorities announced new regulations that mean some athletes can’t compete in the female category unless they lower their body’s naturally occurring testosterone levels. Tested will follow the still-unfolding story of two of these athletes: Christine Mboma, the Olympic silver medalist from Namibia, and Maximila Imali, who holds two Kenyan national records. These women are not trans athletes. They were assigned female at birth, raised as girls, and have never questioned their gender identity. But they have bodies that some argue give them an “unfair advantage.” The new rules offer them three choices: give up their Olympic dreams, try to challenge the rules, or alter their bodies.
This story will trace the surprising, 100-year history of sex testing in elite sports that led to this moment. Through the eyes of Mboma, Imali, and a whole cast of historians, scientists, doctors, and other athletes, host Rose Eveleth will explore a question that goes far beyond sports: What is fair and who decides?
Similarly themed work to listen to: While Tested is not about trans athletes, the issues are related (hello intersectionality!). Journalist Imara Jones regularly covers trans inclusion in sports on TransLash Podcast with Imara Jones.
Master Plan
Released: August 2024
Topic Tags: Corruption, politics
Format: Limited Series, 11 episodes (+1 bonus episode)
Publisher: The Lever
Why It’s Impactful: Master Plan is a sonic representation of a “murder board” that should win awards for signposting alone. David Sirota knows his listeners are smart, but to make sure we can all keep up as he explains a half century long conspiracy, he and his team guide you by hand with a compelling, and at times comical, narrative. To be sure, Master Plan is sobering. Democracy has always been aspirational, but our ability to strive for that aspiration is in trouble. However, through Master Plan, Sirota sheds light on what has been obscured so we can move forward with awareness and rally for change.
About: Master Plan, an investigative podcast series by The Lever, reveals how extremists and tycoons orchestrated a system of legalized corruption in America. The first season traces the untold history from the 1970s to today, showing how a small group of operatives and oligarchs used vast wealth to manipulate key U.S. government policies for personal gain at the expense of everyone else — a plan that’s coming to fruition in the 2024 election.
Read my interview with creator David Sirota.
Similarly themed work to listen to: Bad Watchdog from the Project on Government Oversight digs into corruption throughout different U.S. government agencies.
Race to the Bottom
[No trailer available]
Released: September 2024
Topic Tags: Public health,
Format: Mini-series, 3 episodes
Publisher: Tradeoffs
Why It’s Impactful: Tradeoffs regularly reports on healthcare in the U.S., but they provide further value when they produce a mini-series that further excavates a complex, and often predatory, system. We already know the U.S. has the highest healthcare costs in the developed world, and prescription drugs are just one part of what explains the exorbitant costs. And why are prices high? “Race to the Bottom” gives us the reason, while also highlighting what we can do to address. This is the solutions journalism we need.
About: A special series from Tradeoffs examining the problems undermining the generic drugs we all rely on — and how we could fix them.
Take action: Help someone with medical debt by donating to Undue Medical Debt and/or participate in the advocacy of Patients for Affordable Drugs.
The Tenant Association
Released: September 204
Topic Tags: Affordable housing
Format: Limited Series, 4 episodes
Publisher: Los Angeles Public Press
Why It’s Impactful: The first episode alone sums up why this podcast is important: the affordable housing crisis in this country is only going to get to get worse as rent stabilization covenants expire. So why keep listening? Hear the voices of tenants who have chosen to fight back, and understand what might be possible when there is strong organizing and political will.
About: This is the story of a six-year-fight by neighbors at a Chinatown apartment building to keep their homes affordable. When their landlord served them with unaffordable rent hikes that were basically eviction notices from their one-time “affordable” homes, they organized and became a political force that’s changing what’s possible for renters in LA.
Hear the story of the Hillside Villa Tenant Association, and what it means for all tenants in LA.
Take Action: Subscribe to
to learn more about the housing crisis and other social issues.Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD
Released: September 2024
Topic Tags: Policing, history, corruption
Format: Limited Series, 8 episodes (+ 2 bonus episodes)
Publisher: Wondery / Crooked Media
Why It’s Impactful: The stakes for getting the reporting right on a podcast about the world’s largest policing organizations are extremely high. After attending Reporting the Empire City and hearing the painstaking work the team did to corroborate the stories told, I’d be remiss to not encourage everyone to listen to their efforts. Chenjerai Kumanyika is the perfect incisive and funny guide to take us through the mostly uncharted waters of how the NYPD became what it is.
About: The police tell us they are here to protect us. But what if their original purpose was something else altogether? Peabody Award-winning host Chenjerai Kumanyika takes listeners on a journey to uncover the hidden history of the largest police force in the world – from its roots in slavery, to rival police gangs battling across the city, to everyday people who resisted every step of the way. As our society debates where policing is going, Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD explores where the police came from.
Similarly themed work to listen to: On Our Watch is a podcast about accountability in law enforcement.
Take Action: Subscribe to
and to keep up with the U.S. criminal legal system.Rebel Spirit
Released: September 2024
Topic Tags: Race, social change
Format: Season*, 10 episodes (+2 bonus episodes)
Publisher: iHeartMedia
Why It’s Impactful: Rebel Spirit host Akilah Hughes is tenacious. Listening to the show, you can‘t help but be in awe her persistence as she endeavors to hold her alma mater accountable…for a mascot change? Yes. And of course, this is all bigger than a mascot as Hughes convincingly illustrates throughout this season. This podcast is also instructive for those who want to make changes at their alma mater. Oh, and in case after listening you find yourself wondering if segregation academies are still a thing…they are. The past is always present.
About: Rebel Spirit is a brand new podcast series from Akilah Hughes (Crooked Media’s “What a Day”) about her return to her small town of Florence, Kentucky with a mission to change her high school’s mascot from a Confederate General into a Biscuit. The show features moving interviews with everyone from the artist behind “Gritty,” The Philadelphia Flyers’ viral mascot, to principals at schools across the nation who have made this change. In speaking to people at every inflection point of the issue of problematic mascots, Rebel Spirit endeavors to make the process of correcting historic wrongs less of a bummer.
Similarly styled work to listen to: You know who else went back to their high school to cover an issue? Emily Reeves, host of Violence Week.
*My understanding is they hope to keep reporting on these efforts.
Homeland
Released: October 2024
Topic Tags: Homelessness, economic inequality, social services
Format: Limited Series, 9 episodes (+ 1 bonus episode)
Publisher: PRX
Why It’s Impactful: HOMELAND is a comprehensive look at the homelessness crisis and it took three years to make. Whether you listen to the show or not, one thing to take away is homelessness is not a poverty problem; it’s an affordable housing problem. To understand why, well, you’ll just have to listen.
About: As the homelessness crisis grows, so does the need for understanding. The Homeland podcast shines a light on the issue by revealing the humanity behind the statistics.
Homeland brings you closer to the real stories of those working to end homelessness and those who have experienced housing insecurity firsthand, offering insights and hope for a better future
Similarly themed work to listen to: Remember: there are plenty of reasons people can find themselves unhoused, and mental illness and / or addiction are just some reasons further complicated by housing affordability. That said, for context, listen to Lost Patients and follow that up with The Fifth Branch. For a focus on youth homelessness, check out Young, Unhoused and Unseen.
Share what social impact podcast series you were loving this year? Also, if you’ve listened to any of the shows above, please share your thoughts. Drop your recommendations in the comments!
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