{"id":29251,"date":"2014-12-31T13:11:36","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T21:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/?p=29251"},"modified":"2015-01-01T18:39:54","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T02:39:54","slug":"top-podcasts-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.radiosurvivor.com\/2014\/12\/top-podcasts-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Radio Survivor’s Top Podcasts of 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year I\u2019m pleased once again to share the top podcasts of the year as chosen by my esteemed colleagues, friends and podcast fanatics, Jenny Benevento<\/a> and Kyle Riismandel.<\/p>\n

Jenny is an information architect who lectures on branding, social media, musicians and pop culture. She is a taxonomy consultant to Etsy<\/a> and also hosts a podcast<\/a> with me. Kyle is a university lecturer in history at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and he\u2019s also my brother. Kyle has written several podcast reviews for us<\/a>, and Jenny recently shared her recommendations for listeners going into Serial withdrawal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year there was no overlap between their lists<\/a>\u2013and they didn\u2019t even coordinate. This year there is only one show in common, but at opposite ends of their lists. If you\u2019ve read any news about podcasting this year, I bet you can guess what it is.<\/p>\n

But, enough spoilers. Here are the top five podcasts of 2015.<\/p>\n

#5 – Jenny: Baby Geniuses<\/em><\/a> from Maximum Fun<\/h4>\n

Baby Geniuses is not another formless comedy podcast where some comedian friends chitchat aimlessly. The hosts, comedian Emily Heller and cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt (BoJack Horseman), run a very structured comedy podcast. My favorite segment is \u201cWiki of the Week\u201d where the hosts discuss a listener submitted Wikipedia entry that is unexpectedly weird or funny. In the main segment of the show, a guest expert answers questions on their areas of expertise. In the final segment a comedian pretends to be an expert on something they clearly know nothing about. It all wraps up with each person telling us one thing they learned. While the show is more comedy than informational, the format requires the hosts and guests to keep moving, as opposed to getting bogged down in a quagmire of in-jokes and tangents, which is the plight of many comedy two-handers. It\u2019s nice to see a comedic podcast hosted by women that\u2019s not focused on \u201cwomen\u2019s issues\u201d or aimed at a mostly female audience (like Maximum Fun labelmates Throwing Shade, Lady to Lady, and One Bad Mother).<\/p>\n

#5 – Kyle: Serial<\/em><\/a><\/h4>\n

Serial<\/em> returned to the roots of radio storytelling by weaving a tale week by week. However, it was a true crime story and not The Shadow<\/em><\/a> or The Goldbergs<\/em><\/a>. The telling of a real story in all of its messiness managed the feat of creating an audience waiting each Thursday for the next edition. Despite the lack of closure, Serial<\/em> managed to shine a light on so many of the issues (reliability of eyewitness testimony, prosecutorial discretion, profiling and the war on drugs) with the criminal justice system while reminding the audience of the stakes of that problematic system\u2014the fates of multiple people in their late teens.<\/p>\n

#4 – Jenny: You Are Not So Smart<\/em><\/a> from Boing Boing<\/h4>\n

This is a podcast based the host David McRaney\u2019s books You Are Not So Smart<\/em> and You Are Now Less Dumb<\/em>. It\u2019s a psychology podcast that describes itself as \u201ca celebration of self delusion that explores\u2026cognitive biases and logical fallacies.\u201d This may sound brainy (literally and figuratively!) and niche, but the host makes it really fun. There\u2019s a cookie contest every episode in which he eats the winning recipe while discussing a scientific paper of the week in plain language. Though the show is mainly meant to be entertaining, it can also explain why we do dumb things because of our physiology and how to stop doing them. It also has the best theme song in the business.<\/p>\n