Top 24 Podcasts of 2023 on Great Pods✔️
+A scam pick, just added, and top 5!
Hey Poddy People,
We’re close to the end of the year! As promised, I’ve collected the first piece of data on the Top 24 Podcasts on Great Pods for 2023 based on the data! Since lists come out early from publications and not in January, the dates I use are from November 30, 2022, to December 1, 2023. Some of the podcasts were ongoing from 2022. I’ve marked them on the blog post so you know. The TL;DR (Too long, Didn’t Read) list is below.
Let’s GOOOOO!!!!
The Round-Up
Professional fiction podcast review, Sam McDonald from The Audiophile created his own fiction podcast called The Books of Thoth. Check out episode one now. (Episode length: 12 minutes)
About: “The god of wisdom holds many books with his great library. Unfurl the papyrus, and breathe in the ancient scent.”
I was googling more information on the Magnificent Six podcast and the film mentioned Crazy Six. I found a Q&A article with the music composer from 2021. One question was strangely hilarious if you read it with no context:
“I was going to ask, how do you score Rob Lowe smoking crack?”
Live look at me reacting
Podcasters can now add their own RSS feeds to YouTube Music here.
If you haven’t been reading the news, Stolen and Heavyweight were not renewed by Spotify despite being Pulitzer Prize-winning and critically adored. Not sure what Spotify is thinking right now. Of the articles I’ve read, no one is mentioning or asking Bill Simmons from The Ringer and Head of Podcast Innovation and Monetization about this. It doesn’t look like he knows how to monetize podcasts outside of his own network. The Ringer meanwhile is producing new content outside of sports in genres like the one I picked for the week. Thanks for Spotify Unwrapped I guess? Here are some of the articles:
The Annual Audio Delicacies yearly list is put together by the Tink team and populated by podcast industry aficionados like…myself. I had a couple of choices but could only pick one. Read the list here.
For NBA and Comedy fans: Wave Sports + Entertainment with Kid Mero and Carmelo Anthony launched their podcast 7PM in Brooklyn this week. Just from the short trailer, hearing NBA star Carmelo crack jokes is new to me! Check it out.
Did I miss a professional review to be added? Submit it here.
Did you want to add YOUR podcast to the database, especially for a new podcast or season? Submit it here.
One pick this week for the end-of-the-year data I’m pulling. Next week, I’ll have the Top Clicked-Through Critics.
The TL;DR
Here are the top 5 podcasts from 2023 on Great Pods:
Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra - MSNBC (History) - Released in 2022
The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling - The Free Press (Society)
Under Cover of Knight - Apple, Spoke Media (True Crime)
Scamanda - Lionsgate Sound (True Crime Scam)
Archetypes - Archewell Audio (Women, Conversation) - Released in 2022
If I specifically just keep 2023 podcasts it’s:
The Retrievals - Serial, New York Times (True Crime Health)
Strike Force Five - Strike Force Five (Comedy)
The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling - The Free Press (Society)
Under Cover of Knight - Apple, Spoke Media (True Crime)
Scamanda - Lionsgate Sound (True Crime Scam)
Have you listened to some or all of these podcasts?
On to my pick this week…
Podcast: The Wedding Scammer
Genre: True Crime
Publisher: The Ringer
About: Have you ever been scammed? In The Ringer’s first true crime podcast, host Justin Sayles tracks a mysterious figure who once wronged him. A man with a lot of aliases, a lot of failed businesses, and a trail of victims. Justin follows him through a sham media company, a series of ruined weddings, and beyond, trying to find answers. The police can’t offer any help—but maybe we can.
Popping into the Top 5, caught my eye to listen. A touch of Anna Delvey, and in my opinion, George Santos, is in the scammer’s profile in my opinion. Straight off the bat, our host Justin Sayles recalls a time before he started at The Ringer when Carl, the scammer, created a news startup and made it sound like he was the son of a billionaire. No one got paid and he disappeared. It didn’t stop there and expanded into the Wedding Planning business.
The adventure takes us to the Bay Area, Texas, and New York. Justin also manages to find Carl’s dad, Carl Sr., and interview him. A nice blue-collar worker. Yes, I thought the Carl’s Jr. joke in my head. It’s a lower stake, no murder, true crime to cleanse the palate.
Mara Davis • Paste Magazine
“Some of the stories are so jaw dropping you’ll be hooked immediately.”
I’ve binged all the way through despite the episodes reaching an hour a piece.
Just Added This Week…
Build a Prince: A Royal Christmas Love Story - Jenni Melear
The Adventure Zone - The McElroys
Commonplace: Conversations with Poets (and Other People) - Rachel Zucker
Critics at Large | The New Yorker - The New Yorker
ParentData With Emily Oster - ParentData, PRX
Grapevine - NBC News
The Global Story - BBC
The Professor: Hunting for the Mafia's Missing Masterpiece - Brazen
Seven Deadly Psychologies - BBC
History for You with Douglas and Hugh - Douglas Wrattle, Hugh Canard
David Copperfield - Audible
Legacy - Goalhanger Podcasts, Wondery
Normal Women - Philippa Gregory
Wars That Shaped The World - Goalhanger Podcasts
My Love Letter Time Machine - Victorian History - Ingrid Birchell Hughes
36 Questions - The Podcast Musical - Two-Up
This Ends At Prom - Pod People Productions
Small Victories - WGC Productions
Malevolent - Harlan Guthrie
Top of the Pods this past week on greatpods.co (November 27th-December 3rd):
5. Distractible - Distractible *New to charts
4. The Wedding Scammer - The Ringer Podcast Network *New to charts
3. The Kids of Rutherford County - Serial, The New York Times *Down 2 spots
2. Moriarty: The Silent Order - Audible *Up 2 spots
1. My Therapist Ghosted Me - Global *New to charts
Listening with you,
Captain Ron
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