Each month, Podcast Review’s staff offers recommendations on the best new podcasts to listen to. Here are our favorites for April:
To establish Guantánamo Bay in the aftermath of 9/11, the United States sidestepped the Geneva Conventions and shirked international law. The government argued that the men detained at the military base in Cuba were not prisoners of war but something called “unlawful enemy combatants.” The base wasn’t built to last, and yet nobody can shut it down. What is Guantánamo’s legacy? And what is the fate of the thirty people who are still there?
In the fourth season of Serial, hosts Sarah Koenig and Dana Chivvis deliver their history of Guantánamo Bay with the show’s signature storytelling and hands-on research. We’ve come a long way since season one — but fans of Blowback, and investigative journalism, will be excited we’ve landed here.
Critics at Large
As culture writers with endless opinions on everything, we were delighted to hear that The New Yorker launched a podcast for people like us. Critics at Large is a weekly podcast featuring staff writers Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz. Unafraid to tackle high and low-brow topics, these critics cover subjects as diverse as our news feeds. Covering Taylor Swift to the latest literary releases, this trio will have something to say. But these are more than just hot takes and big egos — though critics have those, too. Their funny and insightful analysis helps us make sense of the zeitgeist in a world swirling with points of view.
She Has a Name
Fans of innovative storytelling will be excited to tune in for Tonya Mosley’s new project She Has a Name, a documentary podcast about loss and mending broken family ties. The Fresh Air co-host has teamed up with her nephew Antonio Wiley to blend investigative journalism with memoir in this true story of a young mother who slipped through the cracks of the system in 1980s Detroit amid the crack cocaine epidemic. After a tragic death, she was dubbed “Unknown Woman 1987.” Over thirty years later, Mosley and Wiley are unfurling the story — and how it impacts their family.
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