Each month, Podcast Review’s staff offers recommendations on the best new podcasts to listen to. Here are our favorites for June:
From The New York Times comes a new six-part podcast reminiscent of the sentimental “stop and smell the flowers” shows that emerged during the pandemic. Four years later, “Animal” examines death and humanism through close encounters with the creatures that share our planet. The compelling factor is its host, writer Sam Anderson, whose narrative feels like a mid-life crisis if it were written by Elizabeth Bishop. Using the death of his beloved dog as a starting point, he travels around the world to find answers to his pain in the presence of birds, bats, and wolves. Animal is a great series to listen to with your children and may help the whole family navigate the hardest parts of getting older.
Leon Neyfakh (Fiasco, Slow Burn) returns with a captivating new project about a business success with unintended consequences. Backfired: The Vaping Wars delves into the rise and fallout of Juul Labs, a vape company whose rapid success ignited a fierce debate. Does vaping help people quit smoking, or has it simply created a new wave of addiction? Backfired explores this contentious issue with the nuance and depth expected from Neyfakh and his team. Hosted by Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes, this Audible Originals series launches on June 20th, promising a thought-provoking look at a modern public health dilemma.
Few shows rival “The Ezra Klein Show” for nuanced social analysis, but The Atlantic’s Good on Paper aims to emulate the award-winning podcast in ethos and rigor. The storied magazine’s new show is hosted by Jerusalem Demsas, whose empathetic and meticulous approach makes her a perfect fit for the engaging concept: Is the idea under discussion actually working—or just good on paper? The first episode examines the remote work boom, a highly contested phenomenon awash in disparate data points and opinions but lacking macro analysis. What better place for Demsas to start? This podcast is an instant follow.
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