2017: Podcasts In Review
It's here! It's here! The 2017 Pod Piper Podcast Performance Package is here! Make haste to the subsections!
Big picture
After notching 724 episodes in my 2016 podcast-listening history, I knew managing such blistering numbers in 2017 would be no easy task. Thanks to half a year of underemployment and half a year of full-time job searching, it proved to be absolutely no problem. Last year I made mention of the shows that were too short or too frequently released (or both!) for me to adequately rank on an episode-by-episode basis. In 2017, I listened to 880 such episodes. Here's the list:
3 Martini Lunch, All Songs Considered, Buenos Días América, Coffee Break Español, Duolingo Spanish, Español Automático, Euroleague Adventures, Marketplace, NHK Japan en Español, Nómadas, NPR Politics Podcast, PTI, Radio Ambulante, Showtime (Spanish), The Daily, The Dave Ramsey Show, The Gist, The Indicator, The Writer's Almanac, Up First, Zona Pop
All of these shows are worthwhile in some way, but I want to especially extol Mike Pesca, host of The Gist, a daily news/variety show eminently worthy of anyone's time. I wrote a longer piece back in March of 2017 should you need more detailed convincing.
Also, since neither program gets play in the rest of this post, Up First from NPR and The Daily from The New York Times are excellent ways to stay fresh on the headlines and probe into the narratives unfolding every day.
And now for the big guns. The full-length, semi-regularly released, real-deal podcast listening episode tally is 1270. That brings the total episode count to 2150. Insane? Possibly. But if you're looking for a bit of insight into my madness, keep going. It gets better/more insane.
Networks
This year I limited things to top five for the most part. First up, the networks with the most episodes that reached my ears. No surprise with NPR again coming out on top.
Then we've got the networks in order of episodes that made an appearance on the weekly Pod Piper posts. It makes sense that this basically correlates with number of episodes heard.
Pod Piper readers see my three favorite episodes each week, along with a few honorable mentions thrown in for good measure. But there are a lot of shows that don't make the cut! Here is the average rank of the top five networks:
In August I began ranking each show on four metrics using a 1-10 scale: Novelty, Grip Factor, Import, and Fun. These were averaged into a composite score on a scale of 1-10 where 10 = perfection. There's not a lot of data since this was in place for less than half the year, but, here are the networks whose shows had the best composite scores:
Shows
Now for shows with the highest episode count. Planet Money, while truly excellent, does benefit from their two-shows-a week release schedule, and On the Media's count includes a slew of podcast extras. The bottom three shows on this list are, without a doubt, must-listens for me.
These shows had the most episodes reach the weekly Pod Piper post.
These are the shows with the highest average rank throughout the year.
Some brief stats from my newish ranking system (see Networks section), highlighting just by chance a totally different set of equally brilliant vessels of audio from the previous five.
Favorites
Now for the subjective bits, complete with links. These are the shows and episodes I found most entertaining and culturally significant in 2017.
Best New Show
1. S-Town - Genre expanding, addictive, essential podcast listening in 2017.
2. Tomorrow's World - Like Flash Forward but in the present!
3. American Suburb - Amazingly compelling for a show about gentrification.
4. 30 For 30 - Seamless adaptation of a beloved television sports docuseries.
5. Mogul: The Life and Death of Chris Lighty - R.I.P. Reggie Ossé, gone too soon.
6. Slow Burn: A Podcast About Watergate - Docu-current-event drama with a prescient release date.
7. Rough Translation - Innovative concept with the journalistic rigor expected from NPR.
8. It's Been A Minute With Sam Sanders - A buoyant host adeptly anchors a fresh politics/culture wrap.
9. The Butterfly Effect with Jon Ronson - Porn on the radio? Sort of.
10. Ear Hustle - The best prison-based podcast around!
Best Follow-Up Season
1. Embedded - First, police videos. Then, Trump exposeé.
2. Heavyweight - Goldstein, you brilliantly kitschy man, you've done it again!
3. Homecoming - This is the only show on the list where season 1 is a required prerequisite.
4. More Perfect - A decoder pin for the American myth, endowing meaning to the mystery right in front of us.
5. Revisionist History - Can Gladwell do no wrong? Not yet, here's proof.
Big picture
After notching 724 episodes in my 2016 podcast-listening history, I knew managing such blistering numbers in 2017 would be no easy task. Thanks to half a year of underemployment and half a year of full-time job searching, it proved to be absolutely no problem. Last year I made mention of the shows that were too short or too frequently released (or both!) for me to adequately rank on an episode-by-episode basis. In 2017, I listened to 880 such episodes. Here's the list:
3 Martini Lunch, All Songs Considered, Buenos Días América, Coffee Break Español, Duolingo Spanish, Español Automático, Euroleague Adventures, Marketplace, NHK Japan en Español, Nómadas, NPR Politics Podcast, PTI, Radio Ambulante, Showtime (Spanish), The Daily, The Dave Ramsey Show, The Gist, The Indicator, The Writer's Almanac, Up First, Zona Pop
All of these shows are worthwhile in some way, but I want to especially extol Mike Pesca, host of The Gist, a daily news/variety show eminently worthy of anyone's time. I wrote a longer piece back in March of 2017 should you need more detailed convincing.
Also, since neither program gets play in the rest of this post, Up First from NPR and The Daily from The New York Times are excellent ways to stay fresh on the headlines and probe into the narratives unfolding every day.
And now for the big guns. The full-length, semi-regularly released, real-deal podcast listening episode tally is 1270. That brings the total episode count to 2150. Insane? Possibly. But if you're looking for a bit of insight into my madness, keep going. It gets better/more insane.
Networks
This year I limited things to top five for the most part. First up, the networks with the most episodes that reached my ears. No surprise with NPR again coming out on top.
Then we've got the networks in order of episodes that made an appearance on the weekly Pod Piper posts. It makes sense that this basically correlates with number of episodes heard.
Pod Piper readers see my three favorite episodes each week, along with a few honorable mentions thrown in for good measure. But there are a lot of shows that don't make the cut! Here is the average rank of the top five networks:
In August I began ranking each show on four metrics using a 1-10 scale: Novelty, Grip Factor, Import, and Fun. These were averaged into a composite score on a scale of 1-10 where 10 = perfection. There's not a lot of data since this was in place for less than half the year, but, here are the networks whose shows had the best composite scores:
Shows
Now for shows with the highest episode count. Planet Money, while truly excellent, does benefit from their two-shows-a week release schedule, and On the Media's count includes a slew of podcast extras. The bottom three shows on this list are, without a doubt, must-listens for me.
These shows had the most episodes reach the weekly Pod Piper post.
These are the shows with the highest average rank throughout the year.
Some brief stats from my newish ranking system (see Networks section), highlighting just by chance a totally different set of equally brilliant vessels of audio from the previous five.
Favorites
Now for the subjective bits, complete with links. These are the shows and episodes I found most entertaining and culturally significant in 2017.
Best New Show
1. S-Town - Genre expanding, addictive, essential podcast listening in 2017.
2. Tomorrow's World - Like Flash Forward but in the present!
3. American Suburb - Amazingly compelling for a show about gentrification.
4. 30 For 30 - Seamless adaptation of a beloved television sports docuseries.
5. Mogul: The Life and Death of Chris Lighty - R.I.P. Reggie Ossé, gone too soon.
6. Slow Burn: A Podcast About Watergate - Docu-current-event drama with a prescient release date.
7. Rough Translation - Innovative concept with the journalistic rigor expected from NPR.
8. It's Been A Minute With Sam Sanders - A buoyant host adeptly anchors a fresh politics/culture wrap.
9. The Butterfly Effect with Jon Ronson - Porn on the radio? Sort of.
10. Ear Hustle - The best prison-based podcast around!
Best Follow-Up Season
1. Embedded - First, police videos. Then, Trump exposeé.
2. Heavyweight - Goldstein, you brilliantly kitschy man, you've done it again!
3. Homecoming - This is the only show on the list where season 1 is a required prerequisite.
4. More Perfect - A decoder pin for the American myth, endowing meaning to the mystery right in front of us.
5. Revisionist History - Can Gladwell do no wrong? Not yet, here's proof.
Best Episodes of the Year
All I have to say for this section is that Reply All clearly rocks, and that 17 is just the number I settled on.
Final Note
This was another year of excellent podcast content. Don't expect 2018 to be any different. But do, probably, expect me to listen to slightly less than 2000 podcast episodes (Because I got a job! And a shorter commute!). If you enjoyed this rundown and want more podcast criticism in your life, feel free to subscribe to the newsletter version of The Pod Piper by clicking on this link right here. See you next week, as I start uncovering the early-year podcasting gems and package them with helpful contextual blurbs.
Pod Piper, out.
All I have to say for this section is that Reply All clearly rocks, and that 17 is just the number I settled on.
1. Reply All - "Man of the People"
2. Flash Forward - "Deceptible Me"
3. The Dollop - "Donald Trump (Part One + Two)"
4. More Perfect - "Citizens United"
5. Rough Translation - "The Refugee's Dating Coach"
6. Reply All - "Reply All's year End Extravaganza"
7. The Daily - "Special Episode: The Year in Sound"
8. Reply All - "Long Distance (Part I + II)"
9. The Cracked Podcast - "Donald Trump's Lies Are Trying To Break Your Brain"
10. Heavyweight - "Jesse"
11. Planet Money - "Walmart's Pickle"
12. 99% Invisible - "Ways of Hearing"
13. Invisibilia - "Future Self"
14. Radiolab - "Match Made in Marrow"
15. Scene On Radio - "How Race Was Made"
16. Tomorrow's World - "Electric Sheep"
17. Embedded - "Police Videos: Flagstaff"
Final Note
This was another year of excellent podcast content. Don't expect 2018 to be any different. But do, probably, expect me to listen to slightly less than 2000 podcast episodes (Because I got a job! And a shorter commute!). If you enjoyed this rundown and want more podcast criticism in your life, feel free to subscribe to the newsletter version of The Pod Piper by clicking on this link right here. See you next week, as I start uncovering the early-year podcasting gems and package them with helpful contextual blurbs.
Pod Piper, out.
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