Top Documentary Podcasts

The Telepathy Tapes is a podcast that explores the origins of consciousness and the unexplained abilities of ESP through science, verifiable experience, formal testing, and human story.

In Season One, non-speaking individuals with autism reveal striking telepathic abilities that challenge everything we thought we knew about the mind.

In Season Two, The Consciousness Cassettes, the lens widens to extraordinary experiences that invite us to rethink reality itself. From near-death experiences to telepathic communication with animals, energy healing to plant intelligence, and the origins of creativity to sudden savant abilities, each episode offers a rare glimpse into the vast terrain of consciousness beyond the brain.

In Season Three, The Reincarnation Records, the investigation deepens with a provocative question: What if memory doesn’t begin at birth? Through children’s seemingly impossible past-life memories, families’ searches for answers, and researchers’ efforts to verify extraordinary details, the season explores whether these accounts could offer clues to one of humanity’s oldest mysteries: Does consciousness survive death?

Tired of political headlines that feel like déjà vu? Wondering if you actually need to care about every controversy? This season, Katie’s asking those same questions—and talking to the people who have real answers. From political insiders to sharp-eyed journalists, she’s breaking down what’s worth your attention (and what’s not), with smarts, sanity, and even a little humor. Because none of us can be tuned in 24/7—but we can stay informed without losing our minds. 

Tune in every Thursday and join Katie Couric and her guests for a conversation on NEXT QUESTION.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Miss America used to be a national icon. At its peak, the pageant was appointment television, drawing TV audiences that rivaled the Superbowl. 

But now, the crown is slipping.

The organization is at the center of a tabloid courtroom drama.  Two people are claiming to be the rightful owner of the Miss America pageant. And the fight is getting ugly.  

In one corner, a pageant girl boss. In the other, a self-proclaimed Palm Beach billionaire with a controversial past.

After decades of leadership failures and declining interest, today’s scandal is the only the latest in a long line of controversies in the pageant world.

And yet, thousands of young women continue to compete every year. What keeps drawing contestants to an institution that so many former insiders believe has failed them?   

Over the course of 10 episodes, we'll hear directly from former titleholders, participants, and whistleblowers. Hosted by pop culture journalist Bridget Armstrong, Curse of Miss America is an investigation into the unraveling of an American institution. 

Mike Drop, hosted by former Navy SEAL and bestselling author Mike Ritland, is a no-holds-barred platform that dives deep into the stories and experiences of extraordinary individuals. Known for his candid and unfiltered approach, Mike interviews guests ranging from special operations veterans and elite athletes to renowned authors and thought leaders, offering listeners a exclusive glimpse into the human side of those who have excelled in their fields. Whether it's discussing the intense challenges of combat or the resilience required to overcome personal adversity, Mike Drop provides a space where real conversations happen.

Conversations with people who have lived through extreme events. Some stories are dark and twisted, others are light and funny. In all cases, we get an intimate portrait of 'what it was like' to be there.

Find us on TikTok: @whatitwaslikepodcast

Find us on Youtube: @whatitwaslikepodcast

Follow us on Instagram: whatitwaslikepodcast

Hosted by Julian Morgans

This is a Superreal production

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hailed by Ira Glass as the “best new show I’ve heard in years,” and winner of the Audio Memoir Award of the Tribeca Film Festival, Reaching Out is a story about fathers, sons, and the distance between. The story begins on the eve of twin brothers’ Sayre and Connor’s 30th birthday, when they set out to find the biological father who abandoned them before they were born. Their search pulls them through desert raves, drunken nightclubs, and across borders of time and language, forcing the brothers to confront the truths they’ve hidden from each other and themselves. And it’s not long before the twins discover that their father is closer than they ever could have imagined. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maybe it’s just a quiet annoyance you’ve grudgingly learned to put up with, or a life defining issue that makes it hard to move forward. Whatever it is, former Reply All co-host Alex Goldman — reporter, radio producer, and overconfident idiot — will get to the bottom of it (if there’s a bottom to be found. Results may vary). Follow Alex as he figures out not only the vast hidden mechanisms that create these problems, but works with you, the listener, to find a solution. Or at least enough of an explanation that you’re ok with the annoyance. He’s not perfect. Hyperfixed is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent and listener-supported podcasts. Discover audio with vision at radiotopia.fm. 

Submit your problems and sign up for bonus episodes and much more at hyperfixedpod.com

Josh Baker enters a dangerous world of fear, greed and betrayal as he sets out to uncover the truth behind one of the biggest missing-person cases of our time - the abduction of American journalist Austin Tice.

Josh - creator of two of the BBC's most award-winning and widely listened-to investigative podcasts, I'm Not a Monster and The Shamima Begum Story - returns for his most ambitious chapter yet, in a major new series from BBC Radio 4 and NPR's Embedded.

This is not the retelling of a closed case. It is a real-time investigation into a disappearance that has remained unsolved for more than a decade, conducted in close contact with Austin's family.

What started out as a personal effort to help a mother find her son has turned into a multi-year journalistic investigation stretching from the corridors of power in Washington DC to the depths of the Syrian security state.

Austin Tice is a journalist, law student and former Marine officer, who vanished in Syria in 2012. Since then, competing stories have emerged about his fate. In some, he is alive - held in a cell and waiting to be rescued. In others, he was smuggled out of Syria and hidden away. In the darkest versions, he died long ago.

His disappearance has reached the highest levels of power - from presidents to popes - yet remarkably little is known about what happened to him.

Investigative journalists Josh Baker and Sara Obeidat begin following Austin's trail long before the fall of the Syrian regime. Then everything changes. The regime collapses, and the black box of Syria's intelligence state opens. Sources step forward, unprecedented leaks arrive and doors to secret bases that had been sealed for years open. Josh and Sara speak to spies, search secret prisons and track down alleged war criminals in hiding, uncovering information that has never been made public and making discoveries that generate international headlines. The audience follows every breakthrough as the investigation closes in on those who may know the truth - while Syria is transformed and powerful interests compete to shape what happens next.

Some claim Austin was working for the CIA. Others say he was simply a young journalist trying to make his name in war reporting.

His fate has become entangled in secret negotiations and geopolitical power struggles that are still unfolding. At the centre of it all is his mother, Debra Tice, who has never stopped searching for her son.

There are people who know exactly what happened to Austin.

Some of them do not want the truth to come out.

So where is Austin Tice?

It’s the early 1970s, and a young British family is attempting to sail around the world when catastrophe strikes.p>

The Robertsons have sold everything they own to embark on this trip. But their epic odyssey soon turns into a desperate fight for their lives in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. 

Dougal and Lyn, their teenage son Douglas, 12-year-old twins Sandy and Neil, and young hitchhiker Robin find themselves hundreds of miles from land, with few supplies, no radio contact, and surrounded by sharks. 

Drifting in the vast emptiness, they must rely on their instincts and harness the elements to survive. Yet even with deadly predators circling, they discover that sometimes their worst enemy is...themselves. 

Adrift is an Apple Original podcast, produced by Blanchard House. Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts.

apple.co/Adrift