Top Society & Culture Podcasts

Alphabet Boys reveals the secret investigations of the FBI, DEA, ATF, and other alphabet agencies. Hosted by journalist Trevor Aaronson, Alphabet Boys exposes secret undercover recordings that the government never wanted the public to hear. We explore cases that are both dangerous and absurd in order to ask this question: Are America’s top cops catching criminals -- or creating them?

Season two is “Up In Arms.” An international weapons deal to arm rebels in Colombia tangles up the DEA, the CIA, and the FBI in the same case. But who’s the good guy? And who’s the bad guy? This spy story is not at all what it seems. 

Alphabet Boys is a production of Western Sound.

A personal journey into the heart of a global megachurch.

Noemi Uribe was looking for a church where everyone is welcome and she thought she’d found it in Hillsong. But that was ‘the most expensive mistake I ever made’. Noemi’s story turned into one of rejection, despair, and a fight for justice. Hillsong used to be home, now for Noemi ‘it’s a dumpster fire’

False Profits dives into the Hillsong experience - from Christian rock music, to celebrity pastors and famous fans - tracing its journey from humble beginnings to incredible global status and wealth, and some shocking scandals.

Through personal testimony and evidence that Hillsong never made public, we peel back the layers of a culture of submission, exploitation and discrimination.

The church says it’s changed, but will it face its past and the people who say they’ve been harmed by Hillsong? Noemi Uribe is on a journey seeking justice, and accountability.

Terra Firma is a podcast about the outdoors, the sounds of the natural world and our place in it. Each episode runs about 5-10 minutes and pairs reflections on nature with gorgeous soundscapes captured in wild places.

Terra Firma unites stories and musings by CMarie Fuhrman, a Colorado-born, Indigenous poet and writer, with audio captured by outdoor sound recordist Jacob Job.

In 1967, Joseph Stalin’s daughter braved her way over the Iron Curtain, secret memoir in tow, and landed in America as the Cold War’s most famous defector. At 40 years old, Svetlana had left everything behind for a new life in the West and the chance to finally share her story. What she found instead — a controversial commune in the Arizona desert built by Frank Lloyd Wright, a whirlwind marriage dictated by destiny, and a Montenegrin matriarch with dreams of immortality — was far more complicated. In Svetlana! Svetlana! neurotic playwright Dan Kitrosser unravels the weird and wild life of his greatest muse.

In 1971, President Nixon declared drug abuse ‘public enemy number one’— the first salvo in America’s War on Drugs. Fifty years later, with drug overdoses in the US at a record high, are we any closer to ‘victory’? The War on Drugs has a more profound effect on society than any of us really understands. It is embedded in the fabric of our culture and permeates our daily lives in visible and invisible ways – perhaps the most daunting pandemic we face.

Lava for Good’s The War on Drugs podcast, co-hosted by comedian Clayton English and Greg Glod, senior criminal justice fellow at Americans for Prosperity, examines the true cost of five decades of policy, policing, and persecution. Special guests, including diverse subject matter experts, peel back the surface of this complicated period of US history, showing the ways the War on Drugs has fueled over incarceration, exacerbated addiction and hampered economic progress. By shining a spotlight on how our communities have crumbled under the weight of this so-called ‘war,’ we can explore the politicization of public health policy, institutional racism and classism in the legislation and administration of criminal law, and how decriminalization and other alternatives could bring the fruitless ‘war’ to an end. 

The War on Drugs will be available every Wednesday beginning January 25 wherever you get your podcasts.

The War on Drugs is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1

In 1971, President Nixon declared drug abuse ‘public enemy number one’— the first salvo in America’s War on Drugs. Fifty years later, with drug overdoses in the US at a record high, are we any closer to ‘victory’? The War on Drugs has a more profound effect on society than any of us really understands. It is embedded in the fabric of our culture and permeates our daily lives in visible and invisible ways – perhaps the most daunting pandemic we face.

Lava for Good’s The War on Drugs podcast, co-hosted by comedian Clayton English and Greg Glod, senior criminal justice fellow at Americans for Prosperity, examines the true cost of five decades of policy, policing, and persecution. Special guests, including diverse subject matter experts, peel back the surface of this complicated period of US history, showing the ways the War on Drugs has fueled over incarceration, exacerbated addiction and hampered economic progress. By shining a spotlight on how our communities have crumbled under the weight of this so-called ‘war,’ we can explore the politicization of public health policy, institutional racism and classism in the legislation and administration of criminal law, and how decriminalization and other alternatives could bring the fruitless ‘war’ to an end. 

The War on Drugs will be available every Wednesday beginning January 25 wherever you get your podcasts.

The War on Drugs is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1

When journalist Danelle Morton’s daughter skips town to hop trains, she follows her into the train yard, and across America. Join Danelle as she travels the country to understand what drew her daughter into the hidden world of the railroads. Her guides are the rail cops, train engineers, and hobos she meets along the way, each of them with their own extraordinary tales of the beauty and brutality of the rails.

A mother/daughter story unfolds across a landscape of vast open spaces and filthy backstreets, as Morton learns how railroads shaped the modern world - from creating our time zones and QR codes, to the first lobbyists and unions.

The story of the rails is the story of America, and through 10 episodes, Morton reckons with our history, and her family history, as she tries what she can to bring her daughter home.

We all deserve a path to success. And while everyone’s journey is unique in their own special way, so many of us share the desire for our families to have it better than we did. 

That’s why Self Financial is bringing you real stories from folks who are challenging their relationship with money to build for a better future for themselves, their loved ones and their communities. 

Whether you’re balancing different approaches to finances with a partner, or working on your credit and your mental health on the other side of a messy break up, money “problems” are challenging. They’re personal…and at times, isolating. But we don’t have to go through it alone.

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

In December 2016, a US official in Havana went to the embassy medical centre to report a debilitating and confounding  illness. The symptoms included headaches; nausea; hearing loss; problems with memory and vision – and its onset was characterized by hearing… something. A buzzing, hissing, grinding… sound.

Soon, a second official came down with the same symptoms. Then a third. Then a fourth. By the time the story went public in summer 2017, dozens of US diplomats, as well as some Canadians, had come down with what was becoming known as “Havana Syndrome.”

In this deep dive investigation, journalist Nicky Woolf peels back the layers of one of the most bizarre mysteries of the modern age. The Sound is a story about spycraft, technology, and the brain. It’s a story where, at every turn, you’re never quite sure what’s real and what’s an illusion. It’s a story about how the Cold War, maybe, never really ended.

The Sound is a Project Brazen production. For more fearless storytelling, search for the Brazen channel on Apple Podcasts or visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works – from espionage and corruption to deal-making and organised crime, we’ll take you inside stories from hidden worlds. 

Don’t stay in the dark. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts or at brazen.fm/plus and get exclusive bonus episodes for The Sound and all our shows, as well as ad-free listening and early access to new podcasts. For the latest from Brazen delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters at brazen.fm/newsletters.