Top Society & Culture Podcasts

Maybe you’ve laid awake and imagined how it could have been, how it might yet be, but the moment to act was never right. Well, the moment is here and the podcast making it happen is Heavyweight. Join Jonathan Goldstein for road trips, thorny reunions, and difficult conversations as he backpedals his way into the past like a therapist with a time machine. 

What would you do if you suddenly found out your Grandpa was in the CIA? When siblings Hunter & Kaylan Hill embark on a quest to understand fatherhood by exploring their families past, they uncover a long buried secret that links their grandfather to one of the most covert operations in history. Uncover the secret mission the National Smithsonian calls a "real-life Ocean's Eleven." Follow along with 12 narrative episodes + 6 full-length celebrity interviews featuring Mayim Bialik, Ron Funches, Morgan Jay, Dayna Kathan & more.

Humans are resilient. In our toughest moments, we will fight, we will struggle, and we will triumph...often against the odds. 

In this immersive series, host-adventurers Mike Corey and Cassie De Pecol will share thrilling stories of survival. From the daring rescue of a soccer team trapped in an underwater cave in Thailand, to a woman taken hostage by Somali pirates, these stories made headlines around the world. AGAINST THE ODDS will make you feel as though you’re living these experiences with our heroes as they push themselves to their limits.

Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Against The Odds ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.

Carolyn Hax has been a Washington Post advice columnist for 30 years. Shane O’Neill just started. Together, they’re answering your messiest, toughest and most debatable relationship questions. Life Hax is a podcast for tackling those thorny issues. Should you tell your friend her husband is cheating? Is your honeymoon the right time to come out as bisexual? And why do a surprising number of people keep trying to poison their loved ones?

Tune in every Thursday to catch the hosts answering these questions directly from listeners. And submit your own questions and quandaries to Carolyn and Shane by emailing lifehax@washpost.com.

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

You never really know someone…especially online. In today’s world, the power of influence can be the quickest path to money and fame, and it often ends in ruin. These are the stories of the world’s most insidious Scamfluencers. And we are their prey. Join co-hosts Scaachi Koul and Sarah Hagi as they unpack epic stories of deception from the worlds of social media, fashion, finance, health, and wellness. These influencers claim to be everything from charismatic healers to trusted financial insiders to experts in dating. They cast spells over millions. Why do we believe them, and how does our culture allow them to thrive? From Black Swan Murder to a fake social media influencer to an audacious Hollywood Ponzi schemer, each season will take the listener along the twists and turns, the impact on victims, and what’s left when the facade falls away.

Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.

Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas.

It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers.

Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can.

Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.

Welcome to Behind The Story Show, a long-form interview podcast hosted by Jelani Gonzalez that goes beyond the headlines to uncover the real journeys behind extraordinary people and powerful ideas.

Each week, Jelani sits down with entrepreneurs, athletes, artists, creators, leaders, and change-makers to explore the defining moments, hard-earned lessons, personal challenges, and bold decisions that shaped their path. From business and creativity to leadership, culture, innovation, and reinvention, Behind The Story brings you candid conversations that reveal not just what people achieved, but what it took to get there.

If you are building something, chasing a vision, navigating change, or looking for stories that educate, inspire, and challenge the way you think, this show is for you.

Join us as we go behind the success, behind the struggle, and Behind The Story.

Anna Sale explores the big questions and hard choices that are often left out of polite conversation.

Get more Death, Sex & Money with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of DSM and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Death, Sex & Money show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or visit slate.com/dsmplus to get access wherever you listen.

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

The Happiness Lab is serving up scientifically-backed takes this summer that are so hot, even your SPF 50 won’t protect you.

With the help of behavioral scientists, historians, and cultural critics, Yale psychologist Dr. Laurie Santos challenges some of our biggest assumptions about what it takes to live a good life. Dr. Laurie explores topics like why we should forget about TMI and lean into oversharing, how dumping small talk makes for better conversations, why the kids these days are actually doing just fine, and how men can establish strong bromances. Each episode unpacks a bold, counterintuitive claim — using research, data, and expert insight to question the conventional wisdom around happiness and wellbeing.

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?

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