Top Society & Culture Podcasts

Finally an annual collection of the best nonfiction audio stories pulled from podcasts, radio, and audiobooks, featuring a foreword by bestselling author, and audio fan, David Sedaris.

The Best Audio Storytelling is a new collection of thirteen of the year’s best nonfiction audio stories from podcasters, radio journalists, authors, independent creators, and more.

The stories within this anthology transport you to a lush garden, to life in prison, to a cruise ship bar, and even into outer space. Curated by Pushkin Industries Executive Editor Julia Barton, a longtime editor of podcasts and radio, with a foreword by lifelong audio junkie David Sedaris, The Best Audio Storytelling is a celebration of the most innovative and powerful audio storytelling of the year.

This year’s collection includes pieces from: 

• Author Jason Reynolds
• Award-winning podcast Ear Hustle
• NPR
• The New York Times
• Critically-acclaimed investigative podcast Stolen
• Actor Lake Bell
• Richard Parks III
• Rumble Strip

Our culture grows more complicated and challenging every day, and we want to address those tough issues on the ReFOCUS with Jim Daly podcast. Jim Daly is the president of Focus on the Family, and he enjoys having deep and heartfelt conversations with people who will strengthen your faith. That’s why Jim has invited some of our day’s most acclaimed and respected thinkers to join the conversation. He will dig deeper and ask the hard questions to help you share Christ’s grace, truth, and love. This bi-weekly podcast will leave you feeling challenged, encouraged, and more engaged with the world. So dive in and listen.

My Story So Far amplifies the experiences of overlooked and underrepresented folks across Colorado, inviting them to tell their truths in their own voices. Host Luis Antonio Perez travels to different communities statewide and organizes gatherings where people come together to share their stories onstage, in front of a live audience. You’ll hear raw, honest first-person narratives about the experiences and perspectives of everyday people. You’ll discover their resilience and strength, and understand the things that matter most to them and their communities. Produced and curated by Colorado Public Radio’s Audio Innovations Studio.

New episodes every Saturday at 12pm EST

Rachel explores people and topics that've been reduced to headlines. Each episode aims to show you what they really are — not the version you’ve been told.

In The Trenches tells the stories of Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.): an organization dedicated to rescuing victims of human trafficking and exploitation worldwide. O.U.R. works with national and international governments to provide cutting-edge forensic tools and training, develop intel, go undercover, carry out rescue efforts, and conduct aftercare for the survivors of human trafficking.

O.U.R. Founder and CEO, and In The Trenches host Tim Ballard will explore these operations with special guests who are taking bold action in the fight to end human trafficking and exploitation. From undercover operators and aftercare specialists to survivors and advocates, these fighters will share behind-the-scenes accounts from around the world.

O.U.R. exists to shine a light worldwide on the global issue of human trafficking and exploitation. From O.U.R.’s inception in 2013 to now, O.U.R. has assisted in the arrest of thousands of predators, and in the rescue of thousands of brave survivors who are now on the path to healing. We will not stop until zero humans are sold or exploited.

The stories told in In The Trenches are a strong weapon in this war against modern-day slavery and human trafficking.To help support O.U.R. and rescue and care for more children, please head to https://www.ourrescue.org/give-now and thanks for listening.

On 29th July 1981, while the eyes of the world are on London and captivated by the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, an eight-year-old boy disappears on his way home from the celebrations. Despite a huge police search he is never seen alive again. Seven months later his partial remains are discovered in a small patch of woodland in rural Sussex, many miles from home. Forty years on, and despite the emergence of new evidence, no-one has been brought to justice for the abduction and death of Vishal Mehrotra and the police appear to have exhausted all their leads. Then one day, as the world is going into lockdown in 2020, a BBC local reporter receives a secretive message from a person who has worked within the police – they tell him they’ve seen something extraordinary that could blow the case wide open.

That call sets in motion an epic true story - an astonishing podcast investigation, three years in the making, that has consequences no-one could have imagined. As the team investigate they track down and question a convicted paedophile, a teacher who fled the UK while being questioned by police in relation to child sexual abuse in the 1990s and has been on the run across the world for over 25 years. Most shocking of all, the series discovers that a UK police force had been aware for years he’d been at the address and had decided not to try to bring him back - while telling Vishal’s family that he hadn’t been located.

The disappearance of Vishal Mehrotra is a case that haunts our age: a case that has repeatedly fallen through the cracks over 40 years – the cracks of our justice system, of our collective attention, of who we choose to listen to and who we don’t. In this extraordinary podcast series, Vishal’s 30 year old half-brother Suchin Mehrotra and investigative reporter Colin Campbell set out to gather the pieces and try to get answers. What they uncover takes them deep into the disturbing underworld of what appears to be a completely separate crime - and sends them halfway across the globe in a search for the truth. Alongside a deeply moving personal story about the toll of this tragedy on one family across generations, what also emerges is a picture of all of us and the world we live in now.

Welcome to "The Roast of Us with Cody and Leslee", the podcast where two best friends who are also married and content creators share their hilarious stories, tips and tricks on how to keep humor in their relationship. From pranks and bloopers to roasts and rants, Cody and Leslee will make you laugh out loud with their witty banter and honest insights. Tune in every week for a new episode of "The Roast of Us" and join the fun! 

Get ready to laugh, learn a little Spanglish, and say “AY POR FAVOR!” until your cockie runs dry, as your favorite Miami Housewives—and besties of over 20 years—dish on hot topics, the latest celeb gossip, and more!

Bob Crawford of The Avett Brothers explores the post-presidential legacy of America’s sixth president: John Quincy Adams. Though often only seen as a failed one-term president and the son of a Founding Father, Adams spent his final decades in Congress fighting the slavocracy and forming a bridge between the founding of America and the era of Lincoln. Founding Son features Patrick Warburton as the voice of John Quincy Adams, Nick Offerman as the voice of Andrew Jackson, and Grey DeLisle as the voice of Louisa Adams.