Festering families, difficult truths and transcendent grace: best podcasts of 2025 |
Quality narrative podcasts experienced a downturn this year, with industry layoffs in key networks including Pineapple Street Studios and Wondery. But commercial cutbacks have reinvigorated the artistic spirit of the genre.
In a class of its own is a soaring audio biography of Fela Kuti, the brilliant Nigerian artist who invented Afrobeat and asserted his country’s cultural and political independence. It could only have been made by Jad Abumrad, legendary inventor of Radiolab, with his trademark mash-up of music, social history and searing critique.
Looking ahead, Resonate Festival’s Pitch Party is a podcast of indie pilots, featuring would-be shows and aspirations. The Vodou Project is my tip.
2025 also offered these gems.
Guardian Australia
Her eerily soft voice belying her ruthless profiteering and court battles with her children, Gina Rinehart is a fascinating subject.
Sarah Martin dives deep into the many-chaptered life of Australia’s richest person, from her isolated childhood near the Pilbara iron ore mine founded by her father Lang Hancock to her anointing as mining magnate and Trump devotee.
Martin balances the personal and public in this deftly produced series, featuring revealing interviews from Lang’s garrulous mate........