Five Best Interview Podcasts of 2024

 The interview podcast is the default mode for podcasting. Setup is easier than a true-crime, fiction, or an informational podcast. All you need is a mic and a guest. There's a podcast in Missouri in which the host interviews people in his neighborhood. Did you know that Mr. Willis doesn't take in his garbage cans until a day after pickup? Get with it, Willis.

However, despite that ease of setup, interview podcasts require one absolutely necessary element: A host who is adept at interviewing people. The five podcasts listed below are just as much about the host / interviewer as they are about the show. 

 Great interviewers are those people who focus on the guests and not on themselves, or using the guest as a tool to represent their viewpoint.

Ear Worthy uses a panel of people from around the U.S., from Texas to California, New Jersey to Oregon, and Alabama to New Hampshire.

 In no particular order, here are Ear Worthy's Five Best Interview Podcasts of 2024.

 

 

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Preconceived

 Dr. Zale Mednick, a Toronto-based Ophthalmologist, is the creator / host of the Preconceived podcast.

I think there is a correlation between Dr. Mednick's profession and his podcasting skills. As an ophthalmologist, he helps people see better. As a podcast interviewer, he helps listeners see the world a little clearer without the fuzziness of confirmation bias and fundamental attribution error.

As Dr. Mednick will tell you: "This podcast challenges the preconceptions that shape our world and the paradigms by which we live our lives."

I would bet a lot of money on FanDuel or DraftKings that Zale Mednick can "out-host" most established podcast hosts. Mednick is a terrific interviewer, researches his topic like Aaron Rodgers used to throw TD passes, and handles his episode topics with objectivity, balance and insight. He is an independent podcaster, and, he's from Canada.  

Episodes of note this year include how to debate (boy, we needed this one), asking if a Bachelor of Arts degree is useful, the work-life balance myth, and the retirement myth.

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Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Kelly Corrigan Wonders is a show for people who like to laugh while they think and find it useful to look closely at ourselves and our weird ways in the hopes that knowing more and feeling more will help us do more and be better.

A former newspaper columnist and four-time bestselling author, Kelly Corrigan knows about loads of stuff: is knowing more always good? Can we trust our gut? How does change actually happen? She loves talking with nice people who have a sense of humor and know things worth knowing. Each episode ends with Corrigan’s shortlist of takeaways, appropriate for refrigerator doors, bulletin boards and notes to your children.

 In an interview, Corrigan seeks out something not said before from the interview subject.  Corrigan wants the best from an interview subject. She explains how she goes beyond the mutually agreed-upon script to search for personal revelations.

Check out Kelly Corrigan Wonders and her five-part Rupture and Repair series. Sit down, have a cup of coffee or tea, and be prepared to get shoved out of your comfort zone and love every minute of it.

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Feed The Queue

 This is an interview show that charmingly describes itself this way: "The ultimate podcast discovery podcast! We’re feeding your queue with episodes of our favorite shows. Join the team from Tink Media and creators from across the industry to learn about shows you’ll love. Think of it like a char-queue-terie of podcasts, full of delicious sounds and flavors."

The show has the benefit of a carousel of superb interviewers -- from Anne Baird to Wil Williams, Andreaa Coscai to Devin Andrade and more. Also, the show has the oddest yet endearing intro music.

 

Since podcast discoverability is the industry's fly in the ointment, this show provides a valuable service, alerting us to podcasts that are worth a listen and our attention.

Top episodes this year include a discussion with Kelly Corrigan by Shreya Sharma, a look at the Conspiracy She Wrote podcast with Holly Brown at the helm, and a panel discussion led by Wil Williams answering the death rattle of a canceled podcast: Is podcasting dead? Spoiler alert: It's not.

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The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart

 For a guy who's semi-retired, Jon Stewart is awfully busy. On Mondays, Jon Stewart hosts The Daily Show on Comedy Central, but on Thursdays he hosts The Weekly Show — A podcast featuring in- depth conversations with special guests that explore the biggest threats to our democracy, culture, and lifestyle.

Stewart's wit and sharp edge haven't diminished with age, and he's still a terrific interviewer.

His best episodes this year include how billionaires influence elections, the military industrial complexity, and an interview with London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

 

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The Jordan Harbinger Show

 

The Host of The Jordan Harbinger Show -- He's a natural. Harbinger is smart, witty, and respectful of his audience. He always supports his guests so they come off as interesting, impactful, and incisive as possible. He challenges guests but with facts, logic, and thoughtful inquiries, not recycled fringe-y theories.

Harbinger's guests tend to explore our shared reality, such as cognitive philosophy professor Andy Clark who discussed how our brains experience and manipulate the reality that surrounds us.

His top interviews this year include Ryan Holiday and stoicism, Mike Feldstein and the hidden crisis of air pollution, and the science and politics of public health.

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Honorable Mention: The Life Shift, Multispective, Vanishing Postcards, The Art Of Kindness, The Daily, Today, Explained and Something You Should Know.