The gold standard in long-form, spiritual conversation. Tippet’s style is both piercing and disarming at the same time. Her passion is evident to the point where you can actually hear her smile through your ear buds. I recommend the un-edited episodes.

Rich Roll goes deep and stays there; for as long as it takes! Typical episodes are at least 90 minutes but often run well over 2 hours. Guests run the gamut of fellow endurance athletes, people in recovery, or just interesting people Rich comes across, He’s very prolific and always insightful.

Dan is a true believer in the power of meditation but can’t stand anything that even sniffs of “woo-woo.” He’s hilarious, very self-effacing and always insightful. If you’re into meditation, this is an ideal pod, but even if you’re not, I highly recommend.

Michael Gervais is a renowned performance coach and it’s easy to hear why. He wastes no time getting to the heart of the matter. His energy is infectious, but there is also something about is voice that is soothing.

Good luck on this one. Ezra Klein, who is brilliant, can barely keep up on this one. Truly mind-bending, but also really fun.

This take an unexpected turn that involves Sarah McLachlan. I don’t want to say much more, but I needed to be scraped off the floor when this was done.

Malcom Gladwell discussing Pat Boone covering hard core metal music. What else needs to be said?

For you music lovers out there. I know you’re there. There’s just so much more that goes into a good song than you realize and this captures that perfectly.

The latest from the crew at Crooked Media. Alex Wagner is a political journalist who uses this pod to explore some of the unforeseen impacts of Covid-19. Who else was curious how their local drug dealer is fairing?

It seemed inevitable that she would develop her own pod, but brace for impact, because Nadia Bolz-Weber is not for the faint at heart and her conversations on The Confessional will leave an impact.

This a great premise for a podcast. Cheryl Strayed, whose nickname is Sugar, calls up interesting people and dives right into interesting conversations. Some of her conversations are with people she knows, like George Saunders, and some with people she’s meeting for the first time.

If you doubt whether the visual and olfactory sensations of cooking jive with the auditory realm of podcasts, you obviously don’t know Samin. No offense to Hrishikesh of Song Exploder fame, but Samin is the star here. Her laugh is enough to send you reeling and passion for food and life transcend any medium.