The podcast landscape of 2025 has delivered an exceptional array of audio storytelling, blending investigative journalism, intimate celebrity conversations, and genre-defying narratives. This year's standout shows answer life's big questions, probe dark corners of society, and even explore the frontiers of digital love.
Celebrity Insights and Cultural Deep Dives
Several high-profile names have lent their voices to create some of the year's most compelling listens. Bill Nighy stars in Ill-advised, an agony uncle series where the actor's charmingly languid delivery and self-deprecating wisdom offer delightful, evaporative half-hours of life advice. Similarly, Paloma Faith and Alan Carr reunite on Mad, Sad and Bad, a podcast that counters breezy celebrity chat with bracingly honest reflections on life's challenging times from guests like Jamie Laing and Afua Hirsch.
Over in the US, Amy Poehler provides a "perfect background listen" with Good Hang, a joyful, levity-filled show featuring reunions with Parks and Rec cast members and a masterfully handled episode on grief with Aubrey Plaza. Meanwhile, New York Times critic Wesley Morris makes a solo splash with Cannonball, delivering a cracking weekly culture fix that dives into everything from South Park to the deeper meaning of being a Bruno Mars fan.
Food and music also took centre stage. Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway revived their pandemic-era hit Home Cooking, a warm, scrumptious show celebrating the communal power of food and tackling listeners' kitchen dilemmas. For music lovers, Jad Abumrad created Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, an astonishingly detailed and immersive biography of the Nigerian musical icon, packed with vivid vignettes and starry endorsements, making it a strong contender for the best music podcast of the year.
Gripping Investigative Journalism and True Crime
The true crime and investigative genre continued to thrive with several hard-hitting series. The BBC's Stalked, presented by Carole Cadwalladr alongside Hannah Mossman Moore, offers a captivating and immersive investigation into a severe case of online abuse, featuring chilling expert interviews and forensic email analysis.
Heidi Blake of The New Yorker continued the excellence of the In the Dark series with Blood Relatives, a thorough and unrelenting re-examination of the evidence in the infamous White House Farm murders case involving Jeremy Bamber. From the US, the Wall Street Journal's Camp Swamp Road, reported by Valerie Bauerlein, is a hard-hitting four-part series scrutinising a fatal 2023 road rage incident in South Carolina and the complexities of 'stand-your-ground' laws.
Perhaps the most format-busting entry is Wisecrack, a word-of-mouth hit that begins as a showcase for comedian Edd Hedges' stand-up routine about a brush with a murderer, before flipping into a meticulously researched true-crime investigation by TV producer Jodi Tovay. It's a unique exploration of death, trauma, and truth in art.
Society, Scandals, and the Digital Frontier
Other podcasts tackled societal taboos and modern dilemmas head-on. What We Spend, hosted by Courtney Harrell, breaks the silence around money by exploring the spending diaries and fiscal habits of ordinary Americans, from wedding budget guilt to survival in a vehicle.
The Retrievals: The C-sections, hosted by Susan Burton, follows up on the horrifying IVF pain-drug theft case by shedding light on the under-reported issue of mothers feeling excruciating pain during caesareans. In the UK, Chloe Hadjimatheou presented the dark, gripping series Lucky Boy, focusing on the vulnerable testimony of Gareth, a man in his 50s whose life was devastated after being groomed by a female teacher in his youth.
The digital age provided one of the year's most eye-opening topics. Flesh and Code sensitively explores the phenomenon of people falling in love with AI chatbots, centring on interviewee Travis and his feelings for bot Lily Rose. The series raises profound questions about digital consciousness and spins out into a wider, edge-of-the-seat story involving the app's creators and a wild attempted assassination plot.
Finally, Monica Lewinsky launched the powerful series Reclaiming with a brutally candid account of her own scandal, before hosting meaty chats with figures like Amanda Knox and Ronan Farrow. For pure, wicked fun, Graham Norton and Maria McErlane returned with Wanging On, their beloved agony-aunt podcast full of cackles, squabbles, and advice on everything from naked in-laws to holiday flings.
From the stirring environmental tribute Missing in the Amazon – about murdered journalist Dom Phillips and expert Bruno Pereira – to the nostalgic millennial bop-fest The Rise and Fall of … Indie Sleaze hosted by Kate Nash, 2025 proved that the podcast medium remains as diverse, addictive, and innovative as ever.
