Explore these amazing fiction, non-fiction, and podcast recommendations. Your next beach read/listen could be on this list!
Fiction Recommendations
The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman
Mystery, Crime, Humor
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.
Mistborn Trilogy – Brandon Sanderson
Fantasy, Magic, SciFi
What if the prophesied hero failed to defeat the Dark Lord?
The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd
Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Coming of Age
This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.
The Woman in Cabin 10 – Ruth Ware
Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
A journalist witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened.
The House in the Cerulean Sea – TJ Klune
Fantasy, LGBT, Romance
An enchanting story, masterfully told, about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.
The Reading List – Sara Nisha Adams
Contemporary, Books About Books, Romance
How a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin
Contemporary, Coming of Age, Relationships
Two friends–often in love, but never lovers–come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.
Anxious People – Fredrik Backman
Contemporary, Humor, Mental Health
A poignant comedy about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined.
The Paris Library – Janet Skeslien Charles
Historical Fiction, World War II, Books About Books
Based on the true World War II story of the heroic librarians at the American Library in Paris, this is an unforgettable story of romance, friendship, family, and the power of literature to bring us together.
The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
Historical Fiction, Race, Pulitzer Prize
The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman’s ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.
Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi
Historical Fiction, African Literature, Generational
A multi-generational saga that follows the descendants of two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, across three centuries, beginning in eighteenth-century Ghana and arriving at the present day.
Everything Matters! – Ron Currie Jr
Science Fiction, Contemporary, Apocalyptic
In infancy, Junior Thibodeaux is encoded with a prophecy: a comet will obliterate life on Earth in thirty-six years. Alone in this knowledge, he comes of age in rural Maine grappling with the question: Does anything I do matter?
Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
Contemporary, Mystery, Families
Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.
The Lowland – Jhumpa Lahiri
Historical Fiction, Indian Literature, Family
Epic in its canvas and intimate in its portrayal of lives undone and forged anew, The Lowland is a deeply felt novel of family ties that entangle and fray in ways unforeseen and unrevealed, of ties that ineluctably define who we are.
The Giver of Stars – Jojo Moyes
Historical Fiction, Romance, Books About Books
Based on a true story rooted in America’s past, set in Depression-era America, a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond.
The Music of Bees – Eileen Garvin
Coming of Age, Nature, Disability
About the power of friendship, compassion in the face of loss, and finding the courage to start over (at any age) when things don’t turn out the way you expect.
Dance Dance Dance – Haruki Murakami
Japanese Literature, Magical Realism, Contemporary
High-class call girls billed to Mastercard. A psychic 13-year-old dropout with a passion for Talking Heads. A hunky matinee idol doomed to play dentists and teachers. A one-armed beach-combing poet, an uptight hotel clerk, and one very bemused narrator caught in the web of advanced capitalist mayhem.
Our Missing Hearts – Celeste Ng
Dystopia, SciFi, Mystery
Our Missing Hearts is a powerful, dystopian novel about love, loss, and the power of a mother’s love. With an emphasis on libraries, books, poetry, and storytelling, Ng explores the power of words, shared stories, the voices on the margins, and, most significantly, those who have been silenced.
Romantic Comedy – Curtis Sittenfeld
Romance, Contemporary, Humor
A sketch comedy writer for a late-night comedy show thinks she’s sworn off love until a dreamily handsome pop star flips the script on all her assumptions. But this isn’t a romantic comedy; it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her…right?
Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel
Science Fiction, Time Travel, Historical Fiction
A novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.
Trust – Hernan Diaz
Historical Fiction, Mystery, Literary Puzzle
Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune?
The Sentence – Louise Erdrich
Contemporary, Magical Realism, Paranormal
A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store’s most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls’ Day, but she simply won’t leave the store.
Bewilderment – Richard Powers
Science Fiction, Contemporary, Nature/Environment
The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental neurofeedback treatment to bolster Robin’s emotional control, one that involves training the boy on the recorded patterns of his mother’s brain…
The Fell – Sarah Moss
Novella, Thriller, Contemporary
At dusk on a November evening in 2020, a woman slips out of her garden gate and turns up the hill. She planned only a quick solitary walk – a breath of open air – but falls and badly injures herself. What began as a furtive walk has turned into a mountain rescue operation.
The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles
Historical Fiction, Adventure, Coming of Age
In June 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the work farm where he has just served a year for involuntary manslaughter. When the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s future.
The Anomaly – Herve Le Tellier
Science Fiction, Thriller, Mystery
In June 2021, a senseless event upends the lives of hundreds of men and women, all passengers on a flight from Paris to New York. Among them: Blake, a respectable family man, though he works as a contract killer; Slimboy, a Nigerian pop star tired of living a lie; Joanna, a formidable lawyer whose flaws have caught up with her; and Victor Miesel, a critically acclaimed yet commercially unsuccessful writer who suddenly becomes a cult hit. All of them believed they had double lives. None imagined just how true that was.
Chief Inspector Gamache (series) – Louise Penny
Mystery, Thriller, Crime
The discovery of a dead body in the woods on Thanksgiving Weekend brings Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his colleagues from the Surete du Quebec to a small village in the Eastern Townships. There is an evil lurking somewhere behind the white picket fences and Gamache knows that, if he watches closely enough, Three Pines will start to give up its dark secrets…
Horse – Geraldine Brooks
Historical Fiction, Animals, Art
A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history.
Universe of Two – Stephen Kiernan (Vermont author)
Historical Fiction, Romance, World War II
Graduating from Harvard at the height of World War II, brilliant mathematician Charlie Fish is assigned to the Manhattan Project. As he performs that work Charlie suffers a crisis of conscience, which his wife, Brenda—unaware of the true nature of Charlie’s top-secret task—mistakes as self-doubt. She urges him to set aside his qualms and continue. After the war and haunted by guilt, Charlie and Brenda leave Stanford and decide to dedicate the rest of their lives to making amends for the evil he helped to birth into the world.
The Maid – Nita Prose
Mystery, Thriller, Crime
Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. She delights in donning her crisp hotel maid uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection. But after finding the infamous and wealthy Charles Black dead in his bed, Molly finds herself as the lead suspect.
Hello Beautiful – Ann Napolitano
Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Family
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. After leaving home, he meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters. But then darkness from William’s past surfaces and the result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations.
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club – Ryan Stradal
Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Family
A story of a couple from two very different restaurant families in rustic Minnesota, and the legacy of love and tragedy, of hardship and hope, that unites and divides them
South of the Buttonwood Tree – Heather Webber
Magical Realism, Fantasy, Romance
Blue Bishop has a knack for finding lost things. While growing up in charming small-town Buttonwood, Alabama, she’s happened across lost wallets, jewelry, pets, her wandering neighbor, and sometimes, trouble. No one is more surprised than Blue, however, when she comes across an abandoned newborn baby in the woods, just south of a very special buttonwood tree.
Still Life – Sarah Winman
Historical Fiction, LGBT, World War II
Tuscany, 1944: A young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth.
The Measure – Nikki Erlick
Science Fiction, Dystopia, Fantasy
From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box, inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise?
The Mermaid of Black Conch – Monique Roffey
Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Mythology
In 1976, David is fishing off the island of Black Conch when he comes upon a creature he doesn’t expect: a mermaid by the name of Aycayia. After the mermaid is caught by American tourists, David rescues and hides her away in his home, finding that, once out of the water, she begins to transform back into a woman.
Mosely – Rob Guillory & Sam Lotfi
Five-issue Comic Series
In the hyper-technological world of the later 21st century, Mosely is a bitter old janitor on a mission from a higher power — to unleash holy Hell upon the “too big to fail” Tech Gods. Can one man bring down the corporate powers who’ve used their vast influence to oppress an all too complacent human race?
When Women Were Dragons – Kelly Barnhill
Historical Fiction, Magical Realism, LGBT
A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman’s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are.
Beach Read – Emily Henry
Contemporary, Romance, Books About Books
A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.
The Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon
Fantasy, LGBT, Magic
A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens. Set in an intricate quasi-Early Modern world where Eastern and Western cultures exist in an uneasy truce, Priory follows a large cast of characters in many nations as they prepare for the return of the Nameless One, the great evil dragon who was banished a thousand years ago, and who is now poised to make his big comeback and burn the mortal world to ashes.
Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo
Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal
Alex Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies.
Non-Fiction Recommendations
The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature – J. Drew Lanham
Memoir, Nature, Race
The Home Place is a remarkable meditation on nature and belonging, at once a deeply moving memoir and riveting exploration of the contradictions of black identity in the rural South—and in America today.
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us – Ed Yong
Science, Animals, Environment
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world. This book welcomes us into a previously unfathomable dimension–the world as it is truly perceived by other animals.
I’m Glad My Mom Died – Jennette McCurdy
Memoir, Mental Health, Humor
A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life.
Born A Crime – Trevor Noah
Memoir, Humor, Africa
The memoir of one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.
Animal, Vegetable, Junk – Mark Bittman
Food, Science, Environment
An expansive look at how history has been shaped by humanity’s appetite for food, farmland, and the money behind it all—and how a better future is within reach.
Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
Science, Nature, Spirituality
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world.
Fat Girls Hiking: An Inclusive Guide to Getting Outdoors at Any Size or Ability – Summer Michaud-Skog
Nature, LGBT, Self Help
In a book brimming with heartfelt stories, practical advice, personal profiles of Fat Girls Hiking community members, and helpful trail reviews, Summer Michaud-Skog creates space for marginalized bodies with an insistent conviction that outdoor recreation should welcome everyone. Whether you’re an experienced or aspiring hiker, you’ll be empowered to hit the trails and find yourself in nature. Trails not scales!
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures – Merlin Sheldrake
Science, Biology, Ecology
In this captivating adventure, Merlin Sheldrake explores the spectacular and neglected world of fungi: endlessly surprising organisms that sustain nearly all living systems. They can solve problems without a brain, stretching traditional definitions of ‘intelligence’, and can manipulate animal behavior with devastating precision. Entangled Life is a mind-altering journey into this hidden kingdom of life, and shows that fungi are key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel and behave.
Heavy – Kiese Laymon
Memoir, Social Justice, Anti Racist
In this powerful and provocative memoir, genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon explores what the weight of a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deception does to a black body, a black family, and a nation teetering on the brink of moral collapse.
The Beauty Myth – Naomi Campbell
Feminism, Psychology, Gender Studies
In today’s world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women’s movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents – Isabel Wilkerson
Race, Social Justice, History
Examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more.
Calypso – David Sedaris
Humor, Short Stories, Memoir
If you’ve ever laughed your way through David Sedaris’s cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you’re getting with Calypso. You’d be wrong. Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no these stories are very, very funny–it’s a book that can make you laugh ’til you snort, the way only family can.
The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace – Gary Chapman & Paul White
Business, Leadership, Psychology
The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace applies the love language concept to the workplace. This book helps supervisors and managers effectively communicate appreciation and encouragement to their employees, resulting in higher levels of job satisfaction, healthier relationships between managers and employees, and decreased cases of burnout.
Young Queer America: Real Stories and Faces of LGBTQ+ Youth – Maxwell Poth & Isis King
LGBT, Queer, Essays
Photographer and activist Maxwell Poth has traveled all over the United States, inviting LGBTQ+ youth to share their stories as part of Project Contrast, a nonprofit that amplifies these voices and connects kids and families with the resources they need to survive and thrive.
You Have to be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live – Paul Kix
History, Politics, Civil Rights
Paul Kix takes the reader behind the scenes as he tells the story of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s pivotal 10-week campaign in 1963 to end segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. At the same time, he also provides a window into the minds of the four extraordinary men who led the campaign―Martin Luther King, Jr., Wyatt Walker, Fred Shuttlesworth, and James Bevel. With page-turning prose that read like a thriller, Kix’s book is the first to zero in on the ten weeks of Project C.
Breaking Money Silence: How to Shatter Money Taboos, Talk More Openly About Finances, and Live a Richer Life – Kathleen Kingsbury (Champlain-er!)
Self Help, Finances, Gender Studies
Anyone concerned about finances—and that’s just about everyone—will welcome this step-by-step guide to opening up about a difficult subject. It offers a strategy that can save money, improve relationships, and help people raise fiscally responsible children.
Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life – Hector Garcia Puigcerver
Self Help, Psychology, Spirituality
According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai–a reason for living. And according to the residents of the Japanese island of Okinawa–home to the world’s longest-living people–finding it is the key to a happier and longer life. Inspiring and soothing, this book will bring you closer to these centenarians’ secrets: how they leave urgency behind; keep doing what they love for as long as possible; nurture friendships; live in the moment; participate in their communities; and throw themselves into their passions.
The Secret to Superhuman Strength – Alison Bechdel (Graphic Memoir)
Graphic Novel, Memoir, LGBT
Bechdel delivers a deeply layered story of her fascination, from childhood to adulthood, with every fitness craze to come down the pike. But the more Bechdel tries to improve herself, the more her self appears to be the thing in her way. This gifted artist and not-getting-any-younger exerciser comes to a soulful conclusion. The secret to superhuman strength lies not in six-pack abs, but in something much less clearly defined: facing her own non-transcendent but all-important interdependence with others.
Podcast Recommendations
Recipe Club
Chef David Chang and the members of the Recipe Club sift through millions of recipes to find the very best way to make the food you want to eat (subjectively speaking, of course). Each week, they cook one dish, debate it, and ultimately figure out a few ways to make it tastier, too.
The David Chang Show
Dave Chang has a few questions. Besides being the chef of the Momofuku restaurants and the creator and host of Netflix’s ‘Ugly Delicious,’ Dave is an avid student and fan of sports, music, art, film, and, of course, food. In ranging conversations that cover everything from the creative process to his guest’s guiltiest pleasures, Dave and a rotating cast of smart, thought-provoking guests talk about their inspirations, failures, successes, fame, and identities.
The Bomb Hole
The Snowboarders Podcast is hosted by pro rider Chris Grenier with a new guest every week. A great blend of humor and inspiration through the stories of snowboarding’s top athletes as they take you through their personal journey every week, while navigating life’s bomb holes and successes.
SmartLess
“SmartLess” with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett is a podcast that connects and unites people from all walks of life to learn about shared experiences through thoughtful dialogue and organic hilarity. A nice surprise: in each episode of SmartLess, one of the hosts reveals his mystery guest to the other two. What ensues is a genuinely improvised and authentic conversation filled with laughter and newfound knowledge to feed the SmartLess mind.
National Park After Dark
Hosted by two friends who share a passion for the outdoors and a fascination with what can go wrong there, National Park After Dark is a podcast for the morbid outdoor enthusiast. Tales of death, dark history and tragic events is what NPAD is about, but through the darkness – is light.
Ologies with Alie Ward
Volcanoes. Trees. Drunk butterflies. Mars missions. Slug sex. Death. Beauty standards. Anxiety busters. Beer science. Bee drama. Take away a pocket full of science knowledge and charming, bizarre stories about what fuels these professional -ologists’ obsessions. Humorist and science correspondent Alie Ward asks smart people stupid questions and the answers might change your life.
Dolly Parton’s America
In this intensely divided moment, one of the few things everyone still seems to agree on is Dolly Parton—but why? That simple question leads to a deeply personal, historical, and musical rethinking of one of America’s great icons. Join us for a 9-episode journey into the Dollyverse.
Chosen Family
A weekly podcast with 3 queer internet stars on the rise: Alayna Joy, Ashley Gavin, and Mak Ingemi. With their unique perspectives they mimic a typical heteronormative family. Each week they bring a topic to the “dinner table”, give each other advice and answer listener questions about queer life, dating, sex, etc.
The War on Cars
A podcast about car culture, mobility and the future of cities. We bring you news, commentary and stories about the worldwide battle to undo a century’s worth of damage wrought by the automobile.
Up First with NPR
NPR’s Up First is the news you need to start your day. The three biggest stories of the day, with reporting and analysis from NPR News — in 10 minutes. Available weekdays by 6 a.m. On Sundays, hear a longer exploration behind the headlines with Rachel Martin, available by 8 a.m. ET.
Pathways with Joseph Campbell
An official podcast of the Joseph Campbell Foundation and the MythMaker Podcast Network that unearths little-heard talks from Joseph Campbell and examines their context and meaning. Hosted by Brad Olson, PhD.
Maintenance Phase
Debunking the junk science behind health fads, wellness scams and nonsensical nutrition advice.
Busy Body
We are Busy Body, a podcast about … being alive and having a body. Really — every episode, we’ll be discussing one basic everyday action (like walking, breathing, sleeping) and how it fits into the bigger picture of functional fitness. This is a podcast for people with lives, jobs, families, and hobbies that don’t revolve around the gym, but who still want to find balance in their busy bodies.
Science Vs.
There are a lot of fads, blogs and strong opinions, but then there’s SCIENCE. Science Vs is the show from Gimlet that finds out what’s fact, what’s not, and what’s somewhere in between. We do the hard work of sifting through all the science so you don’t have to and cover everything from 5G and Pandemics, to Vaping and Fasting Diets.
Heavyweight
Maybe you’ve laid awake and imagined how it could have been, how it might yet be, but the moment to act was never right. Well, the moment is here and the podcast making it happen is Heavyweight. Join Jonathan Goldstein for road trips, thorny reunions, and difficult conversations as he backpedals his way into the past like a therapist with a time machine.
The Ezra Klein Show
Ezra Klein invites you into a conversation on something that matters. How do we address climate change if the political system fails to act? Has the logic of markets infiltrated too many aspects of our lives? What is the future of the Republican Party? What do psychedelics teach us about consciousness? What does sci-fi understand about our present that we miss? Can our food system be just to humans and animals alike?
The Roxane Gay Agenda
The Roxane Gay Agenda is the bad feminist podcast of your dreams. It’s writer Roxane Gay in conversation with guests who have something necessary to say about the issues that matter most to her–and hopefully to you as well. On the Agenda: feminism, race, writing, art, pop culture, food, and, of course, politics. If you enjoy hearing from people–women, mostly; Black women, usually–who bring unique perspectives to a world in complete and utter chaos, put this show on your own agenda.
The Moth
Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of true stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Moth storytellers stand alone, under a spotlight, with only a microphone and a roomful of strangers. The storyteller and the audience embark on a high-wire act of shared experience which is both terrifying and exhilarating.
Historium
Did you ever fall asleep in history class? You’re not alone. History can be boring when focusing on only dates and statistics. Historium seeks to find the narrative of history in some of the most unlikely places. Seamlessly blending history and storytelling, Jake Barton draws you into historical tales you’ve probably never heard before.
Sounds Like a Cult
A podcast about the modern-day “cults” we all follow. Hosts Isa Medina and Amanda Montell ask the culty questions we’re all wondering… Do you think SoulCycle is a cult? What about Elon Musk stans? Or the Royal Family? What about spiritual influencers? Is Instagram itself a cult?
And That’s Why We Drink
Murder and the paranormal finally meet! Grab your wine and milkshakes and join us every Sunday for some chilling ghost stories and downright terrifying true crime stories. The world’s a scary place. And that’s why we drink!
The Magnus Archives
A weekly horror fiction podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join Jonathan Sims as he explores the archive, but be warned, as he looks into its depths something starts to look back.
Wooden Overcoats
Rudyard Funn and his equally miserable sister Antigone run their family’s failing funeral parlour, where they get the body in the coffin in the ground on time. But one day they find everyone enjoying themselves at the funerals of a new competitor – the impossibly perfect Eric Chapman! With their dogsbody Georgie, and a mouse called Madeleine, the Funns are taking drastic steps to stay in business.
Wolf 359
Wolf 359 is a radio drama in the tradition of Golden Age of Radio shows. Take one part space-faring adventure, add one part character drama, and mix in one part absurdist sitcom, and you get Wolf 359.
Earth Break
After everyone she’s ever known was killed in an alien invasion, Lynn Gellert (Jenny Slate) might be the last person left on Earth. Her constant and only companion is the voice recorder she managed to salvage from her mother’s house.
Passenger List
Atlantic Flight 702 has disappeared mid-flight between London and New York with 256 passengers on board. Kaitlin Le (Kelly Marie Tran), a college student whose twin brother vanished with the flight, is determined to uncover the truth.
Limetown
Ten years ago, over three hundred men, women and children disappeared from a small town in Tennessee, never to be heard from again. In this podcast, American Public Radio reporter Lia Haddock asks the question once more, “What happened to the people of Limetown?”
I Said No Gifts!
Host Bridger Winegar invites friends, loved ones, and people he’s secretly trying to destroy to join him in conversation. He only has one request: No gifts! Naturally, every guest disobeys, meaning their chat will eventually turn to whatever object lies beneath the wrapping paper.
Snap Judgement
Snap Judgment (Storytelling, with a BEAT) mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic, kick-ass radio. Snap’s raw, musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another.
Spooked
True-life supernatural stories, told firsthand by people who can barely believe it happened themselves. Be afraid.
This Land
Host Rebecca Nagle reports on how the far right is using Native children to attack American Indian tribes and advance a conservative agenda.
The Daily Stoic
For centuries, all sorts of people—generals and politicians, athletes and coaches, writers and leaders—have looked to the teachings of Stoicism to help guide their lives. Each day, author and speaker Ryan Holiday brings you a new lesson about life, inspired by the thoughts and writings of great Stoic thinkers like Marcus Aurelius and Seneca the Younger.
Breaking Money Silence® Podcast (Champlain-er!)
Anyone concerned about finances—and that’s just about everyone—will welcome this step-by-step guide to opening up about a difficult subject. It offers a strategy that can save money, improve relationships, and help people raise fiscally responsible children.
Thank you to all of the contributors to this list!
Katie Chuck, Kimberly Rojas Cepeda, Mark Pierce, Carrie Honeman, Casey Maynes, Stephanie McConnell, Chris Brooker, Holly Francis, Sarah McMaster, Sarah Camille Wilson, Veronica Lewis, Celia Russell, Kellie Nadeau, Pat Boera, Kyra Yu, Nathaniel Orvis, Leslie Van Wagner, Caitlin Hollister, Erin Ferrara, Nate Walpole, and Emily Rudolph
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