https www nytimes com 2022 12 08 arts best-podcasts-2022 html Best Podcasts of 2022 This year’s standouts included shows about a gay paradise in Massachusetts a mass kidnapping in Mexico and a commune in West Virginia By Reggie Ugwu Published Dec 8 2022 Updated Dec 9 2022 5 MI N R EAD I tend to think of this list not as an objective ranking as if such a thing were possible but as a kind of tip sheet — more Michelin Guide than the World’s 50 Best Restaurants These were shows presented here in alphabetical order that excelled at the mission they set for themselves whether it was dissecting the week in news and culture changing the way we think about our wardrobes or traveling the world to capture the sound of wanderlust Casual and avid podcast listeners alike should walk away with a clear sense of what the medium can do ‘Articles of Interest American Ivy’ The writer producer and host Avery Trufelman has a grand theory about why the same basic clothing items — oxford button-downs chunky sweaters pressed chinos — have remained wardrobe staples for the last half-century In this fascinating and heroically researched seven-part series she pursues it from the campus of Princeton before World War II to Meiji-era Japan to the Civil Rights demonstrations of the 1960s among other sartorially significant ports of call Trufelman a former producer and reporter for the podcast “99% Invisible ” has enough passion and verve to stitch even unruly threads of race sex and class into place Listen to “Articles of Interest American Ivy” from Avery Trufelman and Radiotopia ‘I Was Never There’ The mother-daughter duo and hosts Karen and Jamie Zelermyer bring a personal lens to this homespun investigation into the mysterious disappearance of their friend Marsha Ferber in 1988 The Zelermyers lived with Ferber on a commune she ran in West Virginia in the late 1970s and early ’80s during the twilight of the Back to the Land movement Excavating that vibrant milieu Ferber supported the clan in part by selling illicit marijuana and running a rock club where the Dead Kennedys and the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed doubles as an opportunity for the hosts to exhume their own buried history Listen to “I Was Never There” from Wonder Media Network ‘Legacy of Speed’ Malcolm Gladwell is at his best when he’s deep in the weeds on a pet subject and this limited series about the famous Black Power protest at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City — made in partnership with the running brand Tracksmith — features his finest and most vital work in years The image of the American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos standing on a podium black-gloved fists raised high in the air will be seared into history books forever But Gladwell makes a convincing case that the story of how they got there and what came after — winding through intersecting revolutions in sports and politics that still rage to this day — is even more astonishing Listen to “Legacy of Speed” from Pushkin Industries and Tracksmith ‘Not Lost’ The travel show isn’t an obvious genre for podcasts — trips for pleasure are often about the visuals especially in the Instagram Age — but this innovative new series captures the magic of both its category and its medium Brendan Francis Newnam the host and a rotating cast of partners in many of the best episodes the writer Danielle Henderson parachute into a new place — Mexico City Montreal Bozeman Mont — and try to make friends The social imperative — Newnam’s semiformal objective in each locale is to get invited to someone’s home for dinner — steers the show into unexpectedly suspenseful territory With the help of creatively deployed sound design episodes simulate the alternately alienating and sublime experience of inhabiting a strange land Listen to “Not Lost” from Pushkin Industries Topic Studios and iHeartMedia ʻPivotʼ In podcasting as in love chemistry sometimes strikes in surprising places Exhibit A is this twice-weekly talk show hosted by two charismatic business analysts — the maverick tech journalist Kara Swisher and the marketing professor and entrepreneur Scott Galloway — who banter like ex-spouses at a wedding reception Their often insightful and frequently profane dialogues about billionaires behaving badly were appointment listening even before Elon Musk a longtime source of Swisher’s decided to buy Twitter Listen to “Pivot” from the Vox Media Podcast Network ‘Reveal After Ayotzinapa’ After a devastating mass kidnapping incident in rural southwest Mexico was left unsolved by local and federal officials in 2014 the reporters Anayansi Diaz-Cortes and Kate Doyle traced the case’s aftershocks from a rural mountain village to the suburbs of Chicago to a luxury apartment in Israel for this haunting four-episode series from the Center for Investigative Reporting Diaz-Cortes and Doyle’s jawdropping account implicates authorities at the highest level — including Mexico’s attorney general and federal investigations chief — in a plot that unfolds like a harrowing spy thriller Jim Briggs’s and Fernando Arruda’s otherworldly original score mirrors the unsettled grief of those the disappeared left behind Listen to “Reveal After Ayotzinapa” from the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX ‘Rumble Strip’ This majestic long-running and hard-to-classify series is ostensibly about the everyday lives of everyday residents of the state of Vermont But although that description is perfectly accurate — Erica Heilman the show’s creator and host is first and foremost a local journalist — the emotional truths captured in many episodes are as big and varied as life itself To listen to Heilman’s lyrical yet matter-offact reporting on a teenage student-body president who took his own life or a lifelong dairy farmer’s 11-year friendship with a black bear or the adolescence of a neighbor as recorded over seven years of conversations is to imagine a better world in which her clones are dispatched to every town state and country Listen to “Rumble Strip” from Erica Heilman and Hub Spoke ‘Unexplainable’ Where did the moon come from What sounds did dinosaurs make Does anyone know how smell receptors actually work In this weekly science series Noam Hassenfeld Brian Resnick Meradith Hoddinott and the explainers at Vox devote their attention to the basic facts of life we don’t understand which as anyone who’s spent time with a five-year-old knows is a longer list than you might think Always artfully scored and produced — especially in mini-series about human senses and the solar system — “Unexplainable” never feels like homework At a time when many people see profit in false or oversimplified claims about reality it’s refreshing to be reminded of what the search for truth really sounds like Listen to “Unexplainable” from the Vox Media Podcast Network ‘Vibe Check’ The author and poet Saeed Jones the audio journalist Sam Sanders and the theater producer Zach Stafford bring their real-life friendship — and group chat transcripts — to this thoughtful and endearing talk show Conversations about hot topics in pop culture race sexuality and politics or as in an episode about Rihanna’s pending performance at the Super Bowl all four at once are rigorously argued and rarely predictable Equal opportunity teasing among the hosts and a baseline spirit of generosity help a wide range of subjects go down smoothly Listen to “Vibe Check” from Saeed Jones Zach Stafford Sam Sanders and Stitcher ‘Welcome to Provincetown’ Mitra Kaboli’s 10-part documentary series chronicling one summer in Massachusetts’s gay beach-side mecca is filled with intimate scenes and unforgettable characters Kaboli a P-Town neophyte and listener surrogate embedded for months with seven of the tens of thousands of seasonal residents who arrive annually in search of romance fame or sanctuary Their stories — supported with evocative sound design and editing — paint a transporting portrait of a sun-kissed community struggling to make its future as bright as its past Listen to “Welcome to Provincetown” from Room Tone Rococo Punch and Stitcher Reggie Ugwu is a pop culture reporter covering a range of subjects including film television music and internet culture Before joining The Times in 2017 he was a reporter for BuzzFeed News and Billboard magazine @uugwuu A version of this article appears in print on Section AR Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline Buried History And Wanderlust