The best podcasts of 2024 were with us for the long haul. Our editors tuned into episodes when we were stuck in traffic on road trips, in airport lounges waiting out awkward layovers, on routine runs, and during feverish sick days or sleepless jet lag-driven nights. As we head into the new year, we're still coasting on the Golden Age of podcasting, which means there's plenty of shows to catch up on to make the dead time during your travels fly by. Whether you're on a mission to tick horseback riding in Wyoming off your bucket list, or sunbathing on a cruise deck while practicing how to lucid dream, some trips just feel better served with a side of wit or storytelling. Below, we've gathered ten of our favorite shows from the past year to get you started, including hilarious debriefs on hot gossip, long debates on pop culture hot takes, and intimate interviews with A-listers.
This story has been updated with new information since its original publish date.
For lively chatter
Dan Harris, the host of this podcast, is self-described as a “fidgety, skeptical journalist” (yup, totally not relatable) who started meditating after having a panic attack on live television. His interviews with meditation teachers, scientists, spiritualists, artists, psychotherapists, and more tackle how we can train happiness as a skill in our everyday lives. The show is able to tackle some very serious topics while keeping a sense of humor and staying realistic with the takeaways. The mini meditation guides are also great for when I’m trying to maintain some kind of mindfulness/wellness routine while traveling. —Hannah Towey, Associate Editor
I love listening to chatty podcasts, like Poog and Seek Treatment, which is basically the only reason I am able to run—I plug in, zone out, and indulge in my parasocial relationships with these very funny podcast hosts. But I’ve also learned that in a travel setting, like on a road trip with my whole family, the fool-proof group solution is something more like Science Vs. Anyone can drop in with no prior context, and it really doesn’t matter what preferences people have—if they’re generally curious, they’ll likely be drawn into Science Vs. Each episode tackles a popular conception, then the team does a ton of reporting to confirm if science backs it up. It might be tackling a social media myth that birth control changes who you’re attracted to; on a road trip this fall, I loved listening to research on lucid dreaming and the most effective ways people do it. —Megan Spurrell, Associate Director, Articles
I’ve been a Toaster for over six years and still can’t get enough. There’s a new episode every Monday through Friday, so it’s the perfect light-hearted companion for my hour-long commute to work, daily outdoor walks, and road trips. It’s hosted by sisters Claudia Oshry (better known on Instagram as Girl With No Job) and Jackie Oshry, and together they deliver the Fast Five: the top five stories of the day, breaking down everything you need to know from pop culture to business news to McDonald’s newest McFlurry flavor. The Oshry sisters are smart, hilarious, and have a unique jive that’s unlike any other podcast I’ve binged. —Meaghan Kenny, Associate Commerce Editor
It's a beautiful thing to become privy to gossip with which you have nothing to do: Who sent something intended for one pair of eyes only to a Disney World group chat? Who pretended to be poor when, really, they were rich? What did you hear through the thin walls of your miserable apartment? On Normal Gossip, host Kelsey McKinney invites a guest to discuss juicy gossip submitted by listeners. It's completely anonymous and completely fun, with an archive of 40 hour-long episodes plus new ones dropping weekly making this perfect for a cross-country binge. —Charlie Hobbs, Associate Editor
For immersive storytelling
It would be a hard ask for most to follow a podcast hosted by their manager, but Women Who Travel reminds me what I love about the job. Hosted by our articles director Lale Arikoglu, the podcast recenters women as leading figures in travel narratives. Whether the week's episode is a conversation with Ukrainian writers about rave culture, or a chat with a Vogue editor about her packing tips, I always find out a little bit more about the world, and most importantly, leave with a little more faith in it. Traveler's Women Who Travel community was founded following the 2016 election to meet and counter a moment when women's freedoms were under threat. In 2024, I've certainly felt like some 2016 feelings came back with a vengeance, but hearing about women-identifying people celebrating, fighting, advocating, and living for themselves has been a real balm. —Kat Chen, Editorial Assistant, Destinations
One of my favorite podcast discoveries this year was Time Sensitive, in which host and journalist Spencer Bailey embarks on long-form conversations with artists, thinkers, and academics about their life and work—but viewed through the lens of time. I particularly loved the episode featuring restaurant entrepreneur Rita Sodi (behind some of the hottest tables in New York City), in which she talks about the care and slow craft behind the food she loves—and serves. I also really savored the one in which photographer and architect, Hiroshi Sugimoto (you might know him from “Seascapes,” his series of abstractions of the ocean taken at roughly 250 locations around the world) speaks about his practice as a fossilization of time. Across episodes, these conversations are a larger window into the nature of time and how it gets distorted by the expectations imposed by the modern, industrial world —Arati Menon, Global Digital Director
A not-so-great Netflix show about The Watcher house in New Jersey got me into this (much-better) podcast a couple years ago, around the time when my partner and I started looking to buy property of our own in a historic part of Boston. It’s equal parts HGTV and true-crime stories, and tackles some of my longtime favorite legends, from the Conjuring witch house in Burrillville, Rhode Island, to the Mercer-Williams House murder in Savannah, Georgia. The focus is on the homes’ architectural histories, the people who lived in them, and a deep dive into factual reporting about the infamous stories of what happened in them—so deep that you might find yourself playing detective—alongside the editors of House Beautiful magazine, and often a guest or two who have a connection to the home or its story. —Shannon McMahon, Senior Editor, Destinations
For popular culture
It was a banner year for pop music, and I loved tuning in to hear everything Nora Princiotti (an NFL, culture, and pop music writer for The Ringer) and Nathan Hubbard (a former Live Nation Ticketing and Ticketmaster CEO, long before the Eras ticket debacle) had to say about pop girl spring… turned summer… turned fall. They come at most album reviews as true fans, dissecting the Easter Eggs Taylor Swift may or may not have left behind at every turn alongside the rest of us clowns, but aren’t shy about voicing critiques and constructive criticism, too. Sprinkled in amongst the album reviews are grab bag episodes discussing the latest happenings in the music industry, from award nomination rundowns to this summer’s Kamala/Brat crossover. If your Spotify wrapped included some kind of “Pink Pilates princess” descriptor, you’ll enjoy their musings. —Madison Flager, Senior Commerce Editor
What is the culture that made you say, “Culture is for me?” That central question is answered most weeks by Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang’s guests—recent sit-downs feature Andy Cohen, D’Arcy Carden, Melanie Lynskey, and Michelle Yeoh. But some of my favorite episodes of this weekly podcast, which first launched in 2016 (I started listening a few years ago after going to a live taping in New York City), are the ones with just Matt and Bowen—if you don’t know them by name, you’d recognize them from Saturday Night Live, Fire Island, and I Love That for You—shooting the breeze, catching up on all things culture: pop stars, reality TV, films, general life happenings. They’re hilarious, their takes on culture are so smart, and they cover an impressive breadth of content. Most episodes are over an hour, making them great for road trips, train rides, or long commutes, too. If you’re new to the pod, start with May’s three-part Las Culturistas Culture Awards nomination special—it’ll have you laughing out loud at seminal categories like the ‘Slouching Toward Bethlehem Award for Chicest Book to Hold’ and ‘Meal We Should Have Gotten But Didn’t.’ —M.F.
Stuck in Memorial Day traffic on my way out to Rhode Island from Connecticut last year, desperate to pee but knowing any detour to do so would be punished by further time spent in the standstill, I needed a distraction. This podcast, hosted by entertainment writers Joe Reid and Chris Feil, kept my eyes on the road and my mind on the past, rather than a future in which I might imminently wet myself. I’ve long been a fan of This Had Oscar Buzz, in which a typical episode sees Reid and Field perform a port-mortem on a film that failed to receive a single Academy Award nomination despite indications that it might. My drive benefited from a miniseries titled 100 Years, 100 Snubs (styled after the various AFI lists of the same name). Here, Feil and Reid spend several episodes naming the snubs most atrocious to them since the awards’ inception (I agree with them most strongly on Michelle Pfeiffer for Age of Innocence and Jennifer Garner for Juno) and then choose somebody who did get nominated that year who they would kick out to make room. It’s thoughtful, a little mean, and very entertaining. —C.H.
