This podcast is the reason I write about podcasts

Family secrets, fakery, auditory experiences, too many Jacobs, an audio diary.

The podcast at the top of this edition of Podstack is the reason I write about podcasts. Because I want work like this to be heard. Work that makes you feel something. Could be happiness, could be heartbreak, could be rage! To me, a good podcast gives you more than just a conversation, it stays with you in some way. And I write because I want to support the wildly talented people who make these shows that blow my mind. Their work deserves to be found! Every time I write I hope I give you something for your queue and I hope it can remind you why this is such an amazing form of art and storytelling.

And even though my top recommendation is getting a big spotlight here, I gotta say this edition is pretty stacked with hits that I really, really enjoyed lately. This lineup felt like hitting the jackpot.

And hey! Do you make a show that leaves a lasting impact on listeners? Consider submitting to the International Women’s Podcast Awards!

This year the International Women’s Podcast Awards are returning with a new team (Tink Media!), new branding, a new location, and all the same love for the art of podcasting. Entries are now open for the 2026 awards through July 31st, 2026!

This week’s podstack

Everybody Knows But Me - The One With My Dad’s Confession

This is both the easiest and hardest recommendation to write. There are too many things to say about this show and yet I don’t know if any of them can truly do it justice. I could start with the technical production, which features a score that supports every moment. Or the genre-bending format that blends sitcom segments and nostalgic clips with the narrative structure of personal documentaries that have always been my favourite kind of podcasts. But if I listen closely, and almost strip all of that away, it’s the writing that makes it all stand above anything I’ve heard recently. This is the kind of writing that makes me think ‘how could anyone ever create something better than this?’ Something that can make you smile, cry, and reassess life in so many ways. Art and real life are colliding in such a brutally honest way that you can’t help feeling it completely consume you. This will be an all-time podcast. One that I’ll savour every second of and try to remember what it was like to experience each episode for the first time. And I haven’t even told you what it’s about yet… In this series, Holly Brown is unpacking the shocking secret that her Dad revealed when he was dying of cancer. This moment serves as the anchor as Holly takes us back in time to life before the cancer and the secret, and forward in time to the many ways the effects rippled through her and her family. It’s like she’s investigating her own life as a way of maybe coming to terms with it or finally facing that big secret. That’s all I’ll say and I can’t wait for you to listen.

Everything Is Fake - 1. Fake it. Make it. Podcast it.

How can you not be compelled by the title of this show? I sure was because wow does it ever feel like we have to be more vigilant than ever before about critically analyzing the things we watch, hear, and read. Between Jamie Bartlett’s entertaining banter, the layered research, and the narrative structure of the show, I was immediately hooked. He wants to understand why fakery is no longer punished, but rewarded, and why most people seem pretty unbothered by it. Jamie starts off by using an investigation of Steven Bartlett’s massive podcast is a perfect way of illustrating the scale of this and how lack of credibility or fact checking doesn’t stop millions of people from tuning in. Then he goes back in time to examine how the rise of WWF wrestling and how the fakeness it relies on might’ve become too normalized for people and set the stage for how bad things have gotten today. Then there’s the shift in media, where seemingly harmless messaging, from places like The Oprah Winfrey Show, told us again and again that our truth matters. I feel like this series could go on and on analyzing the factors that lead us to this fake reality and I hope it does.

It’s So Loud In Here! - 1. Sleep: The Negative Spiral

This is a prime example of podcasting being the perfect medium to tell a story. Autistic journalist Keira is documenting what it can be like for neurodivergent people to move through the world. More specifically, their auditory experience of the world. Through different settings and moments of the day, sound is the throughline to illustrate what that setting or moment can feel like for someone. From quieting or drowning out their minds while trying to sleep, to taking public transit and seeking escape in hobbies that give their brains what they need, Keira and her guests take us inside their worlds. And I say podcasting is perfect for this because the sound design that is paired as they describe their experiences feels so immersive. Like you’re on the train with them or in the busy office space. Every person’s experience is going to be different and Keira intentionally spoke to people whose experiences were different from each other, even if they might have the same neurodivergence. I thought I was just going to pop into one episode but ended up listening from start to finish in one afternoon. It’s short and has such engaging storytelling that it’s easy to not want to stop.

Jacob Reed and Me - The Economist

There’s a new low-stakes-high-quality investigative series that I can’t believe I took this long to listen to. What is wrong with me?! This show reminds of me Dead Eyes, combined with Reply All. Jacob Reed is an incredibly common name and Jacob knows this for a fact because he’s been keeping a spreadsheet of all the other Jacob Reeds he’s come across and writing down anything he learns about them. Each episode uses a different Jacob Reed as a jumping off point for host Jacob Reed to investigate. This episode is my favourite so far. After coming across an economics book by a Jacob Reed, Jacob goes on a quest to understand economics, which he gets incredibly frustrated with and I couldn’t relate more to him. But then it takes an unexpected turn into the world of AI-generated books and fake review farms and it all ends up coming back to the economics lessons that Jacob is trying to understand. And he gets it! It’s practically poetic how perfectly the story twists and turns and comes full circle. It feels like happenstance but it’s only possible because Jacob is thinking so deeply about all of this. AND can we talk about how hilarious it is that Jacob has inserted fake ads into the episodes which are all advertising different companies run by other Jacob Reeds? Genius.

Creatures of the Wind - To my younger self

Where has this show been?!!? I love a creative personal journal podcast. The sound design, the unique structure, the way it all feels so up close and personal. Thank goodness Mae Nagusky emailed me about it so I could finally experience this. The first episode I listened to was the episode about pregnancy and childbirth and it was a beautiful collage of a complicated and stressful and life changing experience. It used audio of her mother discussing her birth, blended with a friend’s experience. It’s raw, honest, and full of love. But the episode I think you should start with is this letter to her younger self. It’s like listening to a page out of her diary, brought to life with all the sounds and voices she’s telling her younger self about. It’s sweet, forgiving, and nostalgic. I love that I feel like I’m flipping through a photo album just by listening to sounds. It’s audio as artistic expression. It’s bringing us full circle to my first review and the power of what exceptional writing can do.

More sweet treats

• In the category of “podcast episodes that have made me want to read the book”…Offline’s episode with the Optimism Doctor and The Dream’s episode about “Brains Like Ours”.

• At the risk of being repetitive, I need to talk about another episode of Offline that emphasized the difference between using AI for hard things vs for boring things. We still need to use our brains for the hard things!!

• I can’t shut up about enshittification.