As with any “best of” list — especially those written by a single person (like this one) — there’s a decent amount of subjectivity as indivudual’s tastes vary drastically. I feel like this is magnified in the world of podcasts. So given the obligatory disclaimer, my best podcasts of 2019 list is through my lens. I tend to skew towards newer podcasts — or those who made a substantial leap this year — and run the spectrum of indie to mainstream. 

If you’re looking for a more comprehensive list that takes into account multiple interests and opinions, read our list from midyear, The Best Podcasts of 2019 (So Far). Also, while I’ve got your attention, here’s my list from 2018 and the requisite 2018 midyear collective list. 

2019 continued to push the boundaries of what’s possible in podcasting, from a creative and quality perspective. As always, podcast stalwarts like This American Life, Radiolab, Criminal, Reply All, and others are deserving of every accolade thrown their way. That said, I didn’t include them on my list, opting to go with newer and less known podcasts. 

End of the preamble, here are my best podcasts of 2019 — in no particular order — along with some honorable mentions.  

Running From COPS

Dan Taberski continues his elite storytelling run and is in my short-list for podcasters I’ll auto-subscribe to their new work, whatever the subject (see: Trufelman, Avery in the recommendation below). After the successes of Missing Richard Simmons and Surviving Y2K, Taberski focused his next Headlong installment on the long-running TV program, COPS, and the troubles with how police action and crime is portrayed. 

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

Nice Try! Utopian

As I alluded to in the Running From COPS paragraph, we can go ahead and pencil in whatever new project Avery Trufelman is working on for the 2020 list. In the midyear roundup, Nice Try! Utopian was recommended by true podcast tastemakers, Wil Williams, Paul Bae, and Zack Kahn — something that shouldn’t go unnoticed. 

As Trufelman tested (and found success) with her 99PI spin-off mini series, Articles of Interest in 2018, she took a similar concept to found a standalone project. Nice Try! Utopian is a seven-episode series covering design failures in utopia attempts. As Kahn succinctly reviews, “Trufelman leverages the expansive canvas of longform narrative audio to paint a rich, color portrait of attempts to try and design a better world, and what happened when those designs didn’t go according to plan.”

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

Dolly Parton’s America

Host Jad Abumrad explores country music icon, Dolly Parton’s impact on American and global culture, her life and her worldview. He finds that Dolly Parton’s fan base is a cross-section of American demographics, and he embarks on a quest to answer why. 

Jad’s interviewing showcases Dolly Parton’s charm and no-nonsense approach to song writing. She laments about the darkness in her early music while still being able to laugh about it. “I used to write a lot of sad-ass songs,” she tells Jad. Sound clips of her music and wisdom drape nine episodes that explore the “Dollyverse.”

Dolly Parton’s song “9 to 5” was an anthem to women’s empowerment. In the episode Dollitics, Jad delves into Dolly Parton’s relationship with politics, how she manages risk, and seems to “circumvent disaster.” Her “verbal judo” has kept her afloat in an age of deep political polarization. What connects with people is her genuineness, down-to-earth-nature and big heart.

The show is not without critique. Writer and editor, Aisha Harris, states in an interview that even good-hearted people have blind spots. What is so refreshing is Dolly Parton’s response to the controversy surrounding Dixie Stampede.   

Dolly Parton’s America will reward and satisfy her biggest fans, and convert new ones. 

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

StartUp

The first season of StartUp documented Alex Blumberg’s post-This American Life entrepreneurial project which would later become podcast studio success story, Gimlet. It was an expertly-narrated meta look into the difficulties of podcasting and starting a business. 

I didn’t find any subsequent season of StartUp to be all that fascinating. 

Then in February, the news broke Spotify would be acquiring both Gimlet and podcast hosting company, Anchor. Many hoped Blumberg and co-founder Matt Lieber would give a similar behind the scenes documentary into the acquisition, and they delivered. The final season of StartUp provides a truly honest view into the difficulties of podcasting at scale, dealing with start-up growing pains including financial and inter-personal issues, and ultimately what led to them selling to Spotify. 

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

All Fantasy Everything

I wrote in a CBC round-up that All Fantasy Everything is my guilty pleasure podcast and two paragraphs later Jody Avirgan mic dropped the term out of existence, ”you should never feel guilty about the things you like.”

The truth is, however, AFE leveled up in 2019. 150+ episodes later, and the comedy improv show about fake drafting obscure items like Tom Hanks movies, things you say after you dunk on someone, or the perfect sandwich has nearly perfected what I’d look for in a comedy podcast. 

This year, they produced what I’d consider their best episode, Disney Songs with guest Katie Nolan. The core crew has an unrivaled rapport and their ability to integrate guests make for a super fun listening experience and more than a couple laughs.

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

Spectacular Failures

Following the success of How I Built This, it seemed like there was a mad dash for entrepreneur interview podcasts. You know what’s even more interesting than rich people talking about their success? Stories of failures. 

Executive Producer of Radiotopia, Julie Shapiro, wrote a review of Spectacular Failures in our midyear round-up, “While other pods have taken on the culture of failed business and ruined legacies, none have done so with the particular spirit and chummy schadenfreude that Lauren Ober brings to Spectacular Failures. The show features stories you’ll realize you’ve been wondering about for years, as soon as you read the episode titles: “Schlitz Beer goes bad, then worse,” “Kodak misses its moment”, etc.”

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

Uncover

Award-winning Uncover spans five seasons of compelling and chilling story-telling. Each season is hosted by a different journalist as they investigate Canadian and international crime mysteries. People closely connected with the topics at hand will often get emotional when they recount the horrors experienced or mourn the loss of loved ones. 

Dark themes are explored by CBC Podcasts through the exposé of the cult NXVIM (pronounced “Nexium”) in Season 1: Escaping NXVIUM, the unsolved case of 1965 Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 21 in Season 2: Bomb on Board, a serial killer that targeted Toronto’s gay community dating to 1975 in Season 3: The Village, the 1998 disappearance of 77-year-old woman Joan Lawrence in Season 4: The Cat Lady Case, and the homicide of Toronto teen Sharmini Anandavel in Season 5: Sharmini. 

Journalists Josh Bloch, Ian Hanomansing, Johanna Wagstaffe, Justin Ling, Zander Sherman and Michelle Shephard tackle unresolved questions in their individual styles. 

To cherry-pick a few moments from such a wide-scope, a tape-recording of Sharmini’s voice in S5: E6 is particularly haunting, Season 1’s Sarah Edmondson’s realization of abuse in her community deeply disturbs, and Chuck Shaw-MacLaren’s eyewitness account of Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 21 crash as an ambulance driver grips the listener. Stories that he had kept to himself for 50 years tug at the heart strings. “I’m talking more to you, than I have to anybody,” he admits after he takes host Johanna Wagstaffe’s hand.

Uncover peers into the tragedies and trauma caused by unsettled mysteries.

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

ESPN 30 for 30 The Sterling Affairs

Sometimes I think the ESPN brand actually holds back the 30 for 30 podcast from a larger audience. Sure, the podcast focuses on stories with a sports angle, but simplifying the podcast into a narrow category does a disservice to its excellent documentary storytelling ability. Though their individual contained episodes are often wonderful, I think the podcast is at its best when it’s given a couple episode mini-series. Last year, their Bikram series made my best of list, and this year they went back to the well with a season focused on disgraced former NBA owner, Donald Sterling. 

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

BROKEN: Jeffrey Epstein

Before we hit “peak Epstein podcasts” (related: peak impeachment podcasts), BROKEN hit the scenes combined with seasoned journalists (The New Yorker’s Ariel Levy, The Miami Herald’s Julie K. Brown), with podcast studio Three Uncanny Four Productions and Oscar-winning director Adam McKay. 

There may be some fatigue around the subject matter, however, BROKEN is a riveting six-episode series detailing Epstein’s history, rise of his monstrous empire, and eventual arrest and death.

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

1619

The New York Time’s foray into podcasting has been an unbridled success on every level. Last year’s limited series, Caliphate, was my personal pick for best podcast of the year. This year, they produced a five- (really, six-) episode miniseries about the history of the US and the slave trade. 

Hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the podcast gives an excellent history and insight into America’s civil liberties problems and institutional racism. 

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

Mobituaries

Mo Rocca applies his love for obituaries in pieces that explore the lives of people that have inspired him. Funny and inquisitive, Mo Rocca’s experience as a correspondent on The Daily Show and CBS Sunday Morning helps structure well-paced narratives. His journalistic integrity and approach stand out. Mobituaries weaves interviews with experts and enthusiasts, poll questions, and elements of film, music, and television to great effect. What results are compelling stories that shine a light on forgotten historical figures and aspects of household names that are not common knowledge.    

In the episode Thomas Paine: Death of a Forgotten Founding Founder, Mo Rocca asks Anthony Salvanto, CBS News’ Director of Elections and Surveys, “If there would have been no Thomas Paine, there would be no ‘what’?” His questions open up in-depth conversation that relates to the world we live in today. 

In The Black Congressmen of Reconstruction: Death of Representation, the sounds of the Charleston Harbor backdrop a riveting tale of enslaved seaman, Robert Smalls’ great escape into the Union Blockade. Mo Rocca’s exchange with Michael Bouleware Moore, Robert Small’s great-great-grandson, provides a personal touch and reminds us that we are not too far removed from the age of slavery.

History buffs and curious minds will appreciate Mobituaries and Mo Rocca’s enthusiasm for forgotten knowledge.

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

The Rewatchables / The Rewatchables 1999

Another podcast entry that’s nowhere near new but one that seems to get stronger the more episodes they do. The Ringer expanded their partnership with Luminary and created a spin-off podcast solely focused on movies that came out in 1999. Besides the narrowed scope, the two podcasts are essentially identical. 

If you’re unfamiliar, The Rewatchables is a movie podcast which analyzes and mostly celebrates past movies. Their vibe is very much “friends watching on the couch” but mixed with insights, jokes, and genuine fun. The Rewatchables at least partially makes this list for their episode on Old School, which single-handedly forced me to end a workout early because I was crying laughing and in no shape to even stand up. 

The Rewatchables Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

The Rewatchables 1999 Listen: Luminary

Gay Future

We’ve covered audio drama and fiction podcasts extensively on this site, but it truthfully needs to be repeated ad nauseam: the most creative and ground-breaking work in podcasts is being done in the audio drama genre. The Allusionist’s Helen Zaltzman perfectly sums up the appeal of Gay Future, “In a long-lost YA novel by Mike Pence, it’s 2062 and, under the totalitarian regime ruling North America, everyone is gay. Except one schoolkid… This show is so funny; the acting is on point and the production is great. I had such a blast listening to this caper.”

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

Slow Burn

Slow Burn’s future seemed uncertain after the creator, Leon Neyfakh, left Slate to start a new podcast exclusive to Luminary (see: FIASCO below). The first two seasons covered the political climate and delved into the respective impeachment processes for Presidents Nixon and Clinton. The third season, however, takes a departure from the traditional political genre and instead covers the infamous feud and eventual deaths of rappers Tupac and Notorious BIG.

Though the chosen topic is a departure, fortunately that’s the extent of the differences of the podcast in the post-Neyfakh era. The interviews, analysis, and overall documentary narrative are among the best examples in podcasting today.

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

Switched on Pop

With both AFE and The Rewatchables I mention they sort of leveled up this year. In Switched On Pop’s case, which started in 2014, this is especially true. Media giant, Vox, picked up the podcast earlier this year and the show was exposed to a much larger audience. 

Hosted by songwriter and music journalist, Nate Harding, and musicologist, Nate Sloan. Together they have both an expanse of knowledge and the chemistry to make a truly entertaining and informative podcast. 

Related reading: Switched On Pop: A podcast that’s music to your ears

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

The Dropout

The Dropout opens with Elizabeth Holmes, once Silicon Valley’s youngest female self-made billionaire, taking an oath for her testimony on July 11, 2017 on nine criminal charges of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In six episodes that range from 39 to 47 minutes, host Rebecca Jarvis unfolds a story of unbridled ambition, gratuitous ethics violations and the culture of celebrity.

Elizabeth Holmes and her blood-testing company, Theranos, were poised to become the “Apple of healthcare.” Rebecca Jarvis’s thorough journalism and interviews are weaved in the style of a true-crime drama. She delivers the story as a reporter, and manages to remain an objective narrator. 

Theranos’s promise to conduct a myriad of tests from a single pin-prick of blood was lofty, but with Elizabeth’s business savvy, charm and cunning she was able to convince investors of her product. The allure of working with the then world’s youngest self-made female billionaire is honed in on the episode A Star Is Born. Jared Leto introduces Elizabeth at the 2015 Glamour Women Of The Year Awards, and Bill Clinton sings praises as he assures a captive audience that “We’re in good hands.”

Join Rebecca Jarvis as she unravels the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes in a stark commentary on fame and corporate greed.         

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

Honorable Mentions

Have You Heard George’s Podcast

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

Moonface

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

FIASCO

Listen: Luminary

The Big One

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

Sonic Boom

Listen: Luminary

The post The 22 Best Podcasts of 2019 appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

“I just finished editing the latest episode,” Charlie says, his voice vibrant and full of energy despite a long day of producing the episode “The Shifting Sound of R&B.”

“Charlie, I’m sorry to get you after a long day,” I say in a contrite voice.

“No problem,” Charlie dismisses my penitence. “I’m done for the day and I love talking about music.”

That’s the essence of talking with Charlie Harding about music. He loves it and he can do it for long stretches without quenching his intellectual curiosity for understanding how music works organically, how it affects us culturally and why it can impact us individually.

Related reading: Switched On Pop: a podcast that’s music to your ears

What becomes abundantly clear during our interview is that Charlie Harding wants us – his listeners – to appreciate the sonic artistry of all kinds of music from classical to hip hop. For Harding and Sloan, no component of music is too insignificant to mention, so we are treated, for example, to a discussion of the virtues of hand claps on the July 2018 episode on the Beach Boys’ 1964 summer hit “I Get Around.”

Gems of sonic discovery are ubiquitous in every Switched On Pop episode. Unlike other podcasts where the podcast host or hosts are the all-knowing experts dispensing low-carb morsels of knowledge, Harding and Sloan delight the listener with a radically different strategy. In most episodes, either Harding or Sloan acts as the listener, asking questions, connecting bits of musical insights into a coherent whole. For example, in the episode “Why is 90s music so weird?” Sloan takes Harding down a checkered path to understand the history of the 90s hit Cotton Eye Joe, which is replete with tales of racial stereotyping, copyright wars and cultural appropriation.

Discover Pods: How did you hook up with Nate Sloan?

Harding: Nate and I met in college taking music courses together. In an orchestration class actually. Nate and I had a mutual friend who was a bass player and he brought us together for a blue grass band, all playing our secondary and tertiary instruments. It was a blast but that band broke up because I was moving to New York and Nate was moving to LA. But we continued our musical relationship and we began the show in 2014 and did it for four years when we lived on opposite coasts, even though that wasn’t obvious to the listeners.

Nate and I share a passion for music, music education and music journalism that thinks first about what the music has to say composition-ally. We had a sincere interest in getting out of a raucous, art music snobbery and opening our ears to the fact there is not just one way to listen to music and that pop music plays an important cultural role and holds important musical lessons to our listeners. We wanted to answer the music fan’s question about why the ear worms we’re listening to are just stuck in our head.

NOTE: Since last August, Nate and Charlie both live in the LA area.

Discover Pods: Each of you seem to take the lead on different episodes. How did that evolve?

Harding: The way that we produce the show is inspired by Tim Howard from RadioLab and then Reply All. He has createda unique mix of extemporaneous, real and joyful conversation that’s going somewhere. In our episodes, we wanted to have one of us act as the producer of the show and other is there to stand in for the listener.

For example, I just did an episode about contemporary R&B so I said to Nate before the episode that I wanted him to listen to this particular piece so it’s in his ear before we do the episode.

As a proxy for the listener, I want Nate to refute me and challenge me and you can get a conversation with directional arc but also has a lot of extemporaneousness to it.

The show is an ever-changing format. Sometimes it’s a conversation with an artist. Sometimes it’s just a conversation between me and Nate.

One challenge we have is that we are trying to serve a general audience. Nate and I are music nerds. We would love to discuss modal counterpoint and harmonic progressions but we want to serve that general audience. There is a demand for that musical depth of knowledge with, for example, Adam Neely’s YouTube channel.

We have a lot of musicians listen and we think they still enjoy the show because it’s not music theory 101 but applying new ways to listen to music.

Discover Pods What’s the process for developing episode topics? How do you decide on your guests? How did you hook up with Chris Molanphy and guest-host on Slate Hit Parade?

Harding: The number of people doing music podcasts is a fairly small group. I was just hanging out with Hrishikesh Hirway from Song Exploder and we’re friends with Nick White who does Lost Notes.

Podcasters enjoy getting together and the industry is collaborative and respectful, less than it is cut throat and partially that is because it’s in a growth cycle. We all benefit from more people listening and it’s not a zero sum game.

With Chris Molanphy, we’ve never met in person. I just reached out to Chris via Twitter and that sparked a connection that led to Nate and I guesting on an episode of Slate Hit Parade. When it comes to chart knowledge, Chris is truly the master.

At Vox, Bridget Armstrong is a fabulous producer with experience in podcasting. Our editor is Brandon McFarland who mixes, matches and edits. It’s a collaborative process.. We talk about what they are listening to. Of course, our most important feedback mechanism is talking to our listeners and they are often on top of things before we are. I’m very lucky I have a great team. Music can be divisive and our team has different tastes but great respect for all kinds of music. We want to constantly challenge what is popular. Not just what’s on the top 100. We try to cover what’s popular in the zeitgeist but not necessarily on the Billboard charts.

Discover Pods: I heard you have a book coming out? Can you give us more information?

A. Harding: Yes in January 2020, it’s called Switched On Pop: How Popular Music Works, and Why it Matters and it will be published by University Press and is currently available for pre-order on Amazon. Should ship in December so it’ll be a great holiday gift.

We wrote this book because we frequently get questions from listeners about how they can listen and think about music like Nate and I do. What class can I take, they often ask.

The book contains 17 songs over the last 20 years and each song pairs with musical concepts from beginner concepts to more complex concepts. If you’re a non-musician you are going to get a sampling of everything from melody, timbre and harmony, plus much more. For anyone who is musically curious, Nate And I think it will be fun and informative.

Discover Pods How did you and Nate through Vox find a niche in the music podcasting space? You have Song Exploder on one hand where artists take apart their own songs and Slate’s Hit Parade that focuses on chart history either from sales or streaming.

Harding: There are other music podcasts but we try to explore new territory. Our strong piece about Despacito and the episode on Lemonade are good examples. In Despacito we discussed how harmony and chord progressions points to an ambiguity of genres and non-binary identity and more accepting forms of identity. That’s something we can find in the music and that’s only because I have a great partner like Nate, who is a musicologist.

People’s relationship to music is often primarily cultural so when we talked about Lemonade, for example, we able to discuss how the specific message of the music harmonized with how the music presented itself.

We are aware that our identity as two white men can affect our coverage. The Meghan Trainor episode was excellent, I thought, because we looked at feminism in popular music and we interviewed experts on the topic. And when we just talked about R&B, we interviewed Oak Felder, one of the biggest producers in R&B, because he’s an expert and he’s lived that music.

Nate’s historical knowledge of popular music and his deep repertoire allows us to look at historical forces that impact the culture.

Discover Pods: How do you and Nate find working at Vox?

Harding: It’s tremendous at Vox. They are a fabulous partner. They’ve taken ownership of the production process. That allows us to do more ambitious work. In our most recent episode I was able to talk with two key expert sources and do more reporting and investigative work and still maintain the essence of the show, which is personality-driven between Nate and I.

Before Vox and Panoply, we worked our tail off. Our first year I think we produced only 14 episodes but we were lucky enough to get a shout out on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour and that gave us an audience. For the last four years since then, we have been producing an episode bi-weekly with few breaks.

The first two years we didn’t do any ad-supported stuff. It was really a labor of passion and we did it in our spare time and there were times I was up till three or four in the morning editing an episode. Finally, we were picked up Panoply. And that allowed us to get ad support dollars and then hire an editor and that made the production more substantial.

Vox is a vibrant community of producers and content creators developing high quality podcasts. And there’s been no shortage of opportunities for us going on other Vox podcasts and Nate and I inviting journalists onto our show. That’s enabled us to have a broader conversation about music.

We’ve been on the Vergecast, Earworm andToday, Explained.

It’s invigorating to be part of a podcast network where there’s so much creativity and collaboration. And the podcasts support the website with more in-depth reporting at Vox.

Discover Pods: How do you see recent trends in podcasting – such as paywalls and substantial investments from large companies like Spotify, Sony and Luminary?

Harding: Last year when Panoply folded, we pitched our show to over 20 companies, and that experience let me see close up how the podcasting ecosystem is evolving so quickly.

Non-podcasting journalism often seems just off a beat on the future of podcasting with, for example, a claim that Luminary is trying to be the Netflix of podcasting. In podcasting you have nearly 700,000 podcasts, most for free, so why is someone all of a sudden going to start paying for a podcast. Blogging – like Medium – has the same monetization issue because you can read so many blogs for free.

The paywall strategy banks on the contention that their content is so culturally relevant that you are going to have to pay to use their platform to listen to it.

That strategy is much more difficult than in TV. I think we’ll see different formats like The Daily format and shorter formats like self-help and larger fiction ecosystem and the biggest challenge to overcome is that with podcasts that once a show is played and over there’s no auto play like at Netflix where it goes immediately into the next episode or even another show.

Podcasting doesn’t currently do that. Within networks there is definitely more collaboration to build audiences like at Gimlet. Slate is doing a good job with that and Vox is as well, which is why we wanted to work with them.

The biggest trend is the professionalism and the barriers to entry are growing. Being a podcaster can now be a profession and listener demands for great audio quality will continue and audio engineering is a hard-earned skill. Good story telling and good interviewing is also critical.

I don’t think a strategy of just throwing a celebrity into the podcast world will work unless that celebrity has skills in interviewing, storytelling and understands the audio medium.

I hope that gatekeepers will help listeners because they’ll get more good stuff but it makes it harder for people who want to get into the podcasting space to get noticed.

*************************************************

When we finish our interview and I thank Charlie for the time, I suddenly realize that Charlie Harding could talk passionately about music for many more hours. During the 1960s, I watched the TV show American Bandstand (yes, I’m old) and host Dick Clark would ask the teenagers in the audience what they liked about a song. The joke was that they would always repeat the same simplistic phrase. “I like the beat and it’s easy to dance to.”

I can only imagine if Dick Clark asked Charlie Harding why he liked a song.

Charlie would begin, “Well, Mr. Clark, first let’s discuss the diatonic chord progression…”

The post Q&A with “Switched On Pop” co-host Charlie Harding appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

Though we often don’t notice it, music acts as our constant traveling companion on our daily journey through life. It tickles our ears during our commute; it tempts us at the workplace; it assaults us as we celebrate our journey home and it soothes us in the heavy thread-count confines of our homes.

Switched On Pop – a Vox Media podcast – acts as a kind of hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy of music. It’s a peripatetic podcast that dismisses boundaries on what a music podcast should cover and whisks the listener off on a magical mystery tour to everything from the music chosen by restaurants to the trend toward shorter songs due to streaming services. Episodes hold constant surprises with a dissection of the new National Public Radio (NPR) morning news musical theme to a re-invention of music genres with the Lil Nas X number one country hit “Old Town Road” from a black hip-hop artist.

Switched On Pop started in October 2014 and immediately attracted attention with episodes about heartbreak songs, songs that make us move and a holiday episode about why Jingle Bells is so popular. After four and a half years of growing its audience, Switched On Pop became part of the Vox Media Podcast Network earlier this year.

”Charlie and Nate have built a wildly popular show that helps music fans understand why they love their favorite songs,” said Vox’s senior audio producer Jillian Weinberger in February 2019 when the announcement was made. Weinberger, who collaborates with Charlie and Nate on the show, added, “Their fans are strong and loyal and we are excited to share this podcast with the wider Vox audience.”

Switched On Pop is co-hosted by songwriter Charlie Harding and musicologist Nate Sloan.

Harding is a songwriter, music journalist and a multi-instrumentalist who also executive produces the podcast. Harding deftly uses his songwriting and musical instrument skills to dismantle songs piece by piece – the melody and tempo, the intro, the verse, the chorus the bridge, the chord progression and the outro. His precision, for example, when he surgically takes apart Lady Gaga songs and her modulation from different keys is fascinating.

Sloan is a USC Thornton School of Music Assistant Professor of Musicology, with degrees from Brown University and a PhD from Stanford University and a knack for scoring films. Sloan’s musical embrace ranges from Tin Pan Alley to jazz and, of course, popular music. Sloan’s expertise often takes the form of looking under the hood of music such as discussions of major and minor chords, quarter notes, beats per minute (BPM) and andante, which is a moderately slow tempo.

Like many successful podcasts, it is the interplay between Harding and Sloan that makes the podcast a listening pleasure. More important, the diversity of their musical backgrounds enriches the podcast. In fact, each seems to take a lead on a particular episode and it’s clear that their partnership is about sharing knowledge for the benefit of the listeners.

Consider the 2016 episode about a cell phone ring tone. How is the ringtone of a Nokia cell phone related to music you may ask? Sloan and Harding delight into this deep dive to decipher any hidden music craft in these beeps and bloops. Amazingly, Sloan and Harding dissect the musical phrase and harmonic language that intuitively attracts us to this cell phone ring tone and discuss the cell phone tone’s musical ambiguity. Then, Sloan reveals that the Nokia cell phone tone is actually a musical phrase lifted from a 1902 composition by a Spanish guitarist Francisco Tarrega called Gran Vals.

One recent episode “Prince Ali” and Why We’re all Music Theorists addresses the social media complaints of many about the newer Will Smith version of the main song from the new Disney movie Aladdin. When they discuss the tempo difference in both versions of the song as the source of the displeasure, Harding and Sloan discover that the difference between the versions is only eight beats per minute but conclude that even that slight difference is enough to make people social media grumps. Then, they inspect some Lady Gaga hits and note that the tempo in some of her songs matches that of a typical walking pace and wonder if that intentional synchronization can offer another reason why her songs are so popular.

One key perk of the podcast is the distinctive voices of Harding and Sloan. There are podcasts where the male or female co-hosts actually have similar speaking styles and voices and it forces the listeners to orient themselves about the identity of the speaker throughout the podcast. Sloan’s voice, lower in pitch and punctuated by gravelly roughness, counterpoints perfectly with Harding’s middle-range, glossy voice.

Switched On Pop has also leveraged its new Vox connectivity with an episode about digital tape hiss and vinyl crackle with Estelle Caswell, creator of Vox’s Earworm series. That episode delves into a true musical paradox that modern, digitally sterile music is returning by choice to some of the messy, analog sonic tones of the previous generation to add texture and depth to “0s and 1s” of today’s streaming tunes.

Harding and Sloan also invite guests on the show such as Giles Martin, the music director of the film Rocketman, Sam Harris of the group X Ambassadors, Rochester NY indie rock group Joywave, actress Elle Fanning and even a restaurant critic Hillary Dixler Cananvan.

In its description of the podcast, Switched on Pop claims that it breaks down pop songs to figure out what makes a hit and what is its place in culture. “We help listeners find “a-ha” moments in the music,” the podcast asserts.

In fact, this claim actually discounts the breadth and depth of the podcast. Switched On Pop does deep water drilling on an expansive definition on what we call music – from how a songwriter’s location can re-define their musical tastes (in this case, Madonna) to the murky intricacies of rhyming lyrics (Shawn Mendes).

Recently, music podcasts have discovered listeners eager for their content. Some groove to the song dissection stories in Song Exploder, while others boogie to the music charts in the Slate Hit Parade podcast and still others sway to the professorial depth of Sound Opinions, a WBEZ Chicago NPR podcast with similar inclinations to Switched On Pop.

For listeners who not only love music but also the allure of musical harmony and dissonance, Switched On Pop never hits a sour note and always seems to strike the right chords.

The post Switched On Pop: A podcast that’s music to your ears appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.