🎙 Daily News Podcasts, ranked

28 May 2019 📝 🎙

anything consistently over thirty minutes is not being considered here

1. The Daily from The New York Times ~25 min AM
2. Today, Explained from Vox ~25 min PM
3. What Next from Slate ~20 min AM
4. Today In Focus from The Guardian ~20 min PM
5. ProRata from Axios ~10 min AM
6. The Intelligence from The Economist ~20 min AM
7. The Big Story from Frequency ~20 min AM
8. Post Reports from the Washington Post ~25 min PM
9. Up First from NPR ~10 min AM
10. Front Burner from CBC News ~25 min AM
11. District Sentinel Radio ~20 min PM
12. Midori House from Monocle ~30 min PM
13. Cato ~15 min PM

Background

I don’t listen to all of these everyday, but I did try for a few days to listen to them all in order to have a better understanding of their differences and what they cover. While listening, I tend to look for a few things:

1. News: is it important, is is relevant?
2. Production Value: does it sound good and flow well?
3. Host: are they engaging and interesting? Are they a good surrogate for the audience while also being well-informed speaking to the experts ?
4. Storytelling: do they weave an engaging story throughout each episode?

I’ve been a devoted listener to The Daily and Today, Explained since they began. Given that fact, those shows have probably influenced what I expect and look for, so it’s no surprise they found themselves on top.

What’s Next from Slate, easily meets the four points above behind The Daily and Today, Explained. I’ve never really read Slate, but this is still a perfect morning show for me.

To round out the ones I’ve still kept around, Today in Focus and The Intelligence provide a nice British perspective on world news, and ProRata does a great job providing a quick fix at the “intersection of Tech, Politics, and Business,” as they say.

Up First is a nice super quick morning news show, but I feel like they try to put too much news into their ten minutes, resulting in none of them having enough time to breathe and feel informative

Thanks to @vasta for sharing Front Burner and The Big Story to provide a Canadian perspective. For a Canadian, these would probably rank much higher, but with that being said, I really enjoy The Big Story and appreciate being able to hear from other places in the world.

If there’s anything else you listen to let me know so I can check it out and include it here.