The best podcasts of 2024

19 December 2024, 16:58 | Updated: 19 December 2024, 16:59

Looking to find your next favourite podcast? Radio X has some top choices from the past year: comedy, true crime, news and more.

• Podcasting has grown even bigger in the past few years with hundreds more new titles added every month that cover diverse interests and lifestyles.
• So many, in fact that, it's often difficult to know where to start - or find your next favourite. From self-improvement to niche hobbies, to true crime and news updates there's something for everyone.
• Radio X takes a look at the best of this year's podcasts, from comedy and movies to true life stories that will amaze you.
• Each of the podcasts listed below are available on Global Player

How to listen to podcasts: a beginner's guide to podcasting

1. My Therapist Ghosted Me

   Now in its third successful year, Vogue Williams and Joanne McNally attempt to give give 100% unqualified, unsubstantiated but up front and honest advice on the plethora of issues they and many others continue to grapple with.

   Listen now on Global Player: My Therapist Ghosted Me

   

2. Live And Let Dyers

   Beloved father-daughter duo Danny and Dani Dyer invite listeners into their world, offering a candid glimpse of life in their family. The podcast serves as a perfect opportunity for the pair to reconnect, sharing recent experiences and uncovering surprising revelations about each other along the way.click here

   Listen now on Global Player: Live and Let Dyers

   

3. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

   Each week, Classic FM's Tim Lihoreau welcomes a VIP guest to curate their dream dinner party, revealing a list of five fantasy invitees—living or dead, real or fictional, controversial or beloved. But there’s always a twist... will they accept Tim’s ‘gatecrasher’?

   Listen now on Global Player: Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

   

4. The News Agents

   2025 will see Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall take their daily news podcast out on tour with a series of exclusive live performances in Birmingham, Manchester, and Edinburgh. Expect astute analysis and explanation of the day's news – and a healthy dose of scepticism and the ability to laugh at it all when needed.

   Listen now on Global Player: The News Agents

   

5. No Such Thing As A Fish

   The award-winning podcast from the QI offices in which the writers of the hit BBC show discuss the best things they've found out this week.

   Listen now on Global Player: No Such Thing As A Fish

   

6. Never Have I Ever with Joel Dommett & Hannah Cooper

   The married couple act on unusual suggestions from listeners and each other, to experience something they’ve never done before.

   Listen now on Global Player: Never Have I Ever

   

7. Hyperfixed

   Maybe it’s just a quiet annoyance you’ve grudgingly learned to put up with, or a life defining issue that makes it hard to move forward. Whatever it is, Alex Goldman — reporter, radio producer, and overconfident idiot — will get to the bottom of it (if there’s a bottom to be found. Results may vary).

   Listen now on Global Player: Hyperfixed

   

8. Mo Gilligan: Beginning, Middle & End

   Comedian Mo Gilligan sits down with a selection of the biggest names to find out how they got started, what they are up to now and the legacy they want to create. Recent guests include Serge Pizzorno of Kasabian, Konnie Huq, George The Poet, Aisling Bea and Jason Manford.

   Listen now on Global Player: Mo Gilligan: Beginning, Middle & End

   

9. The Rest Is Entertainment

   The Rest Is Entertainment pulls back the curtain on television, movies, journalism and more with Richard Osman and Marina Hyde using their years of knowledge, enviable contact book and wit to bring you what’s hot, and what’s not in the world of entertainment.

   Listen now on Global Player: The Rest Is Entertainment

   

10. What Did You Do Yesterday? with Max Rushden & David O'Doherty

    A podcast where people tell us what they did yesterday... Recent guests include Richard Osman, Marcus Brigstoke, Ed Gamble and Alex Horne.

    Listen now on Global Player: What Did You Do Yesterday?

    

11. Things Fell Apart with Jon Ronson

    If you've ever yelled at someone on social media about, say, cancel culture or mask-wearing, then you are a soldier in the culture wars - those everyday battles for dominance between conflicting values. The acclaimed writer and podcaster Jon Ronson has seen friends swallowed up in them to the extent that it's ruined their lives. Jon was curious to learn how things fell apart, and so he went back into the history of the culture wars to find some of the origin stories: the pebbles thrown in the pond, creating the ripples that led us to where we are today. He had no idea what he'd find, but he's uncovered some extraordinary people and the strangest, yet most consequential tales.

    Listen now on Global Player: Things Fell Apart

    

12. Shaun Keaveny's Daily Grind

    This daily show may now be over, but you can enjoy a year's worth of episodes as Shaun brings you a show of contradictions. It's about anything and everything but it's definitely also a show about nothing.

    Listen now on Global Player: Shaun Keaveny's Daily Grind

    

13. Full Disclosure with James O'Brien

    Award-winning LBC presenter and best-selling author James O’Brien hosts a series of compelling conversations with fascinating people from the worlds of politics, news and entertainment. Recent guests include Alex James of Blur, Shaun Keaveny, Sir Kier Starmer, Dan Snow and more.

    Listen now on Global Player: Full Disclosure with James O'Brien

    

14. Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe

    Rob and Josh share their tales of parenting woe and chat to celebrity parents about how they're coping, or not coping.

    Listen now on Global Player: Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe

    

15. The Infinite Monkey Cage

    Professor Brian Cox and Robin Ince host a witty, irreverent look at the world through scientists’ eyes. Joined by a panel of scientists, experts and celebrity science enthusiasts they investigate life, the universe and everything in between.

    Listen now on Global Player: The Infinite Monkey Cage

    

16. Crime Junkie

    Ashley Flowers unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else.

    Listen now on Global Player: Crime Junkie