The best thing about podcasts is that you can listen to them while you’re doing other things: Washing dishes, going for a run, coloring, and especially, driving. But there are so many podcasts these days that it’s simply impossible to keep up. There are new ones debuting all the time, and it’s hard to know whether they deserve a spot in your feed.
Every week, we highlight new and returning podcasts we couldn’t put down. Whether you’re looking for the latest and greatest or you’re just dipping your two into the vast ocean of podcasts, we’ll find you something worth listening to. This week, we’ve got podcasts about two princes, learning to be an adult, a chilling serial killer, and the fight for LGBTQ rights.
Fiction podcast
Two Princes
Why should I listen? You enjoy sweet and funny love stories.
How many episodes are there, and how long are they? The seven episodes are between 20 and 25 minutes.
Describe it in one word: Charming.
Two Princes is a song by the Spin Doctors you can listen to 100 times in a row. (Not recommended by actual doctors or this dude who actually did this experiment.) The lyrics tell the tale of a classic love triangle. Fun fact: I actually assumed it was a love square. I thought there were two princes, the princess, and the guy singing the song, imploring the royal lady to give up her crown for him.
Anyway, Two Princes is also a podcast that is not a tale-as-old-as-time love triangle. Prince Rupert (Noah Galvin) is a young prince who finds out he has to go on a quest. He’s spent his life attending tea parties and balls planned by his mother, Queen Lavinia (Christine Baranski) but longs to find out why the forest has been encroaching on his kingdom for the past 1,000 years. En route to his destiny, he meets Prince Amir (Ari’el Stachel), who’s been in prince-training his entire life. To quote Belle, this story has everything: Far-off places, daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise.
Comedy podcast
Adulting
Why should I listen? You need advice that will make you laugh instead of cry.
How many episodes are there and how long are they? The episodes are between 37 and 47 minutes; there are four so far.
Describe it in one word: Mature.
If you want to know how many towels to buy, you can just ask Yashar Ali on Twitter. He will tell give you a figure that includes, in my opinion, an insane number of washcloths. But if you’re looking for a more meandering answer to your questions about how a person should live, you can ask Michelle Buteau and Jordan Carlos.
The two host Adulting, a podcast about the trials and tribulations of being a grown-up. They help their audience with difficult questions, like how much money should you spend on pillows, whether it’s OK for your mom to make your doctor’s appointment, and why you should name your baby Lenox (after Harlem’s Lenox Avenue, not Linux, as I originally thought). Plus, they have equally funny guests like Wyatt Cenac, Jim Gaffigan, and Phoebe Robinson.
True crime podcast
Man in the Window
Why should I listen? You need advice that will make you laugh instead of cry.
How many episodes are there and how long are they? The six-part series consists of episodes that around 40 minutes each.
Describe it in one word: Upsetting.
The arrest of Joe DeAngelo, the alleged Golden State Killer, made news not just because of the number of the serial rapist and murder’s victims but because of how DeAngelo was caught. Detectives used DNA from rape kit to track down DeAngelo’s relatives on a personal genomics website.
In Man in the Window, journalist Paige St. John speaks to the detectives who worked the case back in the 1970s and also many of the victims. It can definitely be hard to listen to, as many of the details are grisly. One aspect St. John covers is how the California communities reacted to burglaries, rapes, and murders at the time. Schools brought in officers to suggest safety tactics, like locking windows and buying guard dogs — tactics that often failed to deter the killer. Sacramento’s first rape crisis center opened at the time, and it often clashed with police over how they thought women should act during an attack.
Culture podcast
The Sound of Pride: Stonewall at 50
Why should I listen? It’s a good addition to Pride Month festivities.
How many episodes are there and how long are they? The episodes vary in length from 20 minutes to an hour.
Describe it in one word: Protean.
On June 28, 1969, police raided a New York City gay bar, the Stonewall Inn. Its patrons fought back and led demonstrations, marking a turning in the LGBTQ movement.
To chronicle the 50 years since Stonewall, Nancy podcast hosts Tobin Low and Kathy Tu put together The Sound of Pride: Stonewall at 50. It’s a collection of stories from Radiolab, The Stakes, The New Yorker Radio Hour, and other WNYC shows. Together, they present a chronology of how the fight has changed over the last several decades, from Oliver Sipple’s fight for privacy after saving President Gerald Ford’s life in 1975 to different generations of coming-out stories to today, with historian Martin Duberman saying that the movement has become too conservative.
