Best Podcasts of 2023

As always, consider this list not an objective ranking but a kind of tip sheet — more Michelin Guide than the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. These podcasts, presented in alphabetical order, excelled at their missions, whether documenting the impact of national battles on local schools, unpacking internalized fatphobia, or questioning the pedigree of a famed Italian cheese. Casual and avid podcast listeners alike should come away with a clear sense of what the medium can do.

‘Criminal’

Launched in 2014, 10 months before “Serial,” this venerated series about “people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle” has grown only more impressive with time. Its creators, Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer, craft a different, contained universe within each episode — interviewing the relevant subjects, unfurling stranger-than-fiction plotlines — which is a remarkable feat given the show’s move, earlier this year, from a twice monthly to a weekly release schedule. Episodes about a woman who made a brief career of pretending to be Aretha Franklin, the murder of a wolf in Yellowstone Park, and the unraveling of the rapper G. Dep — who voluntarily confessed to killing a man 17 years after the fact — demonstrate the show’s range and humanism. (Listen to “Criminal” from Criminal Productions/Vox Media Podcast Network.)

‘Decoder Ring’

Willa Paskin’s deep-dive investigations into questions you never thought to ask (Is Parmesan cheese “authentic” Italian? What ever happened to slow dancing? What was the deal with hovercraft?) are more rigorous than they need to be, which is what makes them so fun. Paskin — a former television critic, and among the best writers working in audio — knows the secret potential of trivial cultural phenomena: If not a window into the soul of a society, per se, then a good yarn to share at a cocktail party. In its fifth year, “Decoder Ring” was as unpredictable (does parking infrastructure count as “culture”? Maybe!) and rewarding as ever. (Listen to “Decoder” Ring from Slate.)

‘Grapevine’

Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton’s dogged and empathetic reporting shines throughout this ambitious and well-crafted series about the fight over transgender rights in public schools. Two years after their award-winning series “Southlake,” which explored the backlash against racial justice programs in a Dallas suburb, Hixenbaugh and Hylton turn their focus to the community right next door, where an insurgent Christian nationalist movement upends the lives of a trans girl and her teacher. “Grapevine” excels at weaving from micro to macro, showing how political and cultural trends in capitol buildings and on cable news can harm vulnerable individuals downstream. (Listen to “Grapevine” from NBC News Studios.)

‘Heavyweight’

Jonathan Goldstein’s hard-to-classify series (part investigation of the week, part memoir, part “Queer Eye”) has always felt like a minor miracle. Goldstein and his producers, Kalila Holt and Stevie Lane, tackle a different mission in each episode, using the tools of investigative journalism to help people seeking answers to questions weighing on their psyche. In its eighth season, featuring a reunion with a childhood friend in the last months of his life (“Lenny”), a confrontation with an unrequited high school crush (“Lief”) and an unconventional love story that unfolds like a forgotten Roberto Bolaño novella (“Victor and Maite”), the show again offers proof that the stories with the highest stakes are rarely those that make the headlines. (Listen to “Heavyweight” from Spotify Studios.)