10 literary and culture podcasts worth your time

The original. Ira Glass and team turn true stories into small films for your ears. Each week is built around a theme — personal, political, absurd, devastating. If you’ve never listened, start anywhere. It all works. Winner of the first Pulitzer Prize for a podcast.

Not what you’d expect. Dua Lipa sits down with writers, thinkers and artists — from Elif Batuman to Ottessa Moshfegh — for long-form conversations about books, ideas and living well. Thoughtful, curious and genuinely literary. A sleeper hit.

The Los Angeles Review of Books’ flagship podcast. Breezy and rigorous in equal measure — smart questions, honest answers, and a guest list that goes deeper than the usual circuit. Kelly Reichardt, Vauhini Vara, Robin Coste Lewis have all appeared. The gold standard for the literary fireside chat.

Two presenters, one guest, one forgotten book. Each episode resurrects a title the world moved past too quickly. Backlisted is warm, funny and quietly radical — it insists that the best book you’ll ever read might already be out of print. From across the pond, for anyone who reads.

The weekly roundup from Literary Hub. Charming takes on the week’s literary news, new books worth reading, and conversations with writers who actually have something to say. If you only subscribe to one literary podcast, most people in the industry would tell you this is it.

The podcast that made podcasts. Sarah Koenig’s first season is a masterclass in narrative structure — how to hold attention across twelve episodes with nothing but a voice and a question. Essential listening for anyone interested in how stories are built.

Stage and screen actors read classic and new short fiction before a live audience. Produced by WNYC, it’s been running for decades. David Sedaris, Cynthia Nixon and Stephen Colbert have all hosted. The closest thing to a live literary event in your headphones.

The New Yorker’s charismatic roundtable. Critics from the magazine gather to discuss books, film, music and culture with the kind of ease that only comes from people who genuinely know what they’re talking about. An Algonquin redux for the podcast age.

Long-form interviews with internationally acclaimed authors, recorded from the legendary Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. Hosted by literary director Adam Biles. Intimate, unhurried, and set in the most romantic bookshop on earth. If you’ve ever stood in that shop and wished you could stay, this is how.

Gladwell re-examines things we thought we understood — an overlooked event, a misunderstood person, a taken-for-granted idea. Each episode is a short essay in audio form. Sharp, surprising, and beautifully produced. For anyone who believes the first draft of history is never the final one.