The 19 best podcasts to listen to in 2024

This Country star Daisy May Cooper made her first foray into the world of podcasting with this Audible production. In it, the actress and comedian hosts guests including Nish Kumar, Diane Morgan and – a true highlight of the show – Katie Price.

The name of the podcasting game? The guests have to convince Cooper to read their all-time favourite novels. Some of the choices are undoubtedly zany and the result is very often laugh-out-loud funny.

Film buffs, gather. This is one you will have to add to any podcast rotation if you want a peek behind the scriptwriting curtain on all your favourite films.

Each episode of Script Apart sees a screenwriter bring in the first draft of their film or TV show, and then chat through the many revisions which got them to the final product.

In the midst of awards season, this is a great companion podcast, with many of the Academy Award contenders already in the podcast feed.

Mo Gilligan's Spotlight stars – you guessed it – Mo Gilligan, in what is a podcast meets stand-up show.

But there's a twist: each episode is recorded live in a London comedy club and gives an exciting platform to a series of funny and fresh names in British comedy.

Come for the triple BAFTA-winning comedian, stay for the refreshing and curated bill of under-represented Brit stand-ups for you to follow next.

Let's face it: The Sopranos is in the ether at the moment. It might be the Mob Wife aesthetic taking over TikTok, or the sheer hoopla around the original prestige TV show's 25th anniversary. If there was ever a time to rewatch David Chase's masterpiece of television, this is it.

And the perfect companion pod is Talking Sopranos, featuring two of the show's beloved stars – Michael Imperioli, who played Christopher, and Steve Schirripa, who played Bobby – as they rewatch each and every episode of the HBO gangster hit.

The episodes are a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes stories and little-known facts that could only come from someone on the inside, with extra stars from the show popping up every so often.

Ever idly wondered what happened to your favourite film characters after the credits rolled? Well, you're not alone. After The Ending hypothesises just that.

But beyond wondering whether the members of The Breakfast Club were still all good mates when they went back into school the following week, our podcast hosts look at the film industry as a whole and are happy to throw in fun, bonus episodes on current releases.

If you're looking for a new audiobook, they certainly don't get much more prestige than the Audible and DC production of Neil Gaiman's smash graphic novel The Sandman.

With X-Men: First Class's James McAvoy as the immortal Lord Morpheus, as well as Riz Ahmed, Kat Dennings and Taron Egerton, this is an impressively starry ensemble cast to fill your ears.

Also, for Good Omens fans, there's a fun twist on that casting here, as Michael Sheen plays Lucifer, confronting Morpheus in Hell. You can't go wrong with this one.

While you may not immediately know the names of cinematographer Roger Deakins and his collaborator and wife James Ellis Deakins, you have almost certainly seen their work.

Having worked with the likes of the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes, and Denis Villeneuve, Team Deakins is a deep dive into film with a brilliant roster of quests to pick over the biz with.

The chats can veer into the technicals of filmmaking, often spotlighting the behind-the-scenes talent making the films we love come to visual life. What better a medium for all of that than a podcast?

Hosted by Kathy Burke, this is a podcast for the planners among us. Just as you might be voraciously planning your next five birthdays already, Where There's A Will, There's A Wake asks its celeb guests to plan their final day before they shuffle off this mortal coil and head to whatever comes next.

Equally hilarious and moving, the episode featuring a frank chat with EastEnders hardman Danny Dyer is as brilliant a place as any to dive in for a flavour of this very zany podcast.

Another comic star also hosting his first podcast over on Audible is Dara Ó Briain.

The comedian's pod Timewasters takes the beloved panel show format to the audio-only realm, as we hear Ó Briain's fellow comics offer up stories of when they have been the most dastardly wasteful of their lives. We're talking weeks thrown on the scrap heap in pursuit of failed fitness fads, to hours frittered away on property websites.

As ever with our former Mock the Week hero, laughter often ensues.

True crime nuts, this one is for you. Hosted by Pandora Sykes of the late but great High Low podcast, this is a call to action which takes on board a case of a long-term missing person each episode and asks listeners to help.

In the UK alone, a person is reported missing every 90 seconds. Working with the charities Locate International and Missing People, this podcast features interviews with family and friends to try and answer the question of where the missing person went.

The podcast also has regular update episodes, to follow up on certain cases when there are developments.

So, we probably don't need to tell you about this one, but we thought we would include it anyway. Ed Gamble and James Acaster's Off Menu podcast has generated the kind of podcastery success most podcasters could only dream of conjuring up in the podcasting sphere. The premise is simple. Pitch up. Order a starter, main, side, dessert and drink. Chat away all the while. The only people having more fun than those listening to Off Menu are Ed, James and whoever they've got in the studio that week.

MUBI is all about great cinema, and its podcast isn't any different.

The latest fifth season, titled 'Tailor Made', focuses on the fashion of said great films, with guests including Spike Lee on Do The Right Thing and Sofia Coppola on everything in her career from Virgin Suicides to Priscilla.

This award-winning podcast hosted by rapper N.O.R.E. and hip-hop lynchpin DJ EFN sees the pair joined by a range of guests for a series of boozy, raucous conversations about everything from their careers to the state of the music industry.

Suffice to say, once you get some drinks in everyone, nothing is off limits here.

The Ringer has one of the best suites of pop culture podcasts out there, so you can't really go wrong with anything they've got on offer.

But for obsessive film fans who like to take their absolute favourite, endlessly quotable films and watch them on a continuous loop, this is the pod for you.

Revisit classics such as Heat, The Departed and 10 Things I Hate About You – as well as many, many more – over on Apple or Spotify.

A former mainstay of BBC Sounds, Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo have struck out on their own to give their very regular takes on everything film and TV. The dad jokes are still here, as is the stellar roster of A-list guests.

This is a must-listen for most cinephiles.

Jon Ronson staked his claim on the culture war discourse from the publication of his 2015 book So You've Been Publicly Shamed. He's continued to follow that flashpoint-laden path with a series of remarkable podcast episodes over on BBC Sounds.

Each tells the strange story of a public skirmish.

The Radio 4 production is now back for a second season to look at where the COVID-19 lockdowns led to culture war chaos.

A recent highlight was a retelling of the US family who, on a Twilight-themed lockdown-escaping camping trip, were barricaded in a forest by armed, hostile townspeople polarised over Antifa. There are plenty more jaw-dropping stories to accompany that one, too.