12 Of The Best Podcasts to Hear Life Stories

The tools of a podcast. Here we offer 12 of the best for life storytelling

Disclosure: There are some affiliate links below, and I may receive commissions for purchase made through the links in the post. However, these are products I highly recommend. I won’t list anything I haven’t tried and found personally useful.

Not to brag, but I was listening to public radio before it was cool. And most of the time years back, the only place to catch the great programing was on the radio, and for me, that was usually when I was in my car.

I traveled for work which is when I became hooked and would scan the dial for the nearest public radio station as I drove. I've had numerous "driveway moments" (a term coined by public radio fundraising pushes) when I had to finish listening to a story before I could get out of the car.

Podcasting and the internet have made listening to shows so much easier. Instant gratification. In addition to public radio, media outlets have risen, producing incredible podcasting content you can find "wherever you listen to podcasts."

As a sucker for life stories, my favorite podcasts relate to non-fiction storytelling. Listening to stories in a quiet moment or with your earbuds in while taking a walk seems to heighten the experience's intimacy. It's like you've been given special access to a story being told just for you, one that transports and even changes you.

Life stories remind us we are all part of the human experience and that even if the details differ the feelings are universal. Fear, joy, rage, loss, or confusion, each story allows us to take away something relatable that helps us feel less alone.

So here are 12 of my favorites:

Over My Dead Body offers up great life storytelling

1. Over My Dead Body

Journalist Matthew Shaer hosts this Over My Dead Body, featuring high-profile stories told throughout several episodes. The details of the backstory are fleshed out step-by-step with cliffhanger twists and turns that keep you listening. The soundscape for the storytelling adds to the intensity of the listening experience. I had to power-listen to the series that covered the story of Dan Merkel's murder because my ears demanded it.

Heavyweight Podcast is addictive storytelling that will leave you feeling light

2. Heavyweight

Created and produced by humorist Jonathan Goldstein, Heavyweight provides an unusual and courageous premise for a podcast. His goal is to help people try to resolve a moment from their past they wish they could change. People reach out and share an unsettled issue, and together we traverse their discontented memories, as Goldstein works to help them find closure. It's weird, but through the process of storytelling, there is a kind of resolution. I would especially recommend episode #35 – Rachel and Jon. The new season of episodes will start in the fall of 2021, but each episode is timeless, and past seasons are binge-worthy.

The Mortified Podcast Banner

3. The Mortified Podcast

You know you've evolved when you can look back on your adolescence and not cringe, especially when reading the journal entries you wrote as a child. And if you can even share your juvenile ruminations with an audience and laugh together, that is true courage. The Mortified Podcast features adults sharing embarrassing things they wrote in childhood journals. It's funny and healing life storytelling.

Serial Podcast reveal riveting stories to keep you on the edge of your seat.

4. Serial

This is investigative journalism hosted by Sarah Koenig that weaves together in-depth research of true events with adept writing for enticing storytelling. There are three seasons available, and each relates the facts of high-profile crime stories over a series of episodes. The riveting presentation includes an audio backdrop that propels the story and keeps you coming back for more.

Radiolab Podcast is sound and story blended together perfectly.

5. Radiolab

This award-winning podcast is one of the most popular and beloved of public radio. Not only will you discover things about science and life that you didn't know, but you'll also be carried along by the compelling soundscape mix in each episode. The banter between hosts and storytellers makes you feel you are right there in the conversation, too. "Radiolab provokes, it moves, it delights, and it asks its audience to see the world around them anew."  

The Memory Palace is perfect because do remember stories.

6. The Memory Palace

It was clear to me when listening to The Memory Palace, that Nate DiMeo is an artist. He knows how to craft story and sound into a piece that carries the listener to another dimension. I wasn't surprised to learn that he lists Artist in Residence at the Metropolitan Museum in New York among his many accomplishments. The Memory Palace is part history, part journalism, and each episode is a work of art to the ears and mind.

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7. The Moth

We become one with the audience as we listen to people sharing stories live on stage. There is this sense that someone is on a bit of a tightrope, making the storytelling in The Moth that much more thrilling. You'll run the gambit of emotions as you listen to one story after another. I make it a point to listen to The Moth Radio Hour each week, as it brings the best stories together with a theme that truly engages.

This American Life Podcast Banner

8. This American Life

The marvel of the stories featured on This American Life is that they can be both "big" and "small," but they dispensed so well that each one is worthy of your listening time. There is a talent to knowing how to lead the listener along from one moment to the next; Ira Glass is a master at it, and along with his team, they accomplish it perfectly each week. Each episode deals with a theme, and then stories are told in "acts."

You are what you listen to. Make it Snap Judgement

9. Snap Judgement

Captivating stories wrapped up in dense sound editing make you sit up and stay engaged in each episode of Snap Judgement. The host, Glynn Washington, has a dramatic flair and rich voice that propel from one story to another in a show featuring a theme. You'll be transported to an out-of-body experience floating on the winds of humanity in each podcast.

Money is one part of the death, sex, and money podcast

10. Death, Sex & Money

It's the thoughts we keep in the dark that make us most anxious. Remarkably, Anna Sale hosts this interview format podcast, discussing the big questions in a way that makes the conversation easier. Every topic is fair game on Death, Sex, and Money, from what goes on inside a Texas strip club, the experience of aging, and being present in the execution room witnessing someone being put to death. Heavy stuff delivers in a captivating and informative way. 

Terrible, Thanks for Asking Podcast Banner

11. Terrible, Thanks For Asking

Host Nora McInerny has the enviable ability to talk with people who have endured terrible pain and loss while leaving listeners of Terrible, Thanks For Asking, feeling hopeful. Perhaps it is because Nora has experienced sorrow herself that makes her interviews work so well. She lost her husband to cancer when she was a young mother, and she is well-grounded in understanding. The way Nora and her guests talk head-on about life challenges shows us what resilience looks like in the face of grief. It helps us all feel a bit less frightened.

StoryCorps Podcast on the road recording stories.

12. StoryCorps

On a mission to help preserve life stories, StoryCorps has inspired others to pick up and create life storytelling podcasts. Each interview is authentic, representing a conversation; one person asks questions, and the other answers. StoryCorps stories are intimate moments of dialogue that offer us hope about humanity and our ability to listen and love more to know each other better. All these interviews are being preserved in a national archive.

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Sherry and Alexandra Borzo together in Lima, Peru

Sherry is the founder of Storied Gifts a personal publishing service of family and company histories. She and her team help clients curate and craft their stories into books. When not writing or interviewing, Sherry spends loads of time with her grandchildren and lives in Des Moines, Iowa.

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