Whenever I’m doing something that doesn’t require my full attention, chances are I’m also pushing play on a podcast. I’m a loyal listener to a couple dozen or so podcasts every year, so I like to put together some annual thoughts on the shows that left a big impression on me.

This isn’t a ranking of the best podcasts of the year (which would be woefully inadequate in such a massive medium anyway), but rather, just a collection of musings that I feel like broadcasting out to the world. This isn’t an exhaustive cataloging of every podcast I listened to in 2023, but it is a pretty good snapshot of my Podcast Personality.

So read on, let me know what you’re listening to as well, and maybe we can podcast together sometime, too!

Returning Champions: It’s hard to believe that Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend started more than five years ago – it still feels so new every day!…Comedy Bang! Bang! maintains a vital spot on my feed, especially any episode with Gil Ozeri, who’s so funny that it’s just unfair…The Doughboys episode about Orange Julius featured one of my favorite discussions ever about Young Sheldon…Adam Scott Aukerman teamed up once again for another musical miniseries in 2023, and this time, it was totally Boss…There’s a lot of Scott Aukerman on my feed, which makes sense, because he and I share such a similar comedic sensibility. Thus I treasure all the cinematic conversations that he and Sprague the Whisperer have on Scott Hasn’t Seen (particularly when Santa Claus drops by, too!).

The Feisty Challengers: At the 2021 and 2022 US Opens, a fan went viral when she chugged a beer on camera. Then in 2023, I discovered that her name was Megan Lucky, and she’d launched a podcast called A Lucky Life. It’s an exploration of self-discovery and self-improvement, which isn’t a podcast genre that I typically listen to. But it proved to be a fascinating journey, particularly a moment when she reads comments from someone who initially trolled her on social media, only to turn around his position completely after they had a fruitful bit of back-and-forth…Nobody does comedy or TV quite like Joe Pera. And now, thanks to Drifting Off with Joe Pera, nobody does podcasts quite like him either…When the writers walked off their jobs, the country’s late night hosts banded together for Strike Force Five to podcast away the days while their shows were on hiatus. What started out as a meandering series of mid conversations turned into something transcendent when Jimmy Fallon attempted to organize a Newlywed Game-style series of quizzes.

And of course, I continued to produce my own podcast along with my lovely co-host, Aunt Beth, as That’s Auntertainment covered such topics like Super Bowl commercials, Mel Brooks, and watching TV in the midst of a couple of strikes.