Charles John Klosterman is an American author and essayist whose work focuses on American popular culture. He has been a columnist for Esquire and ESPN.com and wrote "The Ethicist" column for The New York Times Magazine. Klosterman is the author of twelve books, including two novels and the essay collection Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto. He was awarded the ASCAP Deems Taylor award for music criticism in 2002.
Mark Ames is a New York-based American journalist. He was the editor of the biweekly the eXile in Moscow, from its founding in 1997 until its closure in 2008. Ames has also written for the New York Press, PandoDaily, The Nation, Playboy, The San Jose Mercury News, Alternet, Птюч Connection, GQ, and is the author of three books. He co-hosts the podcast Radio War Nerd along with John Dolan.
Samuel Benjamin Harris is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on a range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, neuroscience, meditation, psychedelics, philosophy of mind, politics, terrorism, and artificial intelligence. Harris came to prominence for his criticism of religion, and he is known as one of the "Four Horsemen" of New Atheism, along with Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett.
Michael Swaim is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, podcaster, and writer. While attending the University of California, San Diego, he became a columnist for the humor website Cracked.com, and after graduating from college in 2007, he joined with Abe Epperson to co-found the internet sketch comedy troupe Those Aren't Muskets. Along with Epperson and another frequent collaborator, Daniel O'Brien, he spent the late 2000s establishing a video department for Cracked. His subsequent tenure as Head of Video for the website produced several viral web series that he and O'Brien often starred in; these include the Webby Award-winning After Hours and the Streamy Award-winning Agents of Cracked.
Attitudes! is a weekly comedy podcast based on discussions of women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, progressive politics and pop culture. The podcast is hosted by ("Feminasty") Erin Gibson and ("Homosensual") Bryan Safi. Gibson and Safi's comedic repartee frequently features adult topics and addresses social, cultural, and political issues.
Michael Donovan Mitchell is an American actor, comedian, and writer best known as a member of The Birthday Boys sketch comedy group. He is also known for his roles as Randy Monahan on the Netflix series Love, and Cowan in the Amazon Prime Video film The Tomorrow War. He currently co-hosts the podcast Doughboys, which reviews and discusses chain restaurants.
Chapo Trap House is an American socialist political comedy podcast launched in March 2016. Chapo Trap House is aligned with the dirtbag left, a style of contentious left-wing political discourse that eschews civility in favor of casual, blunt, often vulgar expression. Since its inception the show has been primarily hosted by Will Menaker along with a rotating cast of cohosts, which currently includes Felix Biederman, Matt Christman, and Amber A'Lee Frost, along with a variety of guest co-hosts. It is produced by Chris Wade.
Literary Hub or LitHub is a daily literary website that was launched in 2015 by Grove Atlantic president and publisher Morgan Entrekin, American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame editor Terry McDonell, and Electric Literature founder Andy Hunter.
The Last Podcast on the Left is a weekly podcast on the Last Podcast Network featuring podcast producer and researcher Marcus Parks, comedian and actor Henry Zebrowski, and comedian Ed Larson, three longtime friends. Episodes have explored the topics of serial killers, cults, conspiracy theories, UFO sightings, ghosts, cryptids, the occult, and readings of fan-submitted creepypastas. The name is a reference to the 1972 horror movie The Last House on the Left.
Rabia Chaudry is a Pakistani-American attorney, author and podcast host. She is a family friend of Adnan Syed—who was the subject of the podcast Serial (2014)--and subsequently wrote a book about his case called Adnan’s Story: The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial (2016), which became a New York Times best seller. Chaudry co-hosts several podcasts, namely Undisclosed, a podcast on Syed's case and others.
Hollywood Handbook is a weekly comedy podcast hosted by Hayes Davenport and Sean Clements. Episodes generally consist of Davenport, Clements, and a guest offering advice, telling stories, and doing segments, all in a highly satirical, absurdist manner. Guests have included Donald Glover, Ellie Kemper, Aubrey Plaza, Kumail Nanjiani, Nick Kroll, Patton Oswalt, Nick Wiger, and Sharon Horgan. The show has been described as "essentially a mockery of entertainment niceties — with Clements and Davenport taunting industry bigwigs [...] about whatever projects they are promoting, all while pleading to be involved with them".
Doughboys is an audio podcast hosted by Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger focused on reviewing chain restaurants, including fast food restaurants, fast casual restaurants, and sit-down restaurants. The podcast started in May 2015, and began offering bonus episodes for Patreon supporters in March 2017 under the name Doughboys Double. The theme music for both Doughboys and Doughboys Double were composed and produced by Michael Cassady. Doughboys joined the Headgum network in April 2018, after having previously been members of the Feral Audio network until its disbandment.
The Anthropocene Reviewed is the shared name for a podcast and 2021 nonfiction book by John Green. The podcast started in January 2018, with each episode featuring Green reviewing "different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale". The name comes from the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch that includes significant human impact on the environment. Episodes typically contain Green reviewing two topics, accompanied by stories on how they have affected his life. These topics included intangible concepts like humanity's capacity for wonder, artificial products like Diet Dr. Pepper, natural species that have had their fates altered by human influence like the Canada goose, and phenomena that primarily influence humanity such as Halley's Comet.
Blank Check with Griffin & David is a film podcast following the career output of notable directors who had significant success early in their careers and were then offered a figurative blank check to pursue their passion projects. Most episodes focus on a single movie from the director's filmography, and the show's episodes are grouped into miniseries, in which some or all of the director's films are reviewed. Founded in 2015, the show is hosted by actor Griffin Newman and The Atlantic film critic David Sims.
Dissect is a music podcast that debuted in 2016 and is hosted by Cole Cuchna. The podcast is renowned for its in-depth analysis of contemporary music. Dissect was named "Best podcast of 2017" by Quartz, and the following year was named "Best podcast of 2018" by The New York Times. Additionally, both Time magazine and The Guardian listed Dissect as one of the top 50 podcasts of 2018.
Cum Town was a comedy podcast that was hosted by New York City-based comedians Nick Mullen, Stavros Halkias, and Adam Friedland, and produced between 2016 and 2022. During its run, it was consistently one of the most popular podcasts on Patreon and concluded as one of the top 25 comedy podcasts on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. In July 2022, it was succeeded by Mullen and Friedland's spin-off podcast and interview show The Adam Friedland Show.
You're Wrong About is an American history and pop culture podcast created by journalist Michael Hobbes and writer Sarah Marshall. It has been hosted by Marshall since its inception; Hobbes also hosted until 2021. Launched in May 2018, the show explores misunderstood media events by interrogating why and how the public got things wrong. Show topics have included events like the Challenger Disaster, the O. J. Simpson Trial, and the Murder of Kitty Genovese and covered people such as Anna Nicole Smith, Yoko Ono, Tonya Harding, and Lorena Bobbitt. It was named one of the ten best podcasts by Time in 2019.
Switched on Pop is a podcast about popular music. The show was created in 2014. It is hosted by musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding.
Michael Hobbes is a journalist and podcast host. He was formerly a Senior Enterprise Reporter for HuffPost. His writing has also appeared in Pacific Standard, The New Republic, and Slate.
