Podcast Playlist

After almost 400 episodes, six hosts and many (many) hours of podcast listening, Podcast Playlist's run is coming to an end. 

For our final episode we wanted to share one final podcast playlist with you. A playlist to answer the question we are most frequently asked: what is your favourite podcast episode of all time?

Today our producers join Leah in studio to share memories and clips from our favourite pods. Featured shows: The Truth, Mystery Show, The Moth and The Nod.

Have some parting words? Email us at [email protected]. Or find us on Facebook and cbc.ca/podcastplaylist. For more great podcasts, check out CBC's podcast portal, and subscribe for free in Apple Podcasts.

This week we're sharing a repeat of one of our favourite episodes from October.

As a foreign correspondent, David Common's reporting has taken him to more than 80 countries, including warzones in Afghanistan, Iraq and Ukraine. 

But these days he's staying a bit closer to home. David has recently taken over hosting duties on CBC Radio's morning show in Toronto, Metro Morning. He's also the co-host of the consumer watchdog show, Marketplace, on CBC Television.

Marketplace now has its very own podcast. This week on the show, David will tell us what it was like turning a TV show into a podcast, plus he'll share some of the podcasts in his rotation.

Like the show Wind of Change: The song "Wind of Change" by The Scorpions was a massive hit at the end of the Cold War. But was it really written by the CIA? We'll hear about the surprising links between the agency and pop culture.

All that and more on this week's episode.

Featuring: Marketplace, The Secret Life of Canada, Wind of Change, War on the Rocks, Yo Is This Racist?

For links and more info head to cbc.ca/podcastplaylist.

This week on Podcast Playlist, we're celebrating Pride month. 

In the proverbial starter pack of anti-gay slogans, there's one that has stayed consistent over the years: "It's just not natural!"

The only problem with that...is according to science, same-sex relationships are extremely natural, occurring in all kinds of different animal species.

We'll learn more about that from A Field Guide To Gay Animals. And we'll meet one very special gay animal: a Seychelles giant tortoise named Jonathan, who's believed to be the oldest living animal in the world. 

Plus, on the queer music podcast Sounds Gay, we'll dive into the mosh pit at a trans punk rock show, and hear how music is connecting trans folks across generational lines. 

All that and more, this week on Podcast Playlist. 

Featuring: A Field Guide To Gay Animals, The Secret Life of Canada, Sounds Gay, Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows, Handsome, Gender Reveal

For links and more info head to cbc.ca/podcastplaylist.

This week we're sharing one of our favourite episodes from this season.

Life coaches sell promises of prosperity, health and happiness. But do coaches actually help you achieve your goals? That's the question at the heart of Season 3 of The Dream.

Having tackled pyramid schemes and the world of wellness, coaching seemed like an obvious topic to explore next. Host and creator Jane Marie says that in many ways coaching combines tactics used to sell products in both the multi-level-marketing and wellness industries.

This week, Leah and Jane sit down to talk about the show and Jane's upcoming book Selling the Dream: The Billion Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans. Plus, we'll listen to some of Jane's favourite podcasts. 

FEATURING: The Dream, This American Life, My Year In Mensa, Where Should We Begin with Esther Perel

For links and more info, head to cbc.ca/podcastplaylist

The Moth is one of the oldest shows in podcasting. In fact, it pre-dates the medium by several years, having begun in the founder’s living room in 1997. 

Today, The Moth is an internationally touring live storytelling production and a popular podcast and radio show. 

This week Leah sits down with The Moth’s senior director Meg Bowles to talk about The Moth’s new book, "A Point of Beauty: True Stories of Holding On and Letting Go," and about 27 years of helping everyday people bring their stories to life.

Plus, we’ll have more storytelling podcasts. Like Mortified, where we’ll hear host David Nadelberg read an extremely cringey love letter he wrote as a teenager in front of a live audience.  

All that and more, this week on Podcast Playlist.

Featuring: The Moth, Grown, Mortified, Normal Gossip

Check out our episode with Kelsey McKinney from Normal Gossip

For links and more info, head to cbc.ca/podcastplaylist

This week on Podcast Playlist: Yo, Is This Racist has hilariously tackled questions about racism since 2011. Creator and host Andrew Ti tells us about the show’s evolution and shares his podcast picks.

Plus, every summer, the best and brightest teen girls in the US compete in the lucrative “Distinguished Young Women” competition. We get a direct look into the competition with podcaster and former competitor, Shima Oliaee. 

Featuring: The Competition, Forever Is A Long Time, Yo Is This Racist?, Past My Bedtime

For links and more info head to cbc.ca/podcastplaylist.

This week, we’re asking three podcasters to pitch their show to listeners, and we’ll hear a sample of each one.  

We’re starting with George The Poet. His show is called Have You Heard George’s Podcast? It’s won tons of awards, including a Peabody—and if you haven’t heard it, we promise you’ve never heard another show like it. 

Then, Leah sits down with Arshy Mann, host of COMMONS, to talk about why the new season of his show is all about work — the jobs we do, the conditions we work in, and why things feel like they’ve gotten so much harder for working people. 

Plus, actor and comedian Allan McLeod will tell us about his new show, Walkin’ About. It’s a loving and funny tribute to the simple act of walking, the places it can take us, and the people we do it with. 

For links and more info, head to cbc.ca/podcastplaylist.

In the early days of the war on terror, the US captured thousands of alleged “enemy combatants” overseas, but they needed somewhere to hold and interrogate them… without worrying about those pesky Geneva Conventions. 

Guantánamo Bay was the perfect solution. But not long after it opened, the truth of its makeshift justice system started coming to light. 

The new season of Serial offers an unprecedented look behind the scenes at the island prison. Today, Leah sits down with co-hosts Sarah Koenig and Dana Chivvis to hear the story behind their reporting.

Plus, you know the song "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell? Well, did you know it was actually an obscure soul song written in the 1960s? We'll hear that story from Lost Notes, plus Leah talks to co-hosts Novena Carmel and Michael Barnes about the show.

All that and more this week on Podcast Playlist.

Featuring: Serial, Lost Notes, Broomgate, White Devil

For links and more info, head to cbc.ca/podcastplaylist.

This week on Podcast Playlist, Leah is joined by Josh Gwynn, host of the new CBC podcast Split Screen: Kid Nation. 

The podcast revisits the 2007 reality TV show Kid Nation, where 40 children were left in the desert to fend for themselves for more than a month. Through interviews with former contestants, producers and parents, Josh tries to piece together how this show actually got made, and what impact it had on those kids now that they’re all grown up. 

We’ll hear from Josh about that show’s legacy. Plus, we’ll listen to some of his favourite podcasts.

Featuring: Split Screen: Kid Nation, Today Explained, The Stoop, Classy, Scam Goddess

For links and more info head to cbc.ca/podcastplaylist. Have a podcast to recommend? Send us an email!

Whether it's in your high school English class or one of the many Shakespeare-inspired 90s rom-coms (10 Things I Hate About You, anybody?), most of us have encountered Shakespeare in some form or another. 

Another place you can find the Bard? California's Centinela State Prison. The podcast Where There's a Will: Finding Shakespeare tells us about how performing Shakespeare can be transformative for incarcerated individuals.

Also: in 1986, NASA's space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing all of its seven crew members. Among them was Christa McAuliffe, a social studies teacher who would have been the first private citizen in space. 

Christa was one of 10 finalists from Ronald Reagan's "Teacher in Space" project. Chosen from more than 10,000 teacher applicants, the finalists participated in weeks of rigorous testing and training. NASA called it "space camp," but the process was far from fun and games. 

In Slate's One Year: 1986, we hear about that intense experience from the former candidates themselves.

All that and more, this week on Podcast Playlist.

Featuring: If Books Could Kill, Where There's A Will: Finding Shakespeare, One Year: 1986, Missing and Murdered: Who Killed Alberta Williams, Future Perfect

For links and more info head to cbc.ca/podcastplaylist.