Podcast Playlist

Leon Neyfakh is the co-creator of the podcasts Slow Burn and Fiasco — two shows that take a closer look at big political scandals from the past. In this episode he shares a clip from the latest season of Fiasco and some of his favourite podcasts.

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Podcasts featured in this episode:

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1. Fiasco: The Iran-Contra scandal was a complex affair with a lot of moving parts involved. But its origins can be traced back to the very first day of Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

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2. The Gravy Train: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was a harbinger of the populist wave that would sweep the world. But before all that, reporter Robyn Doolittle was shown a video of the mayor smoking crack cocaine — and she couldn’t tell anyone.

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3. The Cut On Tuesdays: In this clip, comedian Aparna Nancherla talks about her anxiety, and how bringing it to the stage changed everything for her.

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4. 30 for 30: At first, the Donald Stirling affair seems almost cliche: Stirling, a powerful businessman and owner of the L.A. Clippers, cheats on his wife with a younger woman. But then, that woman released secret recordings of Stirling's shocking racism that shook the NBA.

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5. How to F--k up an Airport: The Berlin Brandenberg Airport was supposed to be a gleaming, world-class transit hub for the 21st century. This podcast explores how everything went so terribly wrong.

Featuring: Conversations with People Who Hate Me: "In the summer of 2017 journalist Katie Herzog wrote a piece that was widely criticized. Ultimately she found herself at the bottom of a social media pile-on. 3,000 miles east of Katie, a woman named Robyn Kanner joined that pile-on tweeting "ur just trash." In this episode, taped live in front an audience, Katie and Robyn meet onstage for the first time to discuss what happened between them, and the unlikely twist that brought them closer than they would have ever guessed."

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Food, We Need To Talk: "You know better than to expect life to be fair. But still, it's enough to drive anyone crazy: some people seem to be able to eat anything they want and never gain weight."

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Drilled: "In this season we're tackling Big Oil's big propaganda machine — its origins, the spin masters who created it, and why it's been so effective. It all began more than 100 years ago with Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller and his son, a bloody miners' strike, and the very first P.R. guy, who swooped in to clean it all up."

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Death, Sex & Money: "A text message gone wrong. A bachelorette party exclusion. A racist comment during the 2016 debates. Today, we're sharing your stories about how race, identity, and racism have impacted your friendships."

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Twenty Thousand Hertz: Is Paul McCartney actually a cyborg who was replaced in 1969? We'll learn about the musical phenomenon of "backmasking" and why it had people playing their records backwards.

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The Program audio series: "The Program audio series is a historical podcast set in a future in which Money, State and God became fused into a single entity called the Program. Each episode is a self-contained story focusing on ordinary people inhabiting this extraordinary world. And for them, it is not this future that is terrifying - it is our present."

Is it the raw talent or the intense dedication to performance? Or maybe it’s the attitude, the ‘IT’ factor, that charms audiences all around the world. From Aretha to Beyonce to Celine — we bring you podcasts about some of the mightiest women in music.

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Making Beyonce: "Before the Grammys, before the platinum records, before Destiny's Child, there was just a shy girl growing up in Houston. We follow Beyoncé Knowles from the stages of local talent shows to her first crack at a record deal with the group Girls Tyme."

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Dolly Parton's America: "One of Dolly's most iconic and successful songs is "Jolene," a song that, at first listen, is about a romantic rival trying to steal her man: a prime example of the classic "cheating song." But some see it as flipping a popular country music trope on its head. This idea takes shape when Nadine Hubbs, a professor at the University of Michigan, writes a fourth verse to "Jolene," which makes us reimagine Dolly's songs in entirely new ways."

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Switched on Pop: The Switched on Pop team join forces with producer Gina Delvac to talk about the evolution of Rihanna and her much anticipated ninth studio album.

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The Big Story: "Céline Dion has been many things throughout her career, but 'cool' has rarely been one of them. As one of the bestselling artists to call this country home Céline should have won us all over long ago. But she never quite broke through to the more cynical younger generation.Until that generation stopped being cynical, that is. It turns out Céline Dion was always cool. She was just waiting for us to come to her. And over the past few years, we have, by the millions."

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Inside the Junos: "Alanis Morissette burst on the scene with 'Jagged Little Pill' and shook up the music world. Her magic says Chilly is, 'that strange yodel, that weird break in her voice that makes the vocal performance so raw and so real.'"

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Heat Rocks: "Heat Rocks had always planned to sit down with DJ Lynnée Denise, an LA-based DJ and music scholar, but when Aretha Franklin passed on August 16th, we invited her to come talk with us about the Queen's life and legacy as part two of our series Women Behaving Boldly."

You’ve heard about art heists. You’ve heard about bank heists. But what about maple syrup heists? We go behind the syrupy scheme that made millions. This week on Podcast Playlist, we bring you the best true crime podcasts to binge this winter.

Podcasts featured this week:

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The Score: Bank Robber Diaries – "Breaking the rules at a young age set Joe Loya up for a descent into crime. From his first time robbing a bank, to a violent altercation behind bars, this is Joe Loya's origin story."

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Uncover: Satanic Panic – "In the newest season of Uncover, host Lisa Bryn Rundle unravels the history of a moral hysteria that took root across North America." Plus: An interview with creator Lisa Bryn Rundle.

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Detective Trapp – Los Angeles Times' Christopher Goffard tells the story of homicide detective, Julissa Trapp, who worked on a case about four missing women in Orange County, California. In this clip we meet Detective Julissa Trapp.

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Beyond Bizarre True Crime – "With popularity comes demand and with every commodity comes a black market. Maple syrup is no different. So when a group of thieves decided to steal some sweet liquid gold from a storage warehouse in Quebec, they weren't about to stop at a couple of bottles or cases. This would go down as one of the most lucrative and perhaps most unusual robberies in Canadian history."

This week — food insecurity across Ontario, the power of powders and pills, the surveillance of Ronan Farrow and more new podcasts.

Hard to Stomach – "How do you decide between buying bread and keeping the lights on? Hard to Stomach focuses on stories from real people facing and fighting against food insecurity in communities across Ontario. Hosted by Nana aba Duncan."

The Catch and Kill – "Igor Ostrovskiy is a private investigator in New York. In 2017, he was contracted to surveil Ronan Farrow on behalf of a secret client. Igor would eventually learn that the secret client was Black Cube, an Israel-based agency with roots in the Mossad, and they were working on behalf of Harvey Weinstein."

The Dream – "Can powders, pills and juices deliver on the promise to live longer and look younger?"

More with Anna Maria Tremonti – More with Anna Maria Tremonti feels like an evening with smart friends. It's a new podcast that promises to take you deep into conversation — and to some unexpected places — with culture shapers like Catherine O'Hara, David Suzuki, Malcolm Gladwell and Samantha Bee.

So Help Me – "When Anna moved from a large apartment in Philadelphia to a small apartment in Queens, she had to get rid of most of her possessions. Throwing stuff out felt good until she got to three large plastic bins in the corner of her apartment. They were filled with all the art she'd made in Art School. For weeks, she couldn't bring herself to throw the art away. To understand why, she turned to a 4'7 Japanese tidying legend."

Bad With Money – "Gaby invites a Tibetan Buddhist monk to be on his very first podcast! Gyaltsen Chopel discusses how Buddhism functions to deprioritize money altogether — and his work as a caretaker who handles day-to-day expenses and donations made to a Buddhist temple in Los Angeles. It's not the conversation you'd expect from a monk! Then, Gaby calls India to speak to assistant professor of Hindu Studies, Dheepa Sundaram, about how Hindu culture views community, money, technology and wealth."

Plus, meet our new host!

You can never have enough podcasts in your rotation. They keep us company when we’re alone with a sink full of dirty dishes, when we're folding laundry or heading to work. In this episode, we bring you some of our current favourites.

Podcasts featured this week:

Startup: Success Academy – "Eva Moskowitz wants to fix a really big problem. There are over a million kids in New York City's public schools. Most can't read or do math at grade level. And it's largely poor, black and brown kids who are stuck in the lowest performing schools. Eva's the founder and CEO of Success Academy. Her school network is growing at lightning speed, and her students get among the highest standardized-test scores in the city, beating out schools in some of the wealthiest districts."

How Did This Get Made – Casey Wilson joins hosts Paul Scheer, June Diane Rapheal, and Jason Mantzoukas to discuss the 1991 comedy Drop Dead Fred. A giant fight ensues.

Inappropriate Questions – "Transgender folks can get asked invasive questions about their bodies. Harv and Elena speak to student activist Robert Molloy."

Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend – "Comedian, actor, and writer Kumail Nanjiani feels apologetic about being Conan O'Brien's friend. Kumail sits down with Conan to discuss his recent absence on the television program, coming from a hardworking family, having incredible balance, hating Ferris Bueller, and the best way to reward oneself."

Bear 148 – "Many people called Bear 148 the perfect neighbour because she wasn't afraid of people. So how did she end up being shot by a hunter far from her home?"

Party Lines – A political primer for every kind of concerned citizen co-hosted by Rosemary Barton (The National) and Elamin Abdelmahmoud (BuzzFeed News).

Do you have a new favourite podcast we should listen to? Email, tweet us @PodcastPlaylist, or find us on Facebook.

For more great podcasts, check out CBC's podcast portal, subscribe in Apple Podcasts.

We bring you a list of podcasts that all delve raising others and what it's like to be raised. There are a lot of different approaches to being a parent, and we have all the angles covered.

The Longest Shortest Time – "Myra Jones-Taylor's son is black, but it's a constant struggle to get his peers and teachers to see him that way."

Mom and Dad are Fighting – "Slate's parenting advice show helps a listener with how to talk to a 5-year-old about their absent father."

Death, Sex & Money – "The year after Tig Notaro's life fell apart, she turned it into a comedy set — and it went viral, bringing her overnight fame. And in the middle of it all, she was trying to become a parent."

Other People's Problems – "Belle is feeling like a bad parent. Hillary talks with her about the idea of a "good enough" mom."

Reveal – "A controversial theory about child abuse is swaying family court judges to award custody to parents accused of harming kids. We trace the origins of 'parental alienation.'"

Family Secrets – "The first time Marla had cancer, she and her husband John told the whole family, and Marla hated the attention it brought. So when it came back years later, they hardly told anyone — including their own children."

We’re inviting you into the kitchen to sample some stories about food.

Podcasts featured this week:

Racist Sandwich – Producer Stephanie Kuo talks about the gentrification of BBQ in Texas.

Offshore – "Reporter Paola Mardo dives into the history of America's fascination with all things Tiki."

Hidden Kitchens: The Kitchen Sisters – A meditation on how Koreans use one of their national dishes (Kimchi) to connect with people within and outside of the country through "Kimchi diplomacy."

Home Cooked – Sarah Martin interviews the Subban family about a special liver recipe that may be the key to being a NHL hockey player.

Sunday Night Dinner – Nana Aba Duncan is the host of CBC Radio's weekend morning program, Fresh Air. She and Suzanne Hancock decide to make a well-loved Ghanian dish called Groundnut Soup. Listen to Nana Aba talk about family roles, visiting Ghana and comfort foods. Plus a cameo from Nana Aba's mom!

Hot Plate: A Post-Foodie Podcast – "Mirella and Joshna welcome Wayne Reeves, Chief Curator of Museums and Heritage Services for the City of Toronto and curator of the upcoming "Toronto Brews: Two Centuries of Beer Culture in the City." In this episode we learn about Toronto's totally un-fun "Beverage Rooms."

Proof: America's Test Kitchen – Most of the oranges we eat today are the descendants of the Washington Navel orange. And most Washington Navel oranges come from two trees that travelled across America to find a home in California. This is their story.

Do you have a new favourite podcast we should listen to? Email, tweet us @PodcastPlaylist, or find us on Facebook.

For more great podcasts, check out CBC's podcast portal, subscribe in Apple Podcasts.

Have you ever stopped to think about what a balloon, a bar of soap, a subway seat, or a can of cola would have to say? On this podcast, they each have a voice and they're ready to spill their truths.

From PRX and Radiotopia, Everything is Alive is an unscripted interview series in which each guest is an inanimate object. No two items' experiences are the same as they each have a life story and their own unique perspective on the world at large. With company like this, it's no wonder the show won the 2019 Webby Award for Best Interview/Talk Show.

This week, we're sharing one of our fave episodes from last spring. Joining us is Ian Chillag – producer, writer and host of Everything Is Alive. As our guest curator, he brings us his favourite outside-the-box podcasts.

"There's a flavour that is McDonald's, and I feel like that sometimes when I'm listening to podcasts. There's a flavour that is 'podcasts' ."

- Ian Chillag

We're joined this week by Elaine Lui, founder and editor of LaineyGossip.com and co-host of CTV's The Social. She shares her favourite podcasts and talks about how she made it in the entertainment industry.

Podcasts featured this week:

Show Your Work – "Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of New York Times bestseller 'Daisy Jones & The Six' tells us why men's interest in her work doesn't interest her."

Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc. – "Football star Aaron Hernandez went from the bright lights of the Super Bowl to a convicted murderer in a few years. Did a brain badly damaged by football contribute to Hernandez's violent behavior?"

They Call Us Bruce – "Recorded live at NCORE in Portland, Jeff and Phil welcome back Soleil Ho, restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. They talk race, culture, politics, identity and, of course, food."

Still Processing – Hosts Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham examine the portrayal of masculinity as mental illness in Joker and Fight Club.