Radio and podcasts: Miranda Sawyer’s 10 best listens of 2023

‘A must-hear’: Catherine Carr, host of Where Are You Going? Photograph: Chris Frazer Smith/The Observer

1. Where Are You Going?
Loftus Media
Catherine Carr asks punters all over the world: where are you going? The resulting chats – intimate, funny, anonymous – plus atmospheric sound, made this a 2023 must-hear. Originally on the BBC World Service, it’s now produced by Loftus Media.

2. Bone Valley
Lava for Good
True crime podcasts often disappoint, fading after the third or fourth episode. Not so this year’s standout, Bone Valley, which not only solves a 1980s murder, but persuades the murderer to confess – and to another killing too. (If you enjoyed this, The Bakersfield Three, though very different, also got its answers.)

3. The Rest Is Entertainment
Goalhanger

Richard Osman and Marina Hyde teamed up to launch a witty look at showbiz. Goalhanger Photograph: Goalhanger Podcasts

Richard Osman and Marina Hyde turn their clever minds to pop culture, with a witty, topical peek behind the scenes of entertainment and how it’s monetised. By far the best of The Rest Is… shows from Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger stable, which dominated the podcast year.

4. Closet Confessions
Apple Podcasts
Only a handful of podcasts arrive fully formed, and this is one. Candice Brathwaite and Coco Sarel are born communicators and they don’t hold back, especially when considering listeners’ dilemmas. Funny two-hander shows are a podcast stalwart; this is one of the best.

5. Ghost Story
Wondery
This is such an odd, compelling tale. Combining rollercoaster family dynamics with poltergeist experiences and the careful unpicking of a strange death, in a great year for true crime, this stood out. For weirdness of a different type, try Hooked on Freddie.

6. Rental Health
Radio 4/BBC Sounds
Small but perfectly formed documentary series on the disgraceful state of housing in the UK. The type of state-of-the-nation factual audio that Radio 4 does so well.

7. Filthy Ritual
Global Originals

Hannah Maguire (left) and Suruthi Bala present true crime series Filthy Ritual. Photograph: PR Handout

RedHanded’s Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala got out of their podcast booth to unpick a shocking story of trickery in north London’s genteel sitting rooms. The best of the don’t-get-scammed true crime shows (Love, Janessa was a close second).

8. Have You Heard George’s Podcast?
Radio 5 Live/BBC Sounds

George Mpanga, AKA George the Poet. Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Observer

Still the most inventive, artful, musical, up-to-the-minute show out there, series four of George the Poet’s show travelled to Africa to dissect various countries’ struggle for independence from a colonial past. Class of ’88, Will Smith’s surprisingly revealing show about late 1980s hip-hop, offered further musical insight.

9. Dave Berry (and breakfast shows generally)
Planet Radio
We’re a long way from ye olde bantzy boys’ club breakfast shows. A recent winner of a Tric (Television and Radio Industries Club) recognition award, Dave Berry’s Absolute Radio breakfast show is a naturally inclusive listen that involves the listener from start to finish – as do Capital’s breakfast show, headed by Roman Kemp, the madly popular Amanda and Jamie on Heart, and the BBC’s Greg James on Radio 1, Lauren Laverne at 6 Music and Zoe Ball on Radio 2. Warmth rather than sneering in the morning, thank you. An alternative to all this year’s awful news.

10. Falling Tree
Indie production company Falling Tree celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. It specialises in the one-off audio treat: playful nonfiction that stays in the mind and heart. With its brilliant doc series Lights Out coming to an end, Radio 3 and 4 must keep space for these gems.