We’re nearly halfway through the year, and podcast fans should have a decent lineup of new shows to listen to heading into the latter half of 2025. They include a deep cultural dive into the life of the late Jerry Springer and a show that unpacks the way we spend money.
‘Final Thoughts: Jerry Springer’ (Audible)
In this nine-part series, Leon Neyfakh, best known for “Fiasco” and the early seasons of “Slow Burn,” provides an in-depth history of “The Jerry Springer Show,” that “garish, syndicated daytime talk show infamous for its sensationalism and exploitative treatment of marginalized groups,” Vulture said. Neyfakh presents a “compelling case for Springer’s cultural significance, weaving it into a biographical portrait of the man himself, who died in 2023.” Neyfakh seemed “particularly interested in Springer’s contradictions.”
Despite being known as the godfather of “trash TV,” Springer was also “intelligent, politically engaged and deeply curious about what resonates with the public.” There is plenty to process in this “meaty portrait of a complicated figure,” but beneath it all is a “deeper tension that still defines our cultural moment: the clash of taste, class and elitism.” (Audible)
‘Good Hang With Amy Poehler’ (The Ringer)
Celebrity podcasts are pretty common, but Amy Poehler’s new show stands out. “Good Hang With Amy Poehler” features weekly guests like Tina Fey, Rashida Jones and Jack Black, and “her interviewing style is both thoughtful and fun,” said Cosmopolitan. Each episode is “like a little bottle filled with comedy and joy that you want to get the very last drop out of.”
Unlike other celebrity podcasters, Piehler doesn’t seem “interested in that great obsession of modern culture, self-improvement,” said The New Statesman. Instead, she promises a “low-stakes, high-comedy hour with other comedians and friends, with absolutely nothing instructive smuggled in.” The conversations with her guests “aren’t particularly deep or self-congratulatory: They are breezy, funny and light.” (The Ringer, Apple Podcasts and Spotify)
‘Our Ancestors Were Messy’ (Coco Hill Productions)
If you’re into gossip and Black history, then Nichole Hill’s “Our Ancestors Were Messy” will be your gift of the moment. Hill covers the “gossip, scandals and pop culture that made headlines in historical Black newspapers across America,” Lauren Passell, author of Podcast the Newsletter, said at Lifehacker. Hill tells true stories, such as a “Victorian-era love triangle that hit DC elites, a mystery concerning a tabloid sensation in Harlem,” with input from guests that places you inside a “vintage scandal.” Hill’s storytelling style is “descriptive, funny, conversational and crisp,” and she “uses amazing sound production that pumps it all into life.” (Coco Hill Productions, Apple Podcasts and Spotify)
‘What We Spend’ (Audacy)
Financial anxieties are at the forefront during this era, and “What We Spend” gives you a peek into the spending habits of other people. A combination of “spot interviews and audio diaries,” said Vulture, the show might “initially resemble a polished equivalent of a personal-finance blog,” but host Courtney Harrell has created a show that is a “thoughtful, revealing and illuminating series of windows into the inner lives of others as refracted through their expense sheets.” Despite being a relatively new show, the podcast shows “signs of greatness in the simplicity of its approach; an example of how asking the most basic of questions” can hold the “deepest punch of human experiences.” You will walk away from each episode “wondering how we ever make it out of modern society alive.” (Audacy, Apple Podcasts and Spotify)
‘Scamfluencers’ (Wondery)
For crime-podcast fans looking for a listen that is lighter than a murder mystery, ‘Scamfluencers’ could be a smart fit. Hosted by Scaachi Koul and Sarah Hagi, each week’s episode features a new scammer, “perhaps ones you know, like real housewife Jen Shah or former congressman George Santos, or ones you maybe don’t, like a shady national ballet school or a maple-syrup-stealing ring in Quebec,” said Cosmopolitan. Each episode is well-researched, and the hosts are “so fun to listen to, telling you the full story of how each scammer came to become, well, a scammer.” (Wondery, Apple Podcasts and Spotify)
Exploring the cultural impact of Jerry Springer, a look at contemporary spending habits and more
