Here at Ars Technica, we love our fair share of podcasts, including our own. That doesn’t mean we do a great job covering the podcasting world, in part because we’re creatures of habit. Ars staffers have their roster of favorite subscriptions to cycle through whether hopping a train, killing time on a flight, or dusting our shelves of vinyl miniature figurines.
Whether we’ll do a better job shedding light on podcasts old and new in 2019 remains to be seen, but we’re going to give it a shot. To that end, here’s a catch-all list of podcasts that Ars staffers picked as their “favorites in 2018,” whether because they were brand new, new to us, or just continued earning the No.1 spot on a media player of choice.
Pack Your Knives
Like anyone who has ever started a podcast, I now constantly have half-baked ideas for other podcasts. One of my favorites would be called something like “Side Hustle,” “Downtime,” or “OPP (Other People’s Passions)”—essentially, I love hearing people I find smart, engaging, funny, etc. talk about something other than what they’ve become known for. (Think beloved Avenger Jeremy Renner’s real estate hobby or author Haruki Murakami on running.)