Here are some long-form podcasts with high production value that I’ve really enjoyed. I’m especially drawn to podcasts by investigative journalists, as well as well-produced, story-driven series with compelling storytelling to enjoy while listening on my headphone.
The list is sorted by year.
2026
Safe to Drink: NHPR: Town after town is discovering that their drink water is contaminated. How the people are looking for answers, on why people are getting sick. And why law makers and the industry fail to take responsibility.
We call her Emma: Tortoise Investigates by Chloe Hadjimatheou. Asma grew up in London known as Emma, as an adult she was the First Lady of Syrria married to Bashar al-Assad.
Foundling: Tortoise Investigates: This is one of these stories that you can’t make up. A foundling in search of her roots, a compelling story with a lot of plot twists (Paywall)
Hunting the Suicide Salesman: CBC: About a suicide drug readily available on the internet, the people who discuss is it on a forum. Loved ones trying to intervene, and also what interventintions might help in suicide prevention.
The Secret World of Roald Dahl: iHeart: Well told story through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. How did this secret agent and struggling screenwriter wind up as the most successful children’s author ever?
World of secrets: The darkest web: 2026 BBC: Following two special agents finding children of sex abuse and going after their abusers.
The Real Salt Path: The Walkers: The Observer Investigative journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou uncovered that the bestselling memoir The Salt Path by Raynor Winn contains significant fabrications regarding the author’s homelessness and the circumstances of her walk.
Snap Judgement: Fire escape Wondery and KQED’s Snap Studios: A young mother, a midwife,joins the fire force while in prison
Focus: Adults in the Room :KUOW: Seattle, 1999. A teacher is accused of sexual misconduct by students. Adults close ranks. Was a whole school community groomed by a charismatic predator? Or was she part of a whisper campaign that cost the life of a great teacher?
Final thoughts: Jerry Springer: iHeart: About talk show host and politician Jerry Springer
The gift: by the BBC (3 seasons) unexpected results after people took a DNA test for fun
Cult Queen of Canada: CBC :A cult leader calling herself “The Queen of Canada” occupies an abandoned schoo in a small town in Canadal. Neighbours turn on each other, a retired teacher leads the resistance in a story about what happens when online extremism spills into the real world.
Stalked: BBC Sounds: Well produced: A digital intruder is watching Hannah, threatening her, even impersonating her.
2025
Big Sugar: 2025 Campside Presents: Big Sugar takes you deep inside the secretive, multi-billion dollar sugar industry and the epic court battle of the underpaid workers, and the influence they had on stopping health regulations regarding sugar
Mission K-pop: 2025 USG Audio: A 23-year-old Asian American is traveling from her home in LA to South Korea’o become a K-Pop superstar. Over just three months, journalist Haeryun Kang follows Caty to see if she can overcome these obstacles and reach K-Pop stardom.
Stop Rewind The Lost Boy : Blanchard House / Curiouscast: Story about a kidnapped boy put up for international adoption, finding his way back home
Extreme: Peak Danger: BBC: Eleven climbers died in two disastrous days on K2
Lucky Boy: Tortoise Media: A young school boy has an affair with a female teacher, years later he is still dealing with the consequences,
2024
Come by Chance: CBC: Named after a small town in Newfoundland where in the hospital baby’s got switched at birth. It took years for the family’s to find out what happened
Kid Nation: Splitsceen | CBC: Tells the story about the TV reality show from 2007 where kids are building a new society.
Dangerous Memories: Tortoise Media: A story about a female therapist planting false memories in the minds of young women.
The Gas Man: 2024: Tortoise Media: about a dealer of raw materials used to make chemical weapons for dangerous regimes. Still seems to be getting away with it for 30 years. And rather a dark side of TUI is also mentioned.
Transmissions (2 seasons) The definitive story: BBC: Joy Division and New Order
The Blind Spot (s3): The plague in the shadows: WNYC, about the early days of the AIDS epidemic
The Kill List: Wondery: On the darkweb people are putting out kill orders on a website. The website is a scam but the people wanting someone dead are real.
Who Killed The Videostar: iHeart: Rise and fall of MTV
World of Secrets: Looking for Mr Fox: BBC: Two Brazilian guys are crossing the transatlantic ocean. But before they can start, police raid their boat looking for drugs.
Extreme: Muscle men BBC about the rise of the body building and fitness & anabolics industry in the 80’s and 99’s
The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam: BBC: It starts with a man falling/jumping from a helicopter, and the story behind a gold dig site in Indonesia, and a small town in Canada who happened to have bought a lot of shares in the company
Focus: Lost patients: KUOW & Seatle times: a deeply-reported, six-part docuseries examining the difficulties of treating serious mental illness and how the patients and loved ones try to navigate the system looking for help.
Hysterical: Wondery and Pineapple Street Media: Award winning series, investigates a mysterious illness that spreads among a group of girls. Is there something in the water or inside the school? Or is it “all in their head?”
2023
Wilder: On the writer, books and TV series of Little House on the Prairie Laura Ingalls Wilder and the times she and her family lived in, and why these stories are still popular.
Chameleon: Lost Boys : 2023 Chameleon: Campside media: They’d been raised in the British Columbia wilderness, and this was their first-ever contact with society — they’d never seen a TV, gone to school, or registered for IDs. So the community took them in and set about introducing them to the modern world. Before long, the international media descended on the town, enthralled by the mysterious “Bush Boys.”
Think Twice: Michael Jackson: Wondery: Biography of Michael Jackson
The Turning: Room of Mirrors tells the stories of ballerinas who worked with the demanding, brilliant, and often cryptic choreographer George Balanchine,
The Cotton Capital: The Guardian takes a deep dive in its own and Manchester history of cotton industry. Well told and a rare occasion to hear enslaved voices and circumstances of the workers in Manchester.
Hot money : The New Narcos, Financial Times: The story starts with a murder in a small town in the Netherlands ends with international crime syndicates
Gateway: Cocaïne, Murder, & Dirty Money in Europe: BrazenFM: (on partly the same subject as “The New Narcos”
Three Doors Down: Tortoise Media: A mother in search of justice for the murder of her daughter.
Intrigue: BBC: Burning Sun: Sex Scandal in the K-Pop world
World of Secrets: BBC: The Abercrombie guys
2022
Disclosed: The Children In The Pictures: LISTNR: examines how child abuse has become endemic online, and follows investigators trying to stop the abusers. Trigger warning
The Secret History of: Flight 149: Bonnier Books & Crowd Network: In 1990 a BA flight stops to refuel in Kuwait, just as Sadam Hussein invades the country. Passengers and crew were held hostage as human shields, why did the plane land there and how did they survive?
Pressure Cooker: CBC: Two meth heads get pressured in two plan an assault with a pressure cooker
The Blind Spot (s1): WNYC: The Road to 9/11
Wind of Change: Crooked media : investigation in to the role of the CIA trying to promote western culture around the world. And trying to solve the theory if the song Wind of Change by the Scorpions was written by the CIA
2021
Who Killed Emma: BBC Scotland: Well told and produced. Reporter dives deep into the case of a murdered young girl, a former supspect is trying to convince the reporter he is innocent. The series got an update in 2024.
West Cork: Yarn FM: The story is a deep dive in to a murder of a French film producer in West Cork Ireland. It dwells mainly on the main subject, and what happened that night. For me, personally, it could have done a few less episodes
An Absurd Result: Art19/iHeart: In 1987 a young girl is assaulted in her home, a young boy is sentenced for this crime. It takes years before justice is served.
Warning: Graphical descriptions of the assault
Long Shadow: 9/11 Lingering Questions: Long Lead: Dives into the unanswered questions about 9/11. Note: contains audio from 9/11 might be triggering for some people
Sweet Bobby: 2021 Tortoise Media: A marketer and radio presenter. Online, she’s contacted by a man she vaguely knows called Bobby, and they start chatting she’s reeled in to a scam of epic proportions.
Bad Blood: The Final Chapter: 2021 Tells the story of the rise and fall of the tech founder Elizabeth Holmes. Hosted by John Carreyrou, who broke the story
The Lazarus Heist: 2021 BBC: A must listen to deep dive in a North Korean hacker group
Off the record: David Bowie 2021 iHeart: On the life of David Bowie
The turning: Sisters who left: focussed on a group of women who joined the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa’s secretive order of nuns—and who then decided to leave.
One click: iHeart: about a dangerous weight-loss drug
2020
Hollywood Con Queen: 2020 Chameleon: Campside media: The story of and hunt for the notorious scam artist known as the Hollywood Con Queen.
2019
The Last Voyage of the Pong Su: The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: Excellent audio and accompanying website with background info, film footage etc on this story about a North Korean vessel smuggling drugs to Australia
Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia: TNT & Cadence13: The Hodel’s sisters, believe that their great grandfather murdered Elizabeth Short. Their mother was given away at birth thinking she was bi-racial, slowly they reconstruct their family history (tbh, last few episodes too much family drama, skipped some parts)
Unravel: Snowball: 2019: BBC Sounds: An average family’s encounter with a charismatic Californian con woman costs them everything.
Intrigue: The tunnel 29, a group of people came together to dig a tunnel under the berlin wall
The Missing Crypto Queen: BBC: Dr Ruja Ignatova persuaded millions to join her financial revolution. Then she disappeared. Why? Jamie Bartlett presents a story of greed, deceit and herd madness.
Hunting Warhead: CBC: How do you rescue child abuse victims who could be anywhere in the world?
Patient Zero Lyme Disease: NPR: On the process how a new disease is discovered, diagnosis and treatments.
2018
Believed: NPR: Several young women reported sexual abuse by Larry Nasser, a famous gymnastics doctor, it took decades before they where believed. Graphic content warning
Bear Brook: NHPR: 4 Bodies are found 15 years apart, who are they and who is behind the killings. Highly praised podcast, listened to it years ago and recently relistened it. Last update September 2025