Contemporary Issues Podcasts

With this podcast, Harris hosts discussions with a range of experts in fields that reflect his varied interests, including the current conflict with ISIS, the shifting American religious landscape, ethical philosophy in the wake of globalization, scientific progress and his lifelong interest in mindfulness meditation.

The PBS Frontline series are some of the best documentaries available on public television, but it's often difficult to carve out time to sit down and watch them. Now Frontline has released over 100 of their documentaries as audio podcasts and they actually work really well as just audio.

A show about politics with No Agenda, by Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak.

In this popular daily podcast from The New York Times, host Michael Barbaro covers one of the day's top news stories with journalists' interviews about this story and audio clips of the news events spliced in.

The BBC Global News Podcast is a daily news podcast that covers many top stories from around the world in about 30 minutes. The episodes are twice a day on weekdays and once a day on weekends.

This public TV program is more audio-based and less image-focused than network nightly news or cable news, so it is easy to listen to as a podcast. It covers some of the day's top stories before breaking the show into segments of analysis of each story.

Provocative, up-to-the-minute, alive and witty, KCRW's weekly confrontation over politics, policy and popular culture proves those with impeccable credentials needn't lack personality.

He's irrepressible, opinionated and, of course, politically incorrect... and he's airing the world's dirty laundry live, uncensored and exclusively on HBO. Bill Maher, one of the most distinctive and provocative humorists on the comedy scene, host this one-hour talk show that allows him and his guests total freedom of speech without fear of network recrimination or criticism!

One of the best things to listen to on audio is a debate. The full rhetoric comes through in the speakers, making it very exciting to listen to.

Led by Sean Rameswaram, Today, Explained brings together Vox Media's team of explainers to break down the news into a 20 minute, daily podcast released every afternoon.