Cultural Histories & Mysteries

Exploring what we thought we knew about the past through history podcast recommendations

In partnership with

Hey! EarBuds delivers 5 podcast episodes around a central theme, and each week it’s curated by someone new. This week, our curator is Josh Levin.

Josh’s podcast picks

What’s this theme about? Josh says:

My favorite thing about being a journalist is getting paid (sometimes) to learn stuff. Relatedly, my favorite podcasts teach me stuff I don’t know about stuff I do know; teach me stuff I don’t know about stuff I don’t know; or, extremely often, teach me stuff I don’t know about stuff I THINK I know.

If you listen to these five episodes, I guarantee you’ll learn something. If you’re like me, you’ll learn a huge amount of somethings.

Josh Levin, January 2026 EarBuds Curator

5 Podcasts on Cultural Histories & Mysteries

Replay Booth

The pilot episode of my new sports history series is about fandom in the 1960s, one of the biggest inflection points in modern American political history, the showering habits of minor-league baseball players, and a whole lot more.

99% Invisible

Christopher Johnson’s story about the invention and spread of an enormously influential radio genre will transport you to a time and place that you’ll want to live inside forever, so long as the Anita Baker tracks never stop playing.

Decoder Ring

The master of cultural histories AND cultural mysteries, Willa Paskin, goes on an extremely NSFW journey into the evolution of a word. It’s a story about pornography, white supremacy, and how the internet brings us together and makes everything worse.

Code Switch

The personal and the political swim side by side in Gene Demby’s look at one of the most contested spaces in American life: the public pool.

Think Twice: Michael Jackson

Leon Neyfakh and Jay Smooth start their investigation of, and meditation on, the King of Pop’s legacy with a bizarre-but-true story: Just before Michael Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse, he was busy filming a short film of his own creation in which he plays a man accused of being creepy with children.

✨Become an EarBuds podcast curator! Learn more here.

Sponsored

Use This Tool to Find Podcast Sponsors👇

Subscribe to Podcast Leads Weekly, the newsletter that sends out a list of brands actively sponsoring podcasts on a weekly basis.

Reach your ideal audience by purchasing an ad in this newsletter.

Community

🗑️ In Podcast The Newsletter, Lauren Passell writes… “When Costa Rican YouTuber / journalist Caya discovered a hole in the fence of a deportation center deep in the Costa Rican jungle, he also met a man inside willing to talk and share photos and video of the center and his story every step of the way…” Listen to Snap Judgment.

⌨️ Considering a new keyboard? Magnetic Hall Effect switches are the current industry standard for performance. See the top picks.

🚮 What’s in and what’s out for podcasting in 2026? Read the roundup in Podcasts We Text About, a new publication about podcast media and culture.

🎧 EarBuds is excited to partner with Sounds Like Impact to deliver podcast recommendations: audio and action items that help make waves. Learn more.

Your podcast / event / news can get featured here. Fill out this form. It’s free.

Podcast news from Podnews

Spotlight Podcast Pick

Cozy Critters. Listen if you like…

  • Kids content

  • Animals & science

  • To be lulled to sleep

One Sentence Review: Cozy Critters is almost guaranteed you help your kids fall asleep — not because it’s boring — but because the host, Dougie Pickles (AKA grown-up creator Doug Fraser), has made it his business to learn about bedtime routines and how educational stories fit into them.

Episode recommendation: start with your favorite animal — here are some I enjoyed: White Tigers and Carcals.

-Arielle Nissenblatt

Sponsor this Spotlight section next time. Details here.

Advertisers:

Best Keyboards w/ Hall Effect magnetic switches [2026 GUIDE]

Magnetic switches in keyboards are the biggest trend in gaming right now. Let's see what interesting Hall effect keyboards are there and how they differ.

www.hlplanet.com/keyboards-hall-effect-switches

The Tutor That’s Always Here to Help

Need a homeschool break?

Join 1,000+ homeschool families using Acadia Learning to make learning fun and take charge of their education.

Homeschool families use Acadia to:

  • teach challenging subjects

  • give busy parents a break

  • make learning fun

and more.

Book your first session by the end of the month to get 50% off your first month.

Reply

or to participate.