The wide universe of podcasting is much more than simply “radio on the internet” … but, you know, in many ways it is still radio on the internet. So many of the early-era podcasts that found success did so because they inherited (and in many cases, perfected) some of traditional talk radio’s core strengths. Perhaps chief among them: the unmistakable electricity of a really good conversation.
Naturally, magnetic personalities are the key to this genre, though they come in many varieties. (And for those of you already wondering: Marc Maron is on a different list.) It’s pretty hard to find a common thread that succinctly connects all the people who anchor the shows that appear below. A few are comedians, others are writers and journalists. Some have decades of experiences, others mere years. A handful could make a happy living on commercial talk radio; some, not so much. But all the hosts on this list…
