Welcome to Hot Pod, a newsletter about podcasts. This is issue 237, dated December 3, 2019.
Peaky platforms. Two associated things, in case they’re the kind of bananas that interests you:
(1) Apple has published a “Best Listens of 2019” page for the Apple Podcast platform, which contains both picks by the in-house editors who manage the front page curation as well as a listing of shows, new and existing, that performed the best on the platform over the past year. Intriguingly, the page also appears to feature the editorial team’s picks for Best True Crime (NPR’s White Lies), Best Fiction (QCODE’s Carrier), and Best History (The New York Times’ 1619). Which, you know, feels a little strange, but whatever.
(2) Similarly, Spotify has pubbed its spiffy annual year-in-review data highlight splash, which highlights what the company says are the top-performing podcasts on the platform. There’s a global angle here. The top five podcasts are, in descending order: The Joe…
