Podcast listeners across the country have been tuning in to their favorite podcasts on iHeartRadio, and as a result, iHeartPodcasts and several iHeartRadio podcasts has been recognized as part of Apple's list of their most popular podcasts and "Shows We Love," with iHeartPodcasts being named number one on the list of Top Free Channels.
iHeartPodcasts has shows for every kind of podcast fan. As the year comes to a close, we're celebrating a few of the best original shows that caught the ears of listeners across the country as they've made their way to Apple's list of "Shows We Love," which includes "Skyline Drive," "McCartney: A Life In Lyrics," "The Girlfriends," "You Feeling This" and "Dear Alana,." Explore more of these podcasts below.
In addition to being a part of the "Shows We Love" list, "The Girlfrends," "Stuff You Should Know," "On Purpose with Jay Shetty" and "Just B with Bethenny Frankel" were all recognized as top shows. Click here to see the full list.
"Skyline Drive"
When Mangesh Hattikudur (Part-Time Genius, Humans Growing Stuff) set out to do a big, sweeping show on astrology, he didn’t realize the first interview would change the course of his life. But as he tries to put his world back together, he realizes the incredible ways astrology presents itself in modern society: from NASA employees who keep their belief in astrology in the closet, to world leaders who’ve used astrologers to guide foreign policy, to moneyball statisticians who use astrology more than statistics to build baseball teams, to a little shop in India where your fortune was written for you centuries ago, and is waiting for you to come claim it. Over the course of 8 episodes, Mangesh tries to decipher why we keep looking to the stars for answers, and what happens when you don’t believe in astrology, but astrology keeps happening to you.
"McCartney: A Life In Lyrics"
"McCartney: A Life in Lyrics" offers listeners the opportunity to sit in on conversations between Paul McCartney and poet Paul Muldoon dissecting the people, experiences, and art that inspired McCartney’s songwriting. These conversations were held during the past several years as the two collaborated on the best selling book, “The Lyrics: 1965 to Present.” Over two seasons and 24 episodes of “McCartney: A Life in Lyrics”, you’ll hear a combination master class, memoir, and improvised journey with one of the most beloved figures in popular music. Each episode focuses on one song from McCartney’s iconic catalog – spanning early Beatles through his solo work.
"The Girlfriends"
It’s 1995 and Carole Fisher is a high-flying divorcee looking for love in Las Vegas. It’s slim pickings in the medical community she works in. But then Bob comes to town. Bob Bierenbaum is a plastic surgeon who flies planes and speaks several languages. Her mom loves that he’s Jewish - but there’s something off about him. He’s perfect on paper but he’s quick to anger and he never talks about his ex-wife. Who, it turns out, is missing and presumed dead. After Carole and Bob break up she tells her friend Mindy all about Bob’s wife and his bizarre behavior. You see, Mindy dated Bob too, in fact a lot of women in Vegas dated Bob and they all have their own strange stories to tell. Before too long they form a club dedicated to bitching about Bob, eating noodles and figuring out what happened to his wife, Gail. In this riveting nine part series, Carole Fisher uncovers the truth of Gail Katz’s death, the systems that failed her and all the girlfriends that brought her justice.
"You Feeling This"
A fiction anthology show about love. Los Angeles County is home to more than ten million people. It sprawls from the desert to the ocean. It’s easy to feel alone in such a vast city. But the struggles that everyone experiences in L.A. are ones that everyone shares. It’s in those moments, where it seems like you’re going through it alone, that everything is connected. “You Feeling This” is about the people who make up this city and how the heartbreak, the yearning, and the need for connection is something everyone is searching for. These are the stories that define the people of Los Angeles.
"Dear Alana,"
Host Simon Kent Fung explores the life of Alana Chen, a 24-year-old woman who disappeared from Boulder, Colorado in 2019. Alana left behind two dozen journals chronicling a deep faith, love of fashion, and dream of becoming a nun. She also harbored a secret. At 14, she confessed to her priest that she was attracted to women and was instructed not to tell her parents. Over the next seven years, Alana covertly received conversion therapy which her family believes played a role in her fate. Simon, who sought to change his sexual orientation through conversion therapy for nearly a decade in his efforts to become a priest, is compelled to understand the truth of what happened to Alana—and finally face what happened to him. "Dear Alana," is an unraveling mystery and a poignant spiritual memoir about teenage rebellion and spiritual manipulation, the price we pay to belong and the systems that pay no price at all.