2020 was a year of transition for the podcast industry. With more people working from home, they had less time to listen to podcasts during their commutes to and from work. Advertising revenue took a dip. On the other hand, with so much social isolation, people sought out human connection, and longed to spend more time with their “audio friends,” thereby wanting to listen to their favorite podcasts more often. In short, the podcasting world had its share of ups and downs during 2020, as did other industries.

Fortunately, podcasts are here to stay. In fact, in many respects, podcasts could well be the breakout star of 2020 — a media phenomenon that showed us the importance of being connected and desiring to listen to more podcasts. Someday they will make a statue about podcasts.

Here are the TOP TEN PODCASTS OF 2020:

10. (TIE) Excellent podcasts / mediocre podcasts

9. Podcasts that combined world-class storytelling with facts and figures from Wikipedia

8. Pop-culture podcasts

7. The bad boys of podcasting, what will those funky fellas say next

6. Scripted podcasts with characters

5. “I sincerely wish you would listen to my podcast”

4. Mega-successful podcasts that rewrote the rules of podcasting … or should I say, “there are no rules”

3. Many quality microphones are used to record the podcasts

2. Talking, laughing, living, breathing … podcasting

1. Gold-medal podcasts worth a million dollars of excellence, truly the best of all