Another year is over and done with, and what a year it has been. Well, that isn't entirely accurate, as 2021 was a stop-start affair defined once again by the global pandemic, but there was plenty to celebrate and cheer for throughout the year. The number of excellent podcasts exploded, as artists were forced to get creative in search of new approaches to the form, making laugh-out-loud listens that have provided joy in difficult times as well as making commuting all that more bearable. As for the audiobook world, the proof is in the pudding—although in this case, the pudding is audio versions of Booker Prize-winning books, adaptations of debut novels, reworkings of classics and road trip friendly listens that will whisk you off to different worlds. Looking for the best podcasts and audiobooks of 2021? Look no further.
In all the hullabaloo of celebrity and achievement, it can be easy to forget that people are, well, just people, you know? Modern media icon Dermot O'Leary has made a point of keeping this fact front and centre, and his People, Just People podcast is one of the most endearing listens of 2021. Dermot has interviewed everyone from Oscar winners like Olivia Coleman to TV baking superstars like Nadiya Hussain, digging below the glamorous surface to find what makes these incredible people tick. Dermot is an engaging and charming host, but it is the easy chemistry and simplicity of this format that makes it one of the best podcasts of 2021.
Is there a couple on the planet more beautiful than Idris and Sabrina Elba? Of course, there isn't, but it is the openness and frank approach that makes Coupledom one of the best podcasts of 2021. While Idris Elba is a modern pop culture icon, Hollywood darling and TV show star in both the UK and America, he shines here as an ordinary man very much in love with his wife but willing to admit to failings and struggles, as the couple interview some of the most magical partnerships on the planet. The six episodes in 2021 saw the co-hosts talk to partnerships as broad as Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian and Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, and each podcast is as fascinating as the last.
One of the best audiobooks of all time, let alone 2021. Billy Connolly is an endlessly fascinating man and an incredible orator to boot, so getting the iconic Scottish comedian to talk about his life at length is a guaranteed win. Connolly's life has been far from easy, and this immediate non-fiction best seller pulls no punches in detailing his rise from a Glasgow tenement flat to international comedy superstardom. A favourite in book clubs around the world, Windswept & Interesting is a natural audiobook, enhanced to no end by Connolly's masterful narration and incredible sense of timing. There aren't many audiobooks in the Audible library with Connolly at the helm, but quality supersedes quantity here. After all, who doesn’t want to be told a story by the Scottish comedic icon?
Part self-help audiobook, part laugh-out-loud memoir, all Jimmy Carr. The comedian takes charge of narrating Before & Laughter, imbuing the best seller with his own inimitable style, taking a warts-and-all approach to tackling self-doubt and confidence issues from a man who overcame them to become one of the most popular comedians in modern Britain. Though focused on Carr’s own life, Before & Laughter is equally about that of the listener, putting the universality of experience squarely under the microscope and helping all to come out the other side with a smile on the face and laughter in the heart. Straddling the line between wellness and hilarity is something that even the most experienced non-fiction stars struggle with, but Carr has knocked it out of the park here. One of the best audiobooks of 2021, without a doubt.
Is there anything Dave Grohl can't do? Play drums in a band that turned pop culture on its head? Check. Move from behind the kit to the microphone to front one of the most popular bands of the 21st century? Check. Now, America's most beloved rock and roll megastar has taken his talents to storytelling, with the release of The Storyteller. Grohl himself narrates the audiobook (of course, he does) and the results are stunning, a compelling listen that is raised to new heights by Grohl's understanding of, well, storytelling. This is one of the best audiobooks of 2021, and further evidence that no, there isn't anything that Grohl can't do.
Storytelling is as powerful as it always has been, and Graham Norton's Book Club is a joyful love letter to spinning the yarn and telling tales. The Irish comedian and presenter is joined by many of the world's modern masters in this podcast, featuring everyone from Margaret Atwood and Derren Brown to Michelle Zauner and David Sedaris to regale in storytelling good and great. A fantastic way to discover new audiobooks, Graham Norton's Book Club was one of the best podcasts of 2021 before the year even got underway. How could you go wrong with a genre-defining host and a litany of superstars dispensing wisdom and advice in equal measure?
Miriam Margolyes is the outspoken great aunt (after two sherries) we all wish we had. This Much is True is an Audible best seller that has had listeners in stitches ever since; a memoir with a difference and that difference is very much Miriam Margolyes.An award-winning actor and a true titan of comedy, Margolyes can now add 'non-fiction author' to her list of achievements, although her skills as an audiobook narrator have been common knowledge for quite a while. Margolyes waited a long time before putting together her first book, but This Much is True is well worth the wait. Margolyes brings new meaning to the word 'unabridged', that's for sure.
First things first; best podcast name of 2021? Hashtag Trashbag surely runs home with that particular title. Presenter and author Dotty backs up the excellent moniker with one of the best podcasts of 2021, as a variety of celebs join her in laying waste to things that really grind their gears. A modern take on the beloved Room 101 formula, Hashtag Trashbag takes a decidedly 21st-century hatchet to cricket, wedding dresses, reality TV, wifi passwords and plenty more, including a particularly delightful diatribe against baby Instagram pages and social media. Sit back and listen as Dotty and friends take a deep dive into all things annoying, no matter how small or trivial.
Just when you thought that artists had found every way of telling this famous story, a full cast of tremendous voices comes along and changes everything. The tale of Bram Stoker's Dracula is one of the most iconic of the last few centuries, but it shimmers and shines here, as names like Harry Myers, Patricia Allison and Rachel Atkins breathe new life into the well-known tale, giving it an entirely new skin that will delight listeners old and young. (Well, not too young, but still.) Some stories are timeless, and Dracula's placing in the best audiobooks of 2021 further confirms its status among those, while providing more evidence that a good audiobook is every bit the equal of its literary companion.
The Sandman did a pretty great job of putting the cat among the audiobook feathers, and Neil Gaiman is back with another jolt to the form with follow-up Act II, helped ably by a star-studded full cast of voices including James McAvoy, Brian Cox, Emma Corrin and more. Gaiman has long been beloved as The New York Times best-selling author and a charming narrator of his own audiobooks, but this epic sci-fi tale is every bit the equal of anything the genius has produced so far. The Sandman: Act II picks up where the first installment left off, and is an easy pick for one of the best audiobooks of 2021, if not the century.
If her performance here is anything to go by, audiobook narration has a new future superstar in Jodie Comer. There is something about the energy that the Liverpool-born actress puts into her performance that manages to breathe fresh life into beloved tales, and this tremendous rendering of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is no exception. No world is wackier than the one in which young Alice must explore, and the wonder that flows from Comer's narration adds layer after layer of joy that makes it a shoo-in for any selection of 2021's best audiobooks. Jodie Comer is a star in the making, and someday the audiobook world will look back at the audio version of this classic as the launching pad.
Giving Hashtag Trashbag a run for its money when it comes to the best podcast names of 2021, Alice Levine's Very Modern Quests takes a fabulously unique idea and runs with it, creating a very special new podcast indeed. The premise is somewhat simple: every episode features a celebrity going through their own choose-your-own-adventure based very much in the real world—so no sci-fi madness, no dragons, no ghouls, just the awkwardness of the every day and Alice Levine for company. The relatively short episode length makes Very Modern Quests perfect for commuting. Imagining your own quest while riding the tube, bus or train can almost make you relish the journey into work.
Who doesn't love French and Saunders? The duo burst onto our screens with a BBC show of the same name in the late '80s, and this hilarious podcast sees the tag team take on the bizarre world of pandemic Britain. Titting About is essentially a chance to listen in on a conversation between lifelong friends who happen to be absolutely hilarious and absolutely fabulous, a conversation that covers everything from buffet etiquette to breakfast vodka. If that doesn't whet your appetite for one of the best podcasts of 2021, what will? Anything Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders put their minds to tends to be tremendous, and Titting About is no different.
Undoubtedly one of the best podcasts of 2021, Tan France's Queer Icons is exactly what the name suggests. In this delightful podcast, France shines a light squarely on LGBTQI+ icons of the past forever, from Malaysian punk rockers to Bobbie Lea Bennett via drag royalty, scandalous popstars and plenty more. Since there have been people, there have been LGBTQI+ people, and fashion designer, author and TV personality Tan France is here to give a little bit of love to some of the most overlooked names of modern history. A tremendous podcast that is every bit as educational as it is entertaining and is all the more important right now.
Forget everything the movies have told you, because Michael Caine is here to set the record straight. The silver screen icon has forgotten more about gangs than most will ever know, and this thrilling podcast sees the actor laying the cupboard bare and pulling back to the curtain to clue listeners in on how gangs work. Well, how they don't work as well, but let's not spoil anything here. Caine's voice is one of the most iconic in the pop culture world, and he thrives as the host here, telling stories and truths that have this teetering towards true-crime podcast territory at times, albeit without the whodunnit and mystery. That's sort of the point, after all. Michael Caine's Gangs is a podcast that focuses on true stories, the reality, and it is a tremendous listen.
True-crime podcasts are all the rage in the modern age, but few hit the nail on the head quite like Gillian Pachter's Killer Book Club. The eight episodes investigate a murder in an idyllic English countryside setting, the sort of place where nothing ever happens, and that's precisely how the locals like it. The murder of a book club member shatters all that, and the picture-perfect life of the village soon begins to unravel. Pachter's narration keeps the listener hooked throughout, and the half-hour episodes keep things focused and concise. Killer Book Club is one of the best podcasts of 2021, and one of the best true-crime podcasts full stop.
A lot has been written and said about the American conspiracy theory movement QAnon, but the inner workings of the fringe group remain relatively unknown. In this Audible Original, investigative reporter Nicky Woolf sets out to discover the people behind it all. Is this new podcast an easy listen? Absolutely not, and Finding Q is occasionally heartbreaking as the real human cost of conspiracy theories on family members pile up, but this is about as gripping as podcasts can get. Woolf is a committed and thoughtful narrator (not to mention an excellent journalist), but it is the human lives at the centre of this madness that make Finding Q one of the best podcasts of 2021.
Okay, okay, the relentlessness of the COVID-19 pandemic means that many listeners won't want to dive into an 11-hour audiobook about the subject, but this is different. Regardless of the subject, Vaccine is one of the best audiobooks of 2021. The audiobook takes a deep dive into the development of the COVID-19 vaccine and centres around interviews with scientists Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, the brains responsible for this life-saving development—a true race against time. Joe Miller (The Financial Times) brings everything together for an audiobook that is incredibly powerful today and will eventually be looked back on as a true piece of history, while occasionally resembling the chaos of science fiction. The world might be sick of the pandemic, but this is incredible work.
This is powerful stuff. An Audible Original podcast that has turned heads since dropping in 2021, The Bias Diagnosis takes a cleaver to one of the biggest injustices in modern medicine. All around the world, Black people and people of colour are being let down by medicine and care, and this podcast follows then-student doctor Ivan Beckley as he tries to get to the bottom of it all. Beckley speaks to a variety of experts along the way - including Anishka Sharma, Emma Barnaby and Yero Timi-Biu - covering everything from perception to environment and leaving no stone unturned in search of the truth. The Bias Diagnosis is a compelling listen, a thought-provoking listen, and undoubtedly an important listen, making it one of the best podcasts in years.
Sports stars are uniquely placed to influence the world around them, but that doesn't always lead to positive protest and change. Legendary runner Michael Johnson chooses to celebrate those who were as influential away from competition as in it. Hosted by the multi-time Olympic champion, Defiance is a podcast about icons like Jesse Owens, Gino Bartali, Naomi Osaka and others, athletes that were willing to rock the boat for causes that truly matter. One of the best podcasts of 2021, Defiance affirms the power of sports and the power of influence, an inspiring listen helmed by one of the greatest athletes in history.
The most wonderful time of year brings plenty of cheer, but no Christmas is complete without a couple of unwanted gifts that serve no purpose other than to take up space. Bad presents are at the centre of Tom Allen's Room of Gifts, and each episode features three celebrities bringing one particular misstep to the room for further consideration. The room fills with broken kitchen appliances and tasteless jackets as Allen and friends tell hilarious story after hilarious story, making for one of the best podcasts of 2021. An Audible Original, Tom Allen's Room of Gifts is a true laugh-out-loud listen and simply irresistible.
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