There were a whole lot of Best Podcasts of 2021 lists this year, such as these examples seen here, even one from industry people themselves. But there’s one glaring flaw that unites all of them: almost all of the shows recommended were heavy, narrative non-fiction shows. You know the ones: revealing a dark mystery or traumatic event, a reporter delivering a voiceover from an extremely tight script, interviews from experts “in the field,” starting with a dramatic quote and immediately following up with, “That’s That Person.”

All of those shows took a long time to make, went through countless numbers of edits, and are good journalism. They’re capital-I “Important”. But, they can’t be the only shows y’all thought were good this year. Unless we really only want to produce and listen to heavy, devastating topics and made in public-radio-style.