Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

Mark Leon Goldberg has been running Global Dispatches since 2012, making it the longest-running independent international affairs podcast out there. The Guardian called it "a podcast to make you smarter," and after 1,300-plus episodes, that description still holds up. Goldberg focuses on stories that mainstream American media either ignores or barely covers -- think South Sudanese civil conflict, UN leadership battles, or HIV funding cuts in sub-Saharan Africa. Episodes are refreshingly compact at 18 to 30 minutes each. Goldberg interviews journalists, diplomats, NGO leaders, and regional experts, and he has a gift for finding the right person to explain a complicated situation clearly. He doesn't try to cover everything happening everywhere. Instead, he picks one or two stories per episode and goes deep enough that you actually understand the dynamics at play. The show carries a 4.8-star rating from about 300 reviews, and listeners consistently praise the coverage of African and Global South news that they can't find elsewhere. That's genuinely the show's superpower. While most geopolitics podcasts circle endlessly around Washington, Moscow, and Beijing, Global Dispatches regularly takes you to places and conflicts that affect millions of people but get almost zero airtime. There's a premium tier at $14.99 a month for bonus content, but the free feed is packed with substance. If your understanding of world affairs feels too focused on great power competition and you want to broaden your picture of what's actually happening on the ground in places most people can't find on a map, Goldberg's show fills that gap better than anything else in the podcast space.