Popcast

Jon Caramanica has been The New York Times pop music critic for years, and his podcast Popcast is where he gets to be looser, more opinionated, and more conversational than the printed page allows. The show covers pop music criticism, trends, and news with a rotating cast of NYT colleagues and, increasingly, long-form interviews with major artists. Recent episodes have featured one-on-one conversations with Jack Harlow about his pivot to R&B, Erykah Badu on her creative process, and Rosalia discussing her artistic evolution. The interview episodes tend to run around an hour and have a relaxed, probing quality. Caramanica is good at getting artists to say interesting things because he clearly knows their catalogs cold and asks specific questions rather than generic ones. The non-interview episodes are just as strong. Caramanica and guests like Joe Coscarelli and Caryn Ganz will spend an hour unpacking Grammy nominations, debating whether a new album lives up to expectations, or tracing how a genre trend emerged. The show has been running since the early days of podcasting and has accumulated over 560 episodes. Some episodes are behind the NYT podcast subscription wall, though plenty remain free. If you want smart, informed pop music criticism from people who take the art form seriously without being stuffy about it, Popcast consistently delivers.